Grab dinner with Gwendolyn Clare as we discuss the important lesson COVID taught her about her career, whether her most famous short story reads differently during these pandemic times, the identity of the science fiction writer I was startled to learn had been her high school geometry teacher, what the novels of Elizabeth Bear taught her about writing, the short story concept she decided to instead turn into what became her first published novel, how she gets into the mindset to write in the Young Adult genre, the amazing cleanliness of her first drafts, the pantsing fingerprints she sees on Stephen King, the many iterations recent writers have made to John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?," and much more.
Share sushi with the award-winning writer Wen Spencer as we discuss her origins as a writer of <em>Pern</em> fanfic, the similar faux pas we each made during our early days of fandom, how a friend inspired her professional career by lending her a stack of poorly written books, the dream which gave birth to her Compton Crook Award-winning first novel <em>Alien Taste</em>, the true reason the novel is her fiction form of choice, the impossibility of ever making something perfect, what her agent really means when he says "well, you <em>could</em> do that," why it's so important to be able to write more than one type of book, whether she knows how her series will end, and much more.