Lawrence M. Schoen

Hello and welcome to another installment of Eating Authors, where every Monday I ask a different author to talk about some fondly remembered bit of eating. If you came here because of a Google search involving literary cannibalism or recipes for writer tartare you’re apt to be disappointed.

I’m back from the turmoils and triumphs that were this year’s Worldcon, and it seems only appropriate that my guest this week is Genevieve Valentine whose novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, was placed in my hands as I was leaving last year’s Worldcon in Reno, Nevada. If you’re not familiar with this work and need another push to go pick up a copy, allow me to mention that it was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the 2012 Crawford Award. Her short fiction has garnered a good deal of attention as well, including nominations for the World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson awards.

Earlier this year Genevieve was at the center of some strenuous discussion involving harassment and safety at conventions, and my only comments on that topic here will be to applaud her for her strength of character in coming forward and to express my hope that our community wakes up and not only acknowledges the true scope of the problem but stops putting up with it.

But to me, she will probably always be, first and foremost, one of the authors of Geek Wisdom, a magnificently fun and funny book that was long overdue (though I don’t think there’s enough Klingon in it).
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Welcome to the World Science Fiction Convention edition of the regular Monday morning feature of this blog, Eating Authors. It’s the WorldCon edition for two reasons. One, today is the last day of Chicon 7, this year’s convention and even though I prepared this post weeks in advance, I know I’m exhausted this morning because I spent last night celebrating with the Hugo winners and commiserating with the crop of Hugo losers. Phew! But, this is also the WorldCon edition today because our guest is none other than the Guest of Honor at next year’s WorldCon, James Gunn!

I’d be hard pressed to imagine a better GoH for a convention, because he’s a triple threat — not only an author, but also a scholar and an educator. Full disclosure: I had the great good fortune to be a student of Jim Gunn’s for two weeks back in the summer of 1998 when I participated in his annual Writers’ Workshop, at the end of which the core idea that eventually turned into the first Buffalo Dog story was born. So, in a very real sense, Jim bears partial responsibility for a large part of my own career as an author. But let’s look at some of his other accomplishments: He’s won national awards for his work as an editor, the Byron Caldwell Smith Award in recognition of literary achievement as well as the Edward Grier Award for excellence in teaching. He’s also the only person to have been both president of the Science Fiction Research Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The former presented with their prestigious Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement backin 1976, and the latter inducted him as a Grand Master in 2007. He’s won the Eaton Award and the Hugo Award, chaired the the Campbell Award jury to select the best SF novel of the year, as well as the Sturgeon Award jury to select the year’s best short SF. James Gunn is the real deal, and he’s still going strong.

In addition to numerous plays, screenplays, radio scripts, articles, verse, and criticism, Jim’s also edited 13 anthologies (including the critically acclaimed Road to Science Fiction series) and published more than 100 short stories and 29 novels, including such classic works as The Listeners, The Joy Makers, and The Immortals.

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Hello and welcome to another Monday morning visit with an author and her most memorable meal. Our guest today is Rebecca Roland, whose first novel, Shards of History, has just debuted from World Weaver Press.

Rebecca admits to having addictions to both chocolate and coffee, at least one of which must surely be a requirement if one wishes to be a successful writer. Of course it probably doesn’t hurt that she’s an alumna of the Odyssey Writing Workshop either. By day she’s a physical therapist in New Mexico (when she’s not eating chocolate or slamming down the java).

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