The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2017 were announced earlier today, and it turns out I’ve been to seven of them, one fewer than off the 2016 list. But that’s only because Chef René Redzepi shuttered Noma, which held the #1 spot back when I had my birthday dinner there in 2015. You’ll find my reactions to those seven meals here, as well as a write-up of Manresa, which came in at #90.

My reaction to this year’s list is—man, do I need to get to Spain!

Also—I really must go back to Eleven Madison Park. For—as you’ll see if you read my linked review below—while the food was flawless during my visit, I felt the presentation and ambience had been harmed by an overreaction on the part of the restaurant to a then-recent negative review. (At least, that’s my interpretation of what I experienced here.) Now that time has passed and that year’s historical NYC menu is no more, I hope to encounter the restaurant anew.

Here’s the full 2017 list:

1. Eleven Madison Park (New York City)
2. Osteria Francescana (Modena, Italy)
3. El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain)
4. Mirazur (Menton, France)
5. Central (Lima)
6. Asador Etxebarri (Axpe, Spain)
7. Gaggan (Bangkok)
8. Maido (Lima)
9. Mugaritz (Errenteria, Spain)
10. Steirereck (Vienna, Austria)
11. Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Pocantico Hills, New York)
12. L’Arpège (Paris)
13. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée (Paris)
14. Restaurant Andre (Singapore)
15. Piazza Duomo (Alba, Italy)
16. D.O.M. (São Paulo)
17. Le Bernardin (New York City)
18. Narisawa (Tokyo)
19. Geranium (Copenhagen)
20. Pujol (Mexico City)
21. Alinea (Chicago)
22. Quintonil (Mexico City)
23. White Rabbit (Moscow)
24. Amber (Hong Kong)
25. Tickets (Barcelona)
26. The Clove Club (London)
27. The Ledbury (London)
28. Nahm (Bangkok)
29. Le Calandre (Rubano, Italy)
30. Arzak (San Sebastian, Spain)
31. Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen (Paris)
32. Attica (Melbourne)
33. Astrid y Gastón (Lima)
34. De Librije (Zwolle, Netherlands)
35. Septime (Paris)
36. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (London)
37. Saison (San Francisco)
38. Azurmendi (Larrabetzu, Spain)
39. Relae (Copenhagen)
40. Cosme (New York City)
41. Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet (Shanghai)
42. Boragó (Santiago, Chile)
43. Reale (Castel Di Sangro, Italy)
44. Brae (Birregurra, Australia)
45. Den (Tokyo)
46. L’Astrance (Paris)
47. Vendôme (Cologne, Germany)
48. Restaurant Tim Raue (Berlin)
49. Tegui (Buenos Aires)
50. Hof Van Cleve (Kruishoutem, Belgium)

I doubt my travels will allow me to hit any additional restaurants off this list during 2017—none from either Helsinki or St. Petersburg are present after all—but perhaps 2018 will be kinder toward me.

If everything had gone according to plan, you would have heard an episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded at Convivial, a restaurant in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., last February with guest Tom Doyle in Episode 4. But reservations were hard to come by, because the spot was #5 on Tom Sietsema’s list of the Top 10 restaurants in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide and #9 on Eater’s Winter 2017 list of The 38 Essential D.C. Restaurants.

One year later, though, I had better luck, and so was joined there by Sunny Moraine, who has published short fiction in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Apex, Uncanny, Lightspeed, and other magazines, as well as many novels, and was dubbed in Locus Online to be the most promising author of 2013.

We discussed the best writing advice they’ve heard, how being named the most promising author of 2013 messed with their mind, their favorite Ray Bradbury story (which is one of their all-time favorite stories period), why they write Walking Dead fan fiction, the contradictions of writing a breakout book, how they decided their trilogies were meant to be trilogies, and more. (They refused, however, to tell me for whom the bell actually tolls or why birds suddenly appear every time you’re near.) Plus—I reveal how Tim Burton prevented me from eating a perfect sticky toffee pudding!

Here’s how you can get convivial with us— (more…)

Michael Bailey just announced the names of two more contributors to Adam’s Ladder, an anthology he’s co-editing with Darren Speegle for Dark Regions Press—and one of those two names is mine!

Michael’s a fan of the slow reveal, and so plans to spill two new names each week until the full table of contents has been released. As you can see from the latest iteration of the cover, my co-conspirators so far include Damien Angelica Walters, John Langan, Roberta Lannes, Tim Lebbon, Erinn L. Kemper, Laird Barron, and Brian Evenson. I am honored to be among them … as well as those still to come. Keep checking Michael’s Facebook page for future updates.

The title of my 6,425-word short story, as you might have already figured out by matching up the list on the front cover with the one on the back, is “Pity This Busy Monster Not.”

Adam’s Ladder will be published later this year.

I love Momofuku Noodle Bar, but it’s in Manhattan, 275 miles away.

I love Momofuku Shoto, but it’s even further away, more than 400 miles, and on top of that, it’s on the other side of the Canadian border.

So when Chef David Chang expanded his empire to Washington, D.C. which only requires a minor rather than a major road trip, I was thrilled. I’ve made several visits to the new Momofuku CCDC since it opened, and knew that when it came time to record an episode of Eating the Fantastic with Rosemary Claire Smith—who was part of my 2013 Franklin BBQ expedition—this was definitely the place.

Rosemary has published multiple science fiction stories—plus multiple guest editorials—in Analog. And between the time we recorded this episode and you’ll be hearing it, she’s received an additional recognition from the magazine, and has become an AnLab Awards finalist.

We discussed why she can’t seem to stop writing about dinosaurs, how her years as a lawyer helped her become a better writer, what caused an angry audience member to confront her after one of her readings, whether she’d be willing to risk Ray Bradbury’s butterfly effect by traveling back in time, if there are editorial differences between Analog editors Stanley Schmidt and Trevor Quachri, and much more.

But before you give this episode listen, remember—if you’d like episodes of Eating the Fantastic to come at you more frequently, you can help me achieve that goal by making a small recurring monthly donation over at Patreon. Check it out!

And now—here’s how you can share the ramen— (more…)

That Bullpen caption contest I shared with you recently wasn’t the only bit of Marvel memorabilia I uncovered during my dive into the vault. I also found the original guide which would have been sent to the printer so they could properly complete the color separations.

Was it Marie Severin who took brush in hand and decided which colors would appear on the cover to Dead of Night #11? Could it have been Glynis Wein?

I’m afraid from this distance, I no longer have any idea. But regardless, the marching orders given to World Color Press are now yours to behold!

Twenty-two years ago this very weekend, I was in Atlanta attending the 1995 World Horror Convention, where—without realizing it—I recorded what would eventually become Episode 31 of Eating the Fantastic.

Who knew?

You can thank Dave Slusher for that.

In 1995, Dave was the host of a national radio talk show of the fantastic titled Reality Break, which launched in 1992 on WREK 91.1 FM in Atlanta. Dave chronicled the World Horror Convention that year, stealing Adam and me away from the con venue—the Sheraton Colony Square Hotel—to the food court of the Colony Square Mall next door. And since food was involved—especially Adam’s pizza, about which we seemed to joke a lot—it seemed especially serendipitous to revisit that day in this episode of Eating the Fantastic.

Back in 1995, I was a couple of years into editing Science Fiction Age magazine, and my 13 years at the SyFy Channel—as well as this podcast—were still far in the future. And as for Adam, though he had published his first short story collection, plus the first story in the first issue of Science Fiction Age, his Andrea Cort novels, his Gustav Gloom series, and his 100 more short stories were still to come.

Note that this is not a photo of Adam and me (along with Nancy Holder and Connie Hirsch) at that year’s World Horror Con. However, as it is a photo of us from a World Horror Con three years earlier, we’ll let it stand. I don’t think either of us changed that much from 1992 to 1995.

So prepare to time travel back to a 1995 mall food court lunch as I talk about my first job at Marvel Comics, how I broke into writing for Tales from the Darkside, and the beginnings of Science Fiction Age magazine, while Adam-Troy Castro reveals how he created the first story in the first issue of that magazine, as well as how a cab ride he feared he wouldn’t survive turned into one of his most memorable works of fiction.

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

While rummaging through the detritus of my Marvel Comics years in search of something other than what I’m about to share, I found evidence of a frequent Bullpen pastime—the caption contest.

Somebody would tape a photo to the wall, and everybody else would attempt to write something funny about it. That this was indeed something done frequently can be seen by the fact that whoever filched the photo from me numbered this particular contest 12,439,874,869,710.

So take a look below if you want a small taste of what it was like to work in the Marvel Comics Bullpen of the mid-’70s.

Some of the jokes will only be funny if you recognize the woman with whom I’m posed.

Do you?

I won’t give it away so that those don’t immediately know who she is have a chance to guess based on the captions themselves, but here’s one hint—I met her at a Halloween party run by the National Cartoonist Society, to which I was invited by Bill Kresse.

As you should all have figured out by now, it’s Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West!

And I was very happy to have been her Munchkin that night.

The final meal of my NYC trip—following Ukrainian with Ellen Datlow, BBQ with Craig Engler, and deli with Barry Malzberg—took place on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village at Café Reggio, which opened in 1927, and was apparently the first cafe in the U.S. to serve cappuccino. It’s also famous for its on-screen appearances, so you’d recognize the place if you’ve ever seen such films as The Godfather Part II, Shaft, and Serpico.

The venue was suggested by this episode’s guest, who happens to be a long-time resident of Greenwich Village—science fiction and fantasy writer Richard Bowes, who’s a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, and who has also won the International Horror Guild Award as well as the Lambda Award. That photo of him below is not from Café Reggio, however, but rather from the nearby New York Frost Factory, where we went in search of something sweet after the recording.

We discussed his early career as a designer of board games for clients like National Lampoon, why “going to conventions sober is beyond me,” the political transformation of Li’l Abner creator Al Capp, why everyone during the old folk scene days loathed Bob Dylan, what attracts him about writing mosaic novels, and more.

But before giving this episode a listen, remember—if the two-week wait between last episode and this one seemed a little too long for you, you can help me get to the point where I can increase the show’s usual frequency by making a small recurring monthly donation over at Patreon. (Or, if you’d prefer, making a one-time donation via Paypal.me.) I won’t be able to pick up the pace on my own, not with the travel, bandwidth, and meal costs associated with the show, so I’d appreciate your support as I attempt to capture all the amazing creators out there.

And now—here’s how you can dive into pugliese with Richard Bowes— (more…)

My mini-collection Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them won’t have its official launch party until next month’s StokerCon—but you can order a copy today.

That’s right! Head on over to Amazon, and in just a few days, you’ll be able to read my two zombie novelettes—”Only Humans Can Lie” and “Faking It Until Forever Comes”—as well as ooh and aah over the many awesome interior illustrations by artist Daniele Serra.

You’ll also get to read a glowing introduction from Brian Keene, in which he has many embarrassingly complimentary things to say about me, including that—

Had it not been for Scott Edelman and the other comic book storytellers of that time, I would have never wanted to become a writer, I would have never persisted until I actually became a writer, and I would certainly have never written The Rising, which means that zombie literature might not have enjoyed this new heyday.

Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them is a 154-page, 8″ x 5″ trade paperback, and costs a mere $8.95. I hope you’ll shamble over to Amazon and take a bite!

A few minutes ago, the Horror Writers Association revealed the final ballot for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards. And while I’m happy for all the nominees, I’m especially happy about one particular nominee—me!

That’s right—my story “That Perilous Stuff” is one of the final five in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Cushing, Nicole – The Sadist’s Bible (01Publishing)
Edelman, Scott – That Perilous Stuff (Chiral Mad 3) (Written Backwards)
LaValle, Victor – The Ballad of Black Tom (Tor.com)
Malerman, Josh – The Jupiter Drop (You, Human) (Dark Regions Press)
Waggoner, Tim – The Winter Box (DarkFuse)

If you’d like to hear me read some of the opening to that story, check out this video recorded at the 2015 World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs.

One reason I’m so thrilled about this nomination is that I’m currently tied—per this screen grab from Locus—with three other writers for the most Stoker nominations without a win. And since none of those three have made the final ballot this year, even if I lose, I’ll still be a winner—for I’d stand alone as the only writer to achieve a record of 7-0.

I’d be the Susan Lucci of the HWA!

We’ll all find out what happens this April at StokerCon. I hope to see you there!