Lunch on lamb with Steven H Silver as we discuss our shared status as record-breaking losers, my morbid suggestion about what he'll need to do upon my death, the reason he found <em>The Silmarillion</em> more interesting than <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>, how meeting Mel Brooks and other luminaries made him more at ease once he began attending science fiction conventions, the way a cancelled contest resulted in his first short fiction sale, what it was like to be in a writing workshop taught by Gene Wolfe, the allure of the alternate history subgenre (and how it differs from secret histories), what he learned publishing a novel in the middle of a global pandemic, the Easter eggs he scattered through <em>After Hastings</em>, and much more.

Dig into Bangkok street duck with Salinee Goldenberg as we discuss what it was like having to deliver her second published novel on a deadline after having had her entire life to write the first, the <em>Final Fantasy</em> fanfic she wrote as a kid, why she's attracted more to novels than short stories, how getting critiqued in the gaming industry prepared her to deal with writing workshops, why she considers herself a recovering pantser, how writing the ending of her new novel was almost like being in a fever dream, why she likes reading bad reviews, how to know when it's necessary to kill your darlings, the way to write battle scenes so readers can follow the fight choreography, how being a guitarist in a punk rock band impacts her writing, and much more.