Announcement: specficmedia.com/2014/08/17/pg-holyfield-announcement
GoFundMe Page: http://www.gofundme.com/pgfund
Want to give people who don’t know PG’s work a chance to donate AND get an audio version of his book at the same time? Point them here: http://podiobooks.com/title/murder-at-avedon-hill/
Music in this episode:
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/All_These_Simple_Things/09_-_The_Idea_of_Space
A message from Steve, posted on the forums:
Hi all,
This’ll be a short message, with a longer one later. First things first: I am alive. Family’s doing well, including Harper:
There’s been a lot going on, but that’s a lousy excuse to be radio silent for this long. I’m sorry about that. This doesn’t justify it, but it’s symptomatic of one thing: I’ve been managing my energy poorly. I’m being stretched too thin.
That warrants more explanation, and I’ll say more soon. What I want you to know right now is that I’m going to be resigning from Escape Pod. This isn’t actually a negative, although it probably sounds that way. It’s the right thing to do for myself and it’s the right thing to do for the podcast. There’s a plan in the works to bring new energy in — one or more people who will do better by you than I have lately.
Escape Pod won’t be going away. I really do think the podcast matters. The stories matter, and the audience matters. And I’m not going to say you’ll never hear my voice again. But I won’t be trying to keep everything on my shoulders. That worked for a few years, and I felt I needed to keep coming back to it. But I think you deserve better. And we’re going to work to make sure you get it.
Whew.
So. How’s things with you?
Escape Pod will be back up and running May 12 (which, incidentally, is our 5 year anniversary/birthday/thingie). Also, we will be closed to submissions until July 1. If you do not hear from us by then, feel free to resubmit.
We’ll be announcing the new editor shortly, until then, thank you for your patience, your support, and your concern.
We are happy to announce that preorders are now being taken for Escape Pod, PodCastle, and Pseudopod t-shirts — nice full color, durable ones, to be shipped in time for Christmas at the latest.
No polos or coffee mugs yet. Maybe next time. Thanks very much for all your continued patience and support, from all of us at Escape Artists!
Hi all,
Just a quick note that Escape Pod episode 200 will probably not be going out on our usual Thursday schedule this week. We’ve been negotiating for the rights to a Major Story by a Major Author. We’re dealing with the literary agency for the author’s estate, which is always a slower process than working with living authors directly. Everything appears to be a green light and the story production is moving ahead at speed, but we’re waiting on final signatures. It’s my expectation that we’ll have the episode out within a few days. (Certainly before next week’s regularly scheduled EP201!)
And it’s worth it. When you hear the story I think you’ll agree. Thank you for your patience.
— Steve
Folks:
Summary first. Escape Pod is going to miss its weekly releases for the remainder of November. We will resume in December, probably the first week.
Now the explanation.
(Continue Reading…)
I’ve been in e-mail contact today with Jeffrey DeRego’s wife Cindy. She tells me that he had open heart surgery yesterday to bypass five blocked arteries. The surgery was successful and he’s expected to go home sometime next week.
If anyone cares to know for purposes of sending cards or flowers, etc., he’s at the Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, New Hampshire. You’re also welcome to send cards via us (Jeffrey DeRego, c/o Escape Artists Inc., PO Box 1538, Stone Mountain GA 30086) and I’ll see that they get forwarded to him.
I asked if any financial assistance would be useful, and without getting into overly personal details, the answer is “yes.” The DeRegos aren’t in a good position right now in terms of employment, and while they’re applying for state assistance, surgery of this magnitude is still certain to have a very harsh impact. Escape Artists will be making a contribution, and with Cindy’s permission, I’m asking the Escape Pod listenership to help out.
I’ve set up a PayPal address just for this purpose under our corporate account. If you’d like to help Jeff out, please send your contributions via PayPal to derego@escapepod.org. (I hope to have a better link on the sidebar by tonight.) We’ll cover PayPal fees, so 100% of funds donated will go to defray Jeff’s and Cindy’s medical expenses. I’ll keep that PayPal address open through September.
Please follow your conscience on whether to help. Jeff’s given us some of our favorite EP stories, and I’m happy to do whatever I can for him. If you see fit to help him out too, I’m sure he and his wife would be very grateful. Thanks for your attention.
