Drabblecast Covers Collage 2018 01

Tag: animals Page 2 of 3

Drabblecast 230 – Bears Discover Fire

Cover for Drabblecast episode 230, Bears Discover Fire, by Matt WasielaThis episode of the Drabblecast presents “Bears Discover Fire,” by Terry Bisson. We examine and interpret humanity through anthropomorphism.

When bears discover fire, stop hibernating, and begin populating highway medians in the southern US, people notice. Their changing behavior highlights how other families react to changes in their own lives with varying degrees of acceptance and grace.

Story Excerpt:

We stayed on the path.  The light seemed to drip down from the canopy of the woods like rain.  The going was easy, especially if we didn’t try to look at the path but let our feet find their own way.
Then through the trees I saw their fire…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 225, Trifecta XIX, by Steve Santiago

Drabblecast 225 – Trifecta XIX

Cover for Drabblecast episode 225, Trifecta XIX, by Steve SantiagoOnce, at the beginning, you asked why you were brought here. This is what I told you: your parents made a deal. I would rid them of their plague of rats, and they would pay me. I cleared the town of pests, easily done, and returned for my payment. They laughed at me and tried to send me away with less than they promised. Money is not important. Deals are.

The theme of this episode of the Drabblecast is fairy tale child abduction. In David is Six, David cannot wait to be seven. In his desperation, he strikes a bargain with a fairy that appears to him as a talking toad and is taken to the fairy queen. The Best Boy, The Brightest Boy picks up where the Pied Piper of Hamlin left off, following the children and the Piper into his kingdom under the mountain where after a series of cruel games and tests, only one boy remains alive. He becomes the Piper’s apprentice. In Broken, a father stumbles upon a fairy in the act of exchanging his disabled child for her own enchanted brood. A heart-breaking decision follows.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 208, Hokkaido Green, by Jerel Dye

Drabblecast 208 – Hokkaido Green

Cover for Drabblecast episode 208, Hokkaido Green, by Jerel DyeThe sound of running water came from ahead. The trail emerged from the woods and he looked up at the side of a rocky hill. A narrow waterfall trickled down the side of the rock, splashing into a pool of water.

His father claimed the water here was the most amazing color he’d ever seen – a vivid blue-green he’d dubbed Hokkaido green…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 186, Garkain, by Jerel Dye

Drabblecast 186 – Garkain

Cover for Drabblecast episode 186, Garkain, by Jerel DyeHis home is in the dense jungle along the banks of the Liverpool River. Should anyone venture into that jungle Garkain, who can fly as well as walk, will wrap himself around the intruder, and smother him with the loose folds of skin which are attached to his arms and legs.

—Charles P. Mountford, The First Sunrise, 1971

In this episode of the Drabblecast podcast, the theme is mythical beasts and creatures, imagined, extinct or otherwise. Norm discuss fantastic animals from down Under (Australia). In the feature we are presented evidence of the existence of the frightful Garkain. The monster’s aspects are recalled in several accounts from eye witnesses and scholars.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 182, Trifecta XIV, by Jan Dennison

Drabblecast 182 – Trifecta XIV

Cover for Drabblecast episode 182, Trifecta XIV, by Jan Dennison

This episode of Drabblecast is another Trifecta special, with the of: Identity. Norm debates how our perceptions of optical illusions reflect how each person views things in their own, personal way. Evil Robot Monkey looks at the life of Sly, a micro-chip enhanced chimpanzee who creates pottery in order to deal with the stress of having intelligence. Character Flu examines a future where humanity has been infected by the worst disease ever. The show ends on a lighter note with Toaster of the Gods, read by the Dunesteef, in which a self-deified, sentient toaster shows us how far the protagonist will go for perfect toast.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 171, Mongoose pt. 2, by Skeet Scienski

Drabblecast 171 – Mongoose : Part II

Cover for Drabblecast episode 171, Mongoose pt. 2, by Skeet ScienskiYou couldn’t describe a rath. You couldn’t even look at one for more than a few seconds before you started getting a migraine aura. Rovers were just blots of shadow. The breeder was massive, armored, and had no recognizable features, save for its hideous, drooling, ragged edged maw. Irizarry didn’t know if it had eyes, or even needed them…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 159, Intelligent Design, by Brent Homes

Drabblecast 159 – Intelligent Design

Cover for Drabblecast episode 159, Intelligent Design, by Brent HomesGod cocked his thumb and aimed his index finger at the firmament.
Ka-pow! Pow! Pow! A line of three perfect glowing pinpoints of light appeared in the black void…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 152, Trifecta XI, by Skeet Scienski

Drabblecast 152 – Trifecta XI

Cover for Drabblecast episode 152, Trifecta XI, by Skeet ScienskiMaeve stepped into his study. She took a moment to remember the smell, the scent of old leather and hot meat, of tea and savagery. Archie held a delicate forearm out which, carefully, she took, shaking the lead claw once.
… …
“If there’s one thing they teach you in podcasting school, it’s that you always save the monkeys for last.”

Cover for Drabblecast episode 145, Varmits!, by Rodolpho Arredondo

Drabblecast 145 – Varmits!

Cover for Drabblecast episode 145, Varmits!, by Rodolpho ArredondoThose damn raccoons were here again.
I know it’s raccoons. Rather easy to deduce considering the scores of chocolate footprints everywhere….

Drabblecast B-Sides 7 – Jeez Louise

Cover for Drabblecast B-Sides episode 7, Jeeze Louise, by Bo Kaier“Jeez Louise,” Frank says to Delores, as he glances from his window at the long line of onlookers—Father Gomez among them. “They’re still out there.”
Across the room their six-year old Chihuahua , Shorty, lounges atop a penthouse of cushions. “I fixed Shorty something,” Delores says. “Should get him going again…”

Cover for Drabblecast episode 127, Nanuq, by Rodolfo Arredondo

Drabblecast 127 – Nanuq

Cover for Drabblecast episode 127, Nanuq, by Rodolfo ArredondoHis years away from me had bled any belief he once had in the old ways. I had thought to educate him, to make him wise in the ways of science and the world. I thought after he graduated he would return and learn the way of the angatquq, the shaman, and take his place in the secret circles of the People, as his mother had.
But the University had narrowed his mind instead of widening it. He had turned his back on his people…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 120, DoubleHeader 3, by Alyssa Suzumura

Drabblecast 120 – Doubleheader III

Cover for Drabblecast episode 120, DoubleHeader 3, by Alyssa SuzumuraWe reach the rocky banks, out of breath. We do not speak. We can barely hear our voices over water raging against the rocks. Our breath makes white clouds. I buckle my helmet and cinch my gloves tighter…

Leading off this episode of the Drabblecast is a Drabble about a child drowning, or a child throwing a tantrum – it’s hard to tell? The feature is a double dip in to talented ind of author Jeremiah Tolbert. The first story, entitled The Fisherman, is about a father and son sharing a touching, early morning fishing moment (but for what?). The second feature, A Sandwich Shop in Chicago, 1AM is also a touching tale of a wounded talking four-legged animal with one last request.

Drabblecast 113 – Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely

Cover art for Drabblecast episode 113, Charlie the Purple GiraffeThis episode brings you Charlie the Purple Giraffe, by David D. Levine.

It is a unique tale set inside a televised cartoon world. Our main character, Charlie the purple giraffe, has a disturbing and profound view of his world, one not shared by his best friend Jerry the orange squirrel.  Floating question marks, colored word balloons, it may not be as light, airy, and humorous as appears at first blush.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 98, The Graggleberry Thief, by Matt Wasiela

Drabblecast 98 – The Graggleberry Thief

Cover for Drabblecast episode 98, The Graggleberry Thief, by Matt Wasiela“Mark my words Monkey,” said the chicken.  “If you’re up to no good, Felonious Peck will find you out…”

This episode of the Drabblecast revolves around birds. It opens with a Drabble News segment about a bald eagle that caused a power outage in Juneau, Alaska by crashing into transmission lines while carrying a deer’s head. The Drabble features ever-vigilant pigeons performing an important job for the good of humanity. The feature story, The Graggleberry Thief, is a humorous tale about a thieving monkey who outwits the grumpy bird in charge of Graggleberry, Inc.

