Artist: Mary Mattice – The Drabblecast

Drabblecast 443 – The Day I Didn’t Get A Pet Nebula

On April 16, 2021

Who says Drabblecast doesn’t do Young Adult Fiction?

This week we launch Women & Aliens Month with a fresh, original Drabblecast commission by Effie Seiberg.

We’re grateful to be able to bring you this story this week!

On the day I turned nine I didn’t get a pet nebula.

I’d really really wanted one, just like the one Shelly had. And I’d been talking about it FOR-EVER, so Mom could have the time to save up for the one in the pawn shop. I’m not usually patient, but this was important…

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Drabblecast 417 – Love in the Balance

By Drabblecast

On October 11, 2019

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi

Episode Sponsor- I’m From Nowhere, a novel by Lindsay Lerman.

This week’s Drabblecast explores unrequited love and how relationships, like anything in life, are susceptible to change. We bring you a full cast production of David D. Levine’s space opera story “Love in the Balance,” read to you by Mike Boris, Lauren Synger, Veronica Giguere, Adam Pracht, David Levine and Norm Sherman.

Theo opened his eyes and stared out the window.
Beyond the glass loomed the fog of endless night, and bulbous shapes drifting. Here and there a spotlight picked out the sigil of one or another House on a pennant or tail fin. The red bat of the Unknown Regalia… the silver spoon-and-circle of Theo’s own Guided Musings… and there, the gilded fish of the Pulp Revenants. Angrily, Theo twisted the brass and crystal handle beneath the worn sill, and wooden slats snapped shut over the view.

How dare Kyrie summon the zombies again— on this day of all days, and upon the Musings of all Houses? How dare she?

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Drabblecast 397 – Fruit and Words

By Drabblecast

On January 30, 2019

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

This week The Drabblecast presents “Fruit and Words” by Aimee Bender; a story about words and their meanings.

Aimee Bender is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her surreal plots and characters. Bender’s works have been published in GQ, Harper’s, Opium Magazine, and several anthologies. She has also been heard on This American Life.

Story Excerpt:

So there we were, Steve and I, smack in the middle of the same fight we’d had a million times before, a fight I knew so well I could graph it. We were halfway down the second slope of resignation, the place where we usually went to different rooms and despaired quietly on our own, and right at the moment that I thought, for the first time in seven years, that maybe things were just not going to work out after all, that was the moment he suggested we drive to Vegas right then and tie the knot.

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Drabblecast 354 – DoubleHeader XVIII: Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

By Drabblecast

On March 25, 2015

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

Alone — but not lonely.

Three days, we’ve been on this planet. Over a year, Earth-time. But we don’t talk about Earth-time anymore. It weakens morale, says Sir Overgeneral Halfish.

My morale went out the window when I found out that I was sentenced to be transported off planet.

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Drabblecast 315 – Heaven is a Place on Planet X

By Drabblecast

On March 7, 2014

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

It was 8:34 p.m. on a Tuesday, and it was almost the end of the world.

Actually, the world was expected to end on Friday, at precisely 5 p.m., eastern daylight time. This was not a forecast, or a projection: it was more like an appointment.

On Friday at 5 p.m. eastern, a thousand high-powered laser cannons would fire simultaneously from their hidden positions in outer space, instantly reducing Planet Earth to vapor and ash. At the exact same moment, the consciousness of every living human being would manifest itself on Planet Xyrxiconia. This planet was located a trillion light years away in a far-flung region of the universe Earth’s scientists had not yet glimpsed. There, on Planet X, humanity would find themselves in fresh bodies—remade vessels. These reincarnations would live eternally in a world of infinite luxury.

At least . . . that’s what the aliens claimed.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 36 – Warm Regression

By Drabblecast

On December 24, 2013

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Strange

There were always bright rings on the doorbell and smiling faces carrying covered dishes. There was always a peck on the cheek for us kids when grandma came, and always a strong handshake from grandpa. His big warm hands always convinced us that he was as strong as he was wise. All of them would pile in, cherry red cheeks and warm mittens. They would brush off all the snow from outside and remind us how cold it was where we lived. It was true, we lived in one of the coldest parts of the country, and there was always a blizzard on Christmas Eve.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 35 – Teaching Bigfoot to Read

By Drabblecast

On December 24, 2013

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Sci-Fi, Strange

Dear Bigfoot,

Life on the moon sucks. Dad got home early from the air factory today and I wasn’t done cleaning the dishes from breakfast so he broke my breakfast bowl over my head. Guess I’ll have to eat out of his bowl tomorrow.

Dad says he’s gonna have to get a new job. Not that he told me. He told Melinda, the girl he’s been bringing home lately. They drank the last of his screech — that’s this nasty rum like they used to make back on Earth — then started poking each other on the bottom bunk while I sat on the top. Dad caught me peaking and near took my eye out when he threw his boot. Melinda calmed him down at least, and they got back to poking at each other.

