DrupalCon Boston is looming large, but before I get there I decided to go visit my sister in New Hampshire. It's a long trip -- seven hours or so from Easton, longer with the family in tow -- so I had plenty of time to get caught up on my podcasts.

This weekend saw my home improvement efforts redoubled as I patched and primed the walls of our third-floor bathroom, dug up a third of our admittedly-small backyard in order to sow grass and clover seed, and pulled staples from our hardwood floors in anticipation of getting them re-finished. And naturally, all of this gave me plenty of time to listen to podcasts.

A few years ago, Audible.com offered up several science fiction short story anthologies from the big names in the genre: Asimov's, Analog and the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. For a while it looked like they were going to have annual, or perhaps even quarterly, editions, but nothing ever came of it. It's disappointing, because while there's plenty of book-length audio fiction, short fiction is rare.

Or at least it was. Short fiction's audio salvation may have arrived with Escape Pod, a new weekly magazine-style podcast. Each podcast features opening thoughts and commentary by editor Stephen Eley, followed by a short story. Eley intends to expand the podcast by incorporating 1-minute long, reader-submitted book reviews. Escape Pod is a paying market and relies on donations to fund its fiction.