I won't be blogging for a week or two - too much reading and writing to get done. So this is a post to log a whole bunch of random variousness.
On the imminent destruction of all short fiction
Vector cover the story so far here.
John Klima responds here.
My two cents: Short fiction is not going away, it's evolving. Imagine if the next version of the iPod/iPhone comes with a PDF viewer and Apple come up with a way to sell them through the iTunes store. The short story market will explode.
One major problem with short fiction at the moment is discoverability - how do you find the magazine with stories you like? This is a problem inherent in The Long Tail and not restricted to short fiction. There's no point complaining the magazines aren't available in bookstores any more - nothing much else is either, unless you're one of those lucky people with a Borders or Waterstone's nearby. Last I checked, my local CD store had the top 40 and very little else. I want to say that the solution is some kind of recommendation service: if you like this author, you'll like this magazine, etc. Certainly the recommendation service at emusic has totally changed my listening habits. Exactly how this would work for short fiction, I've no idea.
More things to put in your ears (and eyes)
Some podcasts I've recently discovered that I'm enjoying:
Via boingboing, the Kasper Hauser Podcast. You had me at Impart as much useful knowledge as you can to a resident of the 14th century, in one minute -- GO!
Great music on All Songs Considered from NPR
Strange Horizons now has a podcast!
The Escape Pod fantasy podcast is finally starting to take shape. Which I learned on reading they'd purchased a story by Cat Rambo. Website here.
Right. That's me for a week or so. One last thing before I go: from the Kasper Hauser blokes, Jacobus has a video blog from the 14th century. Here's what he thinks about cats.
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