Welcome to Dublin, for the first of four episodes recorded at the 77th World Science Fiction Convention!

My guest this time around is the award-winning writer Lisa Tuttle, who I caught up with one night after she was done with a 7:30 p.m. reading, which meant that by the time we began our meal it was a later than usual dinner (for me, at least). We hopped in a cab and took off for at Chameleon, an Indonesian restaurant I’d found via Eater’s list of 38 essential Dublin restaurants. The restaurant offers set menus from various regions, including Sumatra and Bali. We decided to go with Java, but added to that some pork belly bao, and the 10-hour Javanese anise short rib of beef, a signature dish of theirs which turned out to be my favorite thing eaten all weekend.

Lisa and I both had wonderful experiences 45 years ago at the 1974 Worldcon in Washington, D.C., me because it was my first Worldcon, she because of winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She’s accomplished a lot in the 4-1/2 decades since, including being awarded the 1982 Nebula for Best Short Story for “The Bone Flute.” She’s published seven short story collections, starting with A Nest of Nightmares in 1986 and most recently Objects in Dream in 2012, plus more than a dozen novels, the first of which was Windhaven (1981), written in collaboration with George R. R. Martin, who was my guest back in Episode 43. She was nominated for an Arthur C. Clarke award for her novel Lost Futures. She edited the pivotal anthology Skin of the Soul: New Horror Stories by Women (1990) as well as Crossing the Border: Tales of Erotic Ambiguity (1998).

We discussed the amusing series of mishaps which prevented her from learning she’d won the 1974 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best New Writer as early as she should have, the first thing Harlan Ellison ever said to her, how the all-male table of contents for a major horror anthology inspired her to edit her classic female horror anthology Skin of the Soul, the way emigrating from the U.S. to the UK affected her writing, why an editor said of one of her submitted novels, “I love this book, but I could no more publish it than I could jump out the window and fly,” how she and George R. R. Martin were able to collaborate early in their careers without killing each other, what she’d do if she were just starting out now as a writer, the reasons contemporary acknowledgements sections of novels should be shortened — and so much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Chameleon — (more…)

1974 was an important year for me, because that’s when I attended my first World Science Fiction Convention, started working at Marvel Comics, and met my wife — and now, 45 years later, it’s time to do it all over again! (Worldcon, that is, not the starting at Marvel or finding a spouse part.)

Here’s where those of you also heading to Dublin next month will be able to find me —

Welcome to Worldcon
Thursday, August 15, 12:00 p.m., Wicklow Room-3 (CCD)
Just what is a Worldcon anyway and what’s the best way to enjoy one? Our panel of experienced Worldcon-goers talk about what makes Worldcons special, what you can expect as a first-timer, and how to make the most of your Worldcon experience.
with Gay Haldeman, Carolina Gomez Lagerlöf, Christine A Doyle MD, and Mary Burns

Franchise Characters
Thursday, August 15, 2:00 p.m., Wicklow Room-2 (CCD)
Marvel characters are often mentioned in other MCU films, reminding us of their shared universe; DC TV shows have annual crossover events. How have these franchises — and others such as Star Trek — taken advantage of their epic canvasses to deepen characterisation? Are the in-universe reputations of some characters used to challenge our understanding of them rather than reinforce it?
with D.A Lascelles, F. D. Lee, Roz Kaveney, Mr Keith Byrne

The Future of Food
Friday, August 16, 2:00 p.m., Wicklow Room-1 (CCD)
What does the future have in store for our culinary delights and requirements? How will gene editing affect our produce and protein? How will technology enable food growth? Will climate change play a part in future food production? And what about food in space? Let’s dish over what the future may bring to the grocery stores, our gardens, or even our Star Trek food replicators!
with Susan Weiner, R B Watkinson, Eva L. Elasigue

Autographing
Friday, August 16, 3:00 p.m., Level 4 Foyer (CCD)

Kaffeeklatsch
Friday, August 16, 4:00 p.m., Level 3 Foyer (KK/LB) (CCD)

The Cost of Comics — What Format works best?
Saturday, August 17, 10:30 a.m., Odeon 5 (Point Square Dublin)
Roy of the Rovers went from a weekly strip to a book and is now being relaunched as quarterly graphic novels. Shonen Jump (the world’s most famous weekly comic) is moving to a free online model with downloads on subscription. As costs increase for individual issues, should we move to larger publications released at longer intervals? Is it possible to balance what is best for readers, creators and the publishers?
with Ed Fortune, Jaime Garmendia III, Raya Golden

Stroll with the Stars: Sunday
Sunday, August 18, 9:00 a.m., Ground Floor Foyer (CCD)

Reading: Scott Edelman
Monday, August 19, 3:00 p.m., Liffey Room-3 (Readings) (CCD)
I will probably read my story “Five Years Later,” which will appear in the Harlan Ellison tribute anthology The Unquiet Dreamer from PS Publishing, launching at Worldcon.

I hope to you there!

Worldcon 76 announced today that the 2019 Hugo Awards nominations are now open. If you happen to be a nominating member, may I humbly ask that you consider my Eating the Fantastic in the category of Best Fancast?

