Eating the Fantastic

Savor spanakopita with Nick Mamatas as we discuss why there's a generational divide when it comes to what potential readers might think his upcoming novel The Second Shooter is about, our joint Brooklyn heritage and history with professional wrestling, why he threw away the first dozen stories he wrote, the reason Marvel Comics was always better than DC, his encounters with the famed monologuist B...

It's time for cookies and conversation with writer/editor/publisher Ian Randal Strock as we discuss what he said upon meeting Isaac Asimov which caused the Grand Master to refuse to write him a limerick, why he prefers The Princess Bride novel to the movie, the reason his father advised him not to name his publishing company after himself, why the 1,000-word short story is his natural length, the...

Binge brownies with William F. Wu as we discuss how the two of us almost ended up at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop together (and why we didn't), the reason he wasn't terrified when he got the chance to play in Issac Asimov's robot universe, how an assignment from Harlan Ellison gave birth to one of his more famous short stories (which was later adapted as an episode of T...

Chow down on pizza with Ignatz Award-winning Alison Wilgus as we discuss how their life might have gone an entirely different way if not for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, why they describe themselves to people as "a feral nerd," how an unsolicited pitch on a Post-it note led to selling their first script, what fanfic taught them about writing professionally in other people's universes, t...

Loaf around with award-winning writer A.C. Wise as we discuss how her first professionally published fiction ended up printed on a coffee can, the 24-hour challenge which led to the creation of her Lambda Award-nominated collection, which comic book character obsesses her the most, how individual stories can act as commentary on all stories, why she enjoys wielding the power of ambiguity, how work...

Share Sachertorte with Steve Toase as we discuss how his COVID-19 lifestyle has been both an inspiration for and a distraction from his writing, the way reading his stories at open mic nights helped him hone his craft, the importance of dread in horror, how his background in landscape archeology helps make his fiction more visceral, the challenge of scripting a planetarium show for the visually im...

Things get crunchy with award-winning writer Robert Shearman as we discuss the reason we're lucky we each survived to adulthood, how he almost talked his way out of selling his first short story, the way he starts every story thinking it's funny even as things turn horrific, why some readers find his new collection offensive and others uplifting, how he's following up that three-volume, 2,000-page...

Cross the pond for pappardelle with Priya Sharma as we discuss the best decision she made about her debut short story collection All the Fabulous Beasts , how the cover to that book conveys a different message in our COVID-19 world, why we each destroyed much of our early writing, a surprising revelation about the changed ending to one of her stories, who told her as a child "your soul is cracked,...

Uh-oh! It's Spider-Man SpaghettiOs with comics writer/editor/historian Danny Fingeroth as we discuss his start (like mine) in the Marvel British reprint department, what was wrong with the early letters he wrote to comics as a kid, his admittedly over-generalized theory that there were only two kinds of people on staff at Marvel, our differing reactions to the same first comic book convention in 1...

Down dumplings with the legendary Irene Vartanoff as we discuss how she'd never have gotten into comics if not for her father's cigar habit, what made a comic book reader become a comic book fan become a comic book professional, the "heartbreaking" advice given to her by Julie Schwartz during her teen visit to DC Comics, why her reputation as a famed letterhack meant she didn't face the same sexis...

Join Farah Mendlesohn for tea and scones as we discuss the reasons Robert A. Heinlein resonated with her, how her early and current readings of Heinlein differ, why the science fiction of the '30s was far more politically radical than that of the '40s and '50s, her deliberately controversial comment about Ursula K. Le Guin, the circumstances under which she's more interested in the typical rather...

Polish off prawn pizza with Stephen Dedman as we discuss how the Apollo 11 moon landing introduced him to science fiction, what his father told him which changed his plan to become a cartoonist, the huge difference the Internet made in the lives of Australian writers, his creative trick for getting his first poem published, what acting taught him about being funny in the midst of tragedy, his form...

Join award-winning writer Lee Murray for lunch and dinner as we discuss how she crafted her first short story collection, the importance of mentoring our next generation of genre writers, why we're unlikely to ever go spelunking together, whether she prefers her zombies fast or slow, the unique awards club of which we're both members, the way her use of New Zealand culture might be perceived diffe...

