The Coode Street Podcast No.1 - Stealing Free by Deborah Biancotti

I'm starting things off with a podcast of a brand new story by Deborah Biancotti. Deb published her first story in 2000 and has won the Aurealis Award for Best Horror Story, the Ditmar Award for Best New Talent, and the Ditmar for Best Short Story. Her stories have appeared in Borderlands, Orb, Redsine and Altair, as well as Eidolon, Southern Blood, and assorted Agog! volumes.

"Stealing Free" is set to appear in Cat Sparks' new anthology, Agog! Ripping Reads, which will be published shortly. The story is read by Nick Evans and is published under a Creative Commons License. You can also read an excerpt from "Stealing Free". Before listening to the podcast, though, I asked Deb to tell us a little about "Stealing Free":

I have stories I call my Insomniac Crack. Stories that first occur late at night, while I'm awake with the brain spiralling in its own peculiar patterns: alert, but in a tangential, lateral way that doesn't lend itself to practical work. Awake and daydreaming, if the contradiction may be allowed. Soothed and smoothed by darkness & quiet, the story reaches out for me, always starting at the first line, never giving me the last. And yet, once the beginning is committed to paper, the rest of the story finds itself.

This story is one of those, begun late at night, the broad brush stroked added over several days between work and Life and other projects, but the real guts of it, the meat of the tale, so to speak, requiring another late night to pull itself together. And here -- for what it's worth -- is an unusual piece on the dutiful Salamander and his odd mixed bag of friends and enemies. Kingfisher. Pelicans. Empress. Monster. Sea Snake. And all their attendants. The story owes a debt of gratitude not only to Night and the peculiar and compelling Patterns it engenders, but to the careful readership of Chris Lawson, Ben Payne, Kim Selling and editrix extraordinaire Cat Sparks. Naturally, the flaws are all obstinately mine.

Listen to Stealing Free" [4mb].

Creative Commons License