Some of my favorite moments from last year’s inaugural StokerCon were those spent talking late into the night with William F. Nolan and Dennis Etchison. So when this year’s StokerCon rolled around, I knew I had to capture them both for Eating the Fantastic. You’ve already heard me chat with Bill over Thai food aboard the Queen Mary back in Episode 38 (at least I hope you have). Now it’s time to for you to eavesdrop as Dennis and I dig into a couple of classic dishes at Long Beach’s Chen’s Chinese Restaurant.

Dennis is a writer and editor who’s a three-time World Fantasy Award winner and a three-time British Fantasy Award winner. His 1982 debut short story collection, The Dark Country, is one of the best horror short story collections ever. And you don’t have to take my word for how good he is—some guy named Stephen King has called him “one hell of a fiction writer.”

We discussed how Philip K. Dick staged scenes as he wrote his stories, Ray Bradbury’s baffling advice which helped Etchison make his first fiction sale, whether he’d still have become a writer had he not been an only child, why most writing workshops don’t work, how he came to write his best-selling Halloween novel for John Carpenter in six weeks, the speech he really wanted to give when he received his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association, and more.

Here’s how you can dig into dumplings with us—

1) Subscribe at the iTunes store, where all 40 previous episodes can still be heard.

2) Download the episode to your the device of your choice with the show’s RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss.

3) Or listen right here by using the embed below.

Here’s what we ate during our conversation—

Steamed dumplings

General Tao’s Chicken

Shrimp in lobster sauce

If after ingesting this episode, you’re hungry for more, come back in two weeks when my guest will five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Nancy Holder, with whom I shared an early breakfast the final day of StokerCon at Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles.

And after that will be George R. R. Martin, Brooke Bolander, and A. Merc Rustad, to be followed by Readercon interviews as yet to be finalized or recorded, spaced out at the usual two-week intervals. But remember—

If you’re so hungry you long for more episodes streamed into your ears more frequently, there’s a way you can help make that happen—by joining with others to someday shorten that gap through a small recurring monthly donation over at Patreon. That will help subsidize some of the travel, bandwidth, equipment, and meal costs associated with the show. (Or, if that level of commitment’s not for you, consider a one-time donation of any amount via Paypal.me.)

And if you can find the time, please rate the show on iTunes and like us on Facebook, both of which could help bring Eating the Fantastic to the attention of new listeners.

I hope you’ll join us next time!