THE ONION PELTER (A GHOST STORY)

THE ONION PELTER (A GHOST STORY)
By Matthew Sanborn Smith

Vic pelted onions at his enemies. His friends and family said:

"Hey, you shouldn't do that." And because they said that, they too became his enemies.

He pelted onions at them.

Did I mention there was a ghost?

76, Big Silly!

I'm a big silly. Number 76 has been off to the races for two weeks and I haven't even mention it. It's a little poem called A Spec Fiction Writer's Lament.

The last few months have been less than stellar, from a production standpoint. I've noticed that when I get on a roll, I get all cocky. Then I confront my arch-nemesis, Process Five, and I'm stopped dead in my tracks. I'll have to sneak up on that one and take it down bit by bit, beat it up in a long war of attrition.

November promises to be very productive of course, as it's NaNoWriMo. I'll keep you guys updated. Last year I e-mailed lots of friends regularly on my progress, and they cheered me on. This year, I'm just going to do it on my own. Friends are great but I don't want to treat them like a crutch. Besides, last year was the hard one. This year I already know I can do it and short stories come easily to me. Now whether or not I produce fifty pieces of flash fiction or five novelettes or something in between, we'll just have to see. But I'm going to have fun. I haven't been very creative for the last month and a half, so I imagine brilliance will just squirt out of me unbidden. Tomorrow night it begins!

StarShipSofa: Aural Delights No. 49

Incredible news!

The StarShipSofa broken the light barrier! We are now moving so fast that we don't even know what happened to episode 48! Perhaps it was catapulted into the future. Perhaps it flew off with our left windshield wiper. At any rate, we are pleased to bring you Aural Delights 49 one week earlier than anyone could have expected it. Hold onto your slipcovers!

Aural Delights No 49 Gene Wolfe

Poetry: Hungry by Samantha Henderson

Flash Fiction: Tech Support by Ross E Lockhart

Fact: SF Is The Only Literature On The Internet People Care To Steal by Cory Doctorow

Audio Play: The Tree Is My Hat by Gene Wolfe and Lawrence Santoro

Narrators: Julie Davis, Paul Caggie, Dale Manley

Advertisement: This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at audiblepodcast.com/sofa

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Fresh?

Nice

Wassup 2008

Saw this on HuffPo and Boing Boing. It's fucking awesome! First the original:





And now eight years later:






The best part isn't on the screen: Eight years ago all these guys were working to put money into Cindy McCain's bank accounts.

Why Obama is like Osama

Because the Republicans can't catch either one of them.

StarShipSofa: Aural Delights No. 47 . . . And 46!

Oops! I forgot to tell you guys about Aural Delights No. 46 last week. So below are links to both this week's and last week's shows. Enjoy!

Aural Delights No 47 F Paul Wilson

Poem: King’s Men by Samantha Henderson

Flash Fiction: Captain Ordinary by Terry Bisson

Review: Assam and Darjeeling review by Julie Davis

New titles: Sean Williams Gavin Smith

Fact: Science News October by JJ Campanella

Main Fiction: Faces by F Paul Wilson

Narrators: Diane Severson, Paul Caggie, David Lamb

www.starshipsofa.com



AND . . .

Aural Delights No 46 Larry Santoro

Poem: Red Shifted Star by David Kopaska-Merkel

Flash Fiction: Faerie Husbandry by Church R Tucker

New titles: Ben Bova, Vernor Vinge, Kelly Armstrong, Ian Irvine

Fact: Julie Davis Reviews JJ Campanella

Main Fiction: Little Girl Down The Way by Lawrence Santoro

Narrators: Dale Manley, Julie Davis

Again With The NaNoWriMo!

It's taken many years, but I'm now so comfortable in my spazziness that changing gears every month doesn't bother me anymore. This is me. I'm a spaz. "So," you might be asking, "What now?" I'll tell you what now.

After spending most of the year certain that I wasn't going to do NaNoWriMo this year, I found a reason to do it. First, the reasons to not do it: 1) I didn't need another abomination of a first draft novel that would take untold effort to rein in. 2) I need to get some short stories written, damn it!

Well, one of the cats at StarShipSofa mentioned the Rebels forum on the NaNoWriMo site, for people who trash the rules and do their own thing. I decided last night to do my own thing. So I am going to do NaNoWriMo this year, but I'll be writing first drafts of short stories instead of a first draft of a novel. At fifty-thousand words in the month of November, this could give me anywhere from five to twenty short story first drafts, depending on the lengths of the stories. So there.

I'm in it.

Fiction Crawler 2 On The Sofa

Hey, everybody! Listen to my lilting voice once more on this week's Aural Delights. I'm quite the Paolo Bacigalupi fan and I'm very happy to have his story on the show as well. Blast off!

Aural Delights No 45 Paolo Bacigalupi

Flash Fiction: Reality 2.0 By Ian Creasy

Flash Fiction: I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Mack Reynolds

Fact: Fiction Crawler No 2 by Matthew Sanborn Smith

Main Fiction: Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi

Narrators: MCL, Lawrence Santoro, Grant Stone

www.starshipsofa.com

Did I Say War?

I take my lumps like a man. Two weeks ago I said I was going to kick Process Five's ass. That hasn't actually happened. Not even a little bit. I haven't given up, but that deadline will soon disappear in the rearview mirror. I was so full of fire, too! Feel free to harass me.

Did I mention I won Fantasy and Science Fiction's Competition #76? I don't think I did. Check out their October/November issue to see my entry. I just sent in six entries for Competition #77. You should too.

I sent Fiction Crawler 2 to Tony at StarShipSofa the other day, hopefully that will be on Wednesday's show, but we never know the future until it happens.

That's all for now, folks. Beddy-bye, as it's up for work in about four hours and some change. I wish you all a wonderful Monday.

Veepin'

Biden won. His answers were much more concrete and very knowledgeable. He didn't lose control of himself, which was the big fear among his people. No big blunders.

Palin made huge headway in just staunching the bleeding of her image and therefore staunching the blood loss of the Republican ticket, as much as she's responsible for anyway. She didn't come off like the utter moron we've been watching for the last week and a half. That in itself was a great win for her. However asking her to do all of that and win the debate was just far too much for almost anyone to do.

StarShipSofa: Aural Delights No. 44

StarShipSofa is proud to present Aural Delights No. 44. Blast off!

Aural Delights No 44 Lucius Shepard

Poetry:Flesh Eating Alien Vampire Sex On The Moon by David Kopsaka Merkel

Flash Fiction: Man Of The Theatre By Norman Spinrad

Fact: Halloween by Amy H Sturgis

Book Review: Sean Keough

Main Fiction: Senor Voltro by Lucius Shepard

Narrators: Julie Davis, Mark Nelson, Paul Caggegi

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at audiblepodcast.com/sofa

www.starshipsofa.com