Variant Frequencies

“Out of Time” by Jack Westlake has been nominated for BSFA (The British Science Fiction Association) award. We found out when Ilan Lerman posted about it on his blog. Congratulations Jack! Good luck with the award.

“Out of Time” originally appeared in Murky Depths #8.

You can listen to Jack’s short story right here on Variant Frequencies.

“Out of Time” by Jack Westlake.

In a seaside town, a young man finds the world around him frozen in time.

***
Written by Jack Westlake
Narrated by Rick Stringer

Well, we got through the big push for J.C. Hutchin’s book, “7th Son: Descent.” I’m back in control of the site. That Kilroy 2.0 is one tricky hacker. It sounds like Hutch had a great day. I hope you all went out and purchased his book. Hutch is a fantastic writer, and I can’t say enough good things about the man.

J.C. Hutchins is about to rock the publishing world with the print version of 7th Son: Descent. I’ve already told you how much I admire Hutch’s work. Hutch is one of the pioneers in podcast fiction. He released his entire 7th Son trilogy in 2006 and 2007 to prove that he could find an audience. He did exactly that, found an audience. But the mission isn’t finished. We need to help him get the rest of the trilogy published. Right now, only 7th Son: Descent is guaranteed to be published by St. Martin’s Press. The other two books are dependent on how well this one does. So, I’m asking you to go to JCHutchins.net to order 7th Son: Descent.

Hutch is once again creating new ways to promote his fantastic writing. You can get an EP recorded by one of the characters. John Smith’s “Anyman” EP can be found here:

http://jchutchins.net/site/2009/10/12/anyman-ep-track-1-unscrew-you/

There is so much more to explore on his site:

• A brand-new podcast recording of the “print edition” of the novel (with new scenes, twists, and character tweaks)
• A prequel audio short story anthology called 7th Son: 7 Days
• Serialization of the novel in PDF at my site, and the text at BoingBoing.net
• Free songs written and performed by John Smith, the musician character in the book
• And more

I think Hutch is one of the best new writers out there. You are doing yourself a huge disservice if you have not read or listened to his work. There is no excuse. It is available in just about any form that you want, and maybe even soon, on film.

Here is the promo for 7th Son: Descent.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/jchutchins/7thSonDescent_Promo_01.mp3

Variant Frequencies: Season V starts on October 15, 2009. We will be back with a great story by Matthew Warner.

In December, we are going to blast your ears twice a week with The Failed Cities: Hath a Darkness by Matt Wallace! The action starts on December 1 and ends on Christmas Day.

In January we will continue the Christmas theme with a fantastic story by New York Times Best Selling Author, Michael A. Stackpole.

We are just getting rolling folks. It is going to be a great season!

Variant Frequencies won another Parsec Award. “Under The Bed” by Michael Natale won Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form). We are very excited about it. Congratulations Michael, and thank you for letting us produce this wonderful, creepy story.

We also want to thank Michael A. Stackpole. Mr. Stackpole is New York Times Best Selling Author who provided the incredible voice for this story. From the moment I first read this story, I heard Michael A. Stackpole’s voice in my head. I’m so glad he agreed to read it for us.

Thank you to the 2009 Parsec Awards Steering Committee for all of their hard work on the awards.

Finally, thank you for listening to Variant Frequencies. There is more good stuff to come, we promise.

I narrated “Aerophelia” by Tobias Buckell. It was a fun story to do, and StarShipSofa is doing a fantastic job with their stories. Check it out at: http://www.starshipsofa.com.

The Parsec Awards are now open for submissions for 2009. As you all know, Variant Frequencies has done well at the Parsec Awards. We don’t know if we can win an unprecedented fourth year in a row, but that sure would be nice.

Here is a list of our episodes that qualify for Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form).

Saint Darwin’s Spirituals
Grounders
The Destruction of Sennacherib
Queue
All The Time
Under The Bridge Downtown
Best In Class
Creature of God
Gill Bando
Prisoners
Under The Bed

For Best Speculative Fiction Story (novella)
The End of Flesh

Finally, you certainly could nominate us for Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast.

We hope that you have enjoyed Variant Frequencies enough to nominate us again for the Parsec Awards. It has been an honor to be part of it for the past three years. So, if you think we deserve it, please go to http://parsecawards.com/submission and tell them what you think about us.

Thank you from everyone at Variant Frequencies.

__

UPDATE: Variant Frequencies has been nominated by a few people now. Thank you to those that have nominated us. If you want to nominate a specific story, then go to this page: http://www.parsecawards.com/node/618. Then add a comment that tells them the exact story that you want to nominate.

If you want to listen to a different type of interview, go to “How To Grow Your Geek” http://www.howtogrowyourgeek.net/. Susie interviewed me about being a geeky parent. It was a fun interview, and we even talked about the podcast some.

I had a great time. Thank you Susie!

Mark your calendars! On May 14th, 2009 you will be able to get your hands on a new anthology, “Full Throttle Space Tales #3: Space Grunts,” edited by Dayton Ward. The part that really has us excited is that it contains a story by Anne Stringer and Jason McDowell.

The book is edited by Dayton Ward, best known for his Star Trek novels. He also wrote one of the stories.

Anne and Jason wrote a story called “Flashback.” You all know how good Anne’s writing is. Jason is a terrific writer, and has real war experience from his tour in Iraq. They came up with a piece about a former soldier who goes on the run for murder, and winds up in a mercenary team on a far distant colony planet. They were happy with how it turned out, and apparently so was Mr. Ward.

Anne has written many of our stories here on Variant Frequencies, and Jason wrote the Parsec Award nominated “Sacrifice.”

Here is the full list of authors and their stories in the book:

Derek Tyler Attico, “Blowback”

Robin Wayne Bailey, “Shin-Gi-Tai”

Kirsten Beyer, “Widow’s Weeds”

David Boop, “The Thing With Private Leon’s Face”

John Coffren, “Across the Endless Sea”

Jeff D. Jacques, “Rush”

Jean Johnson, “It’s Not a Game”

Alan L. Lickiss, “Granny’s Grunts”

Julie McGalliard, “98 Hill”

Nayad A. Monroe, “An Assessment of the Incident At Camp Righteous”

Scott Pearson, “Finders Keepers”

Irene Radford, “Price of Command”

Selina Rosen, “Unchained”

Bradley H. Sinor and Susan P. Sinor, “Who Stand and Wait”

Anne Stringer and Jason McDowell, “Flashback”

James Swallow, “Target Market”

Geoffrey Thorne, “Truth Metric”

Dayton Ward, “A Fresh Perspective”

Well Told Tales has a fun series that they have been running called “I Killed Awesome Man.” I’m a guest voice in episode 5. http://welltoldtales.com/2009/02/05/i-killed-awesomeman-episode-5/

“I Killed Awesome Man” is written and produced by Finn Colgan. It is the story a mild-mannered comic book shop clerk who accidentally kills his favorite superhero…  then must assume his identity to save the world.

It is a fun story in the style of an old-time pulp serial. Check it out, it is a lot of fun.

Visit www.ikilledawesomeman.com for more information.