EP Flash: The Team-Mate Reference Problem in Final-Stage Demon Confrontation
By Constance Cooper.
Read by Frank Key (of Hooting Yard On The Air).
Colleagues, ours is a uniquely demanding profession. In no other job do you endanger your coworker’s soul if you call out to him in the course of your duties. But since a demon has power over you once it knows your name, well-meant warnings such as “Buck! Behind you!” can have tragic consequences.
Rated G. Important safety tip. (Thanks, Egon.)
Dude! This is probably the best story grenade yet. Taking a cool little idea and taking it to the logical extremes. Nice reading too!
Dude, I always hate when there’s that whole reference problem during demon hunting. The problem also seems to arise during business meetings, as the demon/presenter may use the name to invoke a person to complete heinous tasks such as preparing PowerPoint presentations or scheduling the next teleconference (shudder)
Well, that was a lot of fun. When I refer friends to Escape Pod, this is the podcast I’ll tell them to try first. Well-written and exquisitely read. Bravo!
Excellent work CC. Sail along silver girl.
yet another goodie
This sounded so much like Frank Key’s own writing, I had to double check as to whether Escape Pod had changed its policy about writers reading their own works.
I encourage everyone who enjoyed this to further explore Hooting Yard and experience the weirdness that is unique to Mr. Key.
Thanks, folks! We were very lucky to get Mr. Key to read for us. And Jay’s right — you really should check out Hooting Yard for the absolute best in British surrealism.
Trifecta-Frank Key, good writing and appearing on Escape Pod. Big hoot from my yard.
Is there such a thing as supernatural office fiction? Whatever this kind of story is called, I love it, and I think EP has picked some great examples of it. This one is another. =)
[...] Frank Key’s Hooting Yard podcast is one of my absolute favorites, and I was honored to have Mr. Key narrate a piece for Escape Pod. So I know what that’s about. And if “Tristan Shuddery” is capable of appreciating the fine aesthetic derangement of Frank Key’s work, it seems tremendously unlikely to me that he himself would actually be deranged enough to say what he said about the iPod. [...]
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this first appeared in ASIM (www.andromedaspaceways.com), great short SF publication.