Last year, Eating the Fantastic brought you 29 episodes featuring 46 guests across more than 56 hours, my attempt to replicate all the fun I’ve had since I was 15 and began experiencing those culinary conventions away from the conventions when I’d wander off for good meals with good friends. With Eating the Fantastic, you get to pull up a chair to the table and eavesdrop! (more…)

I’ll shortly be heading off to Baltimore for the World Fantasy Convention (where I’m one of the Guests of Honor), but in my mind I’m back in San Jose, California, still attending this year’s World Science Fiction Convention. That’s because having already allowed you to eavesdrop on my meals with Pat Cadigan, K. Tempest Bradford, and Rebecca Roanhorse, I now ask that you join me for lunch at The Fish Market with Steve Rasnic Tem.

Tem has published more than 400 short stories, garnering multiple award nominations and wins, including a British Fantasy Award in 1988 for “Leaks,” a 2001 International Horror Guild Award for “City Fishing,” and a 2002 Bram Stoker Award for “In These Final Days of Sales.” His many collections include Fairytales, Celestial Inventory, The Far Side of the Lake, and others. Some of his poetry has been collected in The Hydrocephalic Ward, and he edited The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry. His novel Blood Kin won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award. His collaborative novella with his late wife Melanie Tem, The Man On The Ceiling, won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild awards in 2001.

We discussed the importance of writing until you get to page eight, what he did the day after Harlan Ellison died, why even though he was a fearful kid he turned to horror, the thing which if I’d known about his marriage might have caused problems with my own, how crushed we both were when comics went up to 12 cents from a dime, why his all-time favorite short story is Franz Kafka’s “A Country Doctor,” how TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” had an effect on the way he writes action scenes, why he made an early pivot from science fiction to creating horror, the way joining Ed Bryant’s writing workshop taught him to become a writer, how math destroyed his intended science career, the reason it took him 48 years to take Ubo from initial idea to finished novel, why beginning writers should consciously read 1,000 short stories (and what they should do once they’re done), and much more.

Here’s how you can listen in as we chow down— (more…)

Out there in the real world, the weather’s growing colder, but here at Eating the Fantastic, it’s still August, and time for the third episode recorded during this year’s World Science Fiction Convention. Following up on my conversations in San Jose, California with Pat Cadigan while binging on sushi and K. Tempest Bradford over lamb roganjosh comes lunch with Rebecca Roanhorse at Zona Rosa Mexican restaurant.

Roanhorse’s short story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience (TM),” which appeared in Apex magazine, won the Nebula Award earlier this year, and was also nominated for this year’s Hugo Award, an amazing feat for a writer’s first published short story. Plus she was also nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. And the following night after she and I dined, she was the winner in both of those categories. (By the way, she was the first writer since 1980 to win the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Campbell Award for Best New Writer the same year. It’s only been done once before, by Barry B. Longyear with his novella “Enemy Mine.”)

Roanhorse’s debut novel, Trail of Lightning, was published this summer by Saga Press, about which the New York Times had this to say: “Someone please cancel Supernatural already and give us at least five seasons of this badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” It’s the first book is The Sixth World series, and will be followed next year by Storm of Locusts.

We discussed the spark without which her award-winning short story would never have been written, the differing reactions her tale garnered from inside and outside of the Native American community, the compelling reason she chose to write it in the second person, what she learned as a lawyer that helped in writing her first novel, how she upped her game when she decided to be a writer for real, why she fell out of the reading habit and how a Laurell K. Hamilton novel drew her back in, what it was like to hear Levar Burton read her award-winning story, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at the table— (more…)

It’s time to head back to San Jose, California for the second episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during this year’s World Science Fiction Convention.

On the same day I went out for last episode’s lunch with Pat Cadigan, winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for her novelette “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” — we went out for sushi, of course — I also went out to dinner with K. Tempest Bradford for one of the best meals of that extended weekend in the Santana Row neighborhood at Amber India.

K. Tempest Bradford’s short stories have been published in such magazines as Abyss & Apex, Sybil’s Garage, Electric Velocipede, and Farthing, and anthologies like Clockwork Cairo, Diverse Energies, Federations, and Shadow of the Towers: Speculative Stories of a Post 9/11 World. Her non-fiction has appeared at NPR, io9, xoJane, plus the Angry Black Woman blog, sometimes — as you’ll hear us discuss — going viral. Along with Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, she teaches the Writing the Other workshop, and is on the board of the Carl Brandon Society. She also happens to be one of the funniest people I know. Whenever I’m with Tempest, I can be assured there will be laughter.

We discussed how her Egyptian Afro-retro-futurism idea grew from a short story into a series of novels, the way she used crowdfunding to complete the research she needed, why her discovery of my Science Fiction Age magazine means I bear the responsibility for all she’s done since, how an online writing community gave her the confidence to be a writer, the advice from Samuel R. Delany she embraces the most, why she set aside her goal of becoming an opera singer and decided to become a writer instead, the reason there are so many female monsters in Greek mythology, how she blew up the Internet with her “Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year” challenge, her extremely strong opinions about Steven Moffat’s version of Doctor Who, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at the table— (more…)

I’ve attended 31 of the annual World Science Fiction Conventions since my first back in 1974—Discon II, held in Washington, D.C.—and at this year’s Worldcon it proved as true as it was back at the beginning that the best part of attending any con is often stealing away for a meal with friends. The only thing that’s changed over the years is—now I’m sharing some of those meals with you.

The first of five meals recorded for my Eating the Fantastic podcast was a lunch with Pat Cadigan at Mizu Sushi Bar & Grill, which was a no-brainer when deciding where to host a writer who won the 2013 Hugo Award, as well as the Seiun Award, for her novelette “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi.”

She also won the Arthur C. Clarke Award twice—for her novels Synners (in 1992) and Fools (in 1995). She’s a major fan of professional wrestling, and I’m pleased that when I was editing Rampage magazine during the ’90s, she wrote many articles for me on that subject … when her duties as the reigning Queen of Cyperpunk didn’t interfere. She’s also written tie-in novels for Friday the 13th and Lost in Space, and forthcoming, the official movie novelization of Alita: Battle Angel. She also won a World Fantasy Award in 1981 for editing the magazine Shayol.

We discussed what it was like being Robert A. Heinlein’s liaison at the 1976 Kansas City Worldcon, why John Brunner hated her when they first met and what she did to eventually win him over, her secret childhood life as a member of The Beatles, what she and Isaac Asimov had in common when it came to convincing parents to accept science fiction, her original plan to grow up and script Legion of Super-Heroes comics, what she learned about writing from her 10 years at Hallmark Cards, how editor Shawna McCarthy helped birth her first novel, what effect being dubbed the Queen of Cyberpunk had on her career, who’s Thelma and who’s Louise in her Thelma and Louise relationship with editor Ellen Datlow, our joint friendships with Gardner Dozois, how she came up with her stories in the Wild Cards universe, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at the table— (more…)

Worldcon 76 announced today that the 2018 Hugo Awards nominations are now open. If you happen to be a nominating member, may I suggest you consider Eating the Fantastic in the category of Best Fancast?

The podcast, which last year brought you 31 episodes featuring 46 guests across 51 hours, replicates all the fun I’ve had since I was 15 at the conventions away from the conventions, when I’d wander off for good meals with good friends. With Eating the Fantastic, you get to pull up a chair to the table and eavesdrop! (more…)

It’s time to say farewell to Helsinki—and hello to award-winning writer Amal El-Mohtar—in the final episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during Worldcon 75. Our meal took place a mere 36 hours after she’d won this year’s Best Short Story Hugo Award for “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” for which she’d also won a Nebula Award earlier in the year.

We chose one of the city’s oldest seafood restaurants for our lunch—Sea Horse, which has been in operation since 1934. And it’s lasted that long for a good reason! We enjoyed the food and the ambiance so much I returned a few days later for dinner with my wife during our post-Worldcon stay.

Amal’s stories and poems have appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, and Apex. Her stories “The Green Book” and “Madeleine” were finalists for the Nebula Award in 2011 and 2015 respectively, and “The Truth About Owls” won the Locus Award in 2015. She won the Rhysling award for Best Short Poem in 2009, 2011 and 2014, and in 2012 received the Richard Jefferies Poetry Prize.

We discussed the importance of female friendship, the first poem she wrote at age 6 1/2 (which you’ll hear her recite), how Charles de Lint helped her get her first bookstore job, the importance of welcoming newcomers into the tent of science fiction and fantasy, what she learned about empathy from Nalo Hopkinson, the only time she ever cosplayed, which book made her a writer, why Storm is her favorite member of the X-Men, the delicious magic of honey, the difficulties of reviewing books in a field where everybody knows everybody, and much more.

Here’s how to join us at our booth— (more…)

If you want proof science fiction fandom has always been at war, look no further than the infamous “yellow pamphlet,” written by David Kyle, the distribution of which resulted in Donald A. Wollheim, Frederik Pohl, Cyril Kornbluth, and others being banned from the 1939 World Science Fiction Convention.

It included such language as—

The World’s Science Fiction Convention of 1939 in the hands of such heretofore ruthless scoundrels is a loaded weapon in the hands of such men. This weapon can be aimed at their critics or can be used to blast all fandom. But YOU, the reader of this short article, are the ammunition. It is for YOU to decide whether you shall bow before the unfair tactics and endorse the carefully arranged plans of the Convention Committee. Beware of any crafty speeches or sly appeals. BE ON YOUR GUARD!

The full text of this document has long been online, so I’ve read it before, but I never saw an actual copy until a scan of one appeared as part of a recent eBay listing. That sale is now closed, though I can’t tell whether it’s because the seller got the $1,000 asking price for one of the few surviving copies or the listing period simply ended.

Whenever fannish controversies get me down, I think back to this pamphlet from 78 years ago, and am strangely comforted by the fact that … it has been ever thus.

You can read Kyle’s reminiscence of those times and the Great Exclusion Act here.