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 he 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…)