Rish Performs "So You've Decided To Adopt A Zeptonian Baby" on Podcastle

I don't know if this will be the last time I get to appear on PodCastle, the Fantasy Fiction Podcast, but I'm happy to have been able to read a story as part of their superhero flash fiction special this week.  Along with Mur Lafferty reading "The Sea City Six (Where Are They Now?)" and Sean D. Sorrentino reading "The Colors," I got to do the short piece "So You've Decided To Adopt A Zeptonian Baby" by David Steffen.

Host/editor of PodCastle, Dave Thompson has been very friendly toward me for the last little while, even mentioning that his kids listen to my performance of "The Christmas Mummy" every Rosh Hashanah, and I've appreciated the chance to appear on his show,* which gets, oh, a million times as many listeners as my own.  Usually, he'll pick a story that he thinks I'll do a good job with (or an amusing job, at least), and so I get a lot more funny, entertaining stories, than parables about womens' reproductive rights or the solipsism of a first-world country.

This was no exception.  "So You've Decided To Adopt" is a brief self-help instructional piece about the struggles parents of super-powered alien children are going to encounter.  After absolutely no deliberation, I decided to perform it in the voice of my favorite dead "Saturday Night Live" cast member.  Hopefully, somebody else will get a kick out of it.  Besides me, I mean.

Check it out at this link!

I do mention that this may be my last appearance on PodCastle because Dave Thompson recently announced he was stepping down from running PodCastle, to pursue his own endeavors, or raise his children, or spend a three-to-five stretch in jail.  Having tried my hand at podcasting a time or two, I have no earthly idea how someone could produce a weekly show the way he does, and it would be neat if he wanted me involved in whatever projects he goes on to do.

Except for the jail time.  I would never make it on the inside.

Rish Outfield

*Recently, somebody asked me why I would even WANT to be on somebody else's show, since it takes away from the time (and energy) necessary to do my own show.  But the truth is, there's only so much gas in the tank for doing Dunesteefs and Outcast and That Gets My Goats, where the motivation has to come from within.  If somebody else sends me a story (and a couple of them have been stinkers, don't get me wrong) and invites me to do it for their show, well, that's a chance to be a "very special guest star" or do a walk-on part (or whatever Hollywood comparison you want to make), and as soon as that job's done, it's done, with my focus now going back to my own stuff.  Those are usually pretty fun.  It's the assignments that never end that are the really daunting ones.

Besides, maybe somebody hears my reading on another show, and decides to check out my show because of it.  Then the money will just come pouring in.  I think.  It hasn't happened yet, but it could, couldn't it?