Sometimes, when I’m speaking to friends about my food adventures, they seem to think I’m only about tweezer food, molecular gastronomy, and expensive restaurants. And since any new friends I made during the Nebula Awards weekend might have encountered my previous post about Morcilla as their first entry point into my life, I figured I’d better quickly prove that’s just not so, and describe the sandwich I ate many hours after the banquet, at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday night Sunday morning at Primanti’s.

Though Primanti’s is today a chain which includes locations in Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, and other states, the company began with a single restaurant in Pittsburgh in 1933. Not too long after that, it developed its signature way of serving sandwiches—with the french fries and cold slaw in the sandwich. That style is so much a part of Primanti’s I can recall what a server there said when asked in a video interview how they’d respond to a customer if one asked for the fries on the side—she’d tell them there was a Subway down the street.

Perhaps I’m misremembering, and that’s apocryphal, but Primanti’s commitment to keeping what’s normally outside inside has resulted in one of the most famous sandwiches in the U.S. So I had to have one.

I had to have one at the original Pittsburgh location, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And I had to have one not at a standard meal time, but late. Or depending on how you consider time, early.

Which is how I ended up with a group of friends, including Andrea Tatjana and K. M. Szpara, at 2:30 in the morning, still wearing the purple jacket I’d worn to the Nebula banquet. (more…)

When it came time to decide on a venue for a group dinner during the recent Nebula Awards weekend, one restaurant stood out above all others—Morcilla, which had been named the best new restaurant in Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh magazine and last year’s #4 best new restaurant in the country by Bon Appetit.

And I wasn’t alone in that conclusion—for when I reached out to agent extraondinaire Barry Goldblatt about whether he wanted to join me, he said Morcilla was on his radar as well.

Which is how I ended up there Friday night at a table with, as they say, more stars than there are in Heaven, including Christopher Barzak, Bo Bolander, Joe and Gay Haldeman, and Fran Wilde.

We didn’t quite eat the entire menu—but we came close!

Bay View oysters
(with ramp mignonette)

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I visited the Watergate Hotel recently, and in case those of you familiar with the history of that infamous location might be thinking I went there to bring down a president with a Bob Woodward/Carl Bernstein-style investigation, let me quickly add … no. Rather, I went there to investigate the food at the recently opened Kingbird restaurant, with a guest who surprised me with her sudden visit to Washington, D.C., and whom I somehow managed to convince that a meal with me would be oh, so much more fun than visiting the National Air and Space Museum.

Joining me within the walls of the Watergate Hotel was Cynthia Felice, who published her first short story, “Longshanks,” in 1976 in the pages of Galileo, a science fiction magazine published by the late, great Charlie Ryan, and her first novel, Godsfire, two years later. She is also the co-founder with Ed Bryant—about whom, alas, I must also say late and great—of the Colorado Springs Writer’s Workshop.

We discussed how Frank Herbert’s Dune made her say, “Hey, I can do that,” the virtues of owning a motel while being a writer, the marriage advice Kate Wilhelm gave her at Clarion, what Thomas M. Disch told her that fixed one of her short stories, why we all loved the late, great Ed Bryant, the extraordinary lengths David Hartwell went to as he edited her second novel, how her collaborations with Connie Willis began, and more.

Here’s how you can break into the Watergate with us— (more…)

There was no Instagram 10 years ago when we gathered in New York City for the 2007 Nebula Awards weekend—but if it had existed, the festivities might have looked something like this.

Hanging out with John Kessel

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Three weeks from today, I’ll be at Balticon, which means that if you’ll also be at Balticon, we’ll be able to see each other.

Here’s where you can find me—

Saturday, May 27

Tales from the Slush Pile
11:00 AM
with Scott Andrews, Erika Pryor, and Joshua Bilmes

Writing Interesting and Effective Short Stories
Saturday May 27 12:00 PM
with Hildy Silverman, Sarah Pinsker, Jean Marie Ward, and Fran Wilde

How to Incorporate Critique
Saturday May 27 05:00 PM
with Joshua Bilmes, James Minz, Sarah Pinsker, and Malka Older

How to Self-Edit That Lousy First Draft
Saturday May 27 06:00 PM
with David Keener and Sarah Avery

Sunday, May 28

Kaffeeklatsch
10:00 AM

Reading
Sunday May 28 11:00 AM
with Mattie Brahen and Amy Kaplan

Being a Fan of Problematic Things
Sunday May 28 12:00 PM
with Martina Fetzer, Chris Lester, Holli Mintzer, and Nobilis Reed

But remember—those aren’t the only places to find me. If you spot me in the halls, the dealers room, or the bar, be sure to say hello!

During last year’s Capclave in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Brenda Clough tantalized me with tales of JDS Shanghai Famous Food, telling me they made some of the best soup dumplings in the D.C. area. So when it was time for her appearance on Eating the Fantastic, how could we go anywhere else?

