I wish I could get to Baltimore’s Woodberry Kitchen more often. This should help you understand why: Bill Addison, Eater’s restaurant editor, has written of Woodberry Kitchen that when it opened in 2007, “it was the most forward-thinking Baltimore restaurant in years,” and in 2016 he included it on his list of 38 restaurants that shaped and defined American dining.

So I was glad to be able to return for a meal with K.M. Szpara, who has published short fiction in Lightspeed, Shimmer, Glittership, and other magazines, and has recently completed his first novel. He edited the acclaimed anthology Transcendant: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, about which Kirkus wrote that it “challenges readers’ expectations in ways that few have managed to do before.”

Listen in and learn about his formative years writing Hanson and Harry Potter fanfic, which darlings he had to kill to complete his first novel, why rewrites are like giving a floofy poodle a haircut, what he didn’t know about short stories when he began to write them, the many ways conventions are like big sleepovers, the reason he was able to eat one of George R. R. Martin’s dragon eggs, and more.

Here’s how you can join us at the table—

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Here’s what the two of us ate while chatting during this episode—

Mobtown Fry
(VA fried oysters, MD crab gravy, city ham, scrambled eggs, rye toast)

Beau’s Breakfast
(sausage, bacon, city ham, skillet potatoes, scrambled eggs, buttermilk biscuit)

Butterscotch pudding (whipped cream, toffee)

Bread pudding with warmed maple toffee sauce and fresh cream

If you liked what you heard, please help boost the profile of the show and bring it to the attention of others by subscribing to Eating the Fantastic, rating the show on iTunes, and liking us on Facebook. And check out Patreon, where you’ll learn how a small recurring monthly donation could allow me to increase the frequency of these episodes.

Coming up next will be soup dumplings with the Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated author Brenda Clough. I hope you’ll join us!