Brain Candy

SnackReads bite-sized entertainment

Southwest Cyberport is proud to be a full-service ISP and aspire to be even more. We’ve recently opened adjacent office space as Ideas and Coffee, a coworking facility that’s a friendly alternative to coffee shops for quiet online work or meeting clients and colleagues. And now, SWCP’s getting into the online publishing business with SnackReads.

As longtime readers of genre fiction, many staff members have greatly enjoyed shorter works as well as novels. But with the decline of magazines and anthologies, short pieces are getting shafted. They’re becoming harder to find even as ereaders and tablets create more opportunities for enjoying them than ever before. So when Josh Gentry, one of our talented network administrators and now director of the project, came up with the idea of SnackReads, we jumped at the chance.

SnackReads are short, enjoyable tales that are perfect for unwinding after a long day or while waiting for an appointment, during breaks, riding the RailRunner, etc. They’re quick, easy fun that won’t keep you up at night, and inexpensive, too – less than $2 each. All are offered in several convenient formats and there’s no DRM: once you buy it, it’s yours.

Our goal is not just to help readers but writers, too. There are many great once-published stories now gathering dust in their files that deserve a second chance. So we’re hoping to uncover some real gems.

We’ve started off strong with a great space-opera story by Albuquerque’s own Suzy McKee Charnas featuring a talking cat. We hope to quickly follow this up with several gripping steampunk tales by recent Hugo Award nominee and former SWCP Tech Support Director, Daniel Abraham. Gorgeous original cover art for these have been created by a very talented local artist and teacher, Jennifer Gentry. If interested in her work, you may contact her here.

Other brief quality works of fiction, some free, will be added as they become available. So check out SnackReads and let us know what you think. You have nothing to lose but your boredom.