{"id":25725,"date":"2019-02-08T08:50:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T13:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=25725"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T15:05:51","slug":"pig-out-on-pork-belly-tacos-with-alan-smale-in-episode-88-of-eating-the-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2019\/02\/08\/pig-out-on-pork-belly-tacos-with-alan-smale-in-episode-88-of-eating-the-fantastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Pig out on pork belly tacos with Alan Smale in Episode 88 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first episode<\/a> of Eating the Fantastic went live on February 10, 2016, so as we find ourselves just a couple of days away from the third anniversary of this podcast, I\u2019d like to thank you all for taking a seat at the table with us each episode, liking the show on Facebook<\/a>, and leaving ratings and reviews over at iTunes<\/a>. And thanks as well to the 142 guests who\u2019ve been willing to join me over 88 episodes. And of course, thank you to those who\u2019ve been supporting Eating the Fantastic on Patreon<\/a>, or dropping a couple of bucks in the Paypal tip jar<\/a> to help cover some of the costs associated with the show.<\/p>\n

My guest this episode is Alan Smale<\/a>, who has published short fiction in Asimov\u2019s<\/em>, Realms of Fantasy<\/em>, Abyss & Apex<\/em>, and other magazines. He won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History for “A Clash of Eagles,\u201d about a Roman invasion of ancient America. That\u2019s also the setting for his trilogy, which includes the novels Clash of Eagles<\/em>, Eagle in Exile<\/em>, and Eagle and Empire<\/em>, all published by Del Rey in the U.S. and Titan Books in the UK. When not writing, he\u2019s a professional astronomer at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. <\/p>\n

We met for lunch at Mad Chef Kitchen & Bar<\/a>, a gastropub which opened recently in Ellicott City, Maryland\u2019s Turf Valley Towne Square. We were looking for something equidistant from both of us with good food, and based first on my research and then our experience, we definitely found it.<\/p>\n

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We discussed why an astrophysicist’s chosen field of fiction is alternate history rather than hard science, how his fascination with archeology and ancient civilizations began, the reason he started off his novel-writing career with a trilogy rather than a standalone, the secrets to writing convincing battle sequences, the nuances of critiquing partial novels in a workshop setting, how his research into Roman and Native American history affected his trilogy, what steps he took to ensure he handled Native American cultures appropriately, that summer when at age 12 he read both War and Peace<\/em> and Lord of the Rings<\/em>, one of the strangest tales of a first short story sale I’ve ever heard, how and why he joined forces with Rick Wilber for their recent collaboration published in Asimov’s<\/em>, and much more.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how you can listen to our conversation at Mad Chef Kitchen & Bar —<\/p>\n

1) Subscribe over at the iTunes store<\/a> — where I hope you might also choose to download a few of the 87 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Listen using the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on the device of your choice.<\/p>\n

3) Or check us out via the embed below.<\/p>\n