The Audio File: An Audio Short Story Review Column

[Castor Pollux]

Hello,

You might remember me from a similar thread I started several months ago.  I run an audio short story review column at Alternate History Weekly Update and Amazing Stories called The Audio File.  The Alternate History column focuses on alternate history, time travel, steampunk and historical fantasy and covers one podcast per post.  The Amazing Stories column covers multiple podcasts per post and is organized by theme. 

I started The Audio File as a way to help podcasts in need and share great stories.  That brings me the reason for my post.  My latest Amazing Stories post is set to be about Military Science Fiction, but I'm a bit stuck in my search.  Any suggestions would be welcome, and it doesn't have to be from Escape Artists.  Stories from any podcasts are good with me.  I'm doing this out of love of podcasts and great stories.  And hey, don't be shy about suggesting themes and topics for future editions of The Audio File. 

I might make this my permanent thread to aid in my search for great stories, and maybe regularly post links to the latest edition of The Audio File.  Oh and here's links:

Alternate History Weekly Update:  http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Audio%20File

Amazing Stories: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/07/audio-file-superheroes/

[Castor Pollux]

Okay, the article is now live on Amazing Stories http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/09/audio-file-military-science-fiction/

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me out.  Here's to many more great articles to come

[Castor Pollux]

Hello Everyone, it's me again.  I'm working on an article for Alternate History Weekly Update about Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons and I was wondering if any of you had any alternate history, historical fantasy, time travel, steampunk, or any other historical punk, stories you could recommend to me.  It would be a big help and you'd have my heartfelt thanks

[Fenrix]

PseudoPod ran The Murmurous Paleoscope: http://pseudopod.org/2013/11/22/pseudopod-361-the-murmurous-paleoscope/ nice bit of steampunk alt history with archaeologist competition.

For classic time travel, it's hard to beat A Gun For Dinosaur on Escape Pod: http://escapepod.org/2013/05/24/ep397-a-gun-for-dinosaur/

[Castor Pollux]

PseudoPod ran The Murmurous Paleoscope: http://pseudopod.org/2013/11/22/pseudopod-361-the-murmurous-paleoscope/ nice bit of steampunk alt history with archaeologist competition.

For classic time travel, it's hard to beat A Gun For Dinosaur on Escape Pod: http://escapepod.org/2013/05/24/ep397-a-gun-for-dinosaur/

Yeah, I covered the first one in my post on Pseudopod, link to that here: http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-audio-file-pseudopod.html?m=1

A Gun For Dinosaur I'd considered reviewing in a future post.  Really great story, though it shows its age quite a bit

[Fenrix]

The Deathtrap stories over on Escape Pod might count as alt history and are a lot of fun.

I know both EP and PC have run a bunch. I remember one written by Amal El Mohtar that threw off the whole victorian england thing. Also, any Weird West probably counts as well. If you talk about Weird West at all, Robert E. Howard was pretty foundational with things like The Horror of the Mound and The Secret of Lost Valley.

Also the Balfour and Meriweather stories on PodCastle are great.

[Castor Pollux]

Yes, Weird West is one of the staples of The Audio File, and I do love Robert E Howard.  I'll take a look at those other ones as well.  I've written posts on Escape Pod and PodCastle, but at some point I'm going to go back a revisit PodCastle, as well as a few other podcasts I've already covered

Here's a link to all the posts I've made thus far: http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Audio%20File

[Castor Pollux]

My article about Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and Cast of Wonders is now live http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-audio-file-clarkesworld-strange.html

[Castor Pollux]

Hello Everyone, I'm back again with another inquirery.  I'm planning a special Thanksgiving themed edition of The Audio File.  Now, it's been my experience that there aren't that many Thankksgiving themed story, so I had to figure out what exactly I'd do.  Well the two big things that immediately come to mind when I think of Thanksgiving are Food and Football.  So my question to you is this: got any food or football themed stories?  Here's my list so far:

Thanksgiving Day

Concussion

Help Summon the Most Holy Folded One

To Make A Sandwitch

Raw Appetite

Local Delicacies

A Memory of Seafood

Homecoming

A Conversation About Eggs With A Man Sitting Next To Me

Owls of Athens

That story from Apex about the necromancer who cooks things


As a special treat I offer you this article I wrote for Halloween about The Moonlit Road.  They're a podcast and website specializing with folklore, ghost stories and other such stories from across the American South.  If you haven't heard of them before I strongly recommend giving them a try http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/10/audio-file-moonlit-road/

[Fenrix]

