Escape Artists
Escape Pod => About Escape Pod => Topic started by: sirana on January 11, 2007, 10:33:56 AM
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I read a science fiction story collection called Axiomatic by Greg Egan over the holidays and thought that these would be perfect in the context of Escapepod. I wanted to contact him, but couldn't find any adress or e-mail on his homepage.
Anyways, this got me wondering: What authors would you like to be presented on Escapepod and how could we get them to do it? Because my thinking is, that there are a lot of authors out who would like (or at least wouldn't mind) to have a story on Escape Pod, but who just don't know that it exists.
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Orson Scott Card, not doubt about it.
If yopu haven't read him, you should. He's most famous for the Ender's Game series, but he has many great short stories as well. You can find a few of them at his website:
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/index.shtml This small collection includes his original Ender's GAme short story.
One of my favorites is The Lost Boys, though it may be to long for EscapePod.
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I'd go for Charlie Stross. He has a lot of good short stories to his name (some of which you can read online at http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/index.html (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/index.html), and is a frequent collaborator with EP fave Cory Doctorow.
How we make authors come to EP is another story. If anyone is interested in an author appearing here, the best option would be to contact them rather than expect the EP staff to chase down authors.
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How we make authors come to EP is another story. If anyone is interested in an author appearing here, the best option would be to contact them rather than expect the EP staff to chase down authors.
Huzzah! Thank you for saying that.
It also makes a stronger impression on the author. Seriously. Just one example: I got an e-mail two weeks ago from a Major Hard SF Author With a Four-Letter Last Name that began "Hi... fans have been telling me I should get in touch about podcasting some of my stories."
That's a great basis to start a conversation. >8->
(And yes, that description was deliberately chosen to not give away the author.)
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That'll make my job a lot easier at conventions :)
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Neil Gaiman
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Neil Gaiman
Go ahead and send him an email asking him to submit work to EP.
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Kevin J. Anderson - definately him. He's done some great science fiction.
Also, Brian Herbert, but he's probably too busy working on his father's legacy. I think I remember him talking about some ideas for short stories at one point though. Both inside and outside the Duniverse.
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I have already suggested to a couple of author friends from my "travelling fen" days submit some of their stories... the way this creative commons license seems to work it is a great way to re-tell or repackage stories published prior in pulps or limited distribution forums to a new audience. One of the major authors of the "Thieves World" series has a whole stack of stories that never made it into the books. I think this is what we need to do--reach out and touch people using the "Kevin Bacon" approach.
http://www-distance.syr.edu/bacon.html
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Neil Gaiman
Generally, the audio rights to Neil's work aren't available.
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Neil Gaiman
Generally, the audio rights to Neil's work aren't available.
It could happen; a lot of doors stay open when we say we want nonexclusive rights. I spoke with Neil briefly last year at Balticon (I ran the sound board for his interview with Mur Lafferty and Paul Fischer), and asked about short story availability, and he said I'd have to talk to his agent. Which I haven't done yet, so I wouldn't rule things out entirely, but meanwhile, you can already get most of his short work in audio. (His collections are available as audiobooks, mostly narrated by Neil himself.)
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Fred Pohl
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Whoever owns the rights to the short stories of Fredric Brown.
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Ted Chiang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang). Although his stories might be too cerebral and long for this format. His stuff is real brain-food.
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Hmm, it might not be a bad idea for someone to pen a respectful form letter explaining Escape Pod to a prospective author and asking them to submit. People who want to ask an author can use this as a basis for writing their own letter, or could alter such a letter for their own purposes.
Just trying to think of some way to facilitate the process. . . .
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i'd love to hear Chuck Palahniuk read some of his work, he's more pseudopod though
Neil Gaiman
check out snow, glass, apples (http://www.scifi.com/set/playhouse/snowglassapples/)
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I'd go for Charlie Stross.
Definitely. He can throw out more ideas in one story than some genre authors manage in a career. And he seems unlikely to be afraid of Creative Commons.
Time to get nagging -- in a non-annoying way, of course. He does seem to be nearly as busy as Steve...
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I would totally swoon for one of Chuck's stories. Man. What a twisted guy. He's so awesome.
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Hmm, it might not be a bad idea for someone to pen a respectful form letter explaining Escape Pod to a prospective author and asking them to submit. People who want to ask an author can use this as a basis for writing their own letter, or could alter such a letter for their own purposes.
Just trying to think of some way to facilitate the process. . . .
There's a problem with form letters. When someone receives 500 emails that are all very similiar, it doesn't have the impact of 50 emails that are all very differently written.
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I have to still argue that getting 500 e-mails would probabbly make an impact.
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What about a petition? a single email with 500 names on it?
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I have to still argue that getting 500 e-mails would probabbly make an impact.
Heh. But not necessarily a good one. I for one don't want authors to get the impression that they've just been threatened by the Robot Army.
But for what it's worth, it does look like people are getting the word out. I've had a couple more e-mails now from people saying fans have suggested they send some stories to Escape Pod. This is a Happy Making Thing.
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Anyone mentioned China Mieville? His stuff would work for either Escape Pod or Pseudopod (depending on the story, I guess).
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Sergey Lukyanenko - the man behind the original story of the (fairly adapted) movies "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" and one of the best Russian science fiction authors.
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I've emailed Charlie Stross, but apparently he's busy. He seems to write an incredible amount of novels (by modern-day standards), so isn't writing much short fiction atm. Still, he now knows about EP so maybe we'll get something in the future. He does have a large back catalogue of short fiction he could submit some of when he has the time.
Forum members- don't be shy about informing your favourite authors about Escape Pod.
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Spider Robinson. Included in this post is the contact email (spiderweb@shaw.ca) from his website (http://www.spiderrobinson.com/), as well as a snail mail address for his literary agent.
