Three days left in the Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter! You’ve still got time to get in there and get some awesome Drabblecast rewards.
In this Relaunch Prelaunch episode, you’ll hear excerpts from Drabblecast resident Cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth’s past adventures, and also about how you can help fund his next adventure by helping us reach our 45K Kickstarter stretch goal!
The Drabblecast presents “In Search of the Mongolian Deathworm,” a riveting adventure into the desert sands of Mongolia.
Join cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth as he treks across the Gobi desert in search of a mythical acid-spitting, lightning sh*tting annelid.
This original series was created by Norm Sherman for the Drabblecast. Keep your eyes and ears open as Connor Choadsworth will be returning for an all new adventure very soon!
For now, the Mongolian Deathworm—the deadliest worm in all of Mongolia.
Story Excerpt:
It is subject to a number of extraordinary claims by Mongolian locals. Such as the ability of the worm to spew forth sulfuric acid that upon contact will turn anything it touches yellow. It kills humans. And it’s purported ability to kill at a distance by means of electric discharge… through its anus…
This series was originally serialized across five Drabblecast Episodes:
The Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter campaign continues! Today, Fan Picks: Followed, by Will McIntosh as chosen and introduced by Drabblecast fan Boo Yeah. Hear her thoughts on an unsettling story about living with the consequences of our actions…
She came wandering down the sidewalk like any other corpse, her herky-jerky walk unmistakable among the fluid strides of the living. She was six or seven, Southeast Asian, maybe Indian, her ragged clothes caked in dried mud. Pedestrians cut a wide berth around her without noticing her at all…
In early December, Brad Miro walked into the office of his partner, Dr. John Estes, and said, “I’ve got our next target. It’s perfect. The public is going to love it.”
John closed his eyes. “I haven’t even finished writing the paper about the Mongolian death worm yet”
This Christmas Special episode of Drabblecast starts with Norm’s Lovecraft inspired take on “The Night Before Christmas”. The theme this week is a creepy yet festive take on Christmas. The feature lets us see the career of a successful crypto-zoologist. As we see Dr John Estes just recovering from discovering the Mongolian death worm when his partner wants to catch a flying reindeer. Norm discusses how it’s better not to believe, like in Santa… or the Mayans.
I still remember that cold October afternoon in 1936 when Whitey McFarland’s old coonhound Maggie dragged herself out of the forest, whimpering and yowling. Her skin hung off her sides in red flaps and her eyes rolled wildly. She collapsed on the ground and howled.
All us kids loved Maggie, but not one of us dared go near her, not while she was baring her teeth and snarling. Benny Carper dropped the bat and ran off; Ira Schmidt just stood there staring at the half-dead animal as it pawed the frozen dirt. I tugged on Whitey’s sleeve and told him to stay with Maggie while I got my dad—Whitey’s dad was a drunk and never easy to find. When he finally nodded in understanding, I took off running.
“Technological marvel, and affordable too!!!”After disappointing experiences with related products, I decided to take a chance with the new Picobeast Remote Camera, Model TA-55. What a wonder! The set-up was easy, the instructions clear and concise. I’ve been trying to get my ten year-old son interested in the natural world, and this device has been a godsend. A wooded ravine runs next to our backyard, and while I assumed we had nocturnal neighbors, it was a revelation when just one night’s surveillance yielded images of raccoons and opossums and a red fox happily going about their lives. My son was so enchanted that he insisted on making treats for our wild friends. Within the week, our bait was bringing a parade of animals, including a badger and mink, and what looks for the world to be a wolf-dog hybrid, if not a pure Canis lupus. I don’t know which of my neighbors owns the beast, much less keeps it hidden…
Oddly-accented cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth once again embarks on a quest to find mythical beasts, this time in the deep jungles of Kenya “In Search of the Brain-Eating Nandi Bear.”
“The Nandi… a magical bear… a brain-eating bear…”
This is an was an exclusive podcast originally available only to Drabblecast $10.00 a month subscribers. Subscribe and support your favorite podcast to get access to our Drabblecast B-Sides!
Now, enjoy the show!
Drabblecast B-Sides 15 – In Search of the Brain-Eating Nandi Bear
Following that is our feature story by Will McIntosh, author of Soft Apocalypse and the upcoming Hitchers.
Story Excerpt:
She came wandering down the sidewalk like any other corpse, her herky-jerky walk unmistakable among the fluid strides of the living. She was six or seven, Southeast Asian, maybe Indian, her ragged clothes caked in dried mud. Pedestrians cut a wide berth around her without noticing her at all…
Cover for Drabblecast episode 216, The Book of Eternity, by Jan Dennison
His name was Marvin Kasselmeier, though he changed it to Marcus Magnus
because he thought it sounded more impressive. He’d been a bright student,
solitary and humorless, with no friends, and a single obsession: he wanted to live forever…
Is eternal life real worth it? A demonic tale from Mike Resnick explores the question in the final week of Lovecraft months Story features In Search of the Brain-Eating Nandi Bear Part V.
My earliest fear, the one I remember anyways, was of great pulp magazine robots with hot water heater bodies and vacuum tube eyes. My brother forbade me to touch his precious magazines, so I wouldn’t. I’d stare and stare at the covers through; hourglassed damsels in diaphanous gowns draped over thick slab altars, and the robots, always the robots with their cylindrical torsos and pincer claws for hands….
In early December, Brad Miro walked into the office of his partner, Dr. John Estes, and said, “I’ve got our next target. It’s perfect. The public is going to love it.”
John closed his eyes. “I haven’t even finished writing the paper about the Mongolian death worm yet”
This Christmas Special episode of Drabblecast starts with Norm’s Lovecraft inspired take on “The Night Before Christmas”. The theme this week is a creepy yet festive take on Christmas. The feature lets us see the career of a successful crypto-zoologist. As we see Dr John Estes just recovering from discovering the Mongolian death worm when his partner wants to catch a flying reindeer. Norm discusses how it’s better not to believe, like in Santa… or the Mayans.
His 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.
The Drabblecast presents “In Search of the Mongolian Deathworm,” a riveting adventure into the desert sands of Mongolia.
**This episode is part of our B-Sides Feed. To enjoy this feed you can support the show for $10/month.
Join pasty cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth as treks across the Gobi desert in search of mythical acid-spitting, lightning sh*tting annelids.
Story Excerpt:
“It is subject to a number of extraordinary claims by Mongolian locals. Such as the ability of the worm to spew forth sulfuric acid that upon contact will turn anything it touches yellow. It kills humans. And it’s purported ability to kill at a distance by means of electric discharge… through its anus…
The Mongolian Deathworm…the deadliest worm in all of Mongolia…”
This series was originally serialized across five Drabblecast Episodes:
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…
On this episode of the Drabblecast podcast, a pair of stories from decorated author Bruce Holland Rogers. Each deals with perception and the invisible rules that run our lives.
Also on this episode, crytozoologist Connor Choadsworth returns with: In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm: Part Two.
We have two feature stories for you today: “A Baker’s Dozen,” and “The Wrong Cart.”
Story Excerpt:
People don’t like to admit mistakes. You know how it is. Sometimes it’s just easier to act like you didn’t make a mistake at all, like you’re doing exactly what you meant to do all along…
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.
Seen 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.