Drabblecast 321 – The Goat Cutter

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

Feature: The Goat Cutter by Jay Lake
Drabble: A Deal with the Devil by Eric Marsh
Genres: Horror
Warning: Some explicit language



Saturday, April 19th, 2014
The devil lives in Houston by the ship channel in a high-rise apartment fifty-seven stories up. They say he’s got cowhide sofas and a pinball machine and a telescope in there that can see past the oil refineries and across Pasadena all the way to the Pope in Rome and on to where them Arabs pray to that big black stone.

Episode Art: Rafal Hrynkiewicz
First appeared in Jay's short story anthology: Greetings from Lake Wu

Twabble: “ Excited to see a Martian feline, NASA spun to view the tracks behind the rover, only to find Curiosity had killed the cat. ” by Mat Weller

[JarodKAnderson]

Loved it. What great detail/tone in this one. And that is some awesome cover art.

[strawman]

Yes, the Language and theme warning is warranted, though I wish Jay could have kept it PG13, because young people shouldn't have to resort to leaning on their older friends to download Drabblecast for them, and Norm shouldn't have to say naughty words.

I like all of Mr. Lake's work so far, though I'm partial to the absurdity of Clown Eggs. What made this episode over the top for me was Norm's composition ---it's like he conjures it up like some kind of Celtic Woman producer, magic swirling music and FX. Gives the story a 3-dimensional quality -- the better to draw you in and lock the door behind you. Def listen to this with the earbuds.

[Farseeker]

Wow.

Horror usually isn't my thing, but this was done so well... The descriptions were so evocative, felt like I was there.

And wanting to get the fuck out.

[bounceswoosh]

I loved this story, even as I squirmed. The casual references to what the protag endured in his own house - those were quite possibly the most horrific parts to me. Like it's so normal it doesn't require explanation.

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

"Holly Carp"!
Gripping narrative, evocative details and I didn't predict the ending even though it was well foreshadowed.

The story ruffled my "Snooty, commie, city-dweller slanders (libels) the Heart of America" heuristics1, but other than that it was top notch for its genre.

Great cover art.


1 I have no idea how much of that applies to this author, although his biography suggests it's possible. It's just that the story reminded me of the not-so-common bad traits of rural Southerners I've known, and none of the more-common good traits.

[tbaker2500]

The story ruffled my "Snooty, commie, city-dweller slanders (libels) the Heart of America" heuristics1, but other than that it was top notch for its genre.

"heuristics" - Hilarious ASID.

Usually when a story gets that much warning up front, it means it's going to be an incredibly depressing story full of such pathos that I want to choke the author. But to my delight, this story was simply about absolutely normal horrific things done to children, with a devil thrown in. And it was good.

Norm, do get a special kick out of producing horror? I feel like you put that extra effort into making sure we are going to be immersed in a audio world where, no matter what hallway we run down, no matter what door we open, there is no escape?

Great stuff all.

[eric_marsh]

So here I am out in my shop listening to Drabblecasts while I work on my dragbike. My shop is where I do most of my podcast listening. After a couple episodes I hear my name. No shit? How cool - Norm's reading one of my drabbles. So then after that I'm listening to the story which starts out down the road in Houston but then I hear that the devil lives in Dale, Texas. Dale Texas, did I hear that right?

If you do a Google map search for Lively Stone Road, Lockhart, Texas you'll see where my ranch is. Zoom out a bit and you will see Dale, Texas on one side and Lockhart, Texas (also mentioned in the story) on the other.

Pretty weird. What's the odds?

Some of the other places mentioned in the story are unfamiliar to me but I think I might have seen that school bus somewhere, maybe when I was on a fire call. I'm trying to remember just where that was. I might go visit.

BTW, Norm, a bio update. I'm no longer doing volunteer fire fighting and software development. Now I'm mostly retired and spend my time messing with my airplane, my motorcycles and trying to learn to sing opera. We've currently got four dogs, six Jacob sheep, somewhere around 13 cats (including Timmy the tripod wondercat), the cows, the snakes, the scorpions and the creatures in the lake.

[ROU Killing Time]

So here I am out in my shop listening to Drabblecasts while I work on my dragbike. My shop is where I do most of my podcast listening. After a couple episodes I hear my name. No shit? How cool - Norm's reading one of my drabbles. So I'm listening to the story which start out down the road in Houston but then I hear that the devil lives in Dale, Texas. Dale Texas, did I hear that right?

If you do a Google map search for Lively Stone Road, Lockhart, Texas you'll see where my ranch is. Zoom out a bit and you will see Dale, Texas on one side and Lockhart, Texas (also mentioned in the story) on the other.

Pretty weird. What's the odds?

All Culture Rapid Offensive Units are equipped with high-gain synchronicity generators. I've had it steadily aimed at DC for years now. I mean, isn't that obvious?

[tbaker2500]

Awesome, Eric.

[ROU Killing Time]

What can I say. I'm glad this sort of thing doesn't just happen to me.

[tbaker2500]

Ha!

[Varda]

I'm sad to say that the author of this story, Jay Lake, lost a long-running battle against cancer yesterday. He'll be very missed in the whole SFF community. I'm glad we got to hear another one of his amazing stories here at the DC before the end came. Thanks to Norm for producing this one in all its sick, horrific glory. I know Jay would have been proud.

[strawman]

Jay was one of my top three DC favorite authors. I will miss him.

[normsherman]

I will miss him immensely as well. I tried to get him for an interview on Bsides awhile back but his increasing health problems made it impossible. Goat Cutter was Jay's last professional sale and it is surely a less exciting world now for us all without his powerful talent and unique voice and personality creating new things to constantly blow us away. You can easily get lost in his blog for hours reading about the events of his life these past several years. http://www.jlake.com/blog/
Also the documentary that Waterloo Productions did of him in 2013 is really well done. I think it's still in production, but I think it's still being aired semi-complete at various conventions (I saw it at Worldcon last year for example). Worth keeping an eye out for. http://waterlooprod.com/lakeside-a-year-with-jay-lake/

and FYI, you'll be hearing more Jay on Drabblecast this month too. we've got something special planned.

[Varda]

I'm really glad to hear this, Norm. I'll be very much looking forward to another Jay story soon, then--thank you so, so much for doing that.

[El Barto]

There is a highly improbable but nevertheless non-zero chance that after his death, Jay arrived to hell and was bummed to realize where he was headed as he was escorted into the sweltering waiting room by two grotesque burly monsters. But then a moment later the Devil came running up to him with a childlike smile on his goat face and exclaimed, "OH MY GOD, I just listened to the Drabblecast episode you did about ME and it was just . . . awesome." He then turned to his guards and said, "Gentlemen, today we do something that generally happens only once every thousand years. Set this man free and put him on the UP escalator."

[tbaker2500]

Nicely said.