Episode 287: Arley Sorg

It's time for an Italian lunch with Kate Maruyama, where we discuss the way her love for the Golden Age of Hollywood began, the bribes her mother paid her so she'd write (and the reason she stopped paying), why abandoned short stories make marvelous prompts, the most important thing to teach about writing, how to decide which of her two 2025 Hollywood novels you should read first, the beauty of the novella form, the reasons she cut 100 pages from one of her recent novels, the difficulties in writing for theme anthologies, the 350-page novel she turned into a short story (and what she learned from the process), plus much more.

Bite into General Tso's Bok Choy with Arley Sorg as we discuss the difficulty in getting the help you need as a beginning writer when you don't know what you don't know, the serendipity that got him a job at Locus, how to inhabit the community that is while envisioning the community that could be, why an agent might prefer in-person pitches over email, the importance of doing things without an agenda, the way we learned to deal with both rejecting and being rejected, how to make sense of the myths and rumors of science fiction publishing, why he feels comfortable in his role as an agent, plus much more.

Savor a molcajete with the award-winning Somto Ihezue as we discuss why fireflies matter, how the social media algorithm led him to writing workshops, finding the courage required to write his award-winning story, why the literature of the fantastic is his chosen playground, how he brings the geography of his stories to life, the startling fact his first published short story was also the first he ever wrote, the way the Clarion workshop experience made his writing better, the importance of community, the way readers speak about his poetry vs. the way they speak about his prose, how his editing gigs helped make his own rejections less bothersome, plus much more.

Binge on brisket with Mark L. Van Name as we discuss his first short story sale to a 1979 Clarion classmate of mine, why it sometimes takes him decades before he feels a story's ready to send out, the reason he still has a massive comic book collection (and why I don't), the comic book which helped save his life, the reason he doesn't require advances on his novels, his mixed feelings about writing workshops, the 17 minutes Harlan Ellison spent savaging one of his stories, why you have to let go of caring what readers make of your writing, how his John and Lobo series was born, the way he balanced a demanding day job with the writing life, plus much more.

Chew on peri-peri chicken with Octothorpe's John Coxon and Alison Scott as we discuss the many first-time Eastercon attendees I encountered who were there due to their podcast, Nando's place in British culture and why it was chosen to be our venue for this episode, what they're willing to reveal about cohost Liz Batty in her absence, how the coming of COVID-19 kickstarted the creation of Octothorpe, why they didn't launch an old-school fanzine instead, how the first episode wasn't even originally intended to be the first episode, why we're still here considering 90% of podcasts don't make it past three episodes, how to comment responsibly on fandom while being a part of fandom, the reason their letters of comment section is so important, what changed about the show once they realized people were actually listening, advice for those who'd like to start podcasts of their own, plus much more.

Join John Jarrold for dinner as we discuss his first Eastercon 53 years ago, his "obsessive" love for J. R. R. Tolkien, the best commercial deal he ever did, how to dispassionately judge the writing of people you already know, his editorial encounter with Michael Caine, the bidding war over George R. R. Martin's  A Game of Thrones, how he learned to write editorial revision letters writers would understand, the ways in which working with authors of science fiction is different than in the wider world of publishing, when it's time for an author to reinvent themselves under a pseudonym, splitting one's time between the business and artistic sides of publishing, what he means when he says getting published "is the jam on the bread, it's not the bread," the sorts of submissions he's seeing too much and too little of at his agency, plus much more.

Savor Singapore Vermicelli with Charles Stross as we discuss the twelve "novel-shaped objects" he wrote before making his first professional sale, what changed in his life which meant instead of taking three years to write one novel he could write three novels in one year, why back at the beginning of his career he considered himself the "failure to launch" of the Interzone generation of writers (and how that changed), how to best take the temperature of critique group criticism, why it was time to wrap up his Laundry Files series (and who he had to become in order to be able to write that finale), the way the opening sentence of an as yet unfinished novel became the seed for a new series in progress, how his love for Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels ties into his next project, the evolving nature of convention-going for long-time attendees, and much more.

Join Paul McAuley for a Birmingham balti as we discuss his fascination with James Joyce and how it played out (or didn't) in his own writing, why he's thrilled the first short story he sold to a pro market was never published, the reasons he loves Los Angeles, what he learned as a scientist which helped him write better science fiction, why he compared his writing style to Raymond Chandler's, the way his world-building takes place during writing and not before, whether or not his new novel should be considered science fiction, what I feel that hovel has in common with Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, our shared love of the ambiguous ending, what he learned by rereading his short fiction to assemble a career-spanning collection, and much more.

Feast on a Full English breakfast with Farah Mendlesohn as we discuss whether their Hugo-nominated Heinlein book changed the conversation about that author, if there's such a thing as an inverse of The Suck Fairy, why it might be wrong to chat about The Female Man while nibbling on toast, the reason Russ's novel took so long to get published, the probable purpose of the self-critique within the book, the difficulties in communicating with cross-cultural metaphors, why The Female Man is a version of The Christmas Carol, the reason the book isn't Postmodernist but Modernist, why I failed to pick up on the novel's Jewishness, what surprised them most during their rereading of the novel, the reason Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ was so painfully hard to write, and much more.

Tear into tacos with Alan Smale as we discuss the three projects he'd told me in 2019 he was going to write next (and what became of them), how what was originally intended to be a standalone novel turned into his latest trilogy, the synergy of writing an alternate history about the Apollo space program while working at NASA, how the constraints imposed by science helped improve his plot arc, the way astronaut personalities have changed across the decades, how to write alternate history to be entertaining both for those who know actual history and those who don't, the advice he wishes he could give his younger self, how we don't really dislike info dumps (only the ones which aren't done well), and much more.