This completely unpredicted, absolutely unanticipated, and totally unexpected new episode—with horror writers Brian Keene, Lesley Conner, Mary SanGiovanni, Damien Angelica Walters, J.P. Sloan, and Eric Hendrixson—is one I had no idea I was going to record until I was about to record it.

Last week, former guest Brian Keene—who can be heard in Episode 34’s career-spanning conversation—tweeted about an appearance he’d be making at Frederick Community College for a panel discussion on publishing and horror. Since Frederick’s only an hour away, I figured I’d drop by. And at the last minute, as I was about to take off early this past Monday afternoon, I thought—hey, why don’t I record the event?

I wasn’t planning to repurpose it here, but I’d thought Brian would perhaps want to use it for his own podcast, The Horror Show with Brian Keene, the podcast on which I’d appeared back in June 2015 which inspired me to create this podcast. So I grabbed my recording equipment before hopping into my Jeep and heading East.

What happened instead was that after all those horror writers were done entertaining a room filled with creative writing students, and I offered the audio file to Brian, he said—you know what, Scott? Since you did the work of recording the panel, you use it. Which I normally wouldn’t and couldn’t do, because my podcast is, after all, Eating the Fantastic, and not Sitting in the Front Row of a Conference Room Listening to Others Talk About the Fantastic.

But luckily, since the group had planned to grab a bite to eat after their  panel before they hit the road, we did get to chat while breaking bread together. I was able to sit with them at a large round table in the Frederick Community College cafeteria, and as we inhaled salads and stromboli, I pushed them to share some of the brutal truths of horror publishing, the ones they didn’t reveal on the panel for fear of crushing the hopes and dreams of young, innocent, beginning writers. Which I hope you’ll feel is a good enough excuse to justify sharing the panel itself as part of the episode before that meal.

So prepare to join Brian Keene (author of more than 40 novels, and winner of the 2014 World Horror Grand Master Award.), Lesley Conner (managing editor of Apex publications and author of the novel The Weight of Chains), Mary SanGiovanni (author of the The Hollower trilogy, whose most recent novels are Chills and Savage Woods), Damien Angelica Walters (Stoker-nominated writer of the short story collection Sing Me Your Scars and the novel Paper Tigers), J.P. Sloan (author of The Dark Choir urban fantasy series), and Eric Hendrixson (bizarro author of Drunk Driving Champion and Bucket of Face) for an fascinating afternoon as they share what they know about the business of writing and publishing horror.

And what did they discuss in what’s became Episode 53 of Eating the Fantastic?

Lesley Conner explained what most writers don’t realize about first serial rights, and why if you can’t take rejection, you should stop now. Mary SanGiovanni compared your social media presence to singing in your underwear, and revealed the dreadful warning Charles L. Grant shared with her about the writing life. J. P. Sloan recommended the small press, while at the same time recommending you watch out, and also advised to be careful about the illusion of access. Brian Keene passed on the the best writing advice he ever got—from Keith Giffin—and told of the time he was willing to walk away from life-changing money. Damien Angelica Walters shared the ways it never gets easier, and why you need to overcome your fear of saying no. And finally, Eric Hendrixson pointed out why contracts are like a superpower, and sketched the hierarchy of what kind of writing is valuable.

Here’s how you can get the details directly from them—

1) Subscribe at the iTunes store, where all 52 previous episodes are still available.

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

3) Or simply use the the below embed to listen right here.

There are no food photos this time around, I’m afraid—so check out the panelists as they pontificate instead!

Lesley Conner

Mary SanGiovanni

Damien Angelica Walters

J. P. Sloan

Brian Keene

I hope you enjoyed this decidedly different episode. If you did, please rate Eating the Fantastic on iTunes and like us on Facebook. The more ratings and likes the show gets, the more potential new listeners will be allowed by Internet analytics to learn about the show, so your help in spreading the news is invaluable.

And there’s another way you can help Eating the Fantastic—in addition to letting all like-minded friends know about it, of course—and that is—if you like eavesdropping as I break bread with creators of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, and more, and want to support this mission of mine so I can continue sharing conversations with you—please check out Patreon.

Though this somewhat unusual episode was relatively inexpensive to produce, I do have expenses in pulling together the show, some of which, like equipment and bandwidth, are similar to all podcasts, but others which are peculiar to my unique format, which almost always involves transporting my guests to and from hotels and convention centers to restaurants, and the meals themselves for which I pick up the tab to relax them and help loosen their tongues, and with a small recurring monthly donation you can help subsidize those and other associated costs. There’s no way I can afford to do this alone, so please check out Patreon and learn about the perks which can come with your patronage.

If that level of commitment’s too much for you, however, don’t worry, you could if you wish instead make a one-time donation of any size, no matter how small, via Paypal.me.

Think of it as buying dessert for one of your favorite creators of the fantastic!

I hope you’ll be back next time, when I promise, you will get to listen in on my previously announced lunch during Baltimore Comic-Con with Marv Wolfman—the comics writer and editor famous for Tomb of Dracula, Blade, the New Teen Titans, and more.

Thanks for listening!