Thank you for pointing me to this other story. It confirms that CRK is not the author for me. There's something about her writing for me that is offputting and irritating, and just rubs me the wrong way. Just not my style, I suppose. 
She may well be a writer's writer, or at least, a geeky English major's writer. She's stylistically accomplished and there's lots and lots there for people interested in genre as "stories in close conversation with one another" (Bujold's def, not mine), but perhaps the accusations on this thread of a certain lack of action have some merit (but would not, actually, have the same merit as a critique of her novels, where plenty of stuff happens). Hal Duncan goes the same direction, and he's certainly not for everybody. If stories are all about where you're going, and not so much about the ride and the conveyance, you'd be understandably frustrated with CRK, especially in short form. That's why I referenced Poe (though one could also talk Lovecraft here). She draws from that long tradition of story as atmosphere, and she executes it expertly and
modernly, which is the piece you can't get if you go back to Poe and Lovecraft.
Everyone's tastes are different, but I appreciate anyone who will try an author more than once to be sure.
There are many highly acclaimed authors who do nothing for me, though I'm always like "Ok, maybe
this story is the one that will speak to me, the one where I'll
get it." It's also, in my mind, the beauty of the short story, as a form. It allows elasticity and experimentation for both authors and listeners/readers, without the time commitment of a novel. I like it as a way of sampling authors, which is why - though I get excited when the 'casts run authors I know and love - I also like it, and maybe even like it better, when they introduce me to someone I didn't know about. I came to Greg Van Eekhout through Escape Pod, for example, and M K Hobson through Podcastle, and I love them both.
