What started as a neat little idea for a fun evening reading and discussing stories turned into quite a fantastic evening with a healthy crowd of listeners and participants.
Altivo Overo, Buck Hopper of the Furry Basketball Association and Skip Ruddertail of Bad Dog Books became impromptu co-hosts of the online equivalent of a very productive writing panel, where we read and discussed seven story samples sent to me from writers across the world — as far away as Jakarta, Indonesia. And with one exception (he didn't have Skype, alas!) we got to converse with all of them.
Over three hours, with ABSOLUTELY ZERO technical issues, all totally unrelated to my beloved Mac platform and wholly to blame on Ustream, Skype and the temperamental concoction of apps and services I had to use to be able to talk to people. I've just spent ten hours cutting it together and making everyone seem far more clever, awake and attractive than we were at the time, all for your enjoyment.
First we had Altivo Overo, who brought us a delightful sample of his work "Blue on Blue", which can be found here: http://www.furrag.com/viewstory.php?sid=590
Then a pi-rat story (rats who are pirates!) from PS Lion, a fellow European who burned the midnight oil with me.
Next was Buck Hopper, with an awesome interior monologue from his namesake in the FBA: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5241802
Download now or listen on posterous
Cybercoyote couldn't join us, unfortunately, so Buck Hopper, Altivo, Skip Ruddertail and I could say horrible things behind his back about his story, "The Last Flight of the Midnight Express".
Download now or listen on posterous
Tango, AKA Rebelsheart, seems to be an anime fan whose tale of converging universes seemed particularly upsetting to my fragile recording setup, and most of the Zero Technical Issues occurred here. But that's okay! It just means you get to hear it explained three times in a row.
And all the way from the beautiful island of Java, Sulartenem gives us a story with waterscooters and fish, and critically reviews the three words of Bahasa Indonesia I can say, but don't understand.
Download now or listen on posterous
Last but by no means least, Don Iago AKA Siphedious teaches me how to pronounce his name and closes the session with a noir stream-of-consciousness that Buck rightly described as a 'crackling read'.
Download now or listen on posterous
I'd like to thank all the authors who sent in their work, everyone who listened in and my impromptu co-hosts.
And for those who asked whether I'd do this again in future: absolutely. It was too much fun not to. Keep an eye out!
Meanwhile: please enjoy.
- Alex Vance
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