This year’s list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants was announced earlier this week, and all I could think as I scrolled down the names was how the pandemic has curtailed my foreign travels. In previous years, I was able to say I’d dined at as many as eight on such lists, but this year, only two.

But what a wonderful two! You can check out our dinners at Steirereck (#18) and Boragó (#29) via the links below.

1. Central, Lima
2. Disfrutar, Barcelona
3. Diverxo, Madrid
4. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain
5. Alchemist, Copenhagen
6. Maido, Lima
7. Lido 84, Gardone Riviera, Italy
8. Atomix, New York City [Highest Climber]
9. Quintonil, Mexico City
10. Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris [Highest New Entry]
11. Trèsind Studio, Dubai
12. A Casa do Porco, Sao Paulo
13. Pujol, Mexico City
14. Odette, Singapore
15. Le Du, Bangkok
16. Reale, Castel di Sangro, Italy
17. Gaggan Anand, Bangkok
18. Steirereck, Vienna
19. Don Julio, Buenos Aires
20. Quique Dacosta, Dénia, Spain
21. Den, Tokyo
22. Elkano, Getaria, Spain
23. Kol, London
24. Septime, Paris
25. Belcanto, Lisbon
26. Schloss Schauenstein, Furstenau, Switzerland
27. Florilège, Tokyo
28. Kjolle, Lima
29. Boragó, Santiago
30. Frantzén, Stockholm
31. Mugaritz, San Sebastian, Spain
32. Hiša Franko, Kobarid, Slovenia
33. El Chato, Bogota
34. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy
35. Ikoyi, London
36. Plénitude, Paris
37. Sézanne, Tokyo
38. The Clove Club, London
39. The Jane, Antwerp
40. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin
41. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy
42. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy
43. Leo, Bogota
44. Le Bernardin, New York City
45. Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin
46. Orfali Bros Bistro, Dubai
47. Mayta, Lima, Peru
48. La Grenouillėre, La Madeleine-Sous-Montreuil, France
49. Rosetta, Mexico City
50. The Chairman, Hong Kong

I hope future years will allow me to once again dine more widely around the world.

Wait, what? It’s Episode 200 of Eating the Fantastic? Really? That number shouldn’t seem so unbelievable, because Eating the Fantastic is, after all, my podcast, and I’ve been responsible for every episode, and yet … it still is. My guest for Episode 200 is J. Michael Straczynski, who took time out of his extremely busy schedule to chat and chew with me just as last month’s Nebula Awards weekend was kicking off.

Straczynski is perhaps best known as the creator of the television series Babylon 5, for which he wrote 92 of the 110 episodes. His roles in TV prior to that include acting as story editor on Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, executive story editor on the new Twilight Zone, co-producer for Murder, She Wrote, and many others. And after Babylon 5 came its spinoff Crusade, as well as the series Jeremiah and Sense8. He also wrote Amazing Spider-Man from 2001 to 2007, plus extended runs on Thor and the Fantastic Four. In recent years, he’s published the autobiography Becoming Superman (2019), the novel Together We Will Go (2021), and Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (2021). He is also the executor for the estate of Harlan Ellison, someone whose name popped up frequently during our conversation.

We discussed his appearance on one of the greatest convention panels I’ve ever been privileged to witness, why Superman stood out above all the other superheroes of his youth, his epiphany which occurred the night before the premiere of Changling at the Cannes Film Festival, the low boredom threshold of Harlan Ellison, how Norman Corwin’s ability to overcome bitterness about the Blacklist helped him deal with his own demons, his realization there was something more important about writing than either plot or characters (and what that something is), the tendency of humans to sleepwalk through our lives and what can shake us free from that, the life-changing nature of the “shoelace moment,” why DC Comics would never have dared publish anything as political as Captain America #1, the reason you don’t ever have to worry about him eating off your plate, the early encouragement he received from Rod Serling, and so much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)

It’s time to head to Anaheim, California to take a seat at the table with William Shunn, the first of five guests I managed to chat and chew with for Eating the Fantastic during last month’s Nebula Awards conference. I first met Bill in 1993 though his words alone, when I bought his short story “Colin and Ishmael in the Dark” for publication in Science Fiction Age magazine. We met in the flesh later that same year at the San Francisco Worldcon, and he’s been part of my life for the past 30 years.

