More fun for the holidays! The Truth, a radio-drama podcast, has released a new episode, Santa For President, a little humorous look at what happens when Santa is approached by two political operatives about running for President. You can listen or download from the link. This is kind of a sneak peek because it will be aired on NPR on Christmas Day. You heard it here first. 🙂
Lots of things are popping up online either free or on sale cheap for the holidays. This isn’t a definitive list, but I just thought I’d share some fiction (ebooks, audio books, podcasts) and music. (All but one are holiday-themed.)
Podcasts: I like science fiction and fantasy. However, when one looks at a list of Christmas-themed stories or ebooks what one usually finds are romance and mystery. I like romance and mystery just fine, but if you want SF/fantasy here’s some to brighten (or maybe I should say “enliven”) your holidays. Podcastle, the excellent fantasy podcast, for the past few years has featured a holiday story by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw in December. (Note that the podcasts are rated; most are G or PG, but one is an R.)
Keep an eye on Podcastle to see if there’s another story this year!
More Fiction: Also….not a podcast, but….“Overtime” by Charles Stross. Fantasy/horror/comedy which is part of his Laundry series, but can be read as a stand-alone story. Free to read on the Tor.com site. (Ebook short story 99 cents Nook and Kindle.)
Music: “Christmas Time Is Here” played by Michelle Shumann Trio live in studio 1A, from KUTX’s Song of the Day podcast. You can listen in the player below (for most browsers) or click through and download the song.
Ebooks: One of my favorite children’s book, Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree is on sale for Nook and Kindle, $1.99 right now. It’s a short illustrated poem. Charming.
A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd is a collection of the essays that were the original basis for his screenplay A Christmas Story. A nice treat for fans of the movie. $1.99 for Nook and Kindle.
Audiobooks: This isn’t Christmas-y — unless you embrace the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas — but M. R. James’ classic story, “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You, My Lad”, read by David Suchet, is free from Audible.com right now. (Not sure if you need an Audible account to get this. Some freebies are accessible to all and some are not.)
Joyous Everything to Everyone! 🙂
I’m a day late posting this, but everyone is probably still having Thanksgiving leftovers, so here’s an unconventional grace to say over your meal, courtesy of science fiction author John Scalzi: Science Fictional Thanksgiving Prayer. (Blog post with audio and link to text) Have a nice holiday weekend!
Tomorrow is tax day. Filing taxes isn’t a lot of fun, but I’ve got something that’ll brighten your day. Toasted Cake, the flash fiction podcast, has this story: “Carla at the Off-Planet Tax Return Helpline” by Caroline M. Yoachim. It’s short, funny, and you can console yourself that filing taxes a lot more complicated in another part of the galaxy…
Yes, that’s a ninja! So watch your step. And watch your back. This year I’ll be making zombies as well. For recipe and tips on how to avoid fat ninjas, see my post, Gingerbread: Ninjas and Zombies on The Usual Suspects, a group food blog I contribute to.
Funny typo: instead of “plants that consume organic matter”, I typed “pants”. Gotta watch out for dangerous pants.
