As some of you may know, my recent travails into the world of writing and publishing short stories have been rather inextricably linked to a certain space-faring piece of furniture – the StarShipSofa.
Briefly, it goes like this: An article I wrote on NZ fantasy legend Hugh Cook was noticed by Sofa fiction wrangler Grant Stone, who in turn put me on to the StarShip as a source of story content, and I was soon over there doing narrations and even hearing my own work – in this instance, the Hugh Cook article – being read for an audience of thousands. Host Tony C. Smith’s enthusiasm for the genre was a shot in the arm, and it made me think one day as I was listening on the drive home that I could probably try my hand at something short, since all this novel-writing seemed to be a much longer game, and with a baby on the way it just might be that I could handle writing some short stories.
So on the back of being inspired by Tony and the StarShip, a little story called Crucible was born, and that story went on to be accepted and published and in turn filled me with the feeling that maybe I could write well enough to sell, after all. The rest is history (and I like to think, a work in progress). None of which would’ve happened had I not started listening to StarShipSofa.
Now, the thing about the StarShipSofa is that it’s free, always has been, and it brings some of the best fiction and non-fiction articles to the podosphere every single week, not to mention oodles of Tony’s enthusiasm which has an infectious quality all of its own.
But lately, the engines have been stuttering a bit.
Let me jump to the point. For a show like StarShipSofa – as well as its sister podcasts Tales to Terrify, Crime City Central and Protecting Project Pulp – to survive and continue putting out excellent content every week for nothing, they need donations. It needn’t be much, but every dollar or pound will help. I’ve made a couple of donations this year, because I realised that I’ve listened to all 280+ shows of the StarShip, as well as every Tales to Terrify episode and several Crime City Central episodes, and by donating even £20, that is still less than 5p per episode to date. And the inspiration that SSS has been to me has generated more than £20 in writing income, by a long way.
So if you’re a fan of the show, now is the time to dig down and find a few bucks to help keep the Starship going. If you’re not a fan, then it’s time you headed on over and found out why this podcast has been nominated for a Hugo three times and taken it home once already.
Also, if you donate right now, you’ll get some nice bonus audio to take away, including all 100+ of the original shows, and a recent How to Write Science Fiction podcast with SF legend Joe Haldeman.
So go, do it now. Keep the old girl running.
