Fictional Worlds

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Escape Pod 677 Valedictorian (Flashback Friday) - Escape Pod via Instapaper http://bit.ly/2UYueJ2 There are three things Zinhle decides, when she is old enough to understand. The first is that she will never, ever, give less than her best to anything she tries to do. The second is that she will not live in fear. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io During the day, James A. Miller works on Milking Robots in the Madison Wisconsin area. At night, he spends time with his family and does his best to come up with fun and creative fiction. He is a first reader for Allegory e-zine and member of the Co… EP540 The Right Answer - Escape Pod via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2catQQy

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Erin Cashier is fond of the unreliable narrator. The things that interest me most are Disneyland (not kidding), esoteric philosophy books, alchemy as it relates to Jungian theories, William Blake, and Super Paper Mario. via Pocket EP537 Honeycomb Girls - Escape Pod via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2bi9Exq

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “Congratulations, Mrs. Costa,” chirped the young Life Center nurse. “You’re ready to go home! Here’s your shield.” Maria raised the infant in her arms high enough for the nurse to slip the slim, silver band around her waist. via Pocket

At first, the wolves were shot. People didn’t want to come into the park and see the majestic herbivores chased to their demise by hungry predators. So they were eradicated. Unchecked, the deer and elk tore the hell out of the ecosystem. via Pocket

Don’t call me a mercenary. Those guys are pricks. Kidnappers and murderers, the lot of them. I’m not like that. Sure, I get paid for my work, and yeah, I love a good explosion. Who doesn’t? But my job is to save people. Pull them out of bad situatio…

It has been six months since the end of the world, and I am very bored. Humans think of boredom as an emotion, and I am not supposed to be capable of emotion. But when you have purpose and then a protracted period of nothing, the emptiness is notice… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Fiction Professor Robot | Mad Scientist Journal via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2OPzHh1

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “It’s an arm. Just an arm.” I look at the skinny piece of meat attached to my shoulder. Devoid of muscle definition, it looks more like beef jerky. But beef jerky is edible, right? I lift my left arm with my right, trying to assess the weight. There…

An essay by Unnamed Crystalline Sample #1, as provided by John A. McColley Art by Ariel Alian Wilson My first awareness in this plane was a buzz, a vibration that ran through my body. At first it was novel, different than anything I’d experienced. v… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

Memos from Yvonne Kulas, as provided by Kathryn Yelinek Art by America Jones To all staff, Abbottsville Public Library Subject: September missing books list Writing Your Perfect Online Dating Profile by Mindi Pepperberg. 306. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Fiction A Catchy Little Tune | Mad Scientist Journal via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2GLWN3a Saturday: Farewell Abbey. Well, what a hoot! Finally arrived in this God-forsaken place just after two, to find it’s not so bad after all. I booked it a while ago, just after my latest diagnosis. via Pocket

PodCastle 625: Salt and Iron Salt and Iron By Gem Isherwood There’s a gash across her cheekbone, glass in her arm and her lower lip is twice the size it should be, but Dagna Müller is hardly a stranger to pain. She slumps on the steps outside th… There’s a gash across her cheekbone, glass in her arm and her lower lip is twice the size it should be, but Dagna Müller is hardly a stranger to pain. She slumps on the steps outside the tavern, feeling her nose to check if it’s broken again. via Po… PodCastle 625 Salt and Iron - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2SE4QFu

PodCastle 626: DOUBLE FEATURE! A Sharp Breath of Birds; A Guide to Birds by Song (After Death) Authors : Tina Connolly and A.C. Wise Narrators : Tina Connolly and Dani Daly Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums … PodCastle 626 DOUBLE FEATURE! A Sharp Breath of Birds; A Guide to Birds by Song (After Death) - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2WptETR You are two on the day you see your first personal bird. It is the sort of thing you barely remember later, at six, seven, twenty. via Pocket

PodCastle 627: We Are the Flower Author : Claire Humphrey Narrator : Jen R. Albert Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 627: We Are the Flower is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Includes copious F… I didn’t clue in until I saw the ghost bike chained to a signpost on Adelaide, near a corner. I was stopped up close, and I looked down and the angles of the frame were familiar. A Cannondale CAAD 5, just like mine. via Pocket

PodCastle 628: Vincent’s Penny Author : Chris Barnham Narrator : Matt Dovey Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Dimension6, Issue 16 (April 2019). Rated PG. Vincent’s Penny By Chris Barnham  May 1941 I’m … I’m a child this time. Five or six years old. Fully clothed under a bed, on a wooden floor. I touch a hand to my throat, but there is nothing there. I examine my hands and arms, astonished by the smoothness of the skin. At last, I crawl out from ben…

PodCastle 615: Field Reports from the Department of Monster Resettlement Author : L. Chan Narrator : Curtis C. Chen Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Future Fire in the Making Monster… Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: two ghosts, a pontianak and a manananggal are sitting around the third floor of a community centre after dark. The trick isn’t getting them to come to the support group, the trick is getting them to agree to …

PodCastle 616: DOUBLE FEATURE! Telomerase; Mycelium Authors : Ian Muneshwar and Eleanor Wood Narrators : Sienna Tristen and Jen R. Albert Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 616: DOUBLE FEATURE! Telo… You lost your first word when I began to lose my hair. You brought a wicker basket to the hospital and opened it in the waiting room, taking out a blue-checkered blanket that you spread out over our laps. via Pocket

