Once a month, on a Sunday, Mum and me and my little brother Zubby would dress up in our best clothes, Mum would put ribbons in my hair, and we’d all walk into town to go to church…
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Category: Drama Page 6 of 8
The children washed up early this year; we raced down to the beach as soon as we heard. There was already a traffic jam coming out of the inland cells.
My pockets are always filled with notes, so I left them well-anchored on the beach. Cells may not survive without new children, but without our studies, survival is meaningless…
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The Drabblecast presents Morris and the Machine, by author Tim Pratt.
Tim Pratt lives in Berkely, CA and has also been featured on the Drabblecast many times. He is a science fiction and fantasy author, Nebula award nominee, and a Hugo award winner.
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The energy and personality of a person can get stuck before it evaporates from our world. Wood is a fair dumping ground. Something about its pore size and how cellulose vibrates. A person can get himself pasted inside the wall or the floorboards. The body and brain quit, but the rest of the bastard lingers, and that’s the weird quantum trickery that for thousands of years people have called a ghost…
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The Drabblecast continues this two-part series with “The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part II)” by John Aegard. If you haven’t heard Part I, you should listen to it here.
We also conclude Connor Choadsworth’s adventures in “In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm.”
Story Excerpt:
The crowd was lined up six deep along the parade route. They ignored the Deputy Mayor who sat, lightly sedated, between his doctor and nurse in the Santa sleigh. Instead, they chanted endlessly for the Marshall, who would not leave the stifling warmth of his coach, or even roll down a window to wave. Their applause echoed off the surrounding skyscrapers. “Take off your mask!” they cried..
Enjoy!
Drabblecast 143 – The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part II)
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This week The Drabblecast presents “The Golden Age of Fire Escapes” by John Aegard who lives in Seattle, Washington with his blind dog.
We also meet a slew of cryptids as we continue the adventures of Connor Choadsworth in “In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm.” A festive special, to be sure!
Story Excerpt:
The Fire Marshall took office with a mask, a slideshow, and some compelling statistics. One hundred fifty eight incinerated at the Double Diamond in New York.
Above and behind him a screen showed the ashen remains…
Enjoy the show!
Drabblecast 142 – The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part I)
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We see it happen: the great machines of the merfolk coming up over the shore, rampaging through the city with devastating effect. We watch a robotic mermaid hammer her fist into an apartment block, the dust cloud from the explosion engulfing the nearby camera. It’s quick, sudden, a surprise that’s ruined by the later repetition of the footage…
The Moviegoer
Cowry Catchers
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Oh, it’s been comin’. You can hear it at night when the refugee traffic quiets down. Distant crashes, muffled thuds. Those spindly trees fall over in the front lines and advance the jungle another 15 meters. Or sometimes, it just sounds like soap bubbles fizzing down to scum…
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This week The Drabblecast brings you “Bone Sigh,” by legendary author Tim Pratt!
But first we bring you the continuing adventures of cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth: In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm: Part Three.
Tim Pratt has written multiple stories for the Drabblecast and this one is quite horrific.
Story Excerpt:
I put the tenderizer down on the white formica table and look at my bonsai scar. It is like a flower, a jellyfish, a pinwheel of raised flesh, yellow bruises, subcutaneous hemorrhaging…
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The Drabblecast presents “Storm Comes A’ Callin'” by Jeremiah Tolbert.
We also introduce cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth in his hunt across the Gobi Desert for the Mongolian Deathworm.
Jeremiah has had an impact in the Science Fiction world since 2001 and is currently the editor of Escape Pod.
Story Excerpt:
I heft the axe. Lighter now, and warm in my palms. My old bones creak, I lift it over my head. I stare at the groove in the ground, beaten into the land. Many a storm been broke here. Too many, maybe…
Drabble:
Our Drabble this week is “Hanging” by Doug McIntire. You can submit your Drabbles to us in our Drabblecast Forums.
Enjoy the show!
