Filed Under: My Writing, Podcast
There’s a new, excellently-read podcast of my short story “Captain Blood’s B00ty” story over on Starship Sofa today. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.
This story previously appeared in the Shimmer pirate issue, edited by John Joseph Adams.
I’m sorry things have been so quiet around here lately. I just don’t have much to say right now. Soon though.
Filed Under: My Writing, Podcast, personal
The guests this week are Jeff VanderMeer, Amy H. Sturgis, and of course the sofa is piloted by Captain Tony C. Smith. Oh, and this guy writing this post. This week, we talk about the conference in Austin, cover art, and I lose my shit entirely about the new “Hitchhiker’s Guide” book (those are scare quotes). If you enjoy me ranting like a rabid dog, this is an episode for you.
I hope to write up a post about the amazing time I had at the Austin Game Writers Summit when I have had a better chance to digest the experience. I’m dipping down into that post-con low today. It’s hard to go from being super-social and hanging out with amazing people to being back at your computer alone with nobody but your cats for company (Sarah’s putting on a show, which I get to go see tomorrow).
I’ll be turning around and flying out to Vermont on Monday to meet the fine folks at Chelsea Green, a publishing company that specializes in books on sustainability and green living. It’ll be a whirlwind trip of meetings and driving in a place where I have never been. I’m less anxious about the job interview than I am about the driving in Boston.
So what did I miss this week? Anything cool happen with you folks?
Filed Under: SF Podcasting, Speculative Fiction
Tony has put together a really special episode of Starship Sofa this week, with a reading of Michael Bishop’s story, written in memory of his son who was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting.
From Tony over at Starship Sofa:
StarShipSofa narrates Vinegar Peace, a SF story wrote by Michael Bishop for his son Jamie Bishop who died two years ago at the Virginia Tech shooting.
Michael Bishop says:
I wrote “Vinegar Peace” — in August of 2007 — because I had to. Our 35-year-old son, Jamie, died on the morning of April 16, 2007, as one of thirty-two victims of a disturbed shooter on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Jamie, an accomplished digital artist who did lovely covers for four or five of my books, was holding forth in Room 2007 of Norris Hall in his German class more than two hours after his eventual murderer had slain two students in a dormitory on another part of campus. The administration failed to issue a warning — a warning that might well have saved many lives — in a timely fashion. However, some of its members secured their own offices and notified their own family members of this initial event; and so the worst school shooting in the history of the United States claimed our son, four other faculty members (including a man, Dr Librescu, who had survived the Holocaust and who held a table against his classroom door until all own students could escape), four of Jamie’s students, and twenty-one other young people in Norris Hall, not to mention the first two victims in West Ambler-Johnston dorm. Another twenty-eight students were wounded by bullets or injured leaping from upper-story windows. Some of these young people will live with their injuries the rest of their lives
All of the administrators, with the exception of a woman who later died of a stroke or a heart attack (a death that my wife and I can’t help but attribute partially to the stress of living with the mistakes of the President and the other Policy Group members), remain in their positions. So much for accountability, and so much for justice.
In any case, “Vinegar Peace” grew from this disaster and from a grief that I can’t imagine ever laying totally aside. Jeri and I mourn Jamie’s loss every day in some private way, and we think continually of all the other parents and loved ones of the slain and injured who will carry a similar burden with them until they die. We think, too, of the parents and loved ones of the dead and wounded from the United States’s optional war in Iraq, who long for their dead and who pray for their injured with an intensity not a whit different from our own. How ironic that our son died on American soil. How sad the wasted potential and disfigured lives resulting from violence everywhere. And forgive me the inadequacy of these remarks. Clearly, I wrote a story because I could not address either my outrage or my grief in any other way.
Mike Bishop
StarShipSofa is very honoured and humbled to be allowed to bring this story to a wider audience. I know I speak for the SF community when I say our hearts and prayers go out to Mike and Jeri and all the families who have to live with this grief every day.
StarShipSofa Show No 82: Vinegar Peace, or, The Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage
As Ever,
Tony
Filed Under: My Writing, Podcast, SF Podcasting, Top Post
My story from the excellent anthology Seeds of Change (edited by the Anthology God, formerly known here as the Slush God, John Joseph Adams) has gone live over at Escape Pod. This is a story that was published to mixed reviews. But I am astounded by the job that Philippa Ballantine did here. Her reading was spectacular, and adding a New Zealander accent to the patois of the Arties made the whole thing feel more familar and more exotic at once. I fell in love with my own story, which is not easy for me. Thank you, Philippa. And thanks to John for buying the story.
I believe that my next podcast appearance will be on Starship Sofa with “Captain Bl00d’s Booty,” a story also edited by JJA. It’s either that or one of my earliest (and most loved) stories, “The Girl with the Sun in Her Head” which is with Podcastle, but I don’t know when it is scheduled to go up. Both should be a hoot to hear. Writing all these Roundbottom podcasts has me thinking a lot more about how something could sound when delivered by a talented voice actor. I think it’s only going to improve my writing in the long run.
Hi! My name is Jeremiah Tolbert, but call me Jeremy. I am a writer, photographer, and web designer currently living in Northern Colorado, seeking either freelance web design work or fulltime employment. Drop me a line if you have any questions, comments, advice, or heckles. I love hearing from new people. If you’re inclined, you can follow me on Twitter, where I share various links and talk about the same things I talk about here, only with fewer characters.
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