The podcasts of the latest BristolCon Fringe readings are now available, and they contain a wealth of exclusive material.

First up is Ian Millsted, who reads “The Traveller’s Apprentice”, a story that will appear in Airship Shaped & Bristol Fashion as soon as we can get the book through production. (Guess who is the blockage there?)

Headlining the evening was Jonathan L. Howard who gave us two readings: a short story called “Cowboy Kim”, and the prologue of the next Johannes Cabal novel. Both of these were also exclusives. “Cowboy Kim” was written for the event, while the new cabal novel won’t be out until next year. Jonathan also reveals the title of the book in the podcast.

My first reaction on hearing “Cowboy Kim” was to suggest to Jonathan that he submit it to some major magazines. It is a very good, darkly funny, examination of the possible future of entertainment TV. But it turned out that the story is based somewhat on a Devo song called “Big Mess”. Jonathan has been in touch with the band who have given him permission to use their material, but he doesn’t feel comfortable actually selling the story.

What we have done instead is make an ebook of the story available as a free download of the story available with a purchase of Colinthology, the charity anthology we created in memory of Colin Harvey. Jonathan lives in Keynsham, the same small town where Colin lived, and he has a story in Colinthology as well. This offer is only available through the Wizard’s Tower store (because those big name stores only allow you to associate one file with each stock item). 100% of the money received from sales of Colinthology go to Above & Beyond, the charity for which Colin volunteered.

Here is the podcast of Ian’s story:

And here is Jonathan, plus a short bit of Q&A with both writers at the end.

The next BristolCon Fringe reading will take place on Monday December 16th. The readers are Kevlin Henney and Joanne Hall. Jo will be treating us to the first ever reading from her forthcoming novel: Art of Forgetting : Nomad. Details of the event are available here.

Finally, here is Devo performing “Big Mess”. Thanks guys!