When I realized Glenn Hauman, with whom I’ve been crossing paths for decades on the con circuit, was going to be a guest at Farpoint, I thought it was about time I captured some of his wit and wisdom for you. Here’s just a small taste of what Glenn’s been up to over the years —

He’s an electronic publishing pioneer who founded BiblioBytes in 1993, which resulted in him being dubbed a “young Turk of publishing” in The New York Observer. He was an editorial consultant to Simon & Schuster Interactive for many years, during which time he contributed to many Star Trek CD-ROMs, such as the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, plus additional projects for many other properties. He’s published fiction in the Star Trek, X-Men, and Farscape franchises.

The particular piece of fiction which has probably brought him the most fame is Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers: Creative Couplings, co-authored with Aaron Rosenberg, which featured the first Klingon/Jewish wedding ceremony, and ended up getting him mass media coverage from outlets such as NPR and the Jewish weekly newspaper The Forward. In 2011, Glen teamed up with Peter David, previous guest of the podcast Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, and Aaron Rosenberg to launch an electronic publishing endeavor called Crazy 8 Press. He’s also a columnist over at ComicMix.

We discussed how he shook things up during the earliest days of electronic publishing, the embarrassing high school newspaper writings of Ted Chiang, the way the assembly-line nature of comics keeps many creatives from seeing the big picture, why he’s nobody’s first choice for anything but everybody’s second choice for everything, his pre-teen encounters with another pre-teen fan who became a Marvel Comics Executive Editor, the philosophical question he asked actor Michael O’Hare just before Babylon 5 began to air, the lunch that led to his first published short story being about the X-Men, what visiting Don Heck’s house at age 12 taught him about artists and taking an art class from John Buscema at age 13 taught him about himself, the plot of the Warren Worthington novel he never got a chance to write, the free speech lawsuit which had him going head to head with the Dr. Seuss estate, plus much more.

Here’s how you can join us at The Essen Room in Pikesville, MD — (more…)

I wasn’t able to make Ray Nayler‘s launch event last month for his new novella The Tusks of Extinction at D.C.’s Lost City Bookstore, but we were able to get together for lunch just a few days later — and you can join us at the table.

Nayler is the author of the Locus Award-winning debut novel The Mountain in the Sea, which was also a finalist for the Nebula Award and the L.A. Times Book Awards’ Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction. He began publishing speculative fiction in 2015 in Asimov’s, and since then, his stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Vice, Nightmare, and other magazines. His story “Yesterday’s Wolf” won the 2022 Clarkesworld Readers’ poll, and the same year, his story “Muallim” won the Asimov’s Readers’ Award, his story “Father”, in French translation, won the Bifrost readers’ award, and his novelette “Sarcophagus” was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

In addition to his speculative fiction, Ray has published in many other genres, from mainstream literary fiction to comics. Those have appeared in Ellery Queen, Crimewave, Hardboiled, Cemetery Dance, Deathrealm, Queen’s Quarterly, the Berkeley Fiction Review, and other journals. He’s also a widely published poet, with work in the Atlanta Review, the Beloit Poetry Journal, Weave, Juked, Able Muse, Sentence, and many more. He is currently Diplomatic Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at The George Washington University.

We discussed how his time living outside the U.S. helped him become a better science fiction writer, why he feels the greatest effect of having written The Mountain in the Sea was a culinary one, the reason we agree our favorite part of writing is rewriting, the sad results of his accidental Facebook experiment, whether his mammoth memory behavior is based on scientific facts or is purely speculative, why we’ll likely never be able to truly resurrect extinct species, how changes in culture can affect evolution, the train trip where he received career advice from a stranger he didn’t realize was Neil Gaiman, why we aren’t totally in control of our writing destinies, how he’s haunted by the ghost of an alternate version of himself, plus much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our lunch at Hilo Poke and Sushi — (more…)

Most episodes of Eating the Fantastic are recorded during my travels on the convention circuit, but I also occasionally harvest conversations when it’s the guests who are doing the traveling, coming to my neck of the woods on book tours or to lecture at a local library or museum. My chat this time around came about because I was able to grab dinner with one of the participants of Baltimore’s Charm City Spec reading series before the most recent installment.

Jo Miles is the author of The Gifted of Brennex trilogy, which began with Warped State, continued in Dissonant State, which was released the week before our get-together, and finishes up in Ravenous State, which will be available February 20th. Jo’s short fiction has been published in magazines such as Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact, as well as in the anthologies Little Blue Marble, Game On!, Do Not Go Quietly: An Anthology of Defiance in Victory, and others. Their story “The Longest Season in the Garden of the Tea Fish” in Strange Horizons was nominated for a WSFA Small Press Award. Jo is a graduate of the Viable Paradise and Taos Toolbox writers’ workshops.

Oh, and by the way — the ebook of Warped State is currently on sale for $2.99 in celebration of the upcoming release of Ravenous State.

We discussed how what began as a short story blossomed into a trilogy, the way to juggle multiple points of view and keep them balanced, the science fictional precursors which helped them create their sentient ship, how to properly pace the arc of a burgeoning romance, the importance of making sure a redemption arc feels earned, the way their mandate for writing optimistic science fiction came to be, the differing ways we were each affected by the pandemic, how the Taos Toolbox workshop teaches writers to break down the beats of their stories (and why that terrifies me), plus much more.

Here’s how you can join us at Tamber’s Restaurant — (more…)

That time of year has rolled around again, and earlier today, the Glasgow Worldcon opened nominations for the Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. If you’re eligible to nominate, I hope you’ll take my 2023 short story publications into consideration — but I’d also like you to consider my Eating the Fantastic podcast in the category of Best Fancast.

