Though the lunch on which you’re about to eavesdrop didn’t take place at a convention, it took place because of a convention.

I knew L. Marie Wood for a decade or more before I learned at the last in-person Balticon before the pandemic that we’re basically neighbors, but never knew it. So after an earlier lunch during which we tried to figure out how we’ve somehow managed to avoid each other all these years, we got together at Brix 27 in downtown Martinsburg, West Virginia so I could learn more about who she is and how she came to be.

L. Marie Wood is a writer of psychological horror, supernatural suspense, and dark fiction of all kinds who’s been a professionally published writer for 20 years, ever since her first novel Crescendo and first short story “The Dance” were published in 2003. Her novels since then include The Promise Keeper, Cacophony, Accursed, and others, plus multiple short story collections, including Anathema and Phantasma. She’s also a screenwriter who’s a three-time winner of Best Horror Screenplay at the NOVA International Film Festival, Best Psychological Horror Short Script at Hollywood Horrorfest, and on and on. Her most recent publications are the novel The Open Book, accompanied by the related short story collection The Tales of Time, which contains the short stories being read by — and feared by — the characters in that first book.

We discussed the way she began her writing career selling poetry in parking lots, our differing experiences with hand selling our own books, the fears which keep horror writers up at night, the many misconceptions she had about the writing life back when he began, the uncomfortable novella she wrote when she was five, what our parents made of our horrific scribblings, the ever-present problem of dealing with rejection, our mutual love of pantsing, what should become of our papers, and much more.

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Here’s what we ate at Brix 27 —

L. Marie’s Blackened Mahi Mahi Tacos
blackened mahi mahi, blue corn tortilla, corn salsa,
field greens, salsa verde crema

My Brix Burger
8 oz. ground chuck, smoked provolone, caramelized onion,
sliced bacon, garlic aioli

Our Shared Crème brûlée

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Coming up two weeks from today you’ll be able to eavesdrop on the first of my meals harvested at this year’s Nebula Awards conference, as I share a vegetarian Vietnamese lunch with the multi-award nominated writer William Shunn — whose name might be familiar to some of you for reasons that have nothing to do with his fiction.

Thanks for listening!