New Story: “The Disconnected”

I’m happy to announce that my 2nd piece of published fiction has now been set loose on the unsuspecting public. The story is titled “The Disconnected” and is available as a free audio file download from Pseudopod.

Pseudopod is a fiction horror podcast produced by Escape Artists, the same company behind Escape Pod (science fiction) and Podcastle (fantasy). Every week Pseudopod releases one short story in audio format, often reprints from professional publications. Each story has an intro and outro, usually featuring Alasdair Stuart remarking on aspects of life and media that relate to the story in some way or another–his part is entertaining all by itself, let alone the story. A cast of volunteer readers provide the voices for each story. Audio fiction is an entirely different experience from text because it is performed rather than just provided–a good reader can make a good story even better.

The Disconnected is a tale about a possible future, in a world where cell phones have grown so important that to imagine living without them is unthinkable. If I had to pigeonhole it, I would classify it as dark science fiction with a little action/adventure mixed in. The story is not a reprint–it hasn’t been seen anywhere else before this publication. And it’s free, so you have nothing to lose but a half hour of your time. Whether you like it or not, I’d like to hear what you think. You can leave comments on this thread, or you can leave a comment on the story thread at the Escape Artists forums. Negative comments are okay too, though if you dislike the story I’d prefer if you would be willing to explain why. For those of you who don’t like spoilers, you might want to avoid reading the comments below this thread until after you’ve listened to the story.

Whether you liked my story or not, you might want to check out the rest of Pseudopod’s offerings. Their tastes cover a very broad range of horror from zombies to suspense to serial killers to horror/humor to any other sort of dark fiction. My story is the 169th short story they’ve published, as well as a couple dozen pieces of flash fiction. If you are looking for a place to start, you might want to check out my list of The Best of Pseudopod. Over the last few months I’ve listened to every story that Pseudopod had to offer, and here I provide links to my favorite stories of the podcast.

If you like the stories that Pseudopod provides, you might want to consider donating a few dollars to Pseudopod by clicking on their “Feed the Pod” button, but that’s completely up to you.