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<\/a>, the podcast on which I\u2019d appeared<\/a> back in June 2015 which inspired me to create this<\/em> podcast. So I grabbed my recording equipment before hopping into my Jeep and heading East.<\/p>\n 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<\/em> did the work of recording the panel, you<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n But luckily, since the group had planned to grab a bite to eat after their \u00a0panel 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\u2019t reveal on the panel for fear of crushing the hopes and dreams of young, innocent, beginning writers. Which I hope you\u2019ll feel is a good enough excuse to justify sharing the panel itself as part of the episode before that meal.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>), Mary SanGiovanni (author of the The Hollower<\/em> trilogy, whose most recent novels are Chills<\/em> and Savage Woods<\/em>), Damien Angelica Walters (Stoker-nominated writer of the short story collection Sing Me Your Scars<\/em> and the novel Paper Tigers<\/em>), J.P. Sloan (author of The Dark Choir<\/em> urban fantasy series), and Eric Hendrixson (bizarro author of Drunk Driving Champion<\/em> and Bucket of Face<\/em>) for an fascinating afternoon as they share what they know about the business of writing and publishing horror.<\/p>\n And what did they discuss in what’s became Episode 53 of Eating the Fantastic?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how you can get the details directly from them—<\/p>\n 1) Subscribe at the iTunes store<\/a>, where all 52 previous episodes are still available.<\/p>\n 2) Download the episode to any device of your choice by using the show’s RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3) Or simply use the the below embed to listen right here.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/FCCHorrorPanelDinner-300x214.jpg\")
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