Life Itself, a documentary about film critic Roger Ebert, will be released July 4th. I have no idea how much time will be spent on his period as a member of science fiction fandom—something you can learn more about in an interview I did with him for Sci-Fi Entertainment in 1997—but his SF life did make a brief cameo in the documentary’s trailer.

Visible on screen at the 29-second mark as one of the interviewees says, “he wrote a novel,” is something that isn’t a novel—the opening spread of Ebert’s short story “After the Last Mass” from the February 1972 issue of Fantastic. As far as I know, Ebert only published two SF short stories, the other being “In Dying Venice,” which appeared in the May 1972 of Amazing Science Fiction, so I was glad to see one of them making an appearance. (more…)

I’ve been too busy this week to share how my Nebula Awards weekend went—I’d barely recovered from the redeye home when Geoff Landis and Mary Turzillo dropped by to spend the night on their way to Balticon—so these seven pics will have to stand in for a full report.

At the San Jose Airport Thursday with Cynthia Felice, who sat immediately in front of me on the flight from Denver. And as it turned out, Robin Wayne Baily sat in front of her! (more…)

I told you it was coming—and now it’s here. My contributor’s copy of The Monkey’s Other Paw: Revived Classic Stories of Dread and the Dead, which contains my homage to Saki’s “The Open Window,” is in my own paws, which means it can soon be in yours, too.

If you’d like to hear me read the story before buying the book, you can check it out here.

The Monkey’s Other Paw, from NonStop Press, is available both as a trade paperback and a hardcover. My story appears alongside tales from Damien Broderick, Paul Di Filippo, Barry N. Malzberg, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Don Webb.

What’s the next story of mine that’ll be published? No idea. That was last of my sold but unpublished pieces.

I recently sent two new stories to market, though—a 13,000-word horror story and a 5,250-word comic fantasy—and I’m hopeful they’ll find amenable editors sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed!

I’ve had many culinary firsts, and can easily remember them all. There was my first octopus. My first foie gras. My first meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant. My first sous vide. My first suckling pig. My first guinea pig. My first visit to a restaurant on the World’s 50 Best list. My first durian.

But a first I’ve never experienced before is visiting a restaurant run by a chef I’d originally met when he was a toddler. That took place Sunday night in Portland at Chef Gabriel Rucker’s Le Pigeon. I was supposed to dine there with Gene O’Neill, with whom I’d attended Clarion in 1979. Gene’s kids used to babysit Rucker when the families were neighbors, and I apparently met the future chef during one of my visits to Napa. Who knew that chubby cheeked kid would turn out to be a world-class chef?

I was supposed to head over to Le Pigeon with Gene the Friday night of last weekend’s World Horror Convention, but my old Clarion pal cancelled out on the con. I wasn’t going to let that stop me from hitting Le Pigeon, though, especially not after getting a look at its amazing menu. Which meant that Friday night was given over to Pok Pok, and I made Sunday reservations for Le Pigeon.

I ended up going with Ellen Datlow (who’s joined me for other fine dining outings), Portlander Leslie What (who shared a ton of local foodie tips), and Greg Chapman (an Australian with whom I co-presented this year’s Stoker for Superior Achievement in a Graphic novel).

Le Pigeon is set up for communal dining, and I was glad we arrived before the four others who were to join us, because our rectangular table narrowed as it jutted out from the wall, and if we’d been on the outside, that would have meant less room for food. And since the many dishes we ordered were large and beautifully plated, we needed all the room we could get. (more…)

There was no Instagram back in 2004—but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from Instagramming the 2004 Nebula Awards weekend!

Early tomorrow morning, I leave for San Jose to attend the 2014 Nebula Awards weekend. So what better time than now to take a few peeks at the same event held a decade ago in Seattle.

Slightly younger Robert Silverberg meets much younger Robert Silverberg

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Adam Richman is my favorite of all the TV food hosts. When I watched his shows Man v. Food and then Man v. Food Nation, he always seemed genuine to me, coming across as a real person rather than someone who was trying to turn himself into a brand.

And because (contrary to what some might think) I’m about more than just the sort of high-end fine dining that can be found at restaurants such as Boragó, Steirereck, and Alinea, I’ve followed in Richman’s footsteps whenever I can, which has led me to everything from the Triple Threat Pork sandwich at Slow’s BBQ in Detroit to the famous three-pound cinnamon roll at San Antonio’s Lulu’s Bakery & Cafe.

