{"id":25808,"date":"2019-03-08T09:24:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=25808"},"modified":"2019-03-08T09:24:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T14:24:15","slug":"binge-on-brisket-benedict%e2%80%8e-with-michael-j-walsh-in-episode-90-of-eating-the-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/08\/binge-on-brisket-benedict%e2%80%8e-with-michael-j-walsh-in-episode-90-of-eating-the-fantastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Binge on Brisket Benedict\u200e with Michael J. Walsh in Episode 90 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time to join me at the table with someone who’s been part of the community of the fantastic even longer than I have — Michael J. Walsh<\/a>. Over the past half century, he\u2019s been a fan, a book dealer, a convention chair, and a publisher. He\u2019s attended every World Fantasy Convention since the first in 1975, including the last one<\/a>, where he and I were two of the Guests of Honor. Through his small press, Old Earth Books<\/a>, he\u2019s published Avram Davidson, Christopher Priest, Allen Steele and many others, plus two Howard Waldrop collections, which won him a special award from the World Fantasy Convention\u00a0in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We got together for lunch last month the same day I attended the Midwinter Midway fundraising function put on at the Peale Museum by Submersive Productions<\/a>, the immersive theatrical troupe I adore, four of whose members were my guests in Episode 86 of the podcast<\/a>, where we discussed the science fictional nature of their diverse happenings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael and I met at Ida B\u2019s Table<\/a> on the same block in Baltmore as the Peale. Ida B\u2019s is perhaps my favorite recent restaurant discovery, one I try to visit whenever I\u2019m in that city for great fried chicken, or shrimp and grits, or in this case, brisket benedict. <\/p>\n

We discussed what it is about the annual World Fantasy Conventions that drew him to attend all 44 of them, how a generous teacher’s gift of an Ace Double led to his first exposure to true science fiction, the big score which induced him to become a book dealer, the way Ted White was able to do so much with so little when he edited Amazing Stories<\/em> in the ’70s, what witnessing Anne McCaffrey and Isaac Asimov singing Gilbert and Sullivan tunes made him realize about writers, what his time in fandom taught him which made him realize he could make it as a publisher,\u00a0the time he was left speechless by Robert Heinlein offering him a drink, why it would have been wrong for a certain book he published to have won a Hugo, what con-goers most misunderstand about con runners, and much more.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Ida B’s Table —<\/p>\n

1) Subscribe over at the iTunes store<\/a> — where perhaps you’ll be tempted to download a few of the 89 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 it out via the embed below.<\/p>\n