The Drabblecast Audio Fiction Podcast

Drabbecast 509- All Roads Lead to Roam

Wed, 06 May 2026 06:42:00 -0000

Norm gives us the low down on his disgusting clot procedure, and we present the story "All Roads Lead to Roam" by Christopher R. Muscato.

Narrated by Kurai Kitsune

Episode Art by Joel Bisallon

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Drabblecast 508- The Bridge

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 23:54:00 -0000

Come walk the road (or unsettling staircase leading down into the earth) less traveled this week on the Drabblecast, as we present author Rory Say's story "The Bridge." Enjoy!

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Drabblecast 507- Fatal Conditions

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 06:34:00 -0000

The Quantum Doctor is in! …on this week’s Drabblecast. We bring you “Fatal Conditions,” by Chris Campbell. Read by Onicia D Mueller.

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Drabblecast 506- The Window Boy

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 07:55:00 -0000

Silosibyn Sandalhemp (Cryptkeeper Norm) returns to host the Drabblecast Hallowellness Special, and the Drabblecast presents a production of Thomas Ha's creppy short story, "The Window Boy."

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Drabblecast 505- No Real Creatures

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:30:00 -0000

This week on the show, "No Real Creatures," by JM Brewer. Also we announce the Strangies winners!

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Drabblecast 504- The Mub

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 05:13:00 -0000

Respect His Might on the Drabblecast this week! We bring you "The Mub," by Thomas Ha.

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Drabblecast 503- The Bleeding Tree

Thu, 29 May 2025 21:50:00 -0000

A story of change and renewel and supernatural bears on this week's Drabblecast! We bring you "The Bleeding Tree,"by Joe Koch. Also, Norm announcies The Strangies awards! Go here to learn more and vote for your favorite stories of 2023 and 2024:

The Strangies

Norm Sherman's latest CD, "The Instruction Book"

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Drabblecast 502- Good Boy

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 05:38:00 -0000

At last! Another touching dog story on the Drabblecast! This week we bring you an original by H. Robert Barland. Enjoy!

H. Robert Barland is a teacher, Viking re-enactor and black belt martial artist. A former climber, film extra, and resident of the UK, he has now returned to Newcastle, Australia where he lives with his wife and two boys. His work has been published in Etherea and Nightmare Fuel magazines and also in the Wicked Flashes of Fantasy and Written into the Wind anthologies. He considers himself well adapted for life on land and can be followed on X ( @hrobertbarland) and Instagram (@h.robertbarland)."

Episode Art: Ben Mueller

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Drabblecast 501- Pastorale

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 05:08:00 -0000

This week on Drabblecast-- something's fishy in a curious small town. We bring you a paranormal murder-mystery by Cormack Baldwin & EV Smith. Enjoy!

Art by Shane Bevin

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Drabblecast 500- Your Local Repairers of Reality

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 07:24:00 -0000

We made it everyone! On this, the 500th episode, a commissioned original from a Drabblecast favorite-- Shaenon Garrity.

Episode Art: Bo Kaier

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Drabblecast 499- Nowhere

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 07:59:00 -0000

John Brown wears brown John Brown pants, on this week's Drabblecast! We present an original story by Kay Vaindal called "Nowhere." Enjoy!

Kay Vaindal (they/she) is a coastal ecologist and weird fiction writer. Her work has appeared in Seize the Press, Dark Matter, and anthologies including This World Belongs to Us and Death's Other Kingdom: Horror Tales of WWI.

Art by Bo Kaier

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Drabblecast 498- The Sol Searching Fool

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 08:31:07 -0000

A lesson on loneliness on this week's Drabblecast-- an original story by Arasibo Campeche called "The Sol Searching Fool."

Arasibo Campeche (he/him)"Arasibo is originally from Puerto Rico and has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror that's often inspired by scientific principles. His work has appeared in numerous venues. His short story collection, Strained Sigma Bonds, will be published by Water Dragon Publishing in the fall of 2024.

Łukasz Godlewski (he/him) is a comic book creator from Gdańsk - Poland. He is an author of Painter, his first big graphic novel which is a tribute to Lovecraft and other classic weird fiction authors. Currently he is about to publish his new horror comic book - Black Heart.

Facebook - @godlewskiart Instagram - @godlewski_art.