Drabblecast #131 – Storm Comes A’ Callin’
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Now that his supernal caress has become the familiar sanctum of her nights, she fears that no mere human partner could ever satisfy her again…
This episode starts with Norm announcing the return of the Nigerian Scam Spam contest, now with a tight $100 prize! The Drabble concerns a Martian trying to deal with erratic human behavior. The Feature, preceded by a content warning from Norm (sexy times ahoy), concerns an alien and his human bride. The couple is vexed by the tribulation of their strange marriage, their poor finances, and privately, the bride suffers fears of public reprisal.
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He folds his barely eaten burrito away in its paper wrapper and regards me seriously with his warm, friendly eyes. “I have a *lot* of frequent flier miles. I’d be more than happy to share them.”
I understand that we’re not talking about the kind of miles the airlines give you. This has nothing to do with credit card rewards…
The ex-husband of the feature story’s titular frequent flier once told her that the key to not being found is to keep moving. It’s been years since her ex kidnapped their daughter, and our protagonist is determined to stay on the move, from one airport to the next. She meets a curious fellow searcher who refers to himself as the wandering Jew.
Also included is a Bbardle, Radioactive Runaways, written by Norm Sherman for Eric Peters’ birthday, a gift made possible by the donation of his wife Janette.
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The village of Kriegerwald on the shores of Lake Teufel high in the Swiss Alps couldonly be reached by foot or ski lift, which suited the villagers. Each villager possessed broadforeheads and flat noses with strange guttural accents even the people in the valley below barelyunderstood. They also had a singular tourist attraction, popular enough to fund villagemaintenance but not to flood them or stir a desire for greater accessibility.
This trifecta episode of the Drabblecast features three stories, each exploring humanity’s reaction to strange and threatening situations. In the first story, The Frozen People, Swiss villagers sustain their existence by selling views of their 7000 year old perfectly preserved frozen warrior. When lightening strikes, everyone’s life changes. In Sheltered, a fast approaching asteroid threatens to wipe out all of mankind. This sends many burrowing deep into the ground, while a few brave individuals stay above to revel in the cataclysm. Interactions between the groups take on an ironic twist. In Order to Conserve speaks to governments and people as they are threatened by the loss of the most precious of all natural resources . and it’s not oil or water.
Of note: this episode marks the debut of Twit-Fic/Twabbles.
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He was panting now, his breath coming in a never-ending series of short spurts and gasps. His sides ached, his eyes watered, and every now and then he would trip over the rubble of the decayed and ruined buildings that lined the torturously fragmented street…
This episode opens with the announcement of the three drabbles and five features stories nominated for the Drabblecast People’s Choice Award. In the Drabble, the narrator muses on the nature of his fatalistic precognition. In the feature, The Last Dog, the titular ultimate canine and his master, the last man on Earth, form a strong bond helping one another to survive on a war-ravaged planet. When they encounter an alien assassin, they are forced to make hard choices.
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My Muse is the life of every party. He does keg-stands and plays beer-pong like he was born to the game…
This episode of the Drabblecast podcast opens with a DrabbleNews story about immortal jellyfish, jellyfish that under certain circumstances can reverse the aging process. In the Drabble, a stalker cheerfully greets, drugs, and kidnaps the object of her desire. The feature story, Bemused, is a hack-to-riches-to-hack tale about a mediocre, rejected writer who discovers his muse and a catapult to fame and fortune. The only problem: his muse is a real jerk.
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The shadow lingered at Sarah’s window, balanced on air, certain to fly away the next step I took. Another moment and it would be gone. Another moments and I would call the police, report my daughter missing, and spend the rest of my life convincing myself I’d imagined it…
This episode of the Drabblecast opens an announcement introducing the Drabblecast Archive CDs, featuring episodes 1-79 in a 3 disc set. In the drabble, a sleep-addled God himself cannot (or will not) provide a reason for why the world ended. The feature story, Sarah’s Window, explores the familiar theme of children leaving our world for one of fantasy, with the twist of a distraught parent serving as protagonist. A single father tries to convince a trespassing, morally ambiguous shadow creature to return his apparently kidnapped daughter, Sarah, amid its assertions that it is innocent of wrongdoing since “not all lost things are stolen.” An otherworldly realm seduces with magical delights.
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