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 than the groundbreaking, that period during the '20s when everyone was fascinated by glands, the one Heinlein book she wishes we'd go back and reread, our joint distaste for fan policing, and much more.
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 former job as a used dinosaur parts salesman, the way page one tells him whether he's got a short story or novel idea, how Harlan Ellison became the first American editor to buy one of his stories, and much more.