Eating the Fantastic’s second century begins with the last of three meals you’re getting to eavesdrop on from this year’s Nebula Awards weekend in Los Angeles, following two comic book legends — Gerry Conway in Episode 99 and Mark Evanier in Episode 100.

This episode’s guest is Rachel Swirsky, who’s won some Nebula Awards of her own — for her novella “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window” in 2010 and her short story “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” in 2013. She’s also been a Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award nominee. She was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast, co-edited the anthology People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy,  and served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.

We got together for brunch the Saturday morning of the Nebula Awards weekend at Lovi’s Delicatessan in Calabasas, California where we chatted over brisket, latke, and of course, cheesecake.

We discussed what it was like to be critiqued by Octavia Butler at the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, how she learned there’s no inherent goodness in being concise in one’s writing, the generational shift in mainstream literature’s acceptance of science fiction, why she’s an anarchist (though she’s really not), what she learned about writing as a reporter covering pinball professionally, how the things most people say are impossible actually aren’t, why you shouldn’t base your self-worth on your accomplishments, how to deal with writers block and impostor syndrome (and the way they’re sometimes connected), the proper way to depict mental illness in fiction, why whenever she writes erotica it turns out to be depressing, how she survived the controversy over “If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love,” and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at the table at Lovi’s Delicatessan — (more…)

1974 was an important year for me, because that’s when I attended my first World Science Fiction Convention, started working at Marvel Comics, and met my wife — and now, 45 years later, it’s time to do it all over again! (Worldcon, that is, not the starting at Marvel or finding a spouse part.)

Here’s where those of you also heading to Dublin next month will be able to find me —

Welcome to Worldcon
Thursday, August 15, 12:00 p.m., Wicklow Room-3 (CCD)
Just what is a Worldcon anyway and what’s the best way to enjoy one? Our panel of experienced Worldcon-goers talk about what makes Worldcons special, what you can expect as a first-timer, and how to make the most of your Worldcon experience.
with Gay Haldeman, Carolina Gomez Lagerlöf, Christine A Doyle MD, and Mary Burns

Franchise Characters
Thursday, August 15, 2:00 p.m., Wicklow Room-2 (CCD)
Marvel characters are often mentioned in other MCU films, reminding us of their shared universe; DC TV shows have annual crossover events. How have these franchises — and others such as Star Trek — taken advantage of their epic canvasses to deepen characterisation? Are the in-universe reputations of some characters used to challenge our understanding of them rather than reinforce it?
with D.A Lascelles, F. D. Lee, Roz Kaveney, Mr Keith Byrne

The Future of Food
Friday, August 16, 2:00 p.m., Wicklow Room-1 (CCD)
What does the future have in store for our culinary delights and requirements? How will gene editing affect our produce and protein? How will technology enable food growth? Will climate change play a part in future food production? And what about food in space? Let’s dish over what the future may bring to the grocery stores, our gardens, or even our Star Trek food replicators!
with Susan Weiner, R B Watkinson, Eva L. Elasigue

Autographing
Friday, August 16, 3:00 p.m., Level 4 Foyer (CCD)

Kaffeeklatsch
Friday, August 16, 4:00 p.m., Level 3 Foyer (KK/LB) (CCD)

The Cost of Comics — What Format works best?
Saturday, August 17, 10:30 a.m., Odeon 5 (Point Square Dublin)
Roy of the Rovers went from a weekly strip to a book and is now being relaunched as quarterly graphic novels. Shonen Jump (the world’s most famous weekly comic) is moving to a free online model with downloads on subscription. As costs increase for individual issues, should we move to larger publications released at longer intervals? Is it possible to balance what is best for readers, creators and the publishers?
with Ed Fortune, Jaime Garmendia III, Raya Golden

Stroll with the Stars: Sunday
Sunday, August 18, 9:00 a.m., Ground Floor Foyer (CCD)

Reading: Scott Edelman
Monday, August 19, 3:00 p.m., Liffey Room-3 (Readings) (CCD)
I will probably read my story “Five Years Later,” which will appear in the Harlan Ellison tribute anthology The Unquiet Dreamer from PS Publishing, launching at Worldcon.

I hope to you there!

