Episode 279: Alan Smale Rising

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.

You can listen to Episode 279: Alan Smale Rising online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 279: Alan Smale Rising is an episode from Eating the Fantastic by Scott Edelman.

This episode is 01:35:01 long.

This episode was published on Apr 8, 2026.

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