Bill attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop in 1985, when he was only 17. (A class which included Mary Turzillo, Geoffrey Landis, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Resa Nelson, and other writers with whom you might be familiar.) In addition to being published in Science Fiction Age, he’s also appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy, and other magazines. In 2002, he was nominated for a Nebula in the category of novelette for “Dance of the Yellow-Breasted Luddites,” and a few years later hit the nomination trifecta when he was up for a Nebula, Hugo, and Sturgeon Award for his novella “Inclination,” which had been published in Asimov’s in 2006.

In addition, if you’re a writer, you might be familiar with what’s come to be called the “Shunn format,” a guide to proper manuscript preparation which first appeared online in 1995 and has since become the gold standard for numerous publications. His widely acclaimed memoir, The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary, was published in 2015, and in addition to detailing the youthful indiscretion which prevents him from ever returning to Canada, explains how Clarion changed his life and helped him become the writer he is today.

We discussed what he hoped would happen when he arrived at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop when he was 17 vs. what actually did happen, how his post-Clarion homelife was haunted by Ray Bradbury, the time Kate Wilhelm critiqued his critiquers, how an early rejection from Playboy got him in big trouble, the way a tragedy scuttled the sale of his memoir to a major publisher, how he and Derryl Murphy collaborated on a novella without killing each other, and so much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)

Balticon 57 begins in just a few days, and I have a very busy weekend planned — eight programming items, a wedding bifurcating the con, and multiple episodes of Eating the Fantastic to record.

If you’ll be in Baltimore as well, here’s where to find me —

Finding Your Voice
Friday, May 26, 4:00 p.m. (Guilford)
Frequently what makes books by one author different from another is the author’s voice, their personal style. How do you develop your voice and use it to create a unique feel for your books? What defines an author’s style? Can this be developed or is it inborn? What authors have a unique style and how can we learn from them?
with David Keener (moderator), Doc Coleman, and Walt Boyes

Plotters vs Pantsers
Friday, May 26, 7:00 p.m. (Guilford)
How do you plot your book? Do you plan it all in advance or do you simply write what comes out and edit its shape later? What are the benefits of both approaches? Does one approach work better for some types of books?
with David Keener (moderator), D.H. Aire, and Alex Shvartsman

Short stories versus novels: A debate
Friday, May 26, 8:30 p.m. (Gibson)
Are short stories better than novels? What can one form do that the other cannot? Is one form more innovative than the other? Why write stories when novels pay so much more? A debate
with Joshua Bilmes, Scott H. Andrews, Alex Shvartsman, and Mary G. Thompson

Rewriting
Sunday, May 28, 11:30 a.m. (Gibson)
Many professional works were far from perfect in their first draft and only became so through lots of rewriting. Rewriting is more than fixing spelling and grammar. How do writers rewrite their works? What were some of the biggest changes you made in rewriting a book or story and how did that make the work better? What tricks and tips can you give for new/would-be writers?
with D.H. Aire (moderator), Sarah Avery, and Aaron M. Roth

Works I Wasn’t Ready to Write
Sunday, May 28, 2:30 p.m. (Mount Washington)
Sometimes writers get ideas that they are not yet skilled enough to write. Has this happened to you? What did you do? How did it turn out? If you chose to write it anyway, do you think you ever will go back and redo it?
with Alan Smale (moderator), Micaiah Johnson, Tris Lawrence

Digging yourself out of a writing rut
Sunday, May 28, 4:00 p.m. (James)
Many authors find it easier to write things similar to what they have written in the past. But does that leave writers stuck as the “vampire writer” or “space empire writer”? How do you keep your writing fresh by avoiding the rut? What exercises can help?
with Sarah Avery (moderator), Bjorn E. Hasseler, and Carolyn Ives Gilman

