The science fiction podcast Escape Pod is now presenting a reading of my novelette "Pen Pal". Part 1 of the story posted on October 13, and Part 2 should be up on October 20. It was a real treat this week to hear Kitty Sarkozy and Rachel Lackey bringing the words of Mary and Thu off the page and into voice. Great work and my thanks to both of them! Earlier when I had heard Kitty's reading of "An Incident on Ishtar" I had thought that she might be a good fit for this story, and I was glad to see that she would be doing part of the narration. She did a terrific job expressing Mary's character, and also capturing how her voice changes over the course of the story. I hadn't heard Rachel's work before, but I thought she nailed Thu's particular individual style and affect. Not to mention the bits of melodic verse for both narrators - small but rather important pieces of the story, the tunes of which are nowhere within the four corners of the page. So thanks for finding them!
Next week Part 2: in which the lives of our protagonist-correspondents get some unpleasant sharp shocks... [EDIT: Part 2 has now been posted here!]
If you liked "Pen Pal", you can check out some of my other stories:
Winterfey. In a ghost town on the Colorado high plains, a little girl encounters the goddess of death. This story was published in 2015 in the SF anthology After Oil 2: The Years of Crisis. Sneak peek tip: On the Amazon page for the anthology, if you click "Look inside" you can find the full text of this story on the preview pages.
Eight Stars of Gold. A 22nd-century whaling expedition along the Alaskan coast. This story was published in 2016 in the SF shared-world anthology Merigan Tales. A slightly different version is also available here on my blog.
As Above. The mystery of the billionaire and the domes.... This story was originally published in 2018 in Flash Fiction Magazine. It has also featured in a reading by C. B. Droege on the Manawaker Studios Flash Fiction Podcast.
