If you’ll be at Capclave over in Gaithersburg, Maryland next month—and are into late-night after-dinner programming—here are three panels on which you’ll be able to find me pontificating.

Luckily, my reading occurs at a far more civilized time …

Friday, Oct. 11, 9:00 pm (Salons CDE)
J. K. Rowling Wrote an Adult Mystery
Why do authors switch genres or markets and how does it affect their career? Do they need a different pen name for each new genre? Is it better to focus on getting good at writing one genre or experiment? What are the reasons authors write outside the areas for which they are best known?
with Catherine Asaro, Betsy A. Riley, Darrell Schweitzer, Jon Skovron

Saturday, Oct. 12, 12:30 pm (Frederick)
Reading

Saturday, Oct. 12, 10:00 pm (Rockville/Potomac)
Name Drop and Quote Panel
Nothing but bragging rights here as the panelists drop names and share quotes as they discuss the best experiences, novels, stories, and conventions they have ever seen. Or not.
with Andrew Fox, Steve Stiles, Ian Randal Strock

Saturday, Oct. 12, 11:00 pm (Rockville/Potomac)
Grumpy Old Pharts Panel
Back in my day… experienced curmudgeons square off. And get off my lawn!
with D. Douglas Fratz, Darrell Schweitzer

Hope to see you there!

I spent Sunday at SPX—the Small Press Expo—in Bethesda, Maryland. (Actually, its location seemed more like Rockville to me, but I guess at some point parts of Rockville started to be called North Bethesda because the Bethesda name helped the area sound posher.) I had fun wandering the packed dealers room and picking up comics by cartoonists who are doing the more personal kinds of work mainstream publishers have for the most part abandoned with their constant focus on superheroes, superheroes, superheroes.

But as much as I enjoyed all that, the highlight of the day was attending a panel on March: Book One, which focuses on the life of civil rights pioneer John Lewis, and then getting a chance to meet the congressman and pick up an autographed copy of his book (which he created with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell). In case you don’t know, Lewis was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders, helped plan the March on Washington, and is the last surviving speaker from that day.

Here we are together right after I shook his hand and thanked him for his courage and sacrifice. (more…)

When I surveyed the San Antonio culinary scene due to my planned LoneStarCon 3 trip, the two restaurants I discovered that seemed to be musts for dinner were Bliss (which I visited the Friday of Worldcon) and Nao, part of the Culinary Institute of America (which I visited Saturday).

In both cases I made reservations long before I had any idea who’d be joining me, having no doubt that I’d find the right foodie friends who’d want to tag along. I already told you who came with me to Bliss. For Nao, my co-conspirators were Simon and Angela McCaffrey, plus Rosemary Claire Smith, who also went on my pilgrimage to Franklin BBQ Thursday morning.

I hadn’t even known there was a C.I.A. school or restaurant in San Antonio before I started my research, having been aware only of the ones on the coasts. But as soon as I learned of it, I knew I was in. I liked the idea of seeing the future chefs of tomorrow today.

Which isn’t quite how it turned out. Since we visited over Labor Day weekend, the students ended up all being off, which meant that we were instead taken care of by professionals, not those attempting to prove they’d actually learned what they’d been taught during their years at school. I was told that a student’s service in the restaurant was the equivalent of a thesis (though that was the word I offered up, not our server), and that each student had to spent six weeks at the end of their schooling working in the restaurant—two in the back of the house, two in the front, and then two in the back again, moving through all stations of cooking and dealing with customers.

So due to the holiday, I can’t tell you how the students would have done. But the teachers did just fine! (more…)

I remembered fewer dreams last month than usual, thanks to the exhaustion brought on by Worldcon and UkeFest. But what I did harvest from my subconscious is still interesting … to me at least. And since I like to see what poetry they make rubbing up against each other, rather than just singly on Twitter as they were originally shared, I’ve collected them here.

Last month, I dreamed of Walter White, Yao Ming, Buddy Ebsen, Margaret Thatcher and more. Let’s see, shall we?

AUGUST 2013

I dreamt I was driving through Boston when I suddenly found myself in the middle of the marathon — heading the wrong way! No one got hurt.

 28 Aug 


I dreamt I helped Boardwalk Empire‘s Gillian Darmody get an abortion. There was lots of blood and lots of screaming and it was terrifying.



 28 Aug 

 




I dreamt I was working in a cubicle farm at 2:00 a.m., and when someone came looking for a coworker, said everyone else went home hours ago.



 28 Aug 

 




I dreamt my grandfather the bookie was beating up women, and I fumbled through drawers for a pistol to threaten him and make him stop.



 28 Aug 

 




I dreamt I was Who‘s next Doctor — not Peter Capaldi, but me, or someone like me — and when I introduced myself to fans, they freaked out.



 28 Aug 

 




I dreamt I was visiting friends at their Jerusalem home, but then we were suddenly in China, and after that, Japan. Geographical confusion!



 27 Aug 

 


I dreamt I was a mortgage underwriter, rearranging tall stacks of loan applications, struggling to figure out which I should analyze first.



 27 Aug 

 




I dreamt I wandered Macy’s and found Macklemore and Lewis setting up for an appearance. No one else showed, so they performed for only me.



 27 Aug 

 

I dreamt I was attacked by Boardwalk Empire‘s George Remus, but our fight ended when he had a heart attack and collapsed at my feet.



 27 Aug 

 




I dreamt I was at the announcement of the discovery of new Apocrypha that would change everything, but woke before I learned the details.



 27 Aug 

 




(more…)

I was so focused on getting my Franklin BBQ mission accomplished during LoneStarCon 3 that I’d completely forgotten I’d also intended to knock a few restaurants off my Man v. Food checklist while in San Antonio. In fact, it wasn’t until during my kaffeeklatch that, thanks to one of the participants who’s as much of a foodie as I am, I was reminded of Lulu’s Bakery & Cafe … and its famous three-pound cinnamon roll.

Since, according to Google, Lulu’s turned out to be only 1.3 miles away, I figured … heck, I’ll walk! Once I got more than a couple of blocks away from the convention center, though, I seemed to be the only one walking, probably because Texans know better than to go for a hike in the sun when it’s 91 degrees. On the other hand, there was no traffic either, so I didn’t have to pause at intersections, which meant the heat couldn’t have been the only explanation. Who knows? Maybe downtown San Antonio is always dead on weekends once you get out of the tourist sections.

In any case, I soon made it to Lulu’s, where my waitress quickly pushed ice water at me. I must have appeared more overheated then I felt. (more…)

I can remember exactly where I was when Avengers #1 and X-Men #1 went on sale, because it was the same day, I only had 12 cents on me, and could therefore only buy one.

I had to choose between them. Can you feel my pain? Imagine my horror?

It was 1963, and I was 8 years old. I was in Joe and Morty’s Brooklyn candy store on Avenue P a few blocks off Ocean Parkway. I visited there nearly every day, not just for comics, but to stay fueled on egg creams and cherry lime rickeys, and to pick up those unfiltered Lucky Strikes my mother needed.

In any case, though I’m 100% certain where I encountered those issues, I can’t say for sure when I encountered them. Only that it wasn’t September 10. Because school had not begun, it was still summer, and in any case, though both books were cover-dated September, comics always went on sale in advance of their cover dates, that date only being an indication to the retailer when comics should come off sale.

And yet … (more…)

One of the first things I do after deciding I’ll be attending a convention is to research the local food scene so that I don’t end up having to settle for hotel restaurants. Not that hotel restaurants aren’t capable of delivering peak culinary experiences—Lai Wah Heen at Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel and Cafe Bolud at Toronto’s Four Seasons are two examples—but those instances are rare. And so, many months ago, knowing I’d be heading to LoneStarCon 3, I began looking into what San Antonio has to offer.

The first restaurant I decided I needed to hit was Bliss. Opened by chef Mark Bliss and his wife Lisa early last year, it was named San Antonio’s best new restaurant of 2012 by Texas Monthly, and seemed to have a menu capable of delivering what I’m always seeking—food that’s more that just sustenance, but capable of leaving me gobsmacked. Not wanting to take a chance I’d miss out, I emailed the restaurant directly and made a reservation long before OpenTable’s online system allowed, and worried about filling the table later.

Which is how I found myself the Friday of Worldcon pulling up to Bliss in a cab along with Ellen Datlow, Pat Cadigan, Malcolm Edwards, and Eileen Gunn. (more…)

If you’ll be heading to the World Fantasy Convention next month, make sure to drop by the launch party for Psycho-Mania.

What’s Psycho-Mania? An anthology about “psychos, schizoids and serial killers” edited by Stephen Jones, and featuring an introduction by Psycho author Robert Bloch, who’s caricatured on the cover below.

(You can see an earlier version of the cover here.)

I don’t know where at the convention the launch party will be occurring, but if you’re in Brighton over the Halloween weekend, look us up. You want a chance to read my story “The Trembling Living Wire,” don’t you?

But that’s not the only publication of mine coming up … (more…)

So let me tell you how I ended up singing “Pure Imagination” to Aaron Franklin, the magician behind Austin’s Franklin BBQ, just before LoneStarCon 3 began.

Those of you who followed me as I made my Worldcon foodie plans already know all about Franklin BBQ—how Texas Monthly named it as turning out the best brisket in Texas, which means it’s the best brisket in the United States, which probably means it’s also the best brisket in the world. How by the time Franklin opens each morning at 11:00 a.m. there are already hundreds of people waiting in line to eat there. And how if you don’t get there early enough, you get nothing. (Or perhaps you get nothing but cole slaw … like Hitler.)

Which means that instead of flying to Worldcon in San Antonio early Thursday morning as I normally would have, I instead headed there late Wednesday, so that I could rent a car that night and therefore have it ready super early the following morning in order to make the drive from San Antonio to Austin (about 79 miles, or an hour and 13 minutes) to arrive at Franklin’s front door no later than 8:30 a.m. Thursday. That would (I hoped) allow me and my hardy band to stuff ourselves with BBQ and be back at Worldcon by 2:00 p.m.

(more…)

While I was at the World Science Fiction Convention, Next restaurant sneakily uploaded a video touting its new Bocuse d’Or menu, which would have begun service on August 31 had not a power outage created issues with the opening.

But Next is up and running again, and this video will surely make you want to rush over as soon as you can obtain tickets. (Yes, tickets.)

What’s Bocuse d’Or, you ask? Let the video explain …

If you weren’t hungry before, you’re probably hungry now …