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Eating the Fantastic

I’ve been going to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic book conventions since I was 15, and Eating the Fantastic—a 2026 Hugo Awards finalist—attempts to replicate in podcast form one of my favorite parts of any convention—good conversation with good friends over good food. In fact, my love of tracking down that good food while traveling the world attending conventions has apparently become so well known one blogger even dubbed me "science fiction’s Anthony Bourdain." Chatting with my guests over over plates of food in restaurants relaxes them, and relaxes me as well. Food's been doing that for thousands of years, helping make conversations more intimate than they would otherwise be. Tongues are loosened, and through a strange magic, we’re no longer merely host and guest, but just a couple of friends having a meal. And though some ambient noise survives the processing, what remains in that "you are there" background is a small price for the much better picture you’ll get of my guests than otherwise. So consider it a feature, not a bug. During each episode, I'll share a meal with someone whose opinions I think you’ll want to hear, and we’ll talk science fiction, fantasy, horror, writing, comics, movies, fandom … whatever happens to come to mind. Now please pull up a chair to the table and dig in!
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Now displaying: December, 2018
Dec 28, 2018

Have hot antipasto with Andy Duncan as we celebrate the publication of his new collection <em>An Agent of Utopia</em> and discuss why it took a quarter of a century to bring the book's lead story from title idea to completion, how he was influenced by the research regimen of the great Frederik Pohl, the way a short story is like an exploded toolshed, why he deliberately wrote a deal with the devil story after hearing he shouldn't write deal with the devil stories, the embarrassing marketing blurb he can't stop telling people about in bars, what caused a last-minute change to the title of one of the collection's new stories, how he feels about going viral after his recent J. R. R. Tolkien comments, what he learned about himself from completing this project and what it means for the future of his writing, what it is about his most reprinted story which made it so, and much more.

Dec 14, 2018

Slurp down Thai Beef Noodle Soup with Stephen Kozeniewski as we discuss how it took nearly 500 submissions before his first novel was finally accepted, why he has no interest in writing sequels, his advice for winning a Turkey Award for the worst possible opening to the worst possible science fiction or fantasy novel, why his output is split between horror and science fiction (but not mysteries), the reason Brian Keene was who he wanted to be when he grew up, why almost any story would be more interesting with zombies, when you should follow and when you should break the accepted rules of writing, where he falls on the fast vs. slow zombies debate, and much more.

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