Eleanor Wood, Spectrum Literary Agency
320 Central Park West, Suite 1-D
New York, NY 10025
(tel) 212-362-4323
I plan on sending a link to Escape Pod to the email address and suggest that he submit some short stories. Maybe some shorts in the Callahan's universe. I always enjoy reading those.
[edit] email sent and cc'd to editor@escapepod.org [/edit]
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Spider Robinson.
[edit] email sent and cc'd to editor@escapepod.org [/edit]
Woot!!!!! got a response
Dear L**,
Thanks; I appreciate it. I'll look into it as soon as I get a spare minute.
If that should occur prior to the Heat Death of the universe...
--Spider
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Sweet!
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We have had a problem recently. There have been some listeners demanding that EP be almost all hardSF. Many others have been calling for more hardSF. The problem is, Steve isn't getting any good hardSF submissions.
If you know a good hardSF writer, send them an email and tell them about EP.
I'd really like to hear some good stories about the colonization of Mars or better yet something around the space elevator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator). I haven't read about it in fiction since Heinlein (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034530988X/escapepod-20).
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It would be great if a Neal Asher story turned- woo hoo!
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I nominate Darin Morgan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darin_Morgan). He wrote a few teleplays for X-Files. Namely, some of the quirky ones like "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'", "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", and "War of the Coprophages".
I'd really like to hear some good stories about the colonization of Mars or better yet something around the space elevator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator). I haven't read about it in fiction since Heinlein (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034530988X/escapepod-20).
I think the protagonist of Robert L. Forward's Timemaster (1992) got rich building rotovators (http://www.tethers.com/MXTethers.html).
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id like to heat stackpool or t morris
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Arthur C. Clarke
Jim Butcher
Frank Herburt
Alasdair Reynolds
Robert A. Heinlien
Philip K. Dick
H.P. Lovecraft (who we may be able to just use being as that the copyright is expired or something like that)
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When I get home from work tonight I'm definitely going to try to track down contact info for Samuel Delany.
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If Sean McMullen wrote short fiction (maybe he does still; I don't know) I might like to read it, though he's more of a sweeping space-opera kind of guy.
I bet Wil Wheaton, if he wrote any original SF, would submit it here.
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id love to hear a short fiction from Michio Kaku
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl) Frederik Pohl
I'd like to ask him about the Heechee and Eschaton series. Wow.
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We have had a problem recently. There have been some listeners demanding that EP be almost all hardSF. Many others have been calling for more hardSF. The problem is, Steve isn't getting any good hardSF submissions.
If you know a good hardSF writer, send them an email and tell them about EP.
I'd really like to hear some good stories about the colonization of Mars or better yet something around the space elevator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator). I haven't read about it in fiction since Heinlein (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034530988X/escapepod-20).
Kim Stanley Robinson?
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We have had a problem recently. There have been some listeners demanding that EP be almost all hardSF. Many others have been calling for more hardSF. The problem is, Steve isn't getting any good hardSF submissions.
If you know a good hardSF writer, send them an email and tell them about EP.
I'd really like to hear some good stories about the colonization of Mars or better yet something around the space elevator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator). I haven't read about it in fiction since Heinlein (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034530988X/escapepod-20).
Kim Stanley Robinson?
Kim Stanley Robinson would be a good author to get for either his Mars Trilogy or Science in the Capitol universes.
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Stephen Baxter. DOH!
>:(
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Stephen Baxter. DOH!
>:(
Have you emailed him? Maybe if it came from a big fan, such as yourself, it would mean more.
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Stephen Baxter. DOH!
>:(
Have you emailed him? Maybe if it came from a big fan, such as yourself, it would mean more.
Good idea. I'll give it a shot.
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I think Steve's probably right about not using a form letter, but if you add some personal touches to this, maybe that would help:
Dear <author or agent>,
I'm a big fan of your novels and short stories. I especially enjoyed <author's most obscure/ambitious/lowest selling work>, and I'd love to see more stories set in that world. If you have any short stories along those lines, I'd suggest sending them to Escape Pod (www.escapepod.org), which is a weekly science-fiction podcast magazine that I subscribe to.
They pay authors a one-time fee for the right to record the stories, and release the audio under a non-exclusive Creative Commons license. They've put out stories by Isaac Asimov, Nancy Kress, and Robert Silverburg, and they run the Hugo nominees each year. (At least, they've managed to run 4 of them each year since they began podcasting.) They also run a lot of Mike Resnick stories, and I think your stories are a LOT better than his!
I hope you'll seriously look into this, because there are 20,000 other fans downloading these stories every week. It would mean a lot to me personally to know that I was the fan that got your stories out to a new audience.
Sincerely/Best Wishes/etc.
<your name here>
Apologies to Mr. Resnick for throwing you under the bus like that, but you seem like a really good sport, and besides, I like your stories a LOT better than <author>'s, anyway. ;)
Steve? Moderators? Care to offer any serious modifications before anyone take me seriously and tries to send something like this out to their favorite authors?
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Time Travel: Grab Philip K Dick.
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There's a certain Octavia Butler story I'd love to see show up on EP.
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Since there are 3 'casts, I'm not limiting my suggestions to SF. I'm also not limiting it to living authors.
Terry Pratchett
Stephen King (not my favorite, but wouldn't that be a feather in PP's cap?)
Heinlein
Asimov
Piers Anthony
David Weber!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Stephen King: Misery was pretty good, but the other's aren't as decent. And Asimov has already been featured. But PKD has loads of short stories, I have about 80 of them and they are pretty decent.
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I say...
we need the Ghost of Shakespeare to write stories for us...
wait... nevermind.
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Alistair Reynolds. The guy is bloody brilliant, and has quite a back-catalogue of short fiction. I'm sure he could be persuaded to sell one.