PodCastle 617: The Dead-Wagon Author : Greye La Spina Narrator : Wilson Fowlie Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums CW: illness and plague; references to violence and sexual assault Rated R. The Dead-Wagon G… The Dead-Wagon Greye La Spina “Someone’s been chalking up the front door.” The speaker stepped off the terrace into the library through the open French window. From his padded armchair Lord Melverson rose with an involuntary exclamation of startled … PodCastle 617 The Dead-Wagon - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/3cIkbxb

PodCastle 618: Odd and Ugly Author : Vida Cruz Narrator : Don Pizarro Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Writers of the Future vol. 34. Rated PG-13. Odd and Ugly By Vida Cruz I. Y… You come to my tree at high noon in July, sweating, panting, young. So very, very young. I can’t help staring at you: it’s like watching a walking, talking circular window with square glass stuck through it. via Pocket

PodCastle 619: The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle Author : Sofia Samatar Narrator : C. L. Clark Host : Peter Behravesh Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in The Starlit Wood. Rated… This story is at least a thousand years old. Its complete title is “The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle: It Contains Strange and Marvelous Things.” A single copy, probably produced in Egypt or Syria, survives in Istanbul; the…

PodCastle 629: Though She Be But Little Author : C.S.E. Cooney Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Uncanny Magazine. Previously published in Jonathan Strahan’s The… PodCastle 629 Though She Be But Little - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2MmVoCH Though She Be But Little By C.S.E. Cooney Emma Anne had a tin can attached by a string to her belt. via Pocket

CatsCast 289: The Thing in the Basement Author : Gerri C. Leen Narrator : Tina C. Connolly Host : Laura Pearlman Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Artist : Matt Dovey The Thing in the Basement by Gerri Leen You can hear it, in the basement, b… CatsCast 289 The Thing in the Basement - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/3bDT0Cf You can hear it, in the basement, behind the metal boxes that your human puts her outer-coverings in just when they start to smell good—when the boxes are done, she brings out her things stinking of flowers or fruit. via Pocket

March 2020 Metacast Transcript (Alasdair) Hi everyone, Alasdair here. We’re not going to ask how you are right now, because we have a pretty good idea. You’re fine. You’re FINE. You’re the same version of fine as everyone right now, the one Aeros… We’re not going to ask how you are right now, because we have a pretty good idea. You’re fine. You’re FINE. You’re the same version of fine as everyone right now, the one Aerosmith sang about. The one where you’re alternately anxious, terrified, fur…

PodCastle 620: When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains Author : Nin Harris Narrator : Chang Yiun Yee Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 620: When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains is a PodCastle original. Conte… When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains By Nin Harris Chowrasta Market was where Maria had learned to love books — upstairs in the claustrophobic crush of second-hand book stalls, where the musty smell of old paperbacks was drowned in a panoply of aromas f…

PodCastle 621: A Salt and Sterling Tongue A Salt and Sterling Tongue By Emma Osborne I found my dying boy curled up in a pile of straw wet with his blood. Seamus rolled over as I entered the barn, and I saw then that he’d chewed his fingers down … I found my dying boy curled up in a pile of straw wet with his blood. Seamus rolled over as I entered the barn, and I saw then that he’d chewed his fingers down to the first knuckle. “I can taste my King in my wet,” he said, rocking forward, naming …

PodCastle 622: Spoken For Author : Evan Kennedy Narrator : Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali Host : Jen R. Albert Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 622: Spoken For is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Spoken For by Evan Ken… Twenty-five years after the magic came back, Auden’s wife got turned to stone. It was the dog’s fault. A cockatrice had been wandering Harlan County for the past few weeks, ever since some damn fool two towns over let a cock’s egg hatch instead of c…

PodCastle 623: Caring For Dragons and Growing a Flower Author : Allison Thai Narrator : Jennifer Tran Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 623: Caring For Dragons and Growing a Flower is a PodCastle o… Sleep easy tonight, darling. I’m well and alive at the barracks the Party had seized in Sóc Trăng. Because I had sided with the enemy, I expected to be shot, or be assigned to clear the mines. via Pocket PodCastle 623 Caring For Dragons and Growing a Flower - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2KpwscY

PodCastle 601: A Thousand Tongues of Silver Author : Kate Heartfield Narrator : Alyson Grauer Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Lackington’s. Rated PG-13. A Thousand Tongues of Silv… PodCastle 601 A Thousand Tongues of Silver - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/332TgWL I am a book. My pages are purple. This is how they made me. First, they flayed the calves, stretched and scraped their wet skins. Then they mixed lichen and leaves, rotted in human urine, to mimic the purple that comes of torturing sea snails to for… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io

PodCastle 602: Franken-Puppy Author : Derek Künsken Narrators : Jay Odjick, Charlotte Ashley, J. M. Frey, Rati Mehrotra, Sylvain Neuvel, KT Bryski and Brandon Crilly Host : Jen R. Albert Audio Producer : KT Bryski Discuss on Forums PodCastle 6… In the third yard, the puppy darted a suspicious look back at its tail. Then, as if remembering what he’d been doing, he swung his head forward, panted, and sat in the grass. Beyond the ratty picket fence, patched skyscrapers stood in the hazy blue …