I’ve got two words for you about this episode of Eating the Fantastic: Volcano Shrimp.

That’s what brought me and my guest to Towson Best Chinese restaurant in the Maryland suburbs, where he wanted to introduce me to one of his favorite dishes. Does Towson Best Chinese restaurant live up to its name? Is it the best Chinese restaurant in Towson? Well, it’s the best Chinese restaurant I’ve ever eaten at in Towson.

However—since it’s also the only Chinese restaurant I’ve ever eaten at in Towson, I don’t know that my opinion carries much weight. But the Volcano shrimp was good, even though it wasn’t delivered to the table on fire as my guest had promised.

And who is this episode’s guest? Why, it’s Norman Prentiss, who won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction for Invisible Fences, and the 2009 Stoker for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for “In the Porches of My Ears.” His powerful, personal fiction has been reprinted in both Best Horror of the Year and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and his poetry has appeared in Writer Online, Southern Poetry Review, and A Sea of Alone: Poems for Alfred Hitchcock.

We discussed the day he wowed the other kids on his school playground by reading them Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the movies a Catholic Church newsletter’s warnings made him want to see even more, the supernatural superhero comic that led to a lawsuit against Harlan Ellison, the upside and (surprising) downside of having won a $35,000 college writing prize, how the freebies he got at a Horrorfind convention goosed him to start writing fiction again, why he wrote the last part of his novel Odd Adventures with Your Other Father first, how he’s been able to collaborate with other authors without killing them, what can be taught about writing and what can only be learned, why he ended up writing horror instead of science fiction, and much, much more.

Here’s how you can share that Volcano Shrimp with us—

1) Subscribe at the iTunes store, where you perhaps you’ll be moved to sample some of the other 58 available episodes.

2) Use the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss to download the episode to the device of your choosing.

3) Or listen right here via the embed below.

Check out what Norman and I shared that afternoon in Towson—

Ten Ingredients Soft Wonton Soup

Scallion Pancakes

Szechuan Crispy Beef

Volcano Shrimp

Our fortune cookie fortunes
his above, mine below

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to support my mission to break bread with creators of the fantastic while letting you take a seat at the table, there are several ways you can help—

One easy way is to rate Eating the Fantastic on iTunes and like it on Facebook, because the more ratings and likes the show gets, the more likely it is online analytics will bring this podcast to the attention of potential new listeners who are looking for science fiction, fantasy, and horror ear candy.

But if you’d like to become even more involved, there are three more substantial ways you can support this show. There are expenses such as equipment, bandwidth, parking, the shuttling of guests between hotels and convention centers to and from restaurants, and, yes, the meals which loosen the tongues of those guests, so any monetary contribution you feel up to sending my way to help cover those and other associated costs would be most appreciated.

First, you could make a small recurring monthly donation over at Patreon, where there are various perks involved depending on your level of support, such as access to a patrons-only blog, getting a shout-out on the show, stickers, postcards, and more. In fact, just this week I’ve been mailing out the latest limited edition postcard, which features the photos of all 2017 guests.

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And I just added a new way you can support the show — by buying me a cup of coffee. Head on over to https://ko-fi.com/eatingthefantastic and you can send me the funds to cover the cost of a cup of joe—though to tell you the truth, it’ll more likely go to buying dessert for one of my guests. It’s a new way to fund creators, and—because I can’t afford to do this alone — I plan on trying them all until I find the one that’s right for you.

I hope you’ll join me two weeks from now when I chat with HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner Thomas F. Monteleone—and you get to find out what the “F” stands for.

Thanks for listening!