Super funny: Space Casey by Christiana Ellis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Space Casey by Christiana Ellis - Podcast Audio Drama

Christiana Ellis, the purveyor of more fine podcasts than you can shake an iPod at, has begun a new fiction series. Unlike her grrl powered podiobook, the epic fantasy Nina Kimberley: The Merciless, her latest project is a full cast podcast audio drama. Written and starring Christiana herself this is an uproariously funny series is about a wily con-woman in space, the titular Space Casey, who finds herself on the wrong end of a short-con gone very, very, wrong. She’ll need to use every grift in the book to navigate her way out of the inter-stellar, inter-dimensional, mess she’s got herself into.

Space Casey audio drama Space Casey
By Christiana Ellis; Performed by a full cast
10 Episode Podcast Series – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: SpaceCasey.com
Podcast: Started November 2007
Some heroines will steal your heart… This one will steal your wallet.”

If you are, like me, a fan of grifter movies and novels you’ll double-dig this show. Even if you’re not you’ll still find it hilarious. The writing is at times sublimely funny with many laugh out loud scenes. Christiana Ellis makes podcasting look completely effortless.

Future episodes will feature guest podcasting voices like Rich Sigfrit, P.G. Holyfield, Mur Lafferty, Tee Morris, Nobilis, Phil Rossi, Will Ross, and P.C. Haring and J.C. Hutchins!

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.spacecasey.com/?feed=podcast

Posted by Jesse Willis

Happy Public Domain Day 2008!

SFFaudio Commentary

CopyrightWatch.caSince the inception of the SFFaudio in 2003, and especially since the SFFaudio Challenge back in 2006, there have been many queries directed my way about copyright. I’ve had no formal training, but having a blog and getting questions about it means I’ve had to learn quite a bit about it. Copyright is a form of protection grounded in law granting original works of artistic creation protection for a set period. Various copyright laws are in force in many countries of the world. One source I’ve found for my own country is the indispensable CopyrightWatch.ca blog. As today is the first of 2008, this day marks the birth of many new public domain works. As CopyrightWatch author Wallace McLean points out “thousands, indeed millions, of creative works from the collective cultural past of our little planet and its many countries [become] Public Domain [today] in most countries of the world” That makes January 1st a birthday party of sorts! Included amongst the newly public domain works are some by notable SFF authors. Here are a few of the details from the extensive post on the blog…

In the largest bloc of countries of the world, with the majority of the world’s population, the general copyright term of life+50 expired no later than midnight this morning for the works whose author, or last-surviving of multiple authors, died in 1957. These works, which have passed out of copyright and become part of our commonly-held cultural heritage, include works of art and literature, accounts of discovery and adventure, biographies and autobiographies, scientific and philosopical treatises, film and theology, architecture and poetry; in short, products of the human mind in every medium, in every field of creativity, discovery, and endeavour.

The life+50 class of the newly-Public Domain includes:

The King Of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord DunsanyAnglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany

Brigands Of The Moon by Ray CummingsAmerican pulp sci-fi author Ray Cummings

And many more!




The second-largest bloc in the world copyright map, with about half the countries of the life+50 universe, is the life+70 universe, which includes much of Europe (this means that works by authors, or last-surviving authors, who died in 1937 are now public domain in the life+70 countries. Authors or other creators of “works” who died in 1937) include:

The Dunwich Horror and Others by H.P. LovecraftAmerican fantasy and science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft

Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens by J.M. BarrieScottish novelist and dramatist J.M. Barrie

And many more!


In the United States, unpublished works by the life+70 class of authors are also in the public domain as of today, joining published works by the same authors, if published before 1923. Published works by those auhors, if published after 1922, may still by under copyright in the U.S. In Canada and the United Kingdom, however, the situation is reversed. While published works by authors who died 50 or more years ago are public domain in Canada (or more than 70 years ago in the U.K.), unpublished works, such as letters and other papers, are still under copyright in Canada for works by authors who died after 1949, and in the U.K. for unpublished works by all authors, no matter how long ago they died. This anamolous class of unpublished works will not see their British Public Domain Day until January 1, 2039, or in Canada until January 1, 2049, unless and until the Parliaments of the two countries finally see fit to eliminate this confusing and culturally counterproductive bit of legislative stupidity.

Also entering the public domain around the world today are works of anonymous or pseudonymous authorship which were published in 1957 (or whichever other year applies according to your local copyright term for such works.)

But let us nevertheless pause to celebrate the gains that the public domain has made today, in Canada and throughout the world. It’s your past, your cultural heritage, your public domain. Promote it, celebrate it, and use it, or we will lose it.


Happy Public Domain Day 2008! If you start making audiobooks or audio dramas out of these author’s works let me know. I’ll make links!

Posted by Jesse Willis

New publication etext and MP3 journal: Sci Phi – The Journal Of Science Fiction and Philosophy

SFFaudio News

From the creator of the long running The Sci Phi Show podcast comes Sci Phi – The Journal Of Science Fiction and Philosophy!