Lonely? There's even more episodes, art, and behind the scenes at the Drabblecast's patreon. Still need more? Come over to the Drabblecast Discord.

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Drabblecast 497- The Goat Wife

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 08:21:00 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast- a melancholy story about loss, abandonment, and the perils of old magic.

Avra Margariti is a queer author, Greek sea monster, and Rhysling-nominated poet with a fondness for the dark and the darling. Avra’s work haunts publications such as Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, F&SF, Podcastle, Asimov's, Vastarien, and Reckoning. You can find Avra on twitter (@avramargariti).

Drabble: "The Hills," by Jonathan Lee Wilson. Jonathan is an aspiring narrator and crafter of short stories. Some of Jonathan’s voice work can be found on the Dunesteef, Anklecast, and Dribblecast. You can find more of his stories @taletellersuniverse on Youtube.

Art by Cindy Fan

Give the gift of Weirdness this holiday season with a Drabblecast Patreon Subscription! Click here: www.patreon.com/drabblecast/gift

Join the Drabblecast patreon.

Come hang out at the Drabblecast Discord.

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Drabblecast 496- Sundays with Pop Pop

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 03:40:57 -0000

Stop asking so many damn questions! Come and listen to the newest weird story from Pop-Pop. He's got something important to tell you.

Zachary Olson(he/him) is a freelance writer and composer from Phoenix, Arizona currently residing in Chicago. Updates on his work can be found on Twitter @obfuscatingGod and here.

Steve Lillie Find them here: Twitter @SteveArtyPerson and Instagram instagram.com/lillie.steve

Come wander the Sherman Cabin at the Drabblecast's patreon. Want to stand guard with other weirdos? Come over to the Drabblecast Discord.

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Drabblecast 495- Jared Chappel's The First Car Ballet

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 02:40:35 -0000

Lights!

Wheels!

Wipers!

Curtain!

This week, a marvel of machines and carbureted choreography awaits you, with an original story by Kay Vaindal called "Jared Chappel's The First Car Ballet."

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Drabblecast 494- Trifecta- The Sherman Evening Post

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 05:55:09 -0000

You have a ring on your door bell, and laid on your stoop is a brown papered parcel, tied with damp twine. You bring the package inside, noticing that the sky is tinged a weird green. You smell burning hair.

You pull the ends of the twine, which is warm and wet and reminds you of manhandling spaghetti. Inside are dozens of magazines, "The Sherman Evening Post", and as you move the issues, the covers invoke a strange feeling. The air around you is green now, and the last thing you see are the covers of these stories.

Reach your full biological potential at the Drabblecast's patreon.

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Drabblecast 493- China Doll

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 08:49:48 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast, we bring you "China Doll" by Kelsea Yu.

Narrated by the Word Whore.

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Drabblecast 492- Doubleheader: Christine Nogle

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 04:12:31 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast, become something new! We bring you two stories about transformation by author Christine Nogle.

Narrated by The Word Whore.

Reach your full biological potential at the Drabblecast’s patreon.

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Drabblecast 491- Learn to Count with the Doomed Expedition

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:37:44 -0000

We take you on a voyage into the weird this week, with an original story by TB Jeremiah, called "Learn to Count with the Doomed Expedition."

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Drabblecast 490- Slime on my Hackles

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 05:29:42 -0000

The Drabblecast explores the seedy side of space this week with an original story by Jessica Jewell called "Slime on My

Hackles." Enjoy!

Norm Sherman Kickstarter

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Drabblecast 489- The Black Waters of Lethe

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 18:53:00 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast, we bring you dark ancient tales from distant lost lands, by Oliver Buckram.

Also, Norm is launching a new Kickstarter for his 3rd album, "The Instruction Book." How exciting! Follow the upcoming campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/drabblecast/the-instruction-book

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Drabblecast 488- From Earth to Io, with Love

Fri, 24 May 2024 08:34:43 -0000

The Drabblecast takes you to Jupiter's moon this week, with Adelehin Ijasan's story "From Earth to Io, with Love."

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Drabblecast 487- Bad Meat

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 09:35:37 -0000

A bout of Drabblecast is about to hit-- hope you get to your headphones in time! We bring you "Bad Meat," by Chip Houser.

