Yesterday, Bud Sparhawk and I met for lunch at Cafe Mozart in Washington D.C., where we recorded the second episode of Eating the Fantastic. (You can find information about the first episode, which featured Sarah Pinsker, here.) That’s Bud below, digging into the remains of his Linzer tartlette.

I chatted with Bud—a three-time Nebula finalist and Analog magazine regular—about how Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions anthology inspired him to become a writer, what it was like to write for three different Analog editors over four decades, the plotters vs. pantsers debate, and more.

There are three ways you can join us at the table:

1) You can subscribe at the iTunes store. (Note that though this specific episode isn’t yet visible there, it should be within the hour, and if you subscribe you’ll get it on your iPhone immediately whether it’s visible or not, as you can see I already have.)

2) You can use the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss to download the episode to the device of your choice.

3) Or if you’d prefer, you can simply click below to listen to it here. (more…)

UPDATE: This workaround is no longer required, as Eating the Fantastic has been accepted and added to the iTunes store. You can check it out and subscribe here!

My food-centric science fiction podcast Eating the Fantastic launched yesterday, and though I provided an embed via which you could listen on your computer, I know many will instead want to download the episodes to their iPhones. Since it’ll likely take a few weeks before the show will be available there, I’m glad I was able to figure out a workaround for those who’d like to listen while away from their keyboards.

Actually …

I didn’t figure out anything.

Gil Roth of the Virtual Memories podcast explained it to me, and now I’m explaining it to you. Though I suspect many of you are far more advanced than I am, and could do without any of this, needing only the url of my RSS feed. But for anyone else out there who’s as clueless as I am …

First, find the Podcast app icon. You know, the one that looks like this—

Once you’ve clicked it and are in, click the plus sign in the upper left corner of your screen. (more…)

Are you ready to have lunch with me and writer/musician Sarah Pinsker? Because the first episode of Eating the Fantastic is now live!

If you want more details about what the Eating the Fantastic podcast is all about, check out my earlier post.

But if you’re a TL;DR type of podcast listener, then simply click play below and join Sarah and me for lunch at Baltimore’s Family Meal.

I hope to eventually get Eating the Fantastic into the iTunes store so you’ll be able to listen on the go, but until then, I think you should still find the episodes enjoyable enough to listen to here.

UPDATE: Eating the Fantastic has been accepted and added to the iTunes store. You can now check it out and subscribe here!

And if you’d like see what the two of us were putting in our mouths on Sunday rather than just being teased by our descriptions (and quite audible groans), check out the photos below. (more…)

As I announced Monday, I’ll shortly be launching a podcast titled Eating the Fantastic. Only two things stand in the way of posting the first episode, which I hope to do before the end of the week—deciding whether or not fair use allows me to include a seconds-long food-related audio snippet from a movie—and settling on the iTunes-appropriate image which best represents the show.

I’m working on unraveling the mysteries of fair use to better understand the former, but as for the latter—I previously shared two possibilities and asked for your opinion.

But this morning, when I posted a photo to celebrate Pancake Day from my visit to Portland’s Stepping Stone Cafe, I realized I had far more choices than just those two.

If you have a moment, I’d appreciate it if you checked out the other images below, which I haven’t yet mocked up, and let me know if you think any of them would be a better fit.

Thanks! (more…)

Over on Twitter and Facebook, I’ve been teasing a SEKRIT PROJEKT which I would only unveil once I was 100% sure I was going to proceed.

And after having had lunch with Sarah Pinsker this afternoon, I have my answer—I am going to proceed!

“What,” you may be thinking, “could lunch with Sarah Pinsker possibly have to do with a sekrit projekt?” (more…)