Sci Phi - The Journal Of Science Fiction and Philosophy

“[This] is a new popular level journal aimed at readers who like science fiction but want to think
about its implications a little more. Each issue of Sci Phi will contain short stories and articles. The short stories will tend to have an interesting idea underlying them and the articles will look at various philosophical ideas through the lens of science fiction.

Issue #1 contains stories and articles by:

Matt Wallace, Paul S. Jenkins, Lee Battersby, Jason Pomerantz, Geoffrey Maloney, Michael Spence, Stephen Dedman, Ben Goertzel, Stephan Vladimir Bugaj, Ryan Nichols and Jason Rennie

Each issue comes in various ebook formats as well as all of the stories and articles in mp3 format for your listening pleasure. Each issue costs $7, and all of the contributors are paid on a royalty basis, with about 80% of the issue price being paid directly to contributors.

Additionally after one year each the journal will be released under a creative commons attribution non-commercial license 3.0.”

Look for a review of this first issue in the coming weeks.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Blake’s 7 on BBC 7

OnlineAudio

Blake’s 7 on BBC7’s The 7th Dimension

The second one hour show of the new Blake’s 7 audio drama series has just aired!

Comments about Blake’s 7 audio drama…

“Its great that Blake’s Seven is back on the BBC. Hearing the stories as one hour blocks rather than 5 min bits is so much better!” -Kally_1978



“Very well done BBC7 for this purchase from sci-fi. And for broadcasting it in substantial one hour chunks. Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. A very neat ‘reimagining’ (horrible word)of the origin tale. Looking forward to the next chapter.” -rosewizard



“I have to say, I was impressed. It’s played straight – none of the tongue-in-cheek nonsense that spoils so much science fiction. And I was delighted that there was some effort at scientific accuracy. The space travel element is well worked out, they don’t assume that all spaceships have artificial gravity…” -Blue_Biro



And these folks are dead-on, this show is super slick. The program shines in the 1 hour format. If you were a fan of the original tv series you’ll absolutely love this re-imagining. I hope these adventures continue past just these three shows.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Time Traveler Show – Harry Harrison’s The Velvet Glove

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Time Traveler Show PodcastHankering for vintage SF? The best way, travel back in time to the mid 1950s and pick through an overflowing newstand full of pulp goodness. Or, just let The Time Traveler Show do it for you. The latest show does just that with Michael Bekemeyer, from Scatterpod podcast, reading Harry Harrison’s The Velvet Glove – it first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Fantastic Universe!


The Time Traveler Show #22 - Harry Harrison’s The Velvet GloveThe Velvet Glove
By Harry Harrison; Read by Michael Bekemeyer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler Show
Podcast: December 28th 2007

Have a listen through the link above or give it a bit and get it through The Time Traveler Show podcast feed:

http://www.timetravelershow.com/shows/feed.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC Radio One begins re-airing Canadia: 2056

SFFaudio News

Canadia 2056Matt Watts, long silent (hard at work), has posted some welcome news on his blog

Canadia: 2056

If you notice a complete lack of publicity surrounding a show – if you hear or read absolutely nothing at all about a particular program – the chances are that it’s premiering within a matter of days. It’s CBC Radio’s anti-publicity campaign, their ‘publicity-nouveau’ if you will. If you think about it, it really challenges the listener to ‘discover’ programming. It’s rather brilliant and progressive, actually.

“Our silence and lack of acknowledgment indicates that some thing is about to happen… Maybe.”

But, for the neophobes who can’t get on board with this whole “anti-publicity” fad, and for those who have duly noted that the CBC Program schedule says that Afghanada is still airing on the 2nd of January:

Canadia: 2056 starts airing on Wednesday. Yes, this Wednesday, January 2nd at 11:05PM, repeat on Friday January 4th at 11:30AM. The first season will run through until March, and then the second season (the episodes we’re currently writing/recording) will begin airing.

Also, for those of you enquiring about CD’s of the first season: I think it’s safe to assume at this point that they will not be available for Christmas. I’m assured that they will be available for pre-order by the time the show starts airing on Wednesday… But if you go by my convoluted logic regarding the publicity for the show – if you don’t order the CD’s at all, they will arrive on your doorstep sometime last week.

As for podcasting… Don’t even ask. It’s hopeless at this point. The idea of downloading any radio drama from the CBC website looks like it’ll probably happen around the time digital media is considered out-dated and archaic. Incidentally, I tried to get the phrase ‘now available on the compact disc format!’ on the cover of the CD’s, but they didn’t go for it.

We’re halfway through recording the new season, which I’m really enjoying writing. Although the focus is primarily the characters and their relationships, we’re pushing the SF story-lines as far as we can… For the record, if you think I’ve stolen something from either Douglas Adams or Grant Naylor, it’s an homage…

Not theft.

(Fine, I ‘borrowed’ some ideas… But at least I ADMIT IT!)”

Cool! I’ll be tuning in for the re-running of Season One. Listeners outside of Canada will have to make due with the online listening service provided through the CBC Radio One site. It really pisses me off that CBC can’t get their act together when it comes to podcasting their in-house radio drama. Its the ideal format for the stuff.

We’ll be talking more about Canadia: 2056 as Season Two approaches.

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Free The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al!