Anyone who’s listened to more than a few episodes of Eating the Fantastic already knows — collaboration confuses me. Tell me two writers have managed to work together on the same project without blood on the floor and a lifelong feud and I’m baffled. So when I learned previous guests of the show Brian Keene and Mary SanGiovanni had collaborated on the short story collection Things Left Behind, released last year by Thunderstorm Books, I knew we’d have to chat about it.

We met for breakfast at Martinsburg, West Virginia’s Blue White Grill, which has been serving diner food since the ’50s.

Brian’s published more than 40 novels, including the best-selling The Rising, and he’s the winner of the 2014 World Horror Grand Master Award, while Mary is the author of The Hollower trilogy, the first volume of which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. There’s a whole lot more to know about each of them, as you’ll learn if you listen to those two earlier episodes.

We discussed how being intimidated by each other helps their collaborative process, their different tolerances for writing gore (and how that’s changed over time), the romantic reason (up until this episode known to only one of them) their collaborative short story collection came about, which of them once wrote 45,000 words in a day, how they came to agree on a joint dedication, who gives each story its final polish (and who get the final say on sending it to market), how Brian attempted to bleed all over Mary’s upcoming Alien novel, the way they approach their own deaths, their honeymoon book tour hitting every state but Alaska and Hawaii, their upcoming collaborative novel, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)

Regular listeners to Eating the Fantastic know that once a year, instead of serving up the usual well-researched one-on-one conversations which make up most of this podcast’s ear candy, I opt for total anarchy, plopping myself down in a heavily trafficked area of a con with a dozen donuts and chatting with anybody who’s game to trade talk for sugar and grease. It’s totally spontaneous, as I never know to whom I’ll speak until they pass by and their eyes light up at the sight of a free donut.

In 2016, you were invited to eavesdrop on the Readercon Donut Spectacular, in 2017 the Balticon Donut Extravaganza, and last year the Nebula Awards Donut Jamboree. Now it’s time for the StokerCon Donut Spooktacular!

Late Saturday night, I sat down with an assorted dozen from The Donut Conspiracy in Grand Rapids accompanied by the usual sign explaining the setup, and found no shortage of willing guests.

Join us as Michael Bailey describes his novel inspired by a fire which turned his home to ashes in seven minutes, Geoffrey A. Landis shares about the Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper horror story he published in the science fiction magazine Analog, Brian Keene explains why he chose last weekend to finally reappear at an HWA event, Wile E. Young tells why he thinks of the Road Runner whenever a story gets rejected, Anton Cancre reveals which guest that weekend earned most of his squee, and Wesley Southard offers his schtick for selling books when stuck behind a dealers table at a con.

Plus Erik T. Johnson gives an unexpected (but perfectly logical) answer when asked about one of the perks of StokerCon, Patrick Freivald looks back on how his horror career began via a collaboration with his twin brother, Josh Malerman recounts how he replaced readings with full blown Bird Box interactive performances and how an audience of 85-year-olds reacted, Asher Ellis shares how the Stonecoast MFA program made him a better writer, Kennikki Jones-Jones discusses her Final Frame award-winning short film Knock Knock, Eugene Johnson celebrates his Bram Stoker Award win that night for It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life, and much, much more!

Here’s how you can dig into those donuts with us— (more…)

This completely unpredicted, absolutely unanticipated, and totally unexpected new episode—with horror writers Brian Keene, Lesley Conner, Mary SanGiovanni, Damien Angelica Walters, J.P. Sloan, and Eric Hendrixson—is one I had no idea I was going to record until I was about to record it.

Last week, former guest Brian Keene—who can be heard in Episode 34’s career-spanning conversation—tweeted about an appearance he’d be making at Frederick Community College for a panel discussion on publishing and horror. Since Frederick’s only an hour away, I figured I’d drop by. And at the last minute, as I was about to take off early this past Monday afternoon, I thought—hey, why don’t I record the event?

I wasn’t planning to repurpose it here, but I’d thought Brian would perhaps want to use it for his own podcast, The Horror Show with Brian Keene, the podcast on which I’d appeared back in June 2015 which inspired me to create this podcast. So I grabbed my recording equipment before hopping into my Jeep and heading East.

What happened instead was that after all those horror writers were done entertaining a room filled with creative writing students, and I offered the audio file to Brian, he said—you know what, Scott? Since you did the work of recording the panel, you use it. Which I normally wouldn’t and couldn’t do, because my podcast is, after all, Eating the Fantastic, and not Sitting in the Front Row of a Conference Room Listening to Others Talk About the Fantastic.

But luckily, since the group had planned to grab a bite to eat after their  panel before they hit the road, we did get to chat while breaking bread together. I was able to sit with them at a large round table in the Frederick Community College cafeteria, and as we inhaled salads and stromboli, I pushed them to share some of the brutal truths of horror publishing, the ones they didn’t reveal on the panel for fear of crushing the hopes and dreams of young, innocent, beginning writers. Which I hope you’ll feel is a good enough excuse to justify sharing the panel itself as part of the episode before that meal.

So prepare to join Brian Keene (author of more than 40 novels, and winner of the 2014 World Horror Grand Master Award.), Lesley Conner (managing editor of Apex publications and author of the novel The Weight of Chains), Mary SanGiovanni (author of the The Hollower trilogy, whose most recent novels are Chills and Savage Woods), Damien Angelica Walters (Stoker-nominated writer of the short story collection Sing Me Your Scars and the novel Paper Tigers), J.P. Sloan (author of The Dark Choir urban fantasy series), and Eric Hendrixson (bizarro author of Drunk Driving Champion and Bucket of Face) for an fascinating afternoon as they share what they know about the business of writing and publishing horror.