Hello Everyone, I'm back again with another inquirery.  I'm planning a special Thanksgiving themed edition of The Audio File.  Now, it's been my experience that there aren't that many Thankksgiving themed story, so I had to figure out what exactly I'd do.  Well the two big things that immediately come to mind when I think of Thanksgiving are Food and Football.  So my question to you is this: got any food or football themed stories?  Here's my list so far:

Thanksgiving Day

Concussion

Help Summon the Most Holy Folded One

Raw Appetite

Local Delicacies

A Memory of Seafood

Homecoming

A Conversation About Eggs With A Man Sitting Next To Me

Owls of Athens

That story from Apex about the necromancer who cooks things


As a special treat I offer you this article I wrote for Halloween about The Moonlit Road.  They're a podcast and website specializing with folklore, ghost stories and other such stories from across the American South.  If you haven't heard of them before I strongly recommend giving them a try http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/10/audio-file-moonlit-road/

We've got a Thanksgiving themed story coming up this year. And generally, which story we pick for the day after thanksgiving is a bit of black comedy. For example, Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird! is all about family and eating. But I'm not sure that's quite what you're aiming for :-)

[Fenrix]

On a more thematically appropriate note, The Love Ballad of Smidgen the Snack Cake is one of the best episodes of Escape Pod ever. Also the beer flash fiction collection at PodCastle.

And this thread may be helpful now or in the future: http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=7740.0

Apparently I found that the story "Thanksgiving Day" wasn't very evocative of the holiday.

[Castor Pollux]

On a more thematically appropriate note, The Love Ballad of Smidgen the Snack Cake is one of the best episodes of Escape Pod ever. Also the beer flash fiction collection at PodCastle.

And this thread may be helpful now or in the future: http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=7740.0

Apparently I found that the story "Thanksgiving Day" wasn't very evocative of the holiday.

Thank you for that link, Christmas will be here before we know it and I ought to start planning for that post as well.  Maybe I'll find a couple Chanukah and Kwanza stories too, but I kind of doubt that.

Since Thanksgiving Day is all about colonists on a distant planet searching for food it goes along with the food and football theme, plus it's called Thanksgiving Day, that alone would probably have earned it a spot on the list.

[Castor Pollux]

Quick question, does anyone know who typically narrates for th Beneath Ceaseless Skies podcast?

[Castor Pollux]

Hello everybody, I though I'd post something to show you all that I'm not dead and have been working on The Audio File.  I managed to get out that Christmas Special, albeit a bit late, and I repurposed the Thanksgiving Special into a general post about food and drink.

And here they are, hope you enjoy:

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2016/01/the-audio-file-christmas-special/

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2016/03/audio-file-feast-fiction-2/

[Castor Pollux]

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this thread.  No, I didn't die or anything.  I had personal matters to attend to.  Anyway, my old stomping ground The Alternate History Weekly Update has closed its doors so that my pal, Matt Mitrovich, can focus on his YouTube channel.  So I've decided to move my audio fiction review column, The Audio File, to my blog.  I'm also going to be quitting my position at Amazing Stories and bringing those reviews to my blog as well. 

So, I'm making good on that promise.  I'm splitting it up into The Alt-Hist File and The Audio File.  The alternate history and related stories will be released under The Alt-Hist File, and all the other kinds of stories will be released under The Audio File.  I've already released the first half of The Alt-Hist File's look at Escape Pod, and part two will be out soon.

And here's the link: http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-alt-hist-file-escape-pod.html

Also check out Matt's YouTube channel The Alternate Historian: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCi61CvyRnbmUJ55bolV5CnQ

[Castor Pollux]

Okay, part two of The Alt-Hist File's look at Escape Pod is up now.  Here's the link: http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-alt-hist-file-escape-pod-2.html?m=1

Pseudopod, you guys are next.  By the way, thanks for the shout-out over on the wikia.  That really meant a lot to me.

[Castor Pollux]

I've got the inagural edition of The Audio File posted.  Remember, The Audio File is for stories other than alternate history, time travel and historical fantasy.  If you're looking for those kinds of stories, you'll find them over at The Alt-Hist File.

Anyway, this edition of The Audio File is about The Four Loves: Storge, Philia, Eros and Agape.  It features stories from Escape Pod, PodCastle, The Drabblecast and Lightspeed Magazine http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-audio-file-four-loves.html?m=1

[Castor Pollux]

It took me a bit, but I've finally posted The Alt-Hist File's look at Pseudopod: http://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-alt-hist-file-pseudopod.html

Next up, the Alt-Hist File will be taking a look at PodCastle