More short stuff

For those who may be wondering, I do intend to give writing short fiction a bit more of an effort. There are, after all, markets, especially for short genre fiction. (Interestingly, I hear that Fantasy & Science Fiction is short of science fiction and humour...) And there are always plenty of short story competitions to enter. Most are not spec-fic related, but I've been playing with some of the themes, and twisting them into a speculative story seems like it could be fun. I suspect it will frighten or at least bemuse the judges, but when that happens, there's always this blog to post it on.

Now, the reason for my sudden interest in the short story is partly that, while plundering the extensive back-catalogue of Escape Pod, my current source of short sf, I have come across a number of stories with some kind of religious content or theme. And I'm getting a taste for how some of these things might be dealth with in a more overtly Christian story.

I've said this before, but for those of a podcasty nature, I recommend Escape Pod. I like the amusing way the stories are all rated: 'Contains profanity, sexual situations, and the undead, in various combinations' or 'Contains battle scenes, Imperial propaganda, overenthusastic chemistry, and bad poetry.'

And I like some of the readers: host Steve Eley's female character voices always make me smile, and Mur Lafferty - well, she hasn't read one for a while, but something about her voice would make me hang on every word of the phone book. Actually, perhaps that's not the best thing to listen to while driving...