Episode 274: Emily Mitchell
Eating the Fantastic
Share green tea leaf salad with Emily Mitchell as we discuss why she felt the need to flip the first and last stories of her recent collection, the gaps which can sometimes occur between a writer's intentions and a reader's perceptions, the appeal of the ambiguity which comes with open-ended closure, how a writer's career is defined as much by who chooses to publish them as by what they choose to write, why she loves working in the present tense (and why one of her stories originally published that way shifted to the past tense in her collection), what she learned about writing by being an...
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Episode 273: Don Simpson
Eating the Fantastic
Chat over calamari with Megaton Man creator Don Simpson as we discuss why he splurged on a special issue of <em>Captain Marvel</em> at the Baltimore Comic-Con, how the business practices of comics affect the artistic side, the way two early visits with artist Keith Pollard taught him he didn't want to be a Marvel Comics penciller after all, where he feels the Silver Age ended and the Bronze Age truly began, how classic cinema and the auteur theory influenced his creative choices, the lessons he learned from the first few issues of <em>Love & Rockets</em> vs. the...
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Episode 272: Andy Duncan Predicts!
Eating the Fantastic
Polish off cryptid pizza with Andy Duncan as we discuss how his titles are often born decades before the stories to which they're eventually attached, how his research into Criswell's predictions "ethically stymied" him, why the way he creates stories isn't a way he'd encourage anyone else to follow, the epiphany which caused him to realize a perceived bug in his story was actually a feature, what he hoped sending his story through the Sycamore Hill Writing Workshop would unlock, why he's willing to publicly read aloud sections of stories he hasn't completed, the essential exclamation point...
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Episode 271: George Gene Gustines
Eating the Fantastic
Dish over dumplings with George Gene Gustines as we discuss the reason what he's pulled off would have been impossible a generation ago, why he calls himself "the Forrest Gump of the <em>New York Times</em>," how he determines which potential articles are right for the paper and which are too inside baseball, what moved him to write his first letter to a comics editor (and his secret to getting them published frequently), why he loves superhero team books, the grace of George Perez, what defines a fan, the story he regrets being the first to report, what he does when not writing...
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Episode 270: Jack C. Harris
Eating the Fantastic
Savor shrimp — and Steve Ditko — with comics writer/editor Jack C. Harris as we discuss why he decided to abandon his original plan of becoming an artist and chose writing instead, the chance comics shop encounter which led to him being offered a job at DC Comics, why he was astonished when he first saw the colors of Superman's costume, how his working relationship with Steve Ditko began, an intriguing comparison between Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee I'd never considered, the greatest compliment he ever received during his comics career, the idiosyncrasies of editor Murray Boltinoff, which...
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Episode 269: Naomi Kritzer
Eating the Fantastic
Sample samsa with Naomi Kritzer as we discuss why a friend stepped up to start submitting stories for her, the question she asked Madeleine l'Engle when she was nine, why she spent years not reading reviews (even the good ones), her surprise at the way "Cat Pictures Please" went viral, what it's like when you're on "that" panel at a convention, why she wishes she'd told the early editors to whom she'd submitted how young she was, the many writers time has passed by (and how we hope neither of us will join them), what she was told by her mentor after confessing she wanted to be Ursula K. Le...
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Episode 268: Alaya Dawn Johnson
Eating the Fantastic
Settle in for an Ethiopian feast with Alaya Dawn Johnson as we discuss what led to her "life-defining obsession" with Mexican history, the allure of science fiction's cognitive estrangement, how the German edition of her vampire novel saved her life, the serendipitous discovery which inspired her first published fantasy story, why she no longer owns any of her rejection slips, which franchise inspired her first fan fiction novels, how a novella which didn't seem to be working turned into her award-winning novel <em>Trouble the Saints</em>, the way a pajama party led to a novel...
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Episode 267: Natalia Theodoridou
Eating the Fantastic
Brunch on blueberry pancakes with Natalia Theodoridou as we discuss what it felt like attending Clarion the same year he was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, how Karen Joy Fowler's advice changed the texture of his descriptions, what he needs to know before beginning to write a short story, whether he's as confident in the writing process as his voice seems to me on the page, why the fact readers won't need to know anything about Bluebeard to enjoy his Bluebeard-inspired novel is a tragedy, the question to which that novel itself must stand as the only possible answer, why it's so...
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Episode 266: Lara Elena Donnelly
Eating the Fantastic
Polish off pasta with Lara Elena Donnelly as we discuss the hot tub conversation which led to the sale of her first novel, why the contradictions of her Clarion experience were liberating, the reason her relationship to the writing process means she's primarily a novelist rather than a short story writer, her complicated emotions about the conclusion to her debut novel, why she got sick of the word "prescient," the gnarly origins of the perfumes we love (and the reasons she needed to learn about them), why she decided to start a service advising how to write better sex scenes, the novel she...
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Episode 265: John Picacio
Eating the Fantastic
Tackle Texas BBQ with John Picacio as we discuss how he'd never have gotten where he is today without comics, why he initially turned down what ended up being his first science fiction book cover (and what made him change his mind), the reason he thinks of a book as a person he needs to introduce at a party, whether he pays attention to the artists who preceded him when updating the look of a book, why one of the most important skills for a cover artist is listening, the catalyst for his creator-owned, self-published projects, how his style and his skills have changed over the years, how his...
info_outlineSavor shrimp — and Steve Ditko — with comics writer/editor Jack C. Harris as we discuss why he decided to abandon his original plan of becoming an artist and chose writing instead, the chance comics shop encounter which led to him being offered a job at DC Comics, why he was astonished when he first saw the colors of Superman's costume, how his working relationship with Steve Ditko began, an intriguing comparison between Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee I'd never considered, the greatest compliment he ever received during his comics career, the idiosyncrasies of editor Murray Boltinoff, which comics pro was responsible for the flowering of comics fandom, how he felt about the Marvel/DC divide during the time we were both assistant editors, what it was like working with the legendary creators who preceded us, the legacy character he regrets never having gotten the chance to write, his Human Torch story which took 17 years to get published, the contrasting ways Marvel and DC treated their Golden Age characters at the beginning of the Silver Age, and much more.