This episode of Eating the Fantastic is a serendipitous one, brought to your ears because writer Steven R. Southard happened to stop by my neck of the woods for brunch while on a drive from Maryland to Texas. That resulted in us meeting on a sunny May morning at Bonnie Blue Southern Market & Bakery in Winchester, Virginia, which has been serving food in what was previously an Esso Station since 2012. They have excellent fried chicken, biscuits, waffles, pastries and a lot more, so I recommend you drop by if you’re ever in the area.

Steven R. Southard is particularly fascinated by alternate and secret histories, and has written more than a dozen installments in his What Man Hath Wrought story series, starting in 2010 with The Wind-Sphere Ship, and most recently with After the Martians in 2020. His short stories have also appeared in magazines such as Curiosities and Steampunk Tales, and anthologies like Avast, Ye Airships, Quoth the Raven and Not Far From Roswell. With Kelly A. Harmon, he edited the anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered, published in 2020. He and I have frequently appeared as co-panelists discussing the craft of writing at Balticon, ChessieCon, and elsewhere.

We discussed how an early meeting with Isaac Asimov had him hoping he could be just as talented and prolific, why it took him 15 years of working on a novel before he realized he was meant to be a writer of short stories, how Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea changed his life, why alternate and secret histories attract him so (as well as the stories in that genre I never got around to writing), his “snowflake” method for plotting short stories, the secrets to coming up with good ideas for theme anthologies, what movie and TV depictions of submarines get wrong (and which ones get it right), and much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)

After a two-year hiatus, Balticon will be back as an in-person event just a few days from now. Which means I’ll be back at my first in-person convention since December’s D.C. Worldcon. Proof of vaccination will be required to enter the space, and masking will be required to remain there, so I’m feeling relatively comfortable.

Relatively.

I’m still somewhat nervous, but I’ve agreed to appear on four panels and do a reading. I’ll do my best to supress my anxiety and enjoy myself, even though for my own safety and yours, I’ll be testing myself each morning before heading out to mingle, plus once a day after I’m home for the following five days so I’ll be able to estimate the date of COVID onset in the unfortunate event there is one.

Here’s the final Balticon schedule if you plan on attending, too, but if you’re in the mood come hear me pontificate, here’s where you’ll find me when I’m not hanging around the halls —

Revising Your Work
Friday, May 27, 4:00 p.m., Homeland
You love that twist in your story you’ve been planning for ages, but you just realized a key character died 100 pages earlier. Or you just finished your reread and decided your epic space war would work best as a satire. What should stay? What should go? How can you look at your work with a critical eye and turn your story into the tale you always dreamed of telling?
with Gail Z. Martin (moderator), Wen Spencer, Margaret Riley

When To Get Gory
Friday, May 27, 5:30 p.m., James
While gore is usually associated with the horror genre, writers can use elements of gore in non-horror works as well. How do you set reader expectations, and how do you know how much gore your audience will tolerate? What effect does introducing gore into your work (horror or otherwise) achieve, and how can you best use it to tell the story that you want to tell?
with David Keener (moderator), Rena Mason, Hildy Silverman

Reading
Saturday, May 28, 4:00 p.m., St. George
I will probably read from my story “The Letters They Left Behind,” soon to appear in Lightspeed … though don’t hold me to that. I might change my mind!
with Alan Smale

Writing Scary Ghosts
Saturday, May 28, 5:30 p.m., Room 7029
What’s scary about a disembodied spirit? It can take a lot to surprise or scare a modern reader. So, how can authors use ghosts to generate fear? Movies have the advantage of the “jump scare” but what tricks do horror authors have to make denizens of the spirit world more frightening?
with Gail Z. Martin (moderator), L. Marie Wood, Rena Mason, Carol Gyzander

Plotting Character Arcs
Sunday, May 30, 1:00 p.m., Gibson,
Stories are often as much about how the protagonists develop in reaction to events as about how the events unfold. What are some techniques to help you plan out a character’s arc over one or more stories, and how much should you draw the audience’s attention to it? What are some ways to incorporate your character’s development so that it feels natural and consistent with the rest of your story?
with Joshua Bilmes (moderator), Melissa Scott, Scott H. Andrews, Mark L. Van Name

I look forward to seeing you there!