Binge on bagels while sequestering with writer, editor, and Eating the Fantastic host Scott Edelman as he answers questions about whether his early days in fandom and early writing success helped his career, which anthology he'd like to edit if given the chance, what different choices he wishes he'd made over his lifetime, what he predicts for the future of food, how the pandemic has affected his...

Join New York Times best-selling novelist Justina Ireland as we discuss whether having written zombie novels has helped her deal with the pandemic, her biggest pet peeve when she hears other writers talk about writing, where she falls in the fast vs. slow zombies debate (and how she's managed to have the best of both worlds), our very different reasons for not having read Harry Potter , the way sh...

Practice social distancing with Scott Edelman, host of Eating the Fantastic, as he answers listener questions about his early days in the Marvel Comics Bullpen, the many things he and legendary editor Gardner Dozois shoved up their noses, when his food and fandom interests began to overlap, what he would have said to Harlan Ellison had he been in Barry Malzberg's shoes, whether experiencing person...

Catch up with the award-winning Sarah Pinsker — this podcast's first guest — as we discuss how relieved she was her pandemic novel A Song for a New Day was published in 2019 rather than 2020, why she originally wrote that book in a song format (and why that had to change), how she loves being surprised by her own characters, why neither of us can bear listening to music while we write,...

Shelter in place for lunch with Scott Edelman, host of Eating the Fantastic, as he answers questions from listeners and former guests of the podcast, revealing his love for The Twilight Zone (and the negative effect it had on him as a beginning writer), the origins of the Scarecrow character he created for Marvel in 1975, what it was like editing a professional wrestling magazine, whether the diff...

Time travel to 1995 with scientist/science fiction writers Geoffrey A. Landis, Jr. and Yoji Kondo as we chew over the question of the age of the universe. We discuss how the idea of the universe even having a beginning is a relatively new concept, the way we choose between the many competing theories of its age, how the phrase "Big Bang" was a joke which stuck, the paradox of some stars appearing...

Chow down on crab cakes with Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda as we discuss the convention at which he thought he was about to be punched out by Harlan Ellison, the book he wants to write but which he realizes he could probably never publish, how discovering E. F. Bleiler's Guide to Supernatural Fiction opened a whole new world for him, whether he faced judgment from his peers for...

Brunch on biscuits and gravy with Keith R.A. DeCandido as we discuss how the kids TV show The Electric Company made him a Marvel fan, the serendipitous way he sold his first short story (and how it was all thanks to Spider-Man), what we each learned from working with Stan Lee, how he was given the chance to write his first novel in lieu of being given a raise, which of the more than 30 franchises...

Nibble fried noodles with John Edward Lawson as we discuss the birth of the bizarro horror subgenre (and the surprisingly democratic way in which it was named), the reason Alien both repelled and attracted him, how trying to sell screenplays led to him publishing his first short fiction instead, the story of his which was the most emotionally difficult to write, how he won a poetry award only afte...

Join Alfie Award-winning writer Alexandra Erin for waffle fries (but no waffling) as we discuss the way Mark Twain gave her permission to comment satirically on science fiction, the thoughts which went through her mind the night George R. R. Martin handed her that Alfie Award, her preferred role when playing Dungeons and Dragons , how she knew her Tales of MU saga was meant to go on for several mi...

Eavesdrop on my lunch with L. Penelope as we discuss why The Neverending Story was her favorite childhood movie, which Octavia Butler quote inspired one of her tattoos, why she decided to go the self-publishing route (and how her indie success resulted in her first novel getting picked up by a traditional publisher), the catalytic scene which sparked her Earthsinger Chronicles series, how she mana...

Chow down on cannoli with author Bob Proehl as we discuss how it really all began for him with poetry, the way giving a non-comics reader Watchmen for their first comic is like giving a non-novel reader Ulysses as their first novel, why discovering Sandman was a lifesaver, the reason the Flying Burrito Brothers 1968 debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin matters so much to him, why he had a case of...