John Bowker

Download the MP3 here: Apron Strings

Way back in 2010, I started fiddling with some of my older short stories to see how they might work as audio. The first, “Pairings”, is available here and while I’ve never heard a peep from anyone about it it still gets downloaded thirty or forty times a month by various bots selling knockoff Prada bags and Viagra. So in a way it’s already achieved a greater immortality than it did with its original publication, the hard copies of which were likely long ago recycled.

For the second story, I chose “Apron Strings,” another one of those pieces that fell in that spot where I live, not genre enough for SF, too genre for the lit crowd. Eventually it found a home at Aoife’s Kiss which is a print magazine and therefore nifty in the way of all  tangible creative artifacts; it’s a nice change to actually hold the published piece in your hands instead of squinting at the pixels on screen.  Unfortunately,  like many print magazines that satisfaction is tempered by somewhat limited distribution and a short half-life.  Even those treasured few people who might have wanted to read the story were unlikely to have found it.

So it seemed perfect for the spoken word treatment but there was still one snag. Like a lot of my stories, it was written in the first person from the perspective of female narrator. In this case, a teenager. Not to knock my vocal chops but like Harvey Fierstein, I know my limits.

Instead, I turned to local writer, statistical analyst, and all-around polymath Melinda Thielbar, who generously donated her time and voice to the project. We never really discussed the piece or rehearsed; I gave her the script and a few days later she sent me her takes in email.  I had no idea what to expect until I opened them in the sound editor but even now I’m still a little in awe of how well Melinda nailed the voice of a character who had previously only lived in my head.   She took the story and ran with it, making it vastly better than it had any right to be.

Listen for yourself: http://www.crossingmidnight.net/audio/ApronStrings.mp3

If you’re interested, the legal details are available under the cut:

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I swear, there’s more to me than Arisia schedules. Life’s been busy lately and of my various blogs this one gets the least attention, from me or anyone else. Apologies to my one organic reader; I promise I’ll try harder this year.

Anyway, here’s Arisia 2013. Watch for some publishing announcements and another audio story in the next few days.

• 786 The Movie Year in Review Harbor Ballroom III Media Sat 11:00
  
  Our annual look back at the year in SF, horror, and fantasy film. Our panel of experts will cover every theatrical release of 2012. Find out which ones are worth catching up with. Note: time for audience participation is reserved for the end of our panel’s high speed review.
  Panelists: Daniel M Kimmel, Michael A. Ventrella, Garen Daly, John Bowker, Dr.Chris

• 265 Bad Superhero Films Revere Media Sat 8:30 PM Duration: 01:15The success of The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises might make us forget that not every superhero works. Some of them are pretty bad: Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Daredevil, Supergirl, Green Lantern… What causes a superhero movie to fail, and how many reboots are we willing to sit through?
  Panelists: Bob Chipman, Howard G Beatman, Craig Shaw Gardner, John Bowker, Troy Minkowsky

• 704 Foodcraft: How Science Can Reinvent Your Kitchen Independence Maker Sun 1:00PM
  Foodies are always inventing new scientific techniques to prepare their favorite ingredients in exciting new ways, but are these modern miracles available to someone on a budget? Or is the Modern Kitchen only a pipe dream? Learn the wonders of sous vide, sonic cavitation, and food grade centrifuges.
  Panelists: John Bowker (mod), David G. Shaw, Stephanie Clarkson,

Harrow Press released Mortis Operandi, their new anthology of supernatural crime and detection just before Christmas so it got a bit lost in the holiday tumult. Now that things have calmed down, I’ve had a chance to look at my contributor copy and it’s a really sweet looking book. It contains my story “All the Many Ways We Burn” which involves Walpole prison, the six of spades, a phoenix, a defrocked priest and all the shanking, swearing, and flaming you’d expect from such. It was an odd story to place; thanks to editors Dru Pagliassotti and Kfir Luzzatto for giving it a home with such good company!