A Trifecta is comprised of three similarly themed stories selected by The Drabblecast’s editors. Now for some raucous scary fun!
Love means never letting go. And biting..
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Tag: family Page 2 of 3
It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it’ll all have an end when all the stars run down. The sun will last twenty billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that’s all…
On this special episode celebrating the Drabblecast’s 200th episode, we feature sci-fi milestone The Last Question by the ubiquitous genre giant Isaac Asimov. Norm takes listeners along for a thankful, whistful retrospective of the podcast’s history. The episode then moves in to a full cast, sweeping production of the sci-fi epic. The Last Question is an existential piece occurring over a grand timeline in the fullness of outer space, as mankind and artificial intelligence alike consider immortality, the end of all things, and what it means. The episode features chapter illustrations, and announces the 2010 People’s Choice award winners.
Winners of 2010 People’s Choice Awards!
Best Story: Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
Best Drabble: Chris Munroe
Best Art: Liz
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One day when a surge of dying summer heat roiled through the waterways, spoiling my fishing, I punted home to find Mama running down the grassy swell towards my docking-place. Hope died in her face when she saw my punt empty and I knew then what had happened…
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While the rest a’ the country had turned away from the biorevolution, we Best Virginians had become magicians. We had learned how to use the tiniest creatures to change the world in the biggest, most beautiful ways…
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Thousands of fish — dead, dying, or flopping in the shallows — littered the shore. A dozen people in their nightgowns, pajamas, or hastily-thrown-on street clothes moved along the shore, bending, exclaiming, whistling, laughing. Some had flashlights, but most worked by moonlight, scooping up flounder, blue crab, and shrimp. This was a jubilee, as I remembered them, a pre-dawn beach-party to celebrate the mysterious bounty of the bay…
Tim Pratt Week
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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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God 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…
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Amilee Jo Baker’s day of wedded bliss was the biggest scandal the congregation of Millton County’s First Brotherhood Baptist Church had endured since Ginger Lynn married that Liebowitz boy from the Army, bless her heart…
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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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Annabelle’s mother closed her eyes. “Get it sharp,” she said. “Very sharp, so it doesn’t hurt much. I’ll boil some water.”
Somewhere in the house, far from the green places she’d known, baby Annabelle lay on her stomach and cried…
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His 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…
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This year when Peter ran into the living room, there sat Little Brother™ among all the wrapped presents, babbling baby talk, smiling his happy smile, and patting one of the packages with his fat little hand. Peter was so excited that he ran up and gave Little Brother™ a big hug around the neck. That was how he found out about the button.
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“You’re looking for people to mind the ghosts?” I asked, as I signed for the co-pay…
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She sprinted along the sidewalk, the bag bouncing against her back. The sun melded into the horizon, disappeared, engulfing the city in grave dark. Blood-thirsty screams could be heard in the distance, human howls. The gangs and muties were waking, to reclaim the city in their nightly routine…
This episode of the Drabblecast begins with a Drabble News report on a missing core of armed dolphins, trained to shoot people that look like terrorists or suicide bombers. The Navy denies the report: Norm has his own theories. In the feature, a young girl sneaks through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic city at dusk, in search of medicine for her dying brother. A harrowing journey with life and death consequences ensues.
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Though the boy’s birthdays occurred weeks apart, Mother combined their gift to please Father.
“You may choose your present this year, boys,” said she. “Something to fulfill your destiny, perhaps.” The boys were born to change the world…
The winners of the Drabblecast People’s Choice Award are announced: Best Drabble “Please Allow the Door to Close” by John Medaille (episode 89) and Best Feature Story, Floating Over Time by Robert Reed (episode 83). In the Drabble, gods get whatever they can afford at a marketplace of souls. The feature, The Food Processor, is a coming of age story about two brothers who use their birthday gift, an industrial food processor, to break free from the expectations and control of their formidable chef father.
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They called it “Synesthesia.” It’s when the senses got mixed up and you started to hear colors or taste sounds…
Norm begins this with a warning concerning graphic violence and gore. We return to one of the Drabblecast’s favorite topics, the Zombie Apocalypse. The theme receives a fresh airing, which is just as well, as it was starting to smell. Sal Lemerond, veteran of the horror webzine “Necrotic Tissue,” posits the connection between drug addicts and zombies, in a 100-word drabble. Norm chimes in with a tasty public service announcement about the nutritional value of your brain on drugs. In the feature story, J. Alan Pierce whose work has appeared in Kaleidotrope, as well as twice on the Drabblecast (#18 “The One that Got Away” and #31 “Beekeepers”) – takes us through a zombie plague via the eyes of an early victim. The condition first manifests as Synthesesia, the scientific name for the ability to taste colors, smell sounds, and other bizarre sensory hallucinations. The story culminates in a family dispute and a choice betrayal.
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“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.”
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I sense a diference the instant I step out of the water. In the unnatural stillness there is an arid taste in the air that assaults the back of my throat…
Norm Sherman brings us an episode about endings, and why they don’t always have to be bad. The Drabble is about a “beautiful” end. The feature is a touching tale of family’s facing their impending end with strength and solidarity. Feedback is for “Apologies All Around,” episode 76.
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“Pardon, Winston Sinclair, I am not here to sell you something. I am not here to buy something. Winston Sinclair, sir, I am here to apologize…”
Jeff Soesbe, graduate of The Viable Paradise Workshop, gives us a tender feature about a family of the future, and a unique robot with a special purpose. In Drabble News, Norm Sherman makes all the men jealous with the tale of a sexual powerhouse: a prolific, philandering Guinea Pig! Norm tells us more about the Mega-Beast Death-Match. Feedback is for Episode #70 “Reality Bites!” and Episode #71 “Perfect Down Further.”
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Around back there’s a smaller, dimmer lobby with a line of tired-looking people clutching their little blinking cylinders as they wait to have them verified to get their money…
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