And now we are 100! And who better to be a guest on Eating the Fantastic’s 100th episode than writer/editor Mark Evanier, who as this episode goes live, is currently taking part in so many panels at San Diego Comic-Con he should earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Evanier started his comic book career way back in 1969, and over the years has written issues of Blackhawk, Groo the Wanderer, DNAgents, and (like me) Welcome Back, Kotter. He worked as Jack Kirby’s production assistant, which eventually resulted in his award-winning book Kirby: King of Comics. He’s won multiple Will Eisner Awards, as well an an Inkpot Award and a Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

But Mark has also led a whole other life writing for television, working on live-action shows such as The Nancy Walker Show, The McLean Stevenson Show, and Welcome Back, Kotter, plus animated series like Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian, Dungeons & Dragons, and The Garfield Show.

Our meal took place at Canter’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles, resulting in a sense of terroir greater than any other episode. As you’ll hear, he’s eaten there with both Jack Kirby and Stan Lee over the years — though not together — and he has plenty to say about both of them.

We discussed the lesson he learned watching Stan Lee write one of his famous Bullpen Bulletins pages, how his first sale to Laugh-In magazine led him to believe he could make it as a professional writer, the lunch at which Jack Kirby swore him to secrecy about quitting Marvel, the inker Kirby would have chosen if he was allowed to choose only one (and why it wouldn’t be Vince Colletta), his stupefied reaction when Sergio Aragonés placed the original art for the first issue of MAD in his hands (and how Mark later stupefied Jerry Lewis), whether he can imagine a world in which Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could have ironed out their differences, and much, much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Canter’s Deli — (more…)

My first meal of the Nebula Awards weekend was with comics legend Gerry Conway, who I’ve known for at least 48 years, since 1971 — when I was a comics fan of 16, and he was 19, and yet already a comics pro with credits on Phantom Stranger, Ka-Zar, and Daredevil. Our paths back then crossed in the basement of the Times Square branch of Nathan’s (which, alas, no longer exists) where the late Phil Seuling had organized a standalone dealers room without any convention programming dubbed Nathan’s Con, which was a test run for his future Second Sunday mini-cons.

Gerry and I have a lot of history in those 48 years, including his time as Marvel’s editor-in-chief when I worked in the Bullpen — though his tenure was only six weeks long, two of those weeks my honeymoon — a tenure you’ll hear us talk about during the meal which follows. He’s the creator of The Punisher, Power Girl, and Firestorm, and wrote a lengthy and at one point controversial run on Spider-Man. But he’s also worked on such TV series as Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Law & Order, and many others.

At Gerry’s recommendation, our meal took place at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas, California, where I invite you to take a seat and eavesdrop on our longest conversation in 40 years.

We discussed how the comics business has always been dying and what keeps saving it, why if he were in charge he’d shut down Marvel Comics for six months, what it’s like (and how it’s different) being both the youngest and oldest writer ever to script Spider-Man, the novel mistake he made during his summer at the Clarion Writers Workshop, why he’s lived a life in comics rather than science fiction, what caused Harlan Ellison to write an offensive letter to his mother, the one bad experience he ever had being edited in comics (it had to do with the Justice League), the convoluted way Superman vs. Spider-Man resulted in him writing for TV’s Father Dowling Mysteries, how exasperation caused him to quit his role as Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief (while I was out of the Bullpen on my honeymoon), how he’d have been treated if he’d killed off Gwen Stacy in today’s social media world, and much, much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation — (more…)

And so we bid farewell to StokerCon — now that you’ve enjoyed the ear candy of the lightning-round StokerCon Donut Spooktacular plus John R. Little’s awesome burger — with Kathe Koja, one of this year’s StokerCon Guests of Honor.

Kathe’s debut novel The Cipher, for which she won a Bram Stoker Award, had a tremendous impact on the horror field — as much of an impact on horror, in fact, as William Gibson’s first novel Neuromancer did on science fiction — a tremendously rare thing for a debut. She’s also written historical fiction, such as her Under the Poppy trilogy, as well as a number of young adult novels, starting with Straydog in 2002, and most recently Headlong. Her short stories have been published in Asimov’s, Weird Tales, Realms of Fantasy, F&SF, and many other magazines, plus anthologies such as Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells and Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction. She is the founder of nerve, a Detroit-based immersive theatre company.

We snuck away during StokerCon to San Chez Bistro. Not only is this tapas restaurant well-reviewed and highly rated, but they’re also amazingly sensitive to the needs of their guests, so much so they have multiple full specialized menus — not just a Vegan menu, but ones for soy allergies, tree nut allergies, citrus allergies, shellfish allergies and more. It’s one of the most accommodating restaurants I’ve ever visited when it comes to food preferences. My one regret from my trip to Grand Rapids is that time didn’t permit me to experience the full dinner menu.

We discussed her love of immersive theater (and dissected her previous night’s performance at StokerCon), why her groundbreaking debut novel The Cipher will always be The Funhole in her heart, what caused her to move into the YA world after her dark adult novels and why it’s harder to write for a younger audience, how she accidentally wrote her Under the Poppy trilogy, the allure of writing historical novels, how being in the presence of Kate Wilhelm at Clarion changed her life, what she got out of her many collaborations with Barry Malzberg and others, plus much, much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at San Chew Bistro — (more…)

The first episode of Eating the Fantastic to be recorded during this year’s StokerCon — but not the first to be shared with you, as I uploaded Saturday’s late-night StokerCon Donut Spooktacular immediately upon returning home — was lunch with
John R. Little at The Cottage Bar & Restaurant, a local institution which has been around since 1927.

USA Today says they serve the best burger in Michigan. But what did John and I think of it? Well, for that, you’ll have to give this episode a listen.

John’s a four-time finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, starting back with his first novel, The Memory Tree, in 2008. He won the following year in the category of Long Fiction for “Miranda,” for which he also won a Black Quill Award. His short fiction has been published in Cavalier (his first, in 1983), Twilight Zone, Weird Tales, Dark Discoveries, and other magazines, plus anthologies such as You, Human and Haunted Nights. His most recent novel is The Murder of Jesus Christ.

We discussed how seeing his sister’s portable typewriter for the first time changed his life forever, the way he launched his career by following in Stephen King’s men’s magazine footsteps, why he’s so fascinated by time and how he manages to come up with new ways of writing about that concept, which writer’s career he wanted when he grew up and how buying a copy of Carrie changed that, the reason a science major has ended up mostly writing horror, the most important thing he learned from a night school’s creative writing course, which of his new novel’s controversial aspects concerned him the most during creation, and much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at The Cottage Bar & Restaurant — (more…)

Readercon starts five weeks from tomorrow, and those who know me already know I’ll be there. I’ve attended every year since the con began in 1987, except for one notable exception.

The full schedule has now been released, so here’s the official programming on which you’ll be able to find me July 11-14 —

Saturday, July 13, 2:30 p.m., Salon C
Reading
I’ll be reading from “Opossums and Angels,” which was published in my recent collection Tell Me Like You Done Before (and Other Stories Written on the Shoulders of Giants). It’s an homage to both “The Screwfly Solution” and “The Women Men Don’t See,” my two favorite James Tiptree, Jr. stories, though I don’t think familiarity with either is necessary to enjoy mine.

Saturday, July 13, 3:00 p.m., Concierge Lounge
Kaffeeklatsch
with Ellen Datlow

Sunday, July 14, 1:00 p.m., Salon 4
From Seed to Story: How to Escape the Slush Pile
As Ann Leckie explained in a 2013 blog post, even great writers will have stories rejected if they write 7,000 words around an underdeveloped idea. So what kind of research should go into a short story? How much plot and exposition are called for? What questions should the writer be asking and answering before they even start writing? Panelists will explore various methods by which a story seed can be nurtured into something publishable.
with Martin Cahill, James Patrick Kelly, Benjamin C. Kinney, and Kenneth Schneyer

Of course, that’s not the only place you’ll be able to find me — should you happen to spot me in the bar or wandering the dealers room, don’t hesitate to say hi!

I hope to see you there.

I’d originally planned to break bread with Kaaron Warren — who like previous Eating the Fantastic guest Michael J. Walsh was one of my co-Guests of Honor at the 2018 World Fantasy Convention — during this year’s StokerCon in Grand Rapids. But since her con schedule and mine were so full it seemed as if there wouldn’t be any open overlap for us to sneak away, we got together for some stress-free time together when she stopped earlier in Washington, D.C. on her way to Michigan. We met at the Freer Gallery, and then wandered over for lunch at the Capitol Hill branch of Hank’s Oyster Bar, which opened in 2012.

I first met Kaaron slightly less than 10 years ago, at the 2009 Montreal Worldcon, where her novel Slights was one of the inaugural titles from Angry Robot Books. The publisher even had a robot rolling around the launch party! (It was not angry, however.) She’s published many more novels and stories since then, with one novel, The Grief Hole, winning all three of Australia’s genre awards — the Aurealis Award, the Ditmar Award, and the Australian Shadows Award. Her most recent novel is Tide of Stone. She’s published seven short story collections, the most recent being A Primer to Kaaron Warren.

We discussed how her recent Rebecca reread totally changed her sympathies for its characters, the disturbing real-life crime related to the first time she ever saw The Shining, the catalyst that gave birth to her award-winning novel Tide of Stone, how she came up with new angles for tackling stories about such classic characters as Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein, the way flea market bric-a-brac has led to some of her best ideas, the only correct method for preparing fairy bread, her go-to karaoke song, and much, much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Hank’s Oyster Bar — (more…)

Regular listeners to Eating the Fantastic know that once a year, instead of serving up the usual well-researched one-on-one conversations which make up most of this podcast’s ear candy, I opt for total anarchy, plopping myself down in a heavily trafficked area of a con with a dozen donuts and chatting with anybody who’s game to trade talk for sugar and grease. It’s totally spontaneous, as I never know to whom I’ll speak until they pass by and their eyes light up at the sight of a free donut.

In 2016, you were invited to eavesdrop on the Readercon Donut Spectacular, in 2017 the Balticon Donut Extravaganza, and last year the Nebula Awards Donut Jamboree. Now it’s time for the StokerCon Donut Spooktacular!

Late Saturday night, I sat down with an assorted dozen from The Donut Conspiracy in Grand Rapids accompanied by the usual sign explaining the setup, and found no shortage of willing guests.

Join us as Michael Bailey describes his novel inspired by a fire which turned his home to ashes in seven minutes, Geoffrey A. Landis shares about the Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper horror story he published in the science fiction magazine Analog, Brian Keene explains why he chose last weekend to finally reappear at an HWA event, Wile E. Young tells why he thinks of the Road Runner whenever a story gets rejected, Anton Cancre reveals which guest that weekend earned most of his squee, and Wesley Southard offers his schtick for selling books when stuck behind a dealers table at a con.

Plus Erik T. Johnson gives an unexpected (but perfectly logical) answer when asked about one of the perks of StokerCon, Patrick Freivald looks back on how his horror career began via a collaboration with his twin brother, Josh Malerman recounts how he replaced readings with full blown Bird Box interactive performances and how an audience of 85-year-olds reacted, Asher Ellis shares how the Stonecoast MFA program made him a better writer, Kennikki Jones-Jones discusses her Final Frame award-winning short film Knock Knock, Eugene Johnson celebrates his Bram Stoker Award win that night for It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life, and much, much more!

Here’s how you can dig into those donuts with us— (more…)

Get ready to eavesdrop on my lunch with science fiction writer Annalee Flower Horne — seen below about to start sipping a root beer float. Their short fiction has appeared in Fireside Quarterly, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Mothership Zeta, and the Futurescapes Anthology, where they took first place in the inaugural Futurescapes Writing Contest. They also co-edit the feminist geek culture blog The Bias with Natalie Luhrs. In addition, the two of us have a tradition of riding a ferris wheel each year during the Baltimore Book Festival, about which you’ll hear us joking at the start of our meal.

At Annalee’s suggestion, we met at Mark’s Kitchen, which has been serving customers in Old Town Takoma Park since 1990. It had a comfortable family feel, and an extensive menu, one which seemed suitable for all tastes and dietary sensitivities.

We discussed the incident at their first con which was a catalyst for wanting to become a writer, the way a glare from Mary Robinette Kowal caused them to submit — and then sell — their first short story, how the intricacies of game design can teach fiction writers to write better, why writers shouldn’t complain when editors reject stories too quickly, the first story they wrote while angry (and what was learned from the experience), the cuss word they wish they’d thought of in time to get into their first published story, the novel-in-progress that’s a feminist take on The Demolished Man, how codes of conduct can (and should) help make fandom better, and much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Mark’s Kitchen — (more…)