For my fourth episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during StokerCon, Linda Addison joined me at Yardbird, a Southern food restaurant inside The Venetian which Eater, a site I trust, promised that once you’re done, “you’ll feel like you just ate at your favorite Southern relative’s home.” Since I have no Southern relatives, I can’t attest to the truth of that statement, only that my Chicken ‘n’ Watermelon ‘n’ Waffles was excellent.

You may know Linda primarily as a four-time Bram Stoker Award-winning poet, but she is oh so much more, as you’ll learn should you give this episode a listen.

We talked of how someone who earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics transforms into a four-time Bram Stoker Award winning writer, the way a chance encounter with Grand Master Frederik Pohl during a New York is Book Country Festival helped her make her first sale to Asimov’s, why this acclaimed horror poet has now decided to go from micro to macro and write a science fiction trilogy, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us—though sadly, you’ll have to get your own Shrimp ‘n’ Grits.

1) Subscribe to receive this and all future episodes at the iTunes store. (And if you’re so inclined, download some of the first 10 episodes as well.)

2) Use the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss to snag episodes on the device of your choice.

3) Or … just click and listen below.

And here’s what we ate that day, which you should definitely head to Vegas someday to try for yourself.

Chicken ‘n’ Watermelon ‘n’ Waffles

With honey hot sauce, chilled spiced watermelon, Vermont sharp cheddar cheese waffle, and bourbon maple syrup.

Shrimp ‘n’ Grits

Peach Cobbler

Yum!

The next episode—which I intend to bring live on Wednesday, July 6, the day before I head off to Readercon— will feature Gene O’Neill, the Bram Stoker Award-winning writer with whom I attended the Clarion Writers Workshop way back in 1979. That will be followed by episodes with Fran Wilde and Cecilia Tan, both of whom I managed to lure away for meals during Balticon.

And after that … who knows what guests Readercon might bring?