Are you ready to return to Balticon? I hope so, because it’s time for you to take a seat at the table with the second of three guests I was able to chat and chew with over the Memorial Day weekend. Last episode, you were able to eavesdrop as I shared sushi with Wen Spencer, and this time around you get to join me at the Afghan restaurant The Helmand with writer Gwendolyn Clare.

Gwendolyn Clare’s debut novel, Ink, Iron, and Glass, and its sequel, Mist, Metal, and Ash, compose a duology published in 2018 and 2019 about  a young mad scientist with the ability to write new worlds into existence. Coming up in November is In the City of Time, the first book in a duology about three science prodigies on a time-traveling adventure to save the Earth. Her short stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Analog, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, among others, and her poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award.

Her short story “Tasting Notes on the Varietals of the Southern Coast” was reprinted in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. She holds a BA in Ecology, a BS in Geophysics, and a PhD in Mycology — the last of those making me wish I got around to asking her to assuage my fears about a relative of mine who picks and eats wild mushrooms … but hey, that will have to be dealt with at a future meal during a different con.

We discussed the important lesson COVID taught her about her career, whether her most famous short story reads differently during these pandemic times, the identity of the science fiction writer I was startled to learn had been her high school geometry teacher, what the novels of Elizabeth Bear taught her about writing, the short story concept she decided to instead turn into what became her first published novel, how she gets into the mindset to write in the Young Adult genre, the amazing cleanliness of her first drafts, the pantsing fingerprints she sees on Stephen King, the many iterations recent writers have made to John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?,” and much more.

Here’s how you can join us —

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts — where I hope you’ll be tempted to sample a few of the 173 previous episodes.

2) Listen via the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss on the device of your choice.

3) Or simply use the embed below.

Here’s the what we nibbled (except for my Kabuli Pallow, which I’ve eaten at The Helmand so many times I forgot to snap a photo) —

Aushak appetizer
afghan ravioli filled with leeks, served on yogurt-mint
and topped with ground beef sauce

Gwendolyn’s Lamb Lawand
boneless lamb slow cooked with fresh tomato, mushrooms,
herb seasonings and finished with yogurt and sour cream

Gwendolyn’s Jala cardamom-infused ice cream
with pomegranate syrup, asian noodles, and almonds

Scott’s Baklava
house made with phyllo, walnuts, honey, sugar, pistachio

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Please join me two weeks from now to eavesdrop on my last of three Balticon guests — David Gerrold — who I first encountered via his “Trouble with Tribbles” episode of Star Trek when it aired in 1967 and I was 12, and first read via his Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novel When HARLIE Was One five years later when it was published and I was 17. Regardless of when you first encountered him, you’ll want to eavesdrop on that one.

Thanks for listening!