So when it came time for me to attend the World Horror Convention in Portland last weekend, I made sure to check out where Richman had gone before me. And on Saturday, that led to lunch at Big-Ass Sandwiches, which had been featured on the show Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich in America.

I walked a mile or so to the food truck with Claude Lalumière, making Big-Ass Sandwiches an extension of the World Horror Convention for that afternoon. And I of course ordered the sandwich that bore Adam Richman’s name—The Richwich, which consisted of slow-roasted beef, bacon and grilled onions onto a ciabatta roll with hand-cut fries, covered with homemade Bechamel cheese sauce. As you can see above, it was a helluva sandwich, and I can easily understand why it was voted “Best Sandwich in the Northwest” by The Travel Channel. (more…)

I arrived back home yesterday from a trip to Portland for this year’s World Horror Convention, which turned out to be another one of those cons at which the only programming I attended was my own plus the awards banquet. So my con experience was primarily in the hallways, at the bar, and on the streets of Portland, where I continued my quest to never, ever have to eat in a hotel restaurant. And while out and about, I always try to drag along as many friends as I can, to in effect have a con away from the con.

Friday night’s traveling con took place at Pok Pok, known for Thai food that hasn’t been diluted for American tastes, but is instead representative of what can be found in Thailand—as well as for its fish sauce wings. If you read Yelp and other foodie review sites, you’ll see the wait can often be 90 minutes to two hours, but once I noticed that parties of five or more are allowed to get reservations, I made sure to wrangle at least that many people. The group included Keffy Kehrli and some of his writer friends whom I’d never met before, so I had a chance to experience new food and new people. Perfect!

With that large a party, I was hoping we’d have an opportunity to try those famous Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings in both the regular and spicy varieties, and we did. You can probably tell the difference between the regular …

… and the spicy by color alone.

The spicy was not, as I’d expected, “OMG, my head is on fire spicy,” but enough of a wake-up call for the meal to follow. I loved them both, though, because even the default wings have a satisfyingly complex flavor. They definitely live up to their buzz. (more…)

I’ll be off early tomorrow morning for Portland, Oregon to attend the World Horror Convention, but as my friends know, sometimes it’s debatable what’s actually bringing me to a town—the con or the food. And since I’m often asked where I plan to eat while traveling, here are are my Portland foodie destinations.

Friday night’s dinner will be at Pok Pok, chef Andy Ricker’s restaurant which, according to everything I’ve heard, serves Thai food unadulterated for U.S. tastes. Per their FAQ: “We serve food found at pubs, restaurants, homes and the streets of Southeast Asia with the majority of the food coming from Thailand, and specifically from the North and Northeast of Thailand. We do not make ‘fusion’ food here; everything has been researched, eaten, and/or prepared in the country of its origin prior to being put on the Pok Pok menu.”

My number one goal will be to sink my teeth into their signature dish, Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings. They’re available regular and spicy, and I assume our party will try both. (more…)

Letters columns, when they exist at all in comics these days, are no longer what they once were—their importance has been supplanted by the Internet. They used to be where readers discovered they were not alone, and learned that their tribe was out there. It’s where we debated what we loved, found friends, formed fan clubs, and sometimes (as with Dave Cockrum and Andrea Kline) even met spouses.

But there was a time when Stan Lee, as the Marvel Universe was exploding, almost put the kibosh on all letter columns but one.

I imagine it must have been tough to keep up when all those superhero titles were launching, each requiring its own letters column. His solution—drop them, add the freed pages to the stories themselves, and answer all Marvel mail in the Fantastic Four.

In Spider-Man #7 (cover-dated December 1963), he asked readers if they thought this was a good idea.

Spider-Man #8 (January 1964) was way too early for Marvel to have received any letters, so Stan just asked for more feedback. (more…)

I dreamt last night that I wandered a theater lobby, and through open doors I could see a rehearsal was taking place. Then, looking at the cast up on the stage, I saw my cousin Herb Edelman* was running lines, and realized that somehow, I’d gone back in time!

It was 1996, and Herb was still alive.

So I walked toward the stage, and when Herb spotted me, he smiled. I told him I’d come from the future, which didn’t seem to bother him. Hey, it was a dream, so we both accepted that as fact, and didn’t worry about the how. We sat on the floor behind the last row of empty seats, and chatted. Eventually, I asked him a question which has always puzzled me in real life. (more…)