Cover of Drabblecast episode 95, On Dasher, by Matt Cowens

Drabblecast 95 – On Dasher

Cover of Drabblecast episode 95, On Dasher, by Matt CowensSeen from a hundred feet up–if one could see any of this meeting, which they can’t – Saint Nick and his reindeer are red and brown dots standing on a potmarked gray island spanning hundreds of feet, lapped by waves…

Norm begins this Christmas episode with musical satire of the “Night Before Christmas” poem, twisting it into an explanation of the subprime derivative collapse: “We Don’t Have to Liquidate Christmas.” Jonathan C. Gillespie, a veteran of the podcast “Variant Frequencies” among others, focuses on those unsung worker heroes of Christmas, the everyday average reindeer, who pull a heavy load (and toys too) across the skies. As it turns out not even these mythic creatures are immune to office politics. The titular Dasher is given a chance to prove himself, and keep his day job, amid a desperate sky race around the world.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 90, Far Far Away, by Jonathan Wilson

Drabblecast 90 – Far Far Away

Cover for Drabblecast episode 90, Far Far Away, by Jonathan WilsonThe bullet-riddled corpses of our dead crew-mates, all sixteen of them, are coffined up, and the coffins stacked as a makeshift ping pong table…

In Drabble News, Norm congratulates the Harper Collins Dictionary for adding the slang term “meh” (an utterance of indifference). For the Drabble segment, returning author and future editor Matthew Bey (responsible for Drabblecast #58, “Eggs,” among others) allows his strange nocturnal fantasies about pupating locomotives to cross into the listener’s daylight. Next, Norm reads from the work of Frank Key, the British surreal author whose ‘lopsided fiction’ has graced the Drabblecast on numerous occasions, including episode #190. The selection: “The Goat God.” The feature describes the Flying Dutchman space journey of the starship “Corrugated Cardboard,” and the strange transformations of its surviving crew. The crew’s destination: a tiny pink planet where blind, mute, magnetic love monkeys frolic. Do these wonderful mythical creatures even exist, or are they figments of the unreliable narrator’s imagination? Finally, Norm reads from the positive feedback heaped by readers upon Episode #86, “Half Sneeze Johnny.”

Cover for Drabblecast episode 85, Trifecta V, by Bo Kaier

Drabblecast 85 – Trifecta V

Cover for Drabblecast episode 85, Trifecta V, by Bo KaierThe fifth of the Drabblecast’s Trifectas gathers three stories about addiction to love. Due to the subject matter, Norm issues a warning about it’s kid unfriendliness.  First, the narrator of Suzanne Vincent’s story, “Strange Love,” discovers the erotic secret behind the popularity of tattoos among space alien visitors. Next, Jim Bernheimer, (who had previously contributed the story “Reality Bites!”), offers “Cookies,” a quixotic tale leaving listeners to ponder whether we raise our kids, or they raise us.  Finally, “Forbidden Love,” by Ian Fossberg, describes the final quest of a familiar love-lorn character from our shared childhood.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 84, DroubleHeader 1, by Mike Dominic

Drabblecast 84 – Doubleheader 1

Cover for Drabblecast episode 84, DroubleHeader 1, by Mike Dominic“She was called Mrs. Underhill, because that’s where she lived, and I assumed she was some kind of hob, because she obviously wasn’t human…”

In some Drabble News, Norm Sherman shares the interesting tale of well fed “Terry the Crocodile.” The featured stories are a double-dose of Michael Stanwick goodness. “Hush and Hark” brings a god back home, if only for a moment. “Metasciencefiction” shows just how writers come up with those wonderful stories about dinosaurs and guns and awesome stuff like that. Feedback is for Episode 80, “Standing in Line.”

Cover for Drabblecast episode 82, An Overgrown Clump of Narcissists, by Bo Kaier

Drabblecast 82 – An Overgrown Clump of Narcissists

Cover for Drabblecast episode 82, An Overgrown Clump of Narcissists, by Bo Kaier“As you can see, this clump of daffodils is far too overgrown,” said the frail, blue-haired host.” The blooms in the center are starting to suffer as the younger bulbs challenge them for sunlight and nutrients…”

The episode begins with more from the world of the Mega-Beach Death-Match. The Drabble describes warring among fairies. The feature is a  grim tale of holiday angst, shame, and the potential for forgiveness (and unforgivable acts). Feedback is for episode 79’s “Low Carb Cheesecake.”

Cover for Drabblecast episode 81, Snuffles, by Bo Kaier

Drabblecast 81 – Snuffles

Cover for Drabblecast episode 81, Snuffles, by Bo Kaier

Snuffles’ cave was a marvelous place.  It was where his glowing rock lived…

The Mega-Beast Death-Match finals are announced. Stories detail mutants and things that aren’t what they appear to be. The Drabble describes the twitchy, secret side of a husband. The feature is a story of nature in the extreme. A mutant badger? Havoc? Drabblecast goodness! Feedback is for episode 77 “Permanent Detention” and episode 78 “Panel Discussion.”

Page 2 of 3

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén