Robin Leach

I've known Emeril for more than 20 years from when I featured him on 'Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous' from his days at Commander's Palace in New Orleans and from when I helped start the Food Network where he subsequently hosted an amazing 2,000-plus shows.

The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SF writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.