Last year, I invited listeners to eavesdrop on 26 meals with amazing creators, as well as one of the show’s lightning-round donut episodes, something which I’d sadly been unable to pull off since 2019. (You know why.)

Below are links to all 2023 episodes so you can have a taste and decide whether the podcast — which I launched in February 2016 — is your kind of ear candy. I hope you enjoy your eavesdropping!

Feast on French toast with Ron Marz in Episode 189 of Eating the Fantastic

Lunch on Laotian food with Cory Doctorow in Episode 190 of Eating the Fantastic

Collaborate over breakfast with Brian Keene and Mary SanGiovanni in Episode 191 of Eating the Fantastic

Get crabby with writer Jennifer R. Povey in Episode 192 of Eating the Fantastic

Polish off a Polish meal with Walter Jon Williams in Episode 193 of Eating the Fantastic

Settle in for arancini with Annalee Newitz in Episode 194 of Eating the Fantastic

Savor sea food with Theodora Goss in Episode 195 of Eating the Fantastic

Share crispy spinach with Sheree Renée Thomas in Episode 196 of Eating the Fantastic

Feast on fish and chips with the prolific Robert Jeschonek in Episode 197 of Eating the Fantastic

Munch on mahi mahi with L. Marie Wood in Episode 198 of Eating the Fantastic

Dip into durian ice cream with William Shunn in Episode 199 of Eating the Fantastic

Join J. Michael Straczynski for breakfast on Episode 200 of Eating the Fantastic

Bite into a baconless BLT with Jordan Kurella in Episode 201 of Eating the Fantastic

It’s time for a ramen reunion with my 1979 Clarion classmate Rhondi Salsitz in Episode 202 of Eating the Fantastic

Bite into baklava with Charlie Jane Anders in Episode 203 of Eating the Fantastic

Feast on Fettuccine Alfredo with Howard Bender on Episode 204 of Eating the Fantastic

Chow down on crispy pickled cucumbers with Lisa Morton in Episode 205 of Eating the Fantastic

Munch on a monstrous fish sandwich with Michael Bailey in Episode 206 of Eating the Fantastic

Join Hildy Silverman for a Georgian feast in Episode 207 of Eating the Fantastic

Relive Capclaves past and present during Eating the Fantastic’s lightning-round Capclave Donut Carnival

Dine on oxtail stew with Lauren Beukes in Episode 209 of Eating the Fantastic

Chat and chew over fried calamari with Michael Marano in Episode 210 of Eating the Fantastic

Binge BBQ with the legendary Mike Gold in Episode 211 of Eating the Fantastic

Polish off a Peruvian lunch with Alex Shvartsman in Episode 212 of Eating the Fantastic

Snack on spanakopita with Neil Clarke in Episode 213 of Eating the Fantastic

Feast on crab fried rice with Nina Kiriki Hoffman in Episode 214 of Eating the Fantastic

Join Pat Murphy for lunch at “the single best restaurant in the world” in Episode 215 of Eating the Fantastic

Thank you for your consideration!

Welcome to the last of four Eating the Fantastic episodes coming to you from the recent World Fantasy Convention weekend in Kansas City, following my chats with Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Pat Murphy, and Izzy Wasserstein. And why end my trip with a single guest when I can have two?

Gary K. Wolfe is a science fiction critic, editor, and biographer who’s had a monthly review column in Locus since December 1991. He was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2006 for the book Soundings: Reviews 1992–1996, and again in 2011, for the book Bearings: Reviews 1997–2001. Over the years, he’s won the Eaton Award from the Eaton Conference on Science Fiction, the Pilgrim Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, and the British Science Fiction Association Award for nonfiction for the previously mentioned Soundings: Reviews 1992–1996. He’s also (among many other things) edited two wonderful volumes for the Library of America — American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1953-1956 and American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-1958.

Jonathan Strahan is a nineteen-time Hugo Award nominated editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He’s won the Aurealis Award, the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism and Review, the Australian National Science Fiction Convention’s “Ditmar Award”, and the Peter McNamara Achievement Award. As a freelance editor, he’s edited or co-edited more than sixty original and reprint anthologies and seventeen single-author story collections and has been a consulting editor for Tordotcom Publishing and Tor.com since 2014, where he’s acquired and edited two novels, 36 novellas, and a selection of short fiction. Strahan won the World Fantasy Award (Special – Professional) in 2010 for his work as an editor, and his anthologies have won the Locus Award for Best Anthology four times (2008, 2010, 2013, 2021) and the Aurealis Award seven times. He has been Reviews Editor at Locus since 2002.

As the reason I’m with both of them is — together, they’ve been cohosts of The Coode Street Podcast since May 2010, which had 640 episodes live the last time I looked, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast ten times, winning once.

We discussed why The Coode Street Podcast is “the Cheers of podcasts,” the foolish statement made during their first episode which meant there had to be more, the identity of the guest who was most resistant to appearing on their show, the reason the podcast made Paul Cornell want to run, the different interviewing techniques necessary when having conversations with the voluble vs. the reticent, the white whales whom they could never snare, how to make sure we’re speaking to more than just our own generations, their advice for anyone who wants to launch a podcast, the way to avoid getting canned responses out of guests, how their conversational methods have changed over 13 years, whether critiquing books or rejecting stories has ever affected relationships with a guest, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at Chef J BBQ — (more…)