I'm back from vacation (goodbye Seattle!), and am now checking back on this thread for the first time in a week or so.
First, my reactions to the others:
"Hunting" I thought was a good mood piece. I think we've all, at one point or another in our lives, had the feeling that something creepy and dark is going on, like walking down a dark road at night. If the moods just right, it's hard not to imagine a crazed murderer jumping out from behind a bush or a monster or some such thing. I know that when I've been in one of those situations, what helps keep me from panicking is to just keep repeating to myself how ridiculous my fear is. "There's nothing to be afraid of, that sound is just the wind. Those footsteps are just the echoes of your own. That scratching is just a tree branch on a window." And, so far, I've always survived those situations with nothing bad actually happening, which generally makes it a little easier the next time. This story took that fear, and had the protagonist follow this line of reaction, but in this case his denial of fear was his own downfall. If he had allowed his fear to keep him awake, perhaps he might have survived the night. Instead he mocked his own reaction and forced himself to sleep. I'm not sure I quite got the ending, though. Why did he disappear? Had they already disposed of him? Then why are they all standing around the empty bed? I think I like the ending of the post referenced by Erik, where he just wakes up to find the empty windowsills, so that he would forever after think of them whenever he's in a dark and creepy situation.
"Pageant Girls" was awesome. Great reading by Mur, as always. Beauty pageants for little girls have always creeped me out anyway--the extent that those girls are pushed to meet already twisted standards of female beauty is disturbing enough in real life. This story pushed that a bit further, in a fantastical way explored the darkness of reality. The ideal of beauty has become so twisted, like the heroin chic look of bygone commercials, that the pinnacle of such beauty is literally a corpse. And this has continued on to the point that actual corpses are the ones winning all the beauty pageants, just reinforcing the cycle as the living are expected to starve themselves to compete. The moment of realization that this other dead girl is no corpse at all was a very powerful one for me, the moment where she transforms in the protagonist's eyes from a beautiful dead girl to a tragic and wasted living girl. Wow. Well done.
Thanks for all the comments so far on "What Makes You Tick". It's amazing to me how a narration can give such a different tone. When I read the original text, the protagonist feels very clinical to me, just another scientist, no different from the human scientists, trying to understand something foreign to it. In Paul Cole's reading on Beam Me Up, the story somehow takes a comedic tone. In W. Ralph Walters's superb reading here, it took the feel of the story to a very different place. He did an amazing job with the voice, making this being seem entirely Other. I'm very excited by how it turned out. Thanks, Mr. Walters!
I have been continually excited with how well this story has been received. The funny thing is, when I wrote this, I figured it would be unsellable. I was in the middle of a long sales dry spell and frustrated that I couldn't seem to get a story that editors would like. At this point I said, "F*** it, I'm just going to write a story for me, and I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks of it." But I figured since I'd gone to the trouble of writing it, I may as well submit it. And it sold on its second submission. (I've tried to reproduce this attitude again, but have had no luck, perhaps because I have a different goal in mind) Which just goes to reinforce two bits of advice I've heard many times: 1. Write what you want to read. 2. An author is the worst judge of their own work--let the editors decide.
Anyway, carry on. I'll try to leave this thread alone for a week or two, but I'll stop back in at some point to say hi. I'm very glad to be returning to the airwaves of Pseudopod Towers. 
I gave it a listen yesterday and I really enjoyed W. Ralph Walters' reading.
--David Steffen
Somehow I'd no idea -- before Alasdair's intro -- that you're quite so accomplished an author. I knew you write but I didn't realise that you're so well-published. I'll have to be more respectful to you now ;-)
Actually, if I remember correctly, those were just the places where this particular story has appeared before it appeared here on Pseudopod. So far I've sold three other stories (and some reprints of those same) that have appeared a few other places as well. No need to kowtow, though, unless you really enjoy kowtowing (Who am I to judge?). I've been very happy that I've sold a few stories, and I hope to have more of such fortune in the future.