And what did they discuss in what’s became Episode 53 of Eating the Fantastic?

Lesley Conner explained what most writers don’t realize about first serial rights, and why if you can’t take rejection, you should stop now. Mary SanGiovanni compared your social media presence to singing in your underwear, and revealed the dreadful warning Charles L. Grant shared with her about the writing life. J. P. Sloan recommended the small press, while at the same time recommending you watch out, and also advised to be careful about the illusion of access. Brian Keene passed on the the best writing advice he ever got—from Keith Giffin—and told of the time he was willing to walk away from life-changing money. Damien Angelica Walters shared the ways it never gets easier, and why you need to overcome your fear of saying no. And finally, Eric Hendrixson pointed out why contracts are like a superpower, and sketched the hierarchy of what kind of writing is valuable.

Here’s how you can get the details directly from them— (more…)

And now for something completely different—the first (and likely only) episode of Eating the Fantastic to be recorded during a live-streamed fundraising telethon.

I’d been trying for quite a while to schedule the recording of an episode with Brian Keene—on whose podcast The Horror Show I appeared nearly two years ago, inspiring me to create this podcast. Unfortunately, our schedules never synced.

But when it came time for Brian to record the 100th episode of The Horror Show as a live 24-hour-long telethon to raise funds for the Scares That Care charity, he had a brainstorm—that I invade his event with a meal of some sort, and record my own show as part of his livestream.

So that’s what I did—show up at a conference room of a Hunt Valley hotel with a ton of takeout from Andy Nelson’s Barbecue, which has repeatedly been voted best BBQ by Baltimore Magazine—bringing enough to feed Brian, his co-hosts, and some of the live studio audience you’ll hear in this episode, too.

Brian’s published more than 40 novels, including the best-selling The Rising, and he’s the winner of the 2014 World Horror Grand Master Award. He’s also written comics, including the adventures of the Doom Patrol.

We discussed why the ending to The Rising isn’t as bewildering as some seem to think it is, whether new horror writers should try to replicate his career path, how Marvel Comics creator Steve Gerber is responsible for him becoming a writer, the shady way Brian amassed the largest comics collection in the sixth grade, if he’s a Scully who changed into a Mulder as he got older or if he’s been a Mulder all along, and more.

Here’s how you can share the BBQ with us— (more…)

Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them, containing two zombie novelettes—”Only Humans Can Lie” and “Faking It Until Forever Comes”—will officially launch from Written Backwards at StokerCon the last week of April.

The book, which I’m told will be available for preorder within a few weeks, is an 8″x 5″ trade paperback priced at only $8.95, with a cover and many interior illustrations by Daniele Serra, plus an introduction by Brian Keene.

Here’s the beautiful, near-final cover, missing only the UPC code and price.

To find out what the two novelettes are about, read the back cover blurb.

You’ll want a copy, I’m sure.

Maybe even two.

Thanks to the recent audio interview of me I told you about that appeared over at The Horror Show podcast—which was picked up by Bleeding Cool and The Outhousers (who knew anything I had to say would be that newsworthy?)—traffic here has spiked.

But since I see that most of the traffic is for the front page of my blog, which as I type these words reveals more stories about food anything else, I’ve decided it would be useful to provide links where those curious listeners can find exactly what they’re looking for without having to dig through thousands of pages.

So after the embed below, where my interview begins at 41:10, are direct links to some of the things discussed.

The seven Ethics columns I published in The Comics Journal can be found here, in reverse chronological order.

Read about the years I spent writing Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins pages and see the original draft of a Stan’s Soapbox here.

Want to read more about the Scarecrow story meant to have appeared in Monsters Unleashed, and why it didn’t? Go here.

Learn more about the artists who never handed in art for various back-ups stories of mine here.

Jack Kirby’s Captain America panel that so ticked me off? You can see it here.

Want to see photos of me skydiving with Jim Shooter? Of course you do!

Find out more about my issue of Omega the Unknown and the work of Jim Mooney here.

Learn more than you probably want to know about the Jack Kirby letters pages controversy here.

All of my posts relating to Captain Marvel can be found here.

My butchering of Marvel’s ’70s reprint comics? Here’s why I’m the guy to hate.

More about my Space Stars episode for Hanna-Barbera can be found here.

Find out about my two unauthorized biographies of pro wrestlers here and here.

Here’s where that new story of mine was just published.

Finally, this will go into detail about why I’m not rewriting an unpublished novel of mine.

That should do it!

If there’s anything else I referred to in the interview for which you’d like a direct link, just let me know.

As Balticon wound down last month, I was interviewed by Dave Thomas and Brian Keene for their podcast, The Horror Show, an experience which left us smiling (well, grimacing maniacally anyway) once it was all over.

That episode is now available for your listening … dare I call it … pleasure?

Click on the embed below to hear me (at least according to their write-up) yammer on about —

… his work at Marvel and DC Comics in the 70s and 80s, his memories of creators such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Gerber, how today’s diversity discussion echoes the past, his work for The Syfy Channel, Hanna-Barbera, and Tales From the Darkside much more.

And it seems before I could even get this post live, others have already given it a listen and found it interesting.

Perhaps you’ll find it interesting, too.