EP014: Tis the Season

Published by SFEley on 11 Aug 2005 at 3:20 am.
Discuss on the forums.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated R.

By K.D. Wentworth
Read by Jonathon Sullivan.

It was Christmas Eve and that nasty, strung-out feeling of anticipation clotted the air like a cheap deodorizer. I hate Christmas the most–all that insincere, pious yap about “peace on earth, goodwill towards men.” I was cruising down the expressway, on my way back from dismantling an illegal manger scene someone had erected at the river park, keeping an eye out for graffiti, you know–”Where will you spend eternity?” or “Buddha lives!”–that kind of crap, spray-painted on underpasses right where impressionable schoolchildren could see it. The last rays of the setting sun were painting the highway a faint rose when I spotted a broken-down van with the metal outline of a stylized fish just above the back bumper. The short hairs crawled up the back of my neck. Them fish guys have been some of my worst busts.

Rated R. Contains strong religious themes, graphic violence, and aggressive Zen.

 
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10 Comments to ‘EP014: Tis the Season’:

  1. fastfinge on 11 Aug 2005 at 8:51 pm: 1

    Nice reading! An interesting story to discover the podcast with. I’m grabbing the back issues now. :-) Keep up the good work!

  2. Randi Mooney on 12 Aug 2005 at 10:53 am: 2

    So how come you dont read some of your own stories? If it’s good enough for Scott Segler :-)

    Sal

  3. Sullydog on 13 Aug 2005 at 1:53 am: 3

    Sal:

    Who are you asking? Me? Steve? KD?

    Sullydog

  4. PaulJ on 13 Aug 2005 at 10:24 am: 4

    I think Steve has a policy against authors reading their own stories, otherwise he’d be deluged with audio submissions — can you imagine what it would be like sifting through an audio slush pile?

  5. PaulJ on 13 Aug 2005 at 10:26 am: 5

    Great story — I really enjoyed this one. The skewed reality made me smile (and shudder at how oh-so-true it could become).

  6. BrandtPileggi on 24 Apr 2007 at 4:39 pm: 6

    Good story. GREAT rant. That just made my day

  7. JoeA on 4 Oct 2007 at 7:46 am: 7

    I liked the story, but it kind of bugs me that only Christianity, and, okay, in this case Buddhism, is ever lambasted in current fiction. Considering the present conditions, it seems glaringly obvious that Islamists and Jews were intentionally ignored.

  8. Dan the Man on 3 Dec 2007 at 9:49 am: 8

    After thinking over this story a bit, I almost wonder if it was more to show the absurdity of the idea of religion as an opiate or dangerous. If it was anything else, I didn’t like it because it failed to suspend my disbelief. JoeA, you can lambast anybody you want to, but if you lambast Jews you risk provoking the ire of the ADL.

  9. scatterbrain on 9 Jun 2008 at 4:54 pm: 9

    Reminds me of Just Do It.

  10. Andy Blake on 12 Nov 2008 at 7:18 pm: 10

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