In the double-sized episode 335 of the Functional Nerds Podcast, Patrick Hester and John Anealio welcome journalist, editor, author, DJ and 2017 MileHiCon Toastmaster, Jason Heller. His latest book, Strange Stars, is available for pre-orders and will come out June 5, 2018. We talk about a lot of things, including his book, our new recording platform – Zencastr – MileHiCon, Ed Bryant, Herbie Hancock, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, Goosebumps and more…

About Jason Heller: Jason is a journalist, editor, and author whose books include: Strange Stars (forthcoming from Melville House); the alt-history novel Taft 2012 (Quirk); the Goosebumps tie-in Slappy’s Revenge (Scholastic); the Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook (Disney); and a chapter of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s The Time Traveler’s Almanac (Tor). He is also the former nonfiction editor of Clarkesworld and won a Hugo Award as part of that editing team. His short stories have appeared in Apex Magazine, Farrago’s Wainscot, Sybil’s Garage, Paper Darts, Nightmares Unhinged, Swords v. Cthulhu, and many others. He writes about books and/or music for NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker, and is a former Senior Writer of The Onion’s A.V. Club. His writing has also appeared in Weird Tales, Entertainment Weekly, Alternative Press, and Tor.com. He is the co-editor of the upcoming anthologies Cyber World (Hex) and Mechanical Animals (Hex), and is a 2009 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. He’s represented by Jennifer Jackson, Vice President of Donald Maass Literary Agency. He lives with his wife Angie in Denver, where he plays in various bands.

About MileHiCon: MileHiCon is an annual science fiction/fantasy convention held in Denver, Colorado in October. It is primarily literary, although it also has an art show, dealers’ room, the Critter Crunch (similar to Robot Wars), the Critter Float-illa (robotic competition in the hotel pool), a video room, anime room, masquerade, gaming, bat’leth tournament, and programming on science, writing, literary, media and fannish topics. It runs its own track of kid-friendly, interactive programming and also hosts the Avistrum Academy of Sorcery. It is run by MileHiCon, Inc., a Colorado not-for-profit corporation, and donates money each year to local literacy programs.

This week’s picks:

• Jason: Escape from Planet Earth (song) by The Continental IV
• John: Leia, Princess of Alderaan
• Patrick: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, audiobook, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading

Links:

• Jason Heller on Twitter
• MileHiCon on Twitter
• John Anealio on Twitter
• Patrick Hester on Twitter
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page
• Patrick’s New Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere)

© 2017 Patrick Hester and John Anealio

This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

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