My conversation with this episode’s guest, Sheree Renée Thomas, didn’t take place because we were attending the same convention, which is the way most of these chats happen, but out of pure serendipity.

Over on Facebook, someone in the group devoted to Capclave — a con where I’ve harvested many conversations for you — mentioned Thomas was scheduled to speak at Maryland’s Rockville Memorial Library. When I checked the details and saw the venue was only a 90-minute drive away, I reached out to see whether she’d have time in her schedule to grab lunch — and luckily she did. So early the same day as her presentation titled “Afrofuturism & Diversity in Sci-Fi,” I scooped her up from her hotel and took her over to Commonwealth Indian Restaurant, where I’ve had many wonderful meals. Here’s how the event organizers described Thomas and her career —

New York Times bestselling, two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author and editor Sheree Renée Thomas has been a 2022 Hugo Award Finalist, and her collection, Nine Bar Blues, is a Locus, Igynte, and World Fantasy Finalist. She edited the groundbreaking Dark Matter anthologies that introduced a century of Black speculative fiction, including W.E.B. Du Bois’s science fiction stories. Thomas wrote Marvel’s Black Panther: Panther’s Rage novel (October 2022), adapted from the legendary comics, collaborated with Janelle Monáe on The Memory Librarian, and is the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949 and Obsidian, founded in 1975. In 2022 she co-curated Carnegie Hall’s historic, citywide Afrofuturism Festival.

We discussed how to prevent being an editor interfere with being a writer (and vice versa), the way a serendipitous encounter with Octavia Butler’s Kindred caused her to take her own writing more seriously and a copy of Black Enterprise magazine spurred her to move to New York, how her family’s relationship with Isaac Hayes nourished her creative dreams, the advice she gives young writers about the difference between the fantasy and reality of a writer’s life, how realizing the books she thought were out there weren’t launched her editing career, the rewards and challenges of taking over as editor for a 75-year old magazine, why she reads cover letters last, and much more.

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Here’s what we shared during our lunch at Commonwealth Indian Restaurant —

Garlic Naan

Mint Paratha

Crispy Spinach Chat
diced mango, pomegranate

Mutton Qorma
young goat cooked together with mace, nutmeg, yogurt, and various spices

Yellow Crab Curry
jumbo lumps, coastal spices, coco curry

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Coming up two weeks from today, you’ll be able to eavesdrop on my lunch with Robert Jeschonek, who’s written official Doctor Who and Star Trek fiction, has managed to publish stories in every issue of Pulphouse so far, and recently completed a biography of Steve Ditko with the cooperation of the family of that comic book legend.

Thanks for listening!