The 80th World Science Fiction Convention ended a few weeks ago out in the flesh-and-blood world, but here at Eating the Fantastic, it’s just beginning — because you’re about to join me for the first of six episodes recorded in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. We begin by heading out with writer Wesley Chu to Summer House Santa Monica, a favorite brunch spot of his from the days when he lived in Chicago.

Chu’s debut novel, The Lives of Tao, earned him a Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award and a Science Fiction Goodreads Choice Award Top 10 slot, and was followed by three other books in that universe — The Deaths of Tao (also in 2013), The Rebirths of Tao (2015), and The Days of Tao (2016). He’s also published two books in his Time Salvager series — Time Salvager (2015) and Time Siege (2016). His novel Typhoon, set in The Walking Dead universe, was published in 2019.

He’s also the coauthor of the Eldest Curses series with Cassandra Clare, the first book of which — The Red Scrolls of Magic (2019) — debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and was followed by The Lost Book of the White in 2020. His latest novel, The Art of Prophecy (2022), released in August, is the first book in The War Arts Saga. He was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2014, and won the following year. But that’s not all! He’s also an accomplished martial artist and a former member of the Screen Actors Guild who has acted in film and television, worked as a model and stuntman, and summited Kilimanjaro.

We discussed why his new novel The Art of Prophecy has him feeling as if he’s making his debut all over again, the reason his particular set of skills means he’s the only one who could have written this project, why creating a novel is like trying to solve a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box as reference, the heavy lifting a well-written fight scene needs to accomplish, why you’ll never get to read his 180,000-word first novel, how to make readers continue to care when writing from the POV of multiple characters, the benefits and pitfalls of writing bigger books, why he decided to toss 80,000 words from the second book in his series, the ways in which environments are also characters, and much more.

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Here’s what we chowed down on as we chatted —

Wesley’s Sausage Risotto
with farm stand sweet corn and hazelnut pesto

Scott’s Wild Chanterelle Risotto
with farm stand sweet corn and hazelnut pesto

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Please join me next time when you’ll be able to eavesdrop on another of my meals from the Chicago Worldcon — one with Carol Tilley, a teacher and writer who’s spent the past decade researching Fredric Wertham, whose attacks on sex and violence in comics, and particularly his infamous book Seduction the Innocent, helped bring about the Comics Code. I hope you’ll return to learn what she’s learned.

Thanks for listening!