EATING THE FANTASTIC

Scott Edelman's EATING THE FANTASTIC is rapidly becoming my favorite podcast.  I grew up in Los Angeles listening to a radio show called HOUR 25 hosted originally by Mike Hodel, then followed by writers such as Harlan Ellison and J. Michael Straczynski.  HOUR 25 specialized in intimate interviews with top tier SF/fantasy writers.  I have fond memories of hearing two-hour-long, commercial-free interviews with such stellar lights as Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Octavia E. Butler, John Carpenter, Jonathan Carroll, William Gibson, Jack Kirby, Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Frank Miller, Carl Sagan, Robert Sheckley, John Shirley, Norman Spinrad, and the like.  I've never heard anything anywhere near as good as HOUR 25 until now.  Edelman's EATING THE FANTASTIC consists of in-depth and yet informal interviews that all take place within the relaxed atmosphere of various restaurants located not far from the many SF/fantasy conventions Edelman attends throughout the year.  His most recent conversation with novelist Victor LaValle (whose work I wrote about in January for TOR.COM in an article entitled "Lovecraftian Horror and the Alchemy of the New") is both entertaining and illuminating and touches upon some of the issues I raised in my article, such as the synchronistic spate of revisionist horror novels now exploding upon the literary scene.

Edelman's previous interview, this one with Paul DiFilippo (whose latest book is the excellent crime novel THE BIG GET-EVEN), is equally wonderful and well worth your attention. 

I also recommend Edelman's interview with novelist Elizabeth Hand, whose post-punk crime novels about photographer Cass Neary (GENERATION LOSS, AVAILABLE DARK, and HARD LIGHT) are definitely required reading...

...as well as his freewheeling conversation with Dennis Etchison, one of my favorite American short story writers (author of the classic collections THE DARK COUNTRY, RED DREAMS, THE BLOOD KISS, and THE DEATH ARTIST), who spoke with Edelman during the second annual Stoker Convention (held aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California back in April of 2017) where Etchison was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association. 

All of Edelman's interviews are worthy of your time, but the above shows are among my favorites.

Listen to Edelman's interview with Victor LaValle HERE.

Listen to his interview with Paul DiFilippo HERE. 

Listen to his interview with Dennis Etchison HERE.

Listen to his interview with Elizabeth Hand HERE.

By the way, Edelman and I have shared the same Table of Contents page twice:  in POSTSCRIPTS #30/31 as well as in POSTSCRIPTS #36/37.  I particularly love his short story "Things That Never Happened" in #30/31.  Edelman's numerous other tales have been collected in such books as WHAT WE STILL TALK ABOUT and WHAT WILL COME AFTER.  (It's also worth noting that Edelman created one of the strangest Marvel comic book characters of all time, The Scarecrow.)

And if you're interested in hearing what HOUR 25 sounded liked, check out Mike Hodel's 1977 interview with Philip K. Dick below:

You might also want to listen to J. Michael Stracynzski and Larry DiTillio's 1990 interview with comic book legend Jack Kirby right here: