Drabblecast Covers Collage 2018 01

Tag: relationships Page 1 of 2

Drabbleclassics 29 – Primary Pollinator (191)

Drabbleclassics 29 cover by Bill Halliar

Drabbleclassics:

A fan-hosted Series that features fan-picked stories from the Drabblecast archives, remastered and brought to you by fans like our host this week, Bart Epstein.  Enjoy!

This week for Drabbleclassics Bart Epstein brings your Primary Pollinator, by Nicole Kimberling.

When Dr. Lopez came for me, I was plunging the geo lab toilet. She carried a red stickle suit in one hand and a spray can of anti-fungal lubricant in the other.

 

Drabblecast Fan Pick: The Belonging Kind

The Drabblecast Fan Picks - The Belonging Kind As the Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter campaign continues, we bring you another Fan Pick: The Belonging Kind.  Drabblecast fan Kyle Sellers introduces this eerie story about how hard fitting in can be sometimes…

It might have been in Club Justine, or Jimbo’s, or Sad Jack’s, or the Rafters; Coretti could never be sure where he’d first seen her. At any time, she might have been in any one of those bars. She swam through the submarine half-life of bottles and glassware and the slow swirl of cigarette smoke… she moved through her natural element, one bar after another.

Now, Coretti remembered their first meeting as if he saw it through the wrong end of a powerful telescope, small and clear and very far away.

Drabblecast Fan Picks: The Last Dog

Drabblecast Fan Pick: The Last Dog cover artThe leadup to our Relaunch Kickstarter campaign continues with this Fan Pick: The Last Dog.

This was a favorite of one of our newest team members, Jen Fisher, d(r)abbler of all things and master of none. We’ll be doing more of these with opportunities for fans to record their own introductions to their favorite stories in the future. Hit us up on Facebook and Twitter or give us a shout out in our forums to tell us your favorite stores.

In “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.

Story Excerpt:

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…

Enjoy:

Drabblecast Fan Pick: The Last Dog

Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Morris and the Machine

Cover Art for Director's Cut: Morris and the MachineThe Relaunch Prelaunch marches forward as we present the listener-requested “Director’s Cut: Morris and the Machine.”

This fan-favorite story originally aired in 2010. It is a haunting tale about relationships, time travel, and the poisonous nature of nostalgia.

Author Tim Pratt lives in Berkely, CA and has been featured on the Drabblecast many times. He is a Hugo Award winner alongside many other accolades and is currently working on a space opera series for Angry Robot.

Drabbleclassics 23 – Synesthesia (92)

Cover for Drabblecast episode 92, Synesthesia, by Tom MorgantiThey 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.

Drabbleclassics 17 – Apologies All Around (76)

Cover for Drabblecast 76, Apologies All Around, by Bo Kaier“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.”

Drabblecast 292 – Hollow as the World

Cover for Drabblecast episode 292, Hollow as the World, by Oskar KunikOne of the reasons Joshua loved Lydia as much as he did was all the secret rituals they’d devised. Their shared jokes were treasured secrets, never to be shared with the other kids at high school; some days, the way Lydia could send Joshua into high titters with a raise of her pierced eyebrow was the only thing that kept Joshua from slitting his wrists…

 

 

Cover for Drabblecast Episode 264, The Belonging Kind, by Kathleen Beckett

Drabblecast 264 – The Belonging Kind

Cover for Drabblecast Episode 264, The Belonging Kind, by Kathleen BeckettIt might have been in Club Justine, or Jimbo’s, or Sad Jack’s, or the Rafters; Coretti could never be sure where he’d first seen her. At any time, she might have been in any one of those bars. She swam through the submarine half-life of bottles and glassware and the slow swirl of cigarette smoke… she moved through her natural element, one bar after another.

Now, Coretti remembered their first meeting as if he saw it through the wrong end of a powerful telescope, small and clear and very far away.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 248, Cockroach Hat, by Greg Cravens

Drabblecast 248 – The Cockroach Hat

Cover for Drabblecast episode 248, Cockroach Hat, by Greg Cravens“What I don’t like about it,” said Cliffe, “is that is it’s just a metaphor instead of something real.”

“What if it was real?” I (Sam) asked. “What if it was me and I actually turned into a cockroach someday?”

This episode of the Drabblecast is all about crazy relationships. In the drabble, it’s apparent that finding Mr. Right is difficult no matter who (or what) you are. In the feature, Sam wakes up one day to discover he has been transformed into a giant cockroach. He spends the rest of his day on a surreal quest, not only to return to his normal self, but also to save his girlfriend from threats both mundane and extraordinary, with the hope a new start together.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 245, A Nice Jewish Golem, by Tom Morganti

Drabblecast 245 – A Nice Jewish Golem

Cover for Drabblecast episode 245, A Nice Jewish Golem, by Tom Morganti“Mrs. Levine, it is hard enough for someone to find the right person to love in the world, even with all the people in it. For Yeshua, it is almost impossible. Would you have him fall in love with a human girl and pine for her until his heart broke and we would have to erase
the letter that gives him life? Reduce him back to a lifeless thing?”

This episode of the Drabblecast is about adoption. In the drabble, a grieving father performs terrible experiments with the comfort food brought by well-intentioned neighbors. In the feature, a fawning mother grapples with conflicting fears for her son, a golem, when he falls in love with a non-Jewish construct. Despite her distress, she must ask: In a world where options for love are severely limited, what role does faith play?

Cover for Drabblecast episode 233, A Blade of Love, by K. Martinez

Drabblecast 233 – A Blade of Love

Cover for Drabblecast episode 233, A Blade of Love, by K. MartinezAllan Thermoose’s wife is in love with a blade of grass. It’s the 375th blade directly even with the crack in the third slab of sidewalk east of the mailbox. The blade gets full sun all day, and Allan, a stickler for lawn maintenance, is careful to water it, along with all the others, for approximately thirty minutes per day, moving the sprinkler three times to ensure even water distribution. He occasionally counts the residual droplets left on the tufts of grass fifteen minutes after he shuts off the water. If he’s not happy with the results, he repeats the process until he’s positive his lawn has had enough to drink.

This episode of the Drabblecast is concerned with strange love. In the drabble, a mother’s last thoughts are for her son as the mower’s blades cut her down but pass over him. In the feature, Allan Thermoose’s wife falls in love with a blade of grass. Her behavior increasingly unconventional includes: standing outside staring at the lawn, forbidding Allan to cut that blade, sleeping outside on the lawn, and dressing up for the blade. It soon becomes clear that action must be taken.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 221, Year of the Rabbit, by Rick Green

Drabblecast 221 – Year of the Rabbit

Cover for Drabblecast episode 221, Year of the Rabbit, by Richard K. GreenIt used to be that the sun would go down and the streetlamps would come on and make pools of this wet, yellow light. No matter where you stood, you could see the lights on somewhere. You could run from streetlamp to streetlamp and you could look down the streets and you’d never drown in the dark…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 209, Babyhead, by Johan Lindroos

Drabblecast 209 – Babyhead

Cover for Drabblecast episode 209, Babyhead, by Johan LindroosCynthia couldn’t explain what she’d just seen in the vegetable patch.

She didn’t want to look again. She considered going back into the house, crawling back into bed with Mikey, and putting it down as a beer-inspired dream.

But that pinkish dome with the fuzzy down had felt soft under her fingers, and there had been the smell of manufactured newness, like a dusting of talcum powder wafting up to her nostrils, as she had pulled the coarse outer leaves of the cabbage apart…

Tales of parental love gone awry in this week’s unsettling Drabblecast.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 191, Primary Pollinator, by Bill Halliar

Drabblecast 191 – Primary Pollinator

Cover for Drabblecast episode 191, Primary Pollinator, by Bill HalliarWhen Dr. Lopez came for me, I was plunging the geo lab toilet. She carried a red stickle suit in one hand and a spray can of anti-fungal lubricant in the other.

“Great news, Oliver! Big Spike is in season,” Dr. Lopez said. “He finally wants to fertilize Thick Root…”

The theme of this Drabblecast is propogation and legacy for future generations. The feature lets us into the world of Oliver as he imitates a bora monkey-bird and goes to fertilize a massive jerk of a tree. Norm recaps and wonders what we can learn from the story and it relates to state tax.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 183, Angel of the Ordinary, by Dominick Rabrun

Drabblecast 183 – Angel of the Ordinary

Cover for Drabblecast episode 183, Angel of the Ordinary, by Dominick Rabrun“They will come on bicycles and by balloon, they will arrive in mailboxes and packages of cake batter. They will come like fleas on the dogs and like giants over the moon. The dull shall be turned into nothing by the coming of the angels…”

Norm presents this week’s Drabblecast in the form of a sermon, allowing us to bask in the glory of weird. The feature story, read by Hearty White, reveals unto us proper preparation for the coming Angels of Discrimination, scourges of the ordinary. Will you be ready?

Cover for Drabblecast episode 174, The Fantasy Jumper, by Elan Trinidad

Drabblecast 174 – The Fantasy Jumper

Cover for Drabblecast episode 174, The Fantasy Jumper, by Elan Trinidad“This is the one I wanted to show you,” Rando said to his blind date, Maya, who had an artificial eye that drooped slightly, but was otherwise very cute in a chipmunk sort of way.
“Make her blonde,” Rando said, while Maya peered over his shoulder. The woman’s hair changed from brown to golden blonde…

Cover for Drabblecast episode 166, Jubilee, by Sean Azzapardi

Drabblecast 166 – Jubilee

Cover for Drabblecast episode 166, Jubilee, by Sean AzzapardiThousands 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

Cover for Drabblecast episode 156, Going to the Chapel, by Jan Dennison

Drabblecast 156 – Going to the Chapel

Cover for Drabblecast episode 156, Going to the Chapel, by Jan DennisonAmilee 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…

Drabblecast 150 – Morris and the Machine

Cover for Drabblecast episode 150, Morris and the Machine, by Broken CyborgThe 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.

Cover for Drabblecast episode 117, The Curse of the Alien's Wife, by Bo Kaier

Drabblecast 117 – Curse of the Alien’s Wife

Cover for Drabblecast episode 117, The Curse of the Alien's Wife, by Bo KaierNow 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.

Page 1 of 2

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén