I’ve already shared a bit about how the stars seemed to align in my favor to make last month’s international birthday celebration not just possible, but extraordinary.

Like how Chef René Redzepi personally reached out so I could have my birthday dinner at his hard-to-get-into Copenhagen restaurant Noma, currently rated #1 in the world.

And how I was able to use my frequent flyer miles to book a trip on exactly the dates I wanted for only $100.60 in taxes and fees, instead of … gulp!

How, after I bemoaned the fact that a trip to Denmark during the time of year when Tivoli, its top attraction, would be closed, and that it would be depressing to peer through its locked gates, the amusement park announced it would opening several weeks early this year—on April 1, the day after my birthday, making a visit possible.

My trip was filled with many incidents of luck working in my favor, but I thought I should share one more, which occurred at the very end, and demonstrates that what are mishaps for most usually turn out to be gifts for me.

Ah, the power of serendipity! (more…)

When I was interviewed by Dewey Cassell about the origins of Marvel’s Scarecrow for an article which was to appear in Back Issue magazine #60 (October 2012), one of the things he wanted to know was—who was originally intended to be that character’s first artist?

The reason that even came up was because back in the the pages of Dead of Night #11 (August 1975), I’d mentioned in an essay that “the artist who the assignment was given to had since disappeared into the wilds of the city.” So Dewey asked … which artist?

It had been more than three decades since he had vanished, but I had a pretty good idea who that artist had been—Bill Draut. After a little research, though, I began to doubt my gut, and as you can see in an excerpt below from Dewey’s published article, I’d decided I must have been wrong.

But thanks to the latest installment of Comic Book Legends: Revealed, I learned today that I’d been right all along! (more…)

I wish I could have shared about my lunch at Chef Rasmus Kofoed’s Geranium two weeks ago, but first I had to get home from Copenhagen (since I was having too much fun while there to spare any time for blogging), then I first had to tell you about my birthday dinner at Noma, and then spend a week preparing for our annual Thank God It’s Spring daffodil party. So only now do I have the spare brain to tell you about our afternoon at what’s currently #42 on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Here are a couple things you should know before I move on to what you’re really here to see—pics of food porn. (And I will, for the most part, let those pics stand for themselves. Additional words would not do them justice.)

First, Chef Kofoed is a three-time winner of the Bocuse d’Or cooking competition, having walked away with the bronze, silver, and gold. Which had us impressed before we ever took a bite of his creations. (The closest I’d ever gotten to that famed event previously was when Next restaurant offered its Bocuse d’Or-themed menu.)

Second, the restaurant is in an unusual location. Rather than being in the center of Copenhagen, it’s on the eighth floor of Denmark’s national soccer stadium. Not at all a place where I’d have expected this level of cooking. But, oh—the view! Here’s the scenery out the window from our table.

But enough of the restaurant’s reputation and view—what counts is the food we were served. And so … (more…)

My first short story publication of 2015 is now available for your reading pleasure. Well … it’s available for you to purchase anyway. As to whether there’ll be any pleasure involved … that’s something you’ll have to decide later.

I’m pleased to see this story in print for a number of reasons. One is that not only was it the first story I wrote in 2014, it was also the first story I’d managed to write in several years, ending a fiction drought caused by the demands of my day job. Another is that it’s a 13,000-word story, not the easiest length to place, but I managed to place it anyway. And of course, Dark Discoveries is a great horror magazine, which makes the fact that my story, “Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen,” is the lead story this issue all the more sweet.

And, hey—who doesn’t like to see their name first on the cover list of contributors?

“Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen” is a dark but (hopefully) uplifting horror story of love and obsession, and you can read it by ordering a copy here. If not for me, then how about for Storm Constantine, Cecilia Tan, Ray Garton, and all the other wonderful writers you’ll find there?

Jarrod Buttery, who’s interviewed me many times for Back Issue magazine on the comics I wrote in the ’70s, is now doing a piece on comics editing—specifically, the editing of Marvel’s reprint books. Which has sent me back to the vault in which I keep all the memos I sent and received during my days in the Bullpen. And the half dozen I’ve chosen to scan and share below prove one important thing—if you were pissed back then that the reprint books weren’t complete, I’m the guy responsible.

The fact I was even involved with those reprints is a thing for which I later felt a need to apologize to my wife—check out this column I wrote for The Comics Journal to learn why.

When cobbling together the reprint annuals, the number of pages from 3-4 old stories added together rarely matched the exact number of pages we had to fill, which meant cuts usually had to be made. Some of my memos reveal the number of pages that needed to be slashed, but not the specific cuts that would get us there …

(more…)

I told you this day would come—and now it’s finally here. My first short story collection, These Words Are Haunted, long available only in an expensive hardcover edition, is finally out in paperback.

If you’ve held off since 2001 from buying the $37.95 hardcover, you can now pick up a paperback version for only $13.99.

What’s in it? Well, according to the back-cover blurb …

Zombies spar with humans for dominance of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan in the Stoker-nominated “A Plague on Both Your Houses.” The King returns to prove that rock ‘n’ roll will never die in “The Elvis Syndrome.” And a dying boy is the catalyst for a deal with a decidedly different devil in “Making Peace with the Leader.” These and ten other nightmarish tales form a bizarre baker’s dozen in Scott Edelman’s acclaimed horror collection.

Check out a few further details here.

If those words make you want to buy a copy, head on over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble, depending on your vendor preference.

And thanks as always for your support!

Back in January, I told you how I’d tried and failed to get a dinner reservation at Noma—currently rated the #1 restaurant in the world—for a celebration of this year’s milestone birthday, and then how I inexplicably succeeded. Now that I’m home from my trip to Copenhagen, it’s time to fill you in on how the night went.

Short version:

It was amazing.

Longer version:

First off, there didn’t seem to be anyone in the city who wasn’t aware of both Noma’s culinary reputation and the difficulty of getting in. Whenever I’d mention how I was going to spend (or had just spent) my birthday, eyes would go wide, and whatever was said in response could easily be boiled down to “Whoa.” People took pride in the way Chef Rene Redzepi and his introduction of new Nordic cuisine had made the rest of the world take notice of their country.

Our reservation was on March 31 for 7:30 p.m., and when we arrived a few minutes before then, an employee opened the front door and we were greeted before we were even out of the taxi. And when we stepped through that front door, I was stunned to see there were several dozen members of the staff assembled to greet me, with Redzepi front and center, reaching out to shake my hand and wish me a happy birthday. It was totally unexpected, because, well, didn’t these people have food to cook and other customers to serve? But even so, they somehow found the time to circle us and make us feel welcome.

I once more asked Redzepi—why am I even here? How is it that in the midst of his Tokyo pop-up, he would pick me, out of the thousands of hopefuls wishing to dine at Noma, to get one of the rare tables for two? He had no specific reason for having made a dream come true, other than that every once in a while, he’ll notice such a request, and try to help out if he can. I expressed my gratitude again (after all, they do get 20,000 reservation requests per month), and we continued chatting en masse, answering their questions about our time in Copenhagen so far, and what we’d planned for the rest of the trip. After what seemed like at least 10 minutes (but surely it couldn’t have been, right, not with other customers already seated and needing attention?), we were led to our table, and dinner began.

We didn’t end up leaving until nearly four hours later. (more…)

For those who weren’t around in 1983 … a history lesson. Because, as I’ve said before, science fiction’s culture wars have been with us always.

The Sad Puppies, who have successfully campaigned their slate onto the ballot, hope they can break the Hugo Awards in order to rebuild them—a sentiment which has, I’m afraid, a bit too much of a “we had to destroy the village in order to save it” ring for my comfort. But note this isn’t the first time such a concept has been put forward.

“If you too are unhappy with the Hugo system, it’s time to do your bit,” wrote Charles Platt in his editorial to the March-May issue of The Patchin Review. He didn’t put a full slate forward back then, just a single novel, written by … well … you can see the name of the author in a box at the bottom of the front cover.

That’s right—L. Ron Hubbard, whose novel Battlefield Earth had been published in 1982. (more…)

I know that what you’re really waiting for is my write-up on dinner at Noma, but I came back from Copenhagen under the weather, and my brain’s not ready for it yet. So instead, while I wait for my strength to return, here are the dreams I had last month, as originally shared over on Twitter.

Last month, I dreamt of Paul Newman, Stan Lee, Walter White, Fritz Leiber, and many others …

March 2015

I dreamt that while I was having dinner at @NextRestaurant, @Gachatz wandered through, recording us all for a documentary project of his. Mar 29

I dreamt that after helping Stan Lee sift through movie pitches in Brooklyn, I stepped out onto a dark McDonald Avenue and headed home. Mar 29

I dreamt my mother and I had an intense argument, only ending when she put out a lit cigarette on my arm. But she doesn’t smoke any more! Mar 27

I dreamt my father — long dead in real life — dug up all the plants in our garden and rearranged them, much to the annoyance of my wife. Mar 27

I dreamt I was in Italy with my grandmother — long dead in real life — who told me that my mother — still alive in real life — was dead. Mar 27

I dreamt old Paul Newman, natty in a three-piece suit, got all choked up while telling me he thought my mother, his friend, would die soon. Mar 26

I dreamt I picked up an old woman who was hitchhiking, and got completely lost while trying to get her to her destination. Apologies ensued. Mar 26

I dreamt that while tutoring a kid in a preschool I spotted stacks of extremely well-read early Marvels and ACGs. Made it hard to focus! Mar 26

I dreamt I was both a character on Walking Dead AND me at home watching it, reliving Rick dying over and over again as I kept rewinding. Mar 22

I dreamt I was wandering the perimeter of a vast pool, trying to find the clubhouse and then the exit so I could go home. I never did. Mar 22 (more…)

I arrived home from my Copenhagen birthday celebration early yesterday morning to find several people had been talking about me and a panda. That’s because Ellen Datlow, Eileen Gunn, and several others are heading to China, and as part of the trip will travel to Chengdu to visit with Chinese science fictions writers and editors, something I did back in 2001.

But I didn’t just meet with writers and editors—I met with a panda as well, and even though it’s said that what gets onto the Internet lives there forever, the photo of me from that day seems to have vanished. Well, thanks to the Wayback Machine, it’s back.

That photo original appeared in issue 242 of Science Fiction Weekly, as part of my December 10, 2001 editorial. And since others have asked to see it, you’re going to see it, too.

So let’s step back 13+ years, and relive my trip to China …

It Really Is a Small World After All

Rudyard Kipling once wrote, “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” but Kipling was contradicted last week when East and West did get a chance to meet. This get-together occurred in the city of Chengdu in the People’s Republic of China, where I visited for nine days with the warm and welcoming staff of Science Fiction World, the 370,000 monthly circulation of which just happens to make it the most-read SF magazine on the planet.

(more…)