The Fredösphere

Starship Sofa is my favorite podcast.  Two blokes from northern England, Tony C. Smith and Ciaran O'Carrol, wing it on the subject of one sci-fi author each week.  Their unscripted approach (and these guys blaze new trails in unscripted--wow, are they unscripted) makes commercial radio, or the podcasts that emulate it, seem clotted and pompous by comparison.

Because I was an early, vocal fan, and for who-knows what other reasons, Tony and Ciaran have adopted me.  They read every email I send them on the podcast.  Although they haven't yet asked me to don a giant chicken suit (probably because this is an audio cast, not video) they do seem to view me as some kind of mascot.

It is the Starship Sofa (hereafter, SSS) podcast that is the outlet for my new venture in sci-fi authorship.  I have recorded myself reading my second story, Sofa God, and it will be included in a future SSS podcast.  I'm working on writing a bit of incidental music to accompany the reading.  This experience confirms what I found earlier:  writing music is laborious and frustrating; writing prose is easy.  Easy.

There's no point publishing Sofa God here on this website, since the story is merely one extended inside joke, written for fans of the SSS podcast.  My first story, however, is of general interest, and I'm trying to decide if I should publish it is sections, within blog posts, or perhaps record it with incidental music or even a mini-sound track, and post it here or distribute it as a free podcast.  In any even, I don't see that I have a chance selling it to any sci-fi magazine, because of its length and not-quite-sci-fi subject matter, but I'm not disappointed with it as a first attempt.  (This is the Emperor Augustus In The 21st Century story I mentioned before.)  It's titled In the Shape of a Man.  Anyone who wants to read and critique it can get it in a pdf file by emailing me.  (Lynn?  Are you interested?)

I'm working now on my first "real" story, the test of whether I'm wasting my time by writing sci-fi.  It's an alien abduction story involving a kid named Israel... well, never mind for now what his last name is.  It's controversial.  The wifeösphere has ordered me to change it.  Negotiations are at a delicate stage at the moment.  I'll get back to you.

Labels: sci-fi