{"id":35179,"date":"2024-05-17T09:53:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T13:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/?p=35179"},"modified":"2024-05-17T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T13:53:16","slug":"lesley-conner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2024\/05\/17\/lesley-conner\/","title":{"rendered":"Chow down on cryptid pizza with Lesley Conner in Episode 225 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

This episode of Eating the Fantastic came about due to a serendipitous convergence of guest and venue. I drive through Berkeley Springs, West Virginia quite a bit, and one day discovered a restaurant there called Mythical Pizza<\/a>. When I checked the menu, I found everything they served was cryptid-based, with pizzas and decor inspired by Bigfoot, Mothman, and other monsters. So I of course had to check the place out. <\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t want to do it solo, and with a theme like that, it seemed the perfect place to record an episode of a podcast devoted to the fantastic. Luckily, writer\/editor Lesley Conner<\/a>, with whom I’ve been trying to arrange a chance to chat and chew, was just as enthusiastic about the concept as I was. <\/p>\n

Longtime listeners will have heard Lesley\u2019s voice way back in 2017 on Episode 53<\/a> when she took part in a Horror 101 roundtable. Back then, she shared the microphone with five other creators, but a lot has changed for her over the past seven years, and now that she’s the Chief Editor at Apex magazine<\/a>, I thought she deserved a spotlight of her own.<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll understand why Lesley was the right dining companion for such a place just from the titles of the anthologies in which her fiction has appeared \u2014 all horror-focussed such as Mountain Dead<\/em>, Dark Tales of Terror<\/em>, Big Book of New Short Horror<\/em>, Ruthless<\/em>, and A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre<\/em>. Her horror novel The Weight of Chains<\/em> was released in 2015. In addition to being the Chief Editor over at Apex<\/em> magazine, she\u2019s also co-editor of the anthologies Do Not Go Quietly<\/em> and Robotic Ambitions<\/em>, as well as of the upcoming The Map of Lost Places<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We discussed why horror is where she feels the most comfortable as a writer, how her role at Apex<\/em> magazine grew from Social Media Manager to Chief Editor, her “Price is Right” method of filling out an issue’s word count, why she hardly ever reads cover letters, the trends she’s seen in the slush pile and what they mean, the key difference between editing magazines vs. anthologies, her longtime obsession with serial killers, how to go on writing after one’s writing mentor passes away, and much more.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how you can join us at Mythical Pizza<\/a> — <\/p>\n

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts<\/a> — or wherever<\/a> you choose to consume your podcasts — where I hope you’ll be tempted to sample a few of the 224 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

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

3) Or simply use the embed below.<\/p>\n