It’s time to head back to Helsinki for the fourth episode recorded during the 75th World Science Fiction Convention, following up on Johanna Sinisalo, Chen Quifan, and Xia Jia.

This time around, you get to listen in on my lunch at Mero-Himal Nepalese Restaurant with Karin Tidbeck during the penultimate day of the con. Tidbeck writes fiction in both Swedish and English, and debuted in 2010 with the Swedish short story collection Vem är Arvid Pekon? Her English debut, the 2012 collection Jagannath, was awarded the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts William L. Crawford Fantasy Award in 2013 and was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Her novel debut, Amatka, was recently released in English.

We discussed the serious nature of Live Action Role-Playing games in Nordic countries, the way pretending to be a 150-year-old vampire changed her life, how discovering Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics made her forget time and space, the most important lesson she learned from the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing Workshop, how she uses improvisational exercises to teach beginning writers, why Amatka grew from a poetry collection into a novel, what made her say, “I’m not here to answer questions, I’m here to ask them,” and more.

Here’s how you can share spring rolls with us— (more…)

It seems like only yesterday I asked Sarah Pinsker to be my guinea pig for the first episode of a new podcast. Can it really be time to for me to invite you to eavesdrop on the 50th episode of Eating the Fantastic?

Amazingly—yes, it can!

Here we we are, more than 20 months later, and those of you who’ve followed my journey have listened as I’ve shared at times full meals—at times a donut, during my two lightning–round episodes—with more than 75 guests. And the feasting’s not over yet!

This time around, I’m inviting you to join me and my guest for lunch during Worldcon at Parrilla Española, the oldest Spanish restaurant in Helsinki.

And who is this episode’s guest?

Xia Jia, whose short stories have been published in Nature, Clarkesworld, Year’s Best SF, Science Fiction World, and many other venues. She’s won five Galaxy Awards for Chinese Science Fiction as well as six Nebula Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy in Chinese. But her science fiction skills have been visible on more than just the page, because she directed the 2007 science fiction film Parapax, in which she also acted, appearing as three different identities of the protagonist across parallel universes.

We discussed how reading science fiction gave her the courage to take risks; what it means when she says she writes not hard SF, nor soft SF, nor slipstream, nor cyberpunk, but “porridge sci-fi;” why Ray Bradbury matters so much to her; the challenges of writing in Chinese, writing in English, and translating from one language to the other; our mutual love for Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler; how The Three-Body Problem changed the perceptions of science fiction in China, why she has faith she’ll eventually get to Mars, and more.

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

Early one morning during the recent World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, I met Chinese writer Chen Quifan for breakfast at Café Engel, a restaurant located in a 1765 building which was originally a pipe factory. We ate by a window which looked out on Helsinki Cathedral, built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

Chen Qiufan has published more thirty stories in venues such as Science Fiction World, Esquire, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Interzone, and F&SF. His 2013 debut novel, The Waste Tide, was praised by Liu Cixin as “the pinnacle of near-future SF writing.” He’s the most widely translated young writer of science fiction in China. He has won Taiwan’s Dragon Fantasy Award, China’s Galaxy and Nebula Awards, and a Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award with Ken Liu.

We discussed why his favorite character from all of science fiction is Mr. Spock, what kept him going during the seven years between the sales of his first and second stories, the reasons H. G. Wells is a genius, why he believes science fiction is the greatest realism, the differences in reading protocols between Chinese and non-Chinese readers, why he hopes his own upcoming science fiction movie will defy his prediction there’ll be many bad SF movies to come in Chinese cinema, and more.

Here’s how you can join us in Helsinki— (more…)

Now that Readercon is over for Eating the Fantastic—you’ve already listened to the James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel episodes recorded there, haven’t you?—it’s time to head to Helsinki for the 75th World Science Fiction Convention.

I managed to record five episodes while in Finland, with the first being lunch at Kaarna Baari & Keittiö, which advertises itself as serving Finnish food with a Scandavian twist. I must admit, though, that I’m not familiar enough with either of those cuisines to know exactly where they’d converge on a culinary Venn diagram. I do know, however, that the food was excellent, and I was so impressed with what my guest and I ate there I later returned for dinner with my wife.

Joining me this episode was Johanna Sinisalo, who was one of this year’s Worldcon Guests of Honor. Her first novel, Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (Not Before Sundown) won the Finlandia Prize for Literature in 2000 and the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial award in 2004. Her novel Enkelten vert (Blood of Angels) won the English PEN Award. She was a Nebula Award nominee in 2009 for “Baby Doll.” Her novel Auringon ydin (The Core of the Sun) recently won the 2017 Prometheus Award for Best Novel. She has won the Atorox award for the best Finnish-language SF short story seven times.

We discussed what she learned in advertising that helped her be a better writer, how Moomins helped set her on the path to becoming a creator, why she held off attempting a novel until she had dozens of short stories published, the reason the Donald Duck comics of Carl Barks were some of her greatest inspirations, the circuitous way being an actor eventually led to her writing the science fiction film Iron Sky, and more.

Here’s how you can munch on mushrooms with us— (more…)

This year’s World Science Fiction Convention begins in 18 days, and you want to know how to find me there, don’t you?

Worldcon has taken me out of the U.S. to many wonderful destinations since I started going as a kid back in 1974—including London, Glasgow, Melbourne, and Yokohama—but this will be my first time in Helsinki. I’m looking forward to hanging out with old friends (and making new ones) there.

Here’s where you’ll be able to find me—when I’m not in the bar or wandering the exhibit hall and dealers room, that is!