Brenda has published short fiction in Analog, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, my own Science Fiction Age, and many others, and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novella “May Be Some Time.” She’s also written many novels across multiple series, and teaches writing workshops at the Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

We discussed how Superman started off her science fiction life, whether she’s a steeplechase horse or a Kentucky derby horse, the time Harlan Ellison phoned to tell her she wrote like an angel, how surrendering to the concept of “false endings” helped her become a better writer, why she’d never want to be one of her own characters, which Anne McCaffrey book she threw in the trash, why she decided to knit a life-sized giant squid, and more.

Here’s how you can dine on dumplings with us— (more…)

I bought my first Fitbit—a Flex—four years ago today, on May 4, 2013. Several months ago I was forced to switch to a new Fitbit because, after all those years of use, the Flex battery was no longer holding a charge for more than an hour. So I now wear a Charge 2, which in addition to counting steps and miles, also keeps track of the number of stairs I’ve climbed, plus my pulse rate.

So after four full years of Fitbit, how’d I do?

I’ve taken a total 15,695,164 steps, broken down as follows—

Year 1:
4,078,838 steps
11,174 daily step average

Year 2:
4,107,515 steps
11,253 daily step average

Year 3:
3,900,704 steps
10,657 daily step average

Year 4:
3,608,107 steps
9,885 daily step average

The reason for the drop-off in year four was due, bizarrely, not to my feet, but to my teeth! I’d had to have several root canals, and was in such intense pain before, during, and after that it hurt whenever I’d walk vigorously. So there were many weeks during which my step count was way down.

Still … even though I’d have preferred to have gotten an additional 115 steps per day during year four so my daily average would hit 10,000, I still ended up walking more than I would have in my time before Fitbit. So—the device is doing its job.

I look forward to seeing what year five has in store for me!

As I told you earlier, going into Saturday’s Bram Stoker Awards ceremony I was tied at 6-0 with three other writers for the most nominations without ever having won. I even wore a button throughout the weekend to ensure the other StokerCon attendees knew of my exalted state, as this Thursday night selfie with Becky Stratford, the Librarian Guest of Honor, proves.

What waited for me on the other side of that ceremony was either an award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction … or something far more historic. How historic? So much so that emcee Jeff Strand felt moved to take notice of my potential achievement during his opening monologue.

Give a listen to what he had to say … (more…)

I wish I could get to Baltimore’s Woodberry Kitchen more often. This should help you understand why: Bill Addison, Eater’s restaurant editor, has written of Woodberry Kitchen that when it opened in 2007, “it was the most forward-thinking Baltimore restaurant in years,” and in 2016 he included it on his list of 38 restaurants that shaped and defined American dining.

So I was glad to be able to return for a meal with K.M. Szpara, who has published short fiction in Lightspeed, Shimmer, Glittership, and other magazines, and has recently completed his first novel. He edited the acclaimed anthology Transcendant: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, about which Kirkus wrote that it “challenges readers’ expectations in ways that few have managed to do before.”

Listen in and learn about his formative years writing Hanson and Harry Potter fanfic, which darlings he had to kill to complete his first novel, why rewrites are like giving a floofy poodle a haircut, what he didn’t know about short stories when he began to write them, the many ways conventions are like big sleepovers, the reason he was able to eat one of George R. R. Martin’s dragon eggs, and more.

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

And now for something completely different—the first (and likely only) episode of Eating the Fantastic to be recorded during a live-streamed fundraising telethon.

I’d been trying for quite a while to schedule the recording of an episode with Brian Keene—on whose podcast The Horror Show I appeared nearly two years ago, inspiring me to create this podcast. Unfortunately, our schedules never synced.

But when it came time for Brian to record the 100th episode of The Horror Show as a live 24-hour-long telethon to raise funds for the Scares That Care charity, he had a brainstorm—that I invade his event with a meal of some sort, and record my own show as part of his livestream.

So that’s what I did—show up at a conference room of a Hunt Valley hotel with a ton of takeout from Andy Nelson’s Barbecue, which has repeatedly been voted best BBQ by Baltimore Magazine—bringing enough to feed Brian, his co-hosts, and some of the live studio audience you’ll hear in this episode, too.

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. He’s also written comics, including the adventures of the Doom Patrol.

We discussed why the ending to The Rising isn’t as bewildering as some seem to think it is, whether new horror writers should try to replicate his career path, how Marvel Comics creator Steve Gerber is responsible for him becoming a writer, the shady way Brian amassed the largest comics collection in the sixth grade, if he’s a Scully who changed into a Mulder as he got older or if he’s been a Mulder all along, and more.

Here’s how you can share the BBQ with us— (more…)