I returned home yesterday from my trip to Helsinki, where I attended the 75th World Science Fiction Convention, but news of what I did there and with whom will have to wait, for today is all about the Nebula Awards weekend which took place in Pittsburgh earlier this year.

There, I brunched with A. Merc Rustad at DiAnoia’s Eatery, which in December was voted one of the best new restaurants of 2016 by Pittsburgh magazine, and was included in Eater‘s list of the city’s hottest new restaurants. And who can resist fried dough filled with nutella?

A. Merc Rustad has published fiction in Lightspeed, Uncanny, Shimmer, and other magazines, and their short story “How To Become A Robot In 12 Easy Steps” was included in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015. They were on that weekend’s Nebula ballot in the short story category for “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door,” which is included in their debut short story collection So You Want to Be a Robot, described by Publishers Weekly as “unmissable.”

We discussed some terrible writing advice which messed with their head and the way they got over it, how the Redwall series by Brian Jacques turned them from a reader to a writer, why some fan fiction doesn’t get the fan fiction label while other fan fiction does, the reason the animated television series Beast Wars: Transformers was such a major influence both professionally and personally, why they almost destroyed their Nebula-nominated story “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door,” the secrets to assembling a short story collection, and more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on us — (more…)