Out of Control Characters
Sunday, May 28, 5:30 p.m. (Guilford)
Some authors tightly control their characters, requiring them to follow an outline. But other authors say there are things their characters won’t do. What do authors do when their characters go off script? Do you try to regain control (and how?) or go where the characters take you?
with Jennifer R. Povey (moderator), A. L. Kaplan, and Alan Smale

Reading
Monday, May 29, 10:00 a.m.
Not sure yet, but I believe I might read as much of my recent Lightspeed story “A Man Walks Into a Bar: In Which More Than Four Decades After My Father’s Reluctant Night of Darts on West 54th Street I Finally Understand What Needs to Be Done” as I can get through in the allotted time.
with Doc Coleman

I hope to see you there!

Though the lunch on which you’re about to eavesdrop didn’t take place at a convention, it took place because of a convention.

I knew L. Marie Wood for a decade or more before I learned at the last in-person Balticon before the pandemic that we’re basically neighbors, but never knew it. So after an earlier lunch during which we tried to figure out how we’ve somehow managed to avoid each other all these years, we got together at Brix 27 in downtown Martinsburg, West Virginia so I could learn more about who she is and how she came to be.

L. Marie Wood is a writer of psychological horror, supernatural suspense, and dark fiction of all kinds who’s been a professionally published writer for 20 years, ever since her first novel Crescendo and first short story “The Dance” were published in 2003. Her novels since then include The Promise Keeper, Cacophony, Accursed, and others, plus multiple short story collections, including Anathema and Phantasma. She’s also a screenwriter who’s a three-time winner of Best Horror Screenplay at the NOVA International Film Festival, Best Psychological Horror Short Script at Hollywood Horrorfest, and on and on. Her most recent publications are the novel The Open Book, accompanied by the related short story collection The Tales of Time, which contains the short stories being read by — and feared by — the characters in that first book.

We discussed the way she began her writing career selling poetry in parking lots, our differing experiences with hand selling our own books, the fears which keep horror writers up at night, the many misconceptions she had about the writing life back when she began, the uncomfortable novella she wrote when she was five, what our parents made of our horrific scribblings, the ever-present problem of dealing with rejection, our mutual love of pantsing, what should become of our papers, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)

Most conversations you get to eavesdrop on here are recorded during my convention travels, but not this one … though it did take place because of a con. I met this episode’s guest, Robert Jeschonek, when I attended the Steve Ditko Mini-Con in Johnstown, PA in September of 2021, While there, I spontaneously decided late in the afternoon to wander the exhibit tables to capture the voices of four other attendees, getting them to share anecdotes about that legendary creator, and you can hear them in Episode 154. But Jeschonek, who’d recently completed a biography of Ditko with the family’s cooperation, had taken off before I could get to him. We agreed we’d someday catch up to chat, and that someday is now.

There’s so much else to talk about with Bob in addition to Steve Ditko, though. For one thing, he’s managed to have stories published in every issue so far of the revived Pulphouse — all 20 of them! (Me, I’ve only had two published there.) His  short stories have also appeared in Clarkesworld, Galaxy’s Edge, Fiction River, Pulp Literature, StarShipSofa, and many other publications. He has also written official Doctor Who and Star Trek fiction plus Batman and Justice Society comics for DC. His novels include the military scifi epic Battlenaut Crucible, the urban fantasy Earthshaker, the cozy mystery Death by Polka, and the young adult thriller Unbullied. He’s won a Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and the grand prize in Pocket Books’ Strange New Worlds contest.

We discussed why when he a kid growing up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he dismissed any suggestion Steve Ditko grew up there as mere rumor, the differences in the way we each pants our stories, how to get writing done amid the pressures of life, the best way to approach assembling collections and anthologies, how he got his first gig writing comic books, dealing with the inevitable rejections, whether his fans follow his writing career cross his many genres, the many misconceptions people have about Steve Ditko, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)