On September 21, 2022, I headed over to The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore for another installment of Charm City Spec. And while that night’s four writers read selections from their novels, I was in the front row recording as much as my battery power and speed with pressing the start button allowed.

Here I am holding up my Flip camera, captured while Alan Smale was at the mic —

And because of that, though you weren’t there, now you can be. Check out the four performances below.

Serby Gray
reading from her novel Ashes of Regret

Randee Dawn
reading from her novel Tune In Tomorrow

Alan Smale
reading from his novel Hot Moon

Amy L.Bernstein
reading from her novel The Potrero Complex

If you’d like to catch one of these events in person, another Charm City Spec is coming up on November 16, this time at the Bird in Hand Cafe & Bookshop. For more information, follow Charm City Spec on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The first episode of Eating the Fantastic went live on February 10, 2016, so as we find ourselves just a couple of days away from the third anniversary of this podcast, I’d like to thank you all for taking a seat at the table with us each episode, liking the show on Facebook, and leaving ratings and reviews over at iTunes. And thanks as well to the 142 guests who’ve been willing to join me over 88 episodes. And of course, thank you to those who’ve been supporting Eating the Fantastic on Patreon, or dropping a couple of bucks in the Paypal tip jar to help cover some of the costs associated with the show.

My guest this episode is Alan Smale, who has published short fiction in Asimov’s, Realms of Fantasy, Abyss & Apex, and other magazines. He won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History for “A Clash of Eagles,” about a Roman invasion of ancient America. That’s also the setting for his trilogy, which includes the novels Clash of Eagles, Eagle in Exile, and Eagle and Empire, all published by Del Rey in the U.S. and Titan Books in the UK. When not writing, he’s a professional astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

We met for lunch at Mad Chef Kitchen & Bar, a gastropub which opened recently in Ellicott City, Maryland’s Turf Valley Towne Square. We were looking for something equidistant from both of us with good food, and based first on my research and then our experience, we definitely found it.

We discussed why an astrophysicist’s chosen field of fiction is alternate history rather than hard science, how his fascination with archeology and ancient civilizations began, the reason he started off his novel-writing career with a trilogy rather than a standalone, the secrets to writing convincing battle sequences, the nuances of critiquing partial novels in a workshop setting, how his research into Roman and Native American history affected his trilogy, what steps he took to ensure he handled Native American cultures appropriately, that summer when at age 12 he read both War and Peace and Lord of the Rings, one of the strangest tales of a first short story sale I’ve ever heard, how and why he joined forces with Rick Wilber for their recent collaboration published in Asimov’s, and much more.

Here’s how you can listen to our conversation at Mad Chef Kitchen & Bar — (more…)