Drabblecast B-Sides: <a href="http://www.drabblecast.org/donate/">Donate</a>

Cover for Drabblecast episode 267, Postapocalypsemas, by Mary Mattice

Drabblecast 267 – Postapocalypsemas

By Drabblecast

On December 24, 2012

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Sandeer smelled her.

It was just a whiff, a few molecules of something familiar and therefore sweet, wafting on a late afternoon breeze that otherwise carried only the usual: formaldehyde, benzene, dioxin, chromium, and miscellaneous particulate matter both organic and non-. (Once, there had been the smell of roasting chestnuts and crackling logs and simmering spiced cider, but in recent cycles only less pleasant things burned.) There, represented by an air sample just barely statistically significant, was the scent of Sophie.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 16 – Winning Streak

By Drabblecast

On March 22, 2012

In Comedy, Drabblecast B-Sides, Sci-Fi

Seven security gargoyles stare at me from atop the elaborate sandstone columns lining the casino’s walls. Their sharp eyes and oversized talons flex ever so slightly in anticipation of snatching up cheaters like unsuspecting prey… The pit boss watches me too, now, and for good reason. I’m an Ittari after all, a shapeshifter, just as they’d identified me with the DNA scan when I’d entered this fine establishment…

Drabblecast B-Sides: <a href="http://www.drabblecast.org/donate/">Donate</a>

Cover for Drabblecast episode 237, Test Drive, by Mary Mattice

Drabblecast 237 – Test Drive

By Drabblecast

On March 22, 2012

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

It was my turn to wear the mask, but my egg-sister Linney wouldn’t give it up. She’d been wearing the mask all morning, set on Smile, and it was a test day, too. Everyone thought she was so pleased and relaxed and Earthy…

This episode of the Drabblecast opens with the announcement of the 2011 People’s Choice Awards winners: Best Episode Art (Jerel Dye, Hokkaido Green, episode 208), Best Drabble (Lab Rats by Nicholas J Carter, episode 229), and Best Story (The Wish of the Demon Achtromagk by Eugie Foster, episode 214). In the feature, alien egg-sisters Linney and Mirana are competing for an assignment on Earth. On test day, they are evaluated on their abilities to blend into human society. Despite a disappointing start, Mirana pulls ahead of Linney during a trip to the mall where they meet, and she charms, a human teenage boy.

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Drabblecast 224 – Doubleheader X

By Drabblecast

On November 25, 2011

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Strange

James Kennedy had stared at his sock drawer for a good ten minutes that first morning, dumbfounded. He’d never seen it so neat, and he didn’t remember doing it. But there they were: threadbare, but tidy and folded…

Another Drabblecast doubleheader special, featuring two stories from from author John P. Murphy.

Help support Norm’s New CD: The Esoteric Order of Sherman. Pre-order the Order.

Episode Sponsor: The Flash Pulp Podcast, thrice weekly pulp stories for the modern age.

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Drabblecast 108 – The Wicked Witch Looks at 40 (Decades)

By Drabblecast

On March 27, 2009

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

The wicked witch business wasn’t what it used to be. It had been such a simple thing, to lure children with candy; back in the old days when candy had been hard to come by…

In this episode’s Drabble, a moth eloquently expresses her attraction to a bright light and her own subsequent destruction. The feature story, The Wicked Witch Looks at 40 (Decades), follows Winnie the witch through her (long overdue) midlife crisis. After a particularly discouraging Halloween, where not a single child is captured, she takes the advice of an article in Martha Stewart Living magazine, changing her house and her lifestyle.

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Drabblecast 55 – Circe’s

By Drabblecast

On March 12, 2008

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy

Feliks Duda has eight weeks left in the country on the morning the letter from the Home Office arrives. They tell Feliks he has to go back to his country. That Feliks can not do…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 30, 2084, by Mary Mattice

Drabblecast 30 – 2084

By Drabblecast

On September 19, 2007

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

“What are you doing tonight?” asked Julian, with a sly smirk on his face. He knew that Winston was prone to doing the most outrageous things.

Winston smiled in return. “You know me Rick, nothing too risky!”…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 019, Sredni Vashtar, by Mary Mattice

Drabblecast 19 – Sredni Vashtar

By Drabblecast

On June 27, 2007

In Comedy, Drabblecast

Sredni Vashtar went forth, His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white.
His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death.

Sredni Vashtar the Beautiul…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 9, Vengeance at 4 am, by Mary Mattice

Drabblecast 9 – Vengeance at 4 a.m.

By Drabblecast

On April 18, 2007

In Drabblecast, Horror

Rushing to clean the house before Aunt Mary comes home, April and her sister realize that Grandpa’s old clock is broken…

Episode 9 of the Drabblecast brings us ‘Vengeance at 4 a.m.’ by Lindsey Anderson – a deathly tale of heirlooms and eternally grumpy grandparents. Norm encourages listeners to vote in the Super Animal Deathmatch.

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Tag: Artist: Mary Mattice

Story Excerpt: