Completely Conspicuous 514: A Punk Rock Future

I'm joined by guest Steve Zisson as we discuss the new sci-fi short story anthology he compiled, A Punk Rock Future. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Take 2 of our conversation after the first one didn't record - A Punk Rock Future is available on Oct. 8 - Book mashes up Steve's love of punk rock and science fiction - Inspired by other self-published sci-fi anthologies - Steve and I go back to the late '80s when we were both newspaper reporters - Later worked together at three different companies - Zisson: Love for sci-fi started with the original Star Trek series - Wrote sci-fi in his teens, but then went into journalism - Jay: Realized that chemical engineering wasn't the path for me and decided to go into journalism - Zisson: Got into music in the mid-'70s, including early incarnation of the Cars (R.I.P., Ric Ocasek) - Was going to see bands like Queen, the Kinks, Roxy Music before checking out early punk acts - Saw Ocasek and Ben Orr's pre-Cars band Cap'n Swing at a small club in Nahant, Mass. - Then a year or so later, sees the Cars playing at UMass right before they hit it big - Then would go see the Clash, the Jam, and local Boston punk acts like the Neighborhoods and DMZ - Zisson got back into writing sci-fi around 2012 - Would dedicate time to write in his spare time - Discovered a lot of great young writers - Got a few stories published in well-known sci-fi journals and sites - More ways to get published now, but more competition, too - Used to be primarily U.S. writers, now more international - Came up with the idea for the book after 2016 election - Drew parallel to late '70s and talked to some writers about "a punk rock future" as an anthology idea - Put the call out for stories and got over 400 submissions - Started a Kickstarter to raise $5,000 to pay the authors selected - Enlisted former Webnoize colleagues to help read the submissions - With music now, there's so much out there, it's impossible to keep up - The goal of the project was to get it done and showcase the authors - One of the authors, Sarah Pinsker, has a new book out that's getting good buzz called A Song For a New Day - A Punk Rock Future is available on Amazon and at indie bookstores - Don't confuse Steve Zisson with Steve Zissou - Next up: Get some more writing done - Maybe do an anthology of really short stories, like an album of 2-minute songs Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.