{"id":39400,"date":"2026-09-03T08:26:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/?p=39400"},"modified":"2026-09-03T08:26:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:26:57","slug":"alexander-jablokov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2026\/09\/03\/alexander-jablokov\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarf Squid Bokkeum with Alexander Jablokov on Episode 291 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that Eating the Fantastic is finished with StokerCon<\/a>, it’s time to move on to my first meal of Readercon<\/a> — my first which you can join, that is — lunch with Alex Jablokov<\/a>, who I feel I\u2019ve been seeing at Readercons as long as I\u2019ve been attending — and my first was its first, way back in 1987. <\/p>\n

Since Alex’s fiction debut in 1985, he\u2019s had more than 50 short stories appear in Analog<\/em>, Asimov\u2019s<\/em>, Amazing Stories<\/em>, and Aboriginal SF<\/em>, plus some venues with titles further down the alphabet, such as Fantasy and Science Fiction<\/em>, Far Frontiers<\/em>,\u00a0Future Boston: The History of a City 1990-2100<\/em>, Interzone<\/em>, and \u00a0Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology<\/em>. Some of that earliest work was gathered in the collection The Breath of Suspension<\/em>, published by the legendary Arkham House in 1994, an achievement of which I am so, so envious.<\/p>\n

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

His first novel, Carve the Sky<\/em>, was released in 1991, and was followed by A Deeper Sea<\/em>, Nimbus<\/em>, River of Dust<\/em>, Deepdrive<\/em>, and most recently, Brain Thief<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

We discussed how he came to publish a short story collection with the legendary Arkham House, what the ease with which he wrote some of his earlier stories led him to believe which he quickly learned was wrong, why writing workshops are good for surfacing rather than solving story problems, the one question every writer must ask themselves, plotters vs. pantsers (and whether one can turn into the other), the difficulty in getting writing done when life intervenes, what horseradish has to do with the publishing business, the story he believes he only sold because the editor liked spiders, the best way to believably write characters with whom you disagree, plus much more.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you can join us at Woojeon Korean Cuisine<\/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 290 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