Anyone who’s listened to more than a few episodes of Eating the Fantastic already knows — collaboration confuses me. Tell me two writers have managed to work together on the same project without blood on the floor and a lifelong feud and I’m baffled. So when I learned previous guests of the show Brian Keene and Mary SanGiovanni had collaborated on the short story collection Things Left Behind, released last year by Thunderstorm Books, I knew we’d have to chat about it.

We met for breakfast at Martinsburg, West Virginia’s Blue White Grill, which has been serving diner food since the ’50s.

Brian’s published more than 40 novels, including the best-selling The Rising, and he’s the winner of the 2014 World Horror Grand Master Award, while Mary is the author of The Hollower trilogy, the first volume of which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. There’s a whole lot more to know about each of them, as you’ll learn if you listen to those two earlier episodes.

We discussed how being intimidated by each other helps their collaborative process, their different tolerances for writing gore (and how that’s changed over time), the romantic reason (up until this episode known to only one of them) their collaborative short story collection came about, which of them once wrote 45,000 words in a day, how they came to agree on a joint dedication, who gives each story its final polish (and who get the final say on sending it to market), how Brian attempted to bleed all over Mary’s upcoming Alien novel, the way they approach their own deaths, their honeymoon book tour hitting every state but Alaska and Hawaii, their upcoming collaborative novel, and much more.

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Here’s the meal we shared at the Blue White Grill —

Scott’s Chicken-Fried Steak, Hash Browns, Eggs, and a Biscuit

Mary’s Eggs, Bacon, Home Fries, and Pancake

Brian’s Chicken-Fried Steak (Sans Gravy) Home Fries, and Bacon

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Coming up next is a writer whose name it’s too soon to reveal, because our conversation hasn’t been recorded yet and I’d hate for you to be disappointed in the event it falls through. But the meal will be taking place this very weekend as this episode goes live at the Farpoint convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Wish me luck!

And thanks for listening!