Collecting (Worldcon) memorabilia and what to do with it
Friday, August 11, 13:00 – 14:00
with Kent Bloom, Tara Oakes, David Haddock, Ben Yalow
Many of us collect Stuff. The panelists discuss their joys in collecting as well as the potential pitfalls they have encountered.

Monsters and the Monstrous
Friday, August 11, 18:00 – 19:00
with Natania Barron, Julie McGalliard, Magdalena Hai
What makes a monster? Why do we preoccupy ourselves with the monstrous? What stories challenge us, and what stories frighten us? A look at what lurks in the dark.

Strolls with Stars
Saturday, August 12, 09:00 – 10:00
Join Scott Edelman on a Stroll to the near-by garden area! Max 60 minutes in duration.

Food Lies
Saturday, August 12, 16:00 – 17:00
with Fran Wilde, David G. Shaw, Aliette de Bodard, Nalo Hopkinson, Barry Goldblatt
Food described in speculative fiction is often speculative itself: things that aren’t possible, or haven’t been, or turn out to sound great but are illusions. Our panelists talk about food lies in everything from The Night Circus to Sendak’s In The Night Kitchen, Narnia (and, yes, that food) to all the various birds baked into pies dishes (Hardinge’s upcoming Face Like Glass has birds whose songs are baked right out of them).

Signing
Sunday, August 12, 11:00 – 12:00

I hope to see you there. If you see me first, be sure to come over and say hello!

On Sunday, August 23, 2015 at Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, I watched as Pat Cadigan read her short story “Cancer Dancer,” at the time still upcoming in the anthology Dead Letters, edited by Conrad Williams. Which meant that when I posted video of the event back then on YouTube, I only shared a taste, so it would act as an inducement for you all to purchase the book.

A thing you should still do, as it’s a fun anthology!

But the fact that the book’s been out for more than a year now means it seems the right time to present an untrimmed video of Pat’s reading, including the fascinating Q&A which followed.

So here, after a two-year wait, is the rest of the story. Those of you who watched the earlier version of this have been very patient.

Enjoy!

When recording a podcast in a restaurant setting, sometimes you have to deal with the background chatter of other customers, and sometimes you have to deal with music pouring from overhead speakers … but I never expected I’d have to deal with a speeding locomotive!

That’s right—in an Eating the Fantastic first, my guest and I had to contend with a freight train. Actually, more than just a freight train—but many freight trains.

When it came time for dinner at Fiorella’s Jack Stack, we were given the choice of a table either in the main dining room or out on the patio, and because I was afraid the loud music combined with the conversation of other customers would create an ambient noise you’d find distracting, I decided we should eat al fresco … not realizing there were railroad tracks nearby, which meant an occasional locomotive would pass. But don’t worry—I think you’ll find the result more amusing than annoying, especially when (as you’ll hear) one overly loud engine caused my guest and me to break into song.

My guest this episode is Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker Award nominated writer Adam-Troy Castro. Adam has published more than 100 short stories, some of which I was privileged to buy back when I edited Science Fiction Age magazine, plus a story someone else had the honor of purchasing—my all-time favorite zombie story.

We talked about the epiphany caused by his first viewing of Night of the Living Dead, how he handled a heckler during his early days doing stand-up comedy, the history behind the novel he almost wrote spinning off from the classic TV show The Prisoner, and much more. We even, for reasons you will learn, had cause to sing a few bars of the Johnny Cash classic “Folsom Prison Blues.”

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

The Kansas City Worldcon is fast receding in the rearview mirror, but one more backward-looking post is called for before we let it all go, I think, especially because it concerns not only 2016—but 1992. As I was packing last month for MidAmeriCon II, where Pat Cadigan was scheduled to be our Hugo Awards ceremony Toastmaster, I remembered an artifact from long ago and far away which I thought would amuse her.

Luckily, I was able to find it deep within the Edelman Vault, and so some of you on site might have seen me wearing this.

What’s it all about? Why was Pat a Woman of Destiny at MagicCon, the 1992 Worldcon? What was ClariNet? What was the Library of Tomorrow? And why was there a button about all that? Ah, come closer, padawan, and I shall tell you … (more…)

Because one cannot live on BBQ alone, even when that BBQ is from Kansas City, I didn’t only eat burnt ends during my Worldcon trip, though I might have made it appear that way. I also wanted to experience the fine dining side of Kansas City at least once. So after a bit of research, I chose Bluestem, where Chef Colby Garrelts had won the 2013 James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest.

And based on what I experienced with Ellen Datlow, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Pat Murphy, and my wife, I could easily understand why.

We chose the three-course dinner option—though if we’d wished, we could have gone for meals of five or ten courses. It was not a set tasting menu, in we had multiple choices for each course, so aside from the amuse-bouche and mignardises below, everything else represents my dishes alone, not those of my companions.

But believe me, we all left happy.

Amuse-bouche: Saffron arancini

(more…)

I seem to have a way of finding art. Or rather—art seems to have a way of finding me.

Back in 2008, I told you how I’d found an abandoned painting leaning against one of the famous lions at the main branch of the New York Public Library, and later learned that artist Kael Cabral did that sort of street project a lot. It was a joyful thing to have occurred, and I never expected to make such a serendipitous discovery again.

Then came the Kansas City Worldcon.

As I waited a little over a week ago to be picked up by my Uber, I happened to look behind me and spot this small painting leaning against the outer glass wall by the airport exit. I was intrigued. Could I have encountered a second example of free street art?

An examination of the 5″ x 7″ piece showed—yes, I could! (more…)