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Drabblecast 486- Those Who Forget and Those Who Perish

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 01:17:02 -0000

Welcome to the horse horror genre! Our story this week is "Those Who Forget and Those Who Perish" by K. W. Colyard. Enjoy!

Cover art by Steve Lillie

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Drabblecast 485- He Who Ruins Everything

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 01:13:12 -0000

Drabblecast delves into godhood this week with L.N. Clarke's original story, "He Who RuinsEverything." Enjoy!

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Drabblecast 484 - Cosmic Bowling

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 06:51:50 -0000

The Drabblecast hits the lanes this week with original story, "Cosmic Bowling" by Mike Davis.

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Drabblecast 483- Snow

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 02:57:59 -0000

The Drabblecast wraps up 2023 with a Drabbleganza, followed by a story about tough decisions and leaving things behind-- a Drabblecast original by Em Liu, called "Snow." Enjoy, Happy New Year!

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Drabblecast 482- That Bloody Frontier

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 19:27:32 -0000

The Drabblecast Weird West Event closes out this week with another original story– this time with epic train shoot-outs, centaurs, and manifest destiny! We bring you, “That Bloody Frontier” by Sasha Brown.

Drabblecast Patreon

Cover art by Tristan Tolhurst

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Drabblecast 481- The Alamo

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:31:00 -0000

The Weird Wild West continues this week with "The Alamo," by Cedrick May.

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Drabblecast 480- Rusty Sue

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 21:50:21 -0000

The Drabblecast Weird West event continues, with “Rusty Sue” by Arthur H. Manners.

Cover art by Tristan Tolhurst

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Drabblecast 479- Headhunting

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 21:59:00 -0000

The Drabblecast kicks off the Weird West event, with Avra Margariti's story "Headhunting" and 100 word story Quickdraw contest winner "Taming the Larvalands" by Matt Blairstone. Enjoy!

Art by Tristan Tolhurst

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Drabblecast 478- Cool Air

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 06:37:58 -0000

As the summer winds down and things cool down, the Drabblecast brings you a story that will give you chills! We present, "Cool Air" by H.P. Lovecraft.

Cover art by Catriel Tallarico

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Drabblecast 477- The Eight-Thousanders

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 19:29:00 -0000

Mountain climbing might be more treacherous than you think. This week on the Drabblecast, we bring you Jason Sanford's "The Eight-Thousanders."

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Drabblecast 476- The Pigeon

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 21:08:00 -0000

Norm talks birds on this week's episode, before presenting Drabblecast's production of "The Pigeon" by Michelle Knudson. Enjoy!

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Drabblecast 475- Doubleheader- Donald Bartleme

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 19:40:00 -0000

A merry hanging and a game of jacks this week on the Drabblecast!

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Drabblecast 474- Exit the Professor

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 20:37:00 -0000

Mutant hillbillies on this week's Drabblecast!

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Drabblecast 473- Trunk to Trunk

Tue, 30 May 2023 02:16:49 -0000

The Drabblecast brings you an original tale of interspecies aid. We present "Trunk to Trunk," by P.B. Yeary. Enjoy!

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Drabblecast 472- The Hard Problem of Consciousness

Mon, 15 May 2023 23:37:54 -0000

#Hivelife this week on the Drabblecast! We bring you "The Hard Problem of Consciousness" by Andrew Giffin.

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Drabblecast 471- The Monster-God of Marmurth

Fri, 05 May 2023 20:47:00 -0000

The Drabblecast takes you on an expedition you're gonna have to see with your own eyes to believe! We bring you The Monster-God of Marmurth by Edmond Hamilton.

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Drabblecast 470- Personal Best

Sat, 29 Apr 2023 07:12:00 -0000

The Drabblecast presents an original story by Michael Bettendorf about sports, parental expectations and growing up the hard way in a literal way.

Read to you by Renee Chambliss.

Art by DS Oswald

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Drabblecast 469- Yummy Tummy

Sat, 29 Apr 2023 07:04:00 -0000

Dating is weird this week on the Drabblecast. We bring you a Drabblecast original, “Yummy Tummy,” by Chelsea Pumpkins, read by Word Whore. Enjoy!

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Drabblecast 468 – The Bad Ones Are Always The Best

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 01:56:00 -0000

The Drabblecast returns with a sinister tale of generational ick. We present “The Bad Ones Are Always the Best,” by Michelle Ann King. The Bad Ones Are Always the Best by Michelle Ann King Marty’s grandson takes the cup of tea he’s offered — without saying thank you, mind — and stares at it dubiously, […]

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Drabblecast 467 – Woods For the Trees

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 23:11:00 -0000

On this week’s Drabblecast, Dendrology meets Criminal Psychology. A story by Harley Carnell. Art by Bo Kaier. Woods For the Trees by Harley Carnell On the second day of our search for John Shaw, John Shaw joins our search party. Frustrated after years of incompetence and inaction from the authorities, and after Shaw recently committed […]

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Drabblecast 466 – Is This a Plate?

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 04:46:15 -0000

Ever feel Déjà vu on the road supposedly less traveled? Truth and lies on this week’s Drabblecast, we bring you an original story from Bob McHugh called “Is This a Plate?” Enjoy! Produced by Adam Pracht Read by Dominick Rabrun Beyond this point, two paths lie One you live, one you die Ask one […]

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Drabblecast 465 – Trifecta: Love Hurts

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 04:55:00 -0000

This week’s show has it all: vampires, evolutionary biology, and quivering jacked up Taylor Swifts. We bring you three flash fiction pieces about the complications of being in love: Taylor Swift by Hugh Behm-Steinberg, The Evolution of a Breakup by Etgar Keret, and May I Come In by Adrienne Ryan. Narrations provided by Avery Alexander, […]

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Drabblecast 464 – The Follower’s Revel

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 04:38:00 -0000

This week we the Drabblecast brings you some interesting original historic found footage uncovered by author Jonathan Louis Duckworth called, “The Follower’s Revel.” Enjoy! Art by Bo Kaier.

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Drabblecast 463 – A Hymn Upon the Lips of the Dead

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 06:04:00 -0000

Episode Sponsor– Mothmen 1966 The secret’s out on this week’s Drabblecast, and nothing will ever be the same. We bring you an original Drabblecast story called “A Hymn Upon the Lips of the Dead,” by Mav Lux. Oh and Norm sings us a song about singing that he should have just told you. Enjoy! Cover […]

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Drabblecast 462 – The Tenant

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:25:00 -0000

An uncanny episode of original fiction this week on the Drabblecast– we bring you, “The Tenant” by Sarah E. Stevens. Cover created by Bo Kaier in concert with the midjourney text-to-image AI (and unidentifiable, scraped contributors). We hope to experience your enjoyment. The Tenant by Sarah E. Stevens Vanessa […]

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Drabblecast 461 – How to Impress a Top Food Critic and Put Your Restaurant on the Galactic Map

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 02:02:00 -0000

Finally, a Drabblecast episode for weird foodies. We bring you a Drabblecast original called, “How to Impress a Top Food Critic and Put Your Restaurant on the Galactic Map” by P.A, Cornell. Enjoy… Episode Sponsor– Mothmen 1966 Cover created by Bo Kaier in concert with the midjourney text-to-image AI (and unidentifiable, scraped contributors). How […]

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Drabblecast 460 – Distributed Denial of Sexytimes

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 02:07:00 -0000

Episode Sponsor: Mothman 1966 In this week’s Drabblecast story, the only scenes that aren’t sex scenes are crime scenes. We bring you an original Drabblecast story by Tim Pratt about a dark future of vigilante justice sex toys, called “The Distributed Denial of Sexytime.” Also, Norm and guest Executice Producer Bart Epstein treat us to […]

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Drabblecast 459 – 7099 Brecksville Road, Independence, Ohio

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 03:33:00 -0000

Norm is cryptic this week in terms of offering information on the featured story, “7099 Brecksville Road, Independence Ohio,” by JR Hamentaschen. He will say that that’s the story, and that’s the author. And to listen with headphones on. And also, check out our episode sponsor this week, pixel-pulp video game Mothmen 1966! Available on […]

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Drabblecast 458 – Plans for Expansion

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 01:53:00 -0000

The Drabblecast is molting! Norm shares some exciting news in the intro this week, Drabblecast has launched a Patreon, and a new quarterly magazine, “The Tentaculum.” Also, welcome new Managing Editor Cameron Howard! Finally, we close out HP Lovecraft “Month” with an original story by Aliya Whitely called, “Plans for Expansion.” Stones contain stories. The […]

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Drabblecast 457 – When the Sun Hits

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 05:39:00 -0000

This week’s show brings you an original commissioned HP Lovecraft mythos story by Nick Mamatas called “When the Sun Hits.” Afterwards, Nick talks about the story in an Author’s Note and Norm gives everyone an existential crises in a Drabble News presentation on The Boltzmann Brain. When the brain is liberated from the body, only […]

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Drabblecast 456 – In My Brain in My Body

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 01:34:00 -0000

Shark week on Drabblecast has never been so unnerving! Enjoy an original Drabblecast story this week from Evie Mae Barber about what lurks even deeper in the depths… The great white looked like he was having a good time, swimming upside down, bone-white belly above water, teeth gnashing playfully. Like a puppy dreams of finally […]

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Drabblecast 455 – How Lovely Are Your Branches

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 19:43:00 -0000

Norm closes out the year and existence as we know it, due to the phenomena known as “The Continuation,” with the Drabblecast annual holiday Tim Pratt story, an original commission called “How Lovely Are Your Branches.” Enjoy! Somebody was murdering people, but the killer’s name wasn’t showing up on my naughty list. That got me […]

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Drabblecast 454 – The Doom That Came to Sarnath

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 05:05:00 -0000

The Drabblecast kicks off H.P. Lovecraft Month with the grandfather of Weird Fiction’s cautionary dark fantasy, “The Doom That Came to Sarnath.” There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore […]

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Drabblecast 453 – Trifecta: Modern Fairy Tales

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 21:46:00 -0000

The Drabblecast brings you three original stories this week (Modern Fairytales, if you will) from authors Alice Gauntley, Matthew Sanborn Smith, and Kevin D. Anderson. Enjoy! Our birthday was the first of March, and for two weeks beforehand it was all Caleb could talk about—cake, presents, and, most importantly, whom to invite. He would chatter […]

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Drabblecast 452- Watch Anya Blume

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 03:58:00 -0000

We’re getting back to nature this week on the Drabblecast, with Michael Piel’s original story, “Watch Anya Blume.” Enjoy! Anya Blume showered, slept, and showered again. Yes, she thought, she was beginning to feel human. Exhausted, sure, but human. She popped five Advil and closed the medicine cabinet. There, at the bottom of the mirror […]

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Drabblecast 451 – How to Get Back to the Forest

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 05:47:00 -0000

Warning: some explicit language. Join us this week for a little Camp Dystopia! The Drabblecast brings you a story about growing up the hard way by Sofia Samatar, called “How to Get Back to the Forest.” Enjoy! Episode Sponsor- “You Know It’s True” by J.R. Hamantaschen “You have to puke it up,” said Cee. […]

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Drabblecast 450 – A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:49:00 -0000

Episode Sponsor: You Know It’s True by J.R. Hamantaschen This week on the Drabblecast, we bring you a classic story by Flannery O’Conner about simpler times and a summer family vacation gone awry. Enjoy! Warning: This story is being presented in it’s original form and contains an instance of outdated cultural language. “Now look here, […]

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Drabblecast 449 – The Tyrant Lizard (and Her Plus One)

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 03:29:00 -0000

Dinosaurs gone awry on this week’s Drabblecast! We bring you an original story by John Wiswell called The Tyrant Lizard (and Her Plus One), enjoy! Episode Sponsor: J.R. Hamentaschen’s horror anthology, “You Know It’s True” Free on Kindle Unlimited! Dinosaurs don’t want to kill you; they just don’t care that you’re there. More people have […]

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Drabblecast 448 – Stay

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 01:54:00 -0000

This week’s episode is brought to you by J.R. Hamentaschen’s fourth horror fiction anthology “You Know It’s True.” Grab a copy for kindle or otherwise, here! For our story this week, take a trip with us to the Fourteenth Floor, where you are every guest. We bring you “Stay,” by Davian Aw. You were every […]

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Drabblecast 447 – Echoes

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 21:50:00 -0000

The Drabblecast is on the scene this week, with an original story by Gail Ann Gibbs, read by Starla Hutchton, that reminds us that it’s ok to be a little weird. Or maybe even, SUPER weird… I like the way Richard smells. The next time a psychiatrist asks me what makes me happy, I’ll say […]

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Drabblecast 446 – The Wichita Drive

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 09:43:00 -0000

Weird things are afoot in the west this week on the Drabblecast! Enjoy an original, previously unpublished story about snails of the plains gone awry by Joshua Bush called “The Witchita Drive.” Yeehaw! They were down in a gully watering the cattle when Billy came thundering down the ridgeline on his sorrel mare, waving his […]

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Drabblecast 445 – Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death

Fri, 21 May 2021 10:35:00 -0000

Drabblecast wraps up Women & Aliens month with a gritty and intense story by James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice B. Sheldon. Hope you’re hungry! Remembering— Do you hear, my little red? Hold me softly. The cold grows. I remember: —I am hugely black and hopeful, I bounce on six legs along the mountains in the […]

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Drabblecast 444 – The Hands of Heroes

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 08:39:00 -0000

What makes a hero? The Drabbecast brings you an original commissioned story by Cat Rambo this week called “The Hands of Heroes.” The thing is, I was never a hero. The first wave of aliens taught me that. The war with them – my older brothers became heroes there, one died in the stand-off at […]

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

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 05:30:00 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 442 – The Secret of Theta Pi

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 20:31:00 -0000

Sea creatures and sorority sisters on this week’s Drabblecast! We bring you an original tale by Stephanie Gray called, “The Secret of Theta Pi.” Enjoy! We travel back to Tandy’s Cove in a caravan of three, Cindy Q’s Miata leading, followed by the rented van, dirty white with the windows rolled up, and Beneeta G’s […]

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Drabblecast 441 – Trifecta: Strange Futures

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 06:48:00 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast– three stories about Strange Futures. We bring you Drabblecast originals, “Department of Invention” by R.L. Thull, “The One’s Who Won’t Be” by Martin Munks, and “Cannabilism in the Inhuman Age” by Jaye Viner. Closing Music by 19 Action News Saul broke down in an unusual way for a robot. Saul […]

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Drabblecast 440 – The Earth-Brain

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 04:21:00 -0000

On this week’s show, every day is Earth Day when you’re living on an Elder God! We bring you a hidden gem from the 1930’s pulp science fiction era, written by Pulp Master General Edmond Hamilton!

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Drabblecast 439 – Rocket Surgery

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 11:25:00 -0000

We’d tested plenty of missiles before, but Teeny was the only one that convulsed when we cut him open. Oh, your listeners need more background? OK, I’ll back up a bit. Lemme tell ya, kids today don’t know their history. Even locked up in here for the past ten years, I can tell. No education. […]

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Drabblecast 438 – Midnight Clear, or, How Santa Claus Killed the Sun

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 04:53:00 -0000

Norm brings in the New Year with an original Drabblecast story by author Tim Pratt! This story is a sequel to last year’s Holiday Special story, “Comfort and Joy,” check that one out here! She was a blonde — the kind of blonde to make a bishop bite through his altar cloth. I used to […]

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Drabbleclassics- Dirty Santa

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 06:32:00 -0000

A classic Drabblecast Tim Pratt story, presented to you by Guest Host, Avery Alexander! The apartment was a bustle of twenty other people more extroverted and festive than himself, all dressed in the requisite hideous holiday sweaters, drinking bourbon punch and rum punch and some sort of strange vegan eggnog, flirting and joking and ranting […]

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Drabblecast 437 – The Shallow One

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 00:08:00 -0000

The Drabblecast wraps up HP Lovecraft Month this year with a mythos story unlike any variety you’ve likely heard before! We bring you “The Shallow One,” an original Drabblecast story by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Norm closes out with a song about awkward romance called “There’s a Fetus in Your Kitchen.” I first met Madeline at […]

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Drabblecast 436- The Wallpaper Out of Space

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 08:48:00 -0000

Our next original Drabblecast-commissioned story for HP Lovecraft month installment, “The Wallpaper Out of Space!” by Adam-Troy Castro read by Jacob Boris. All right, so it’s Cheryl’s kid, okay? I didn’t know she had a kid until we were two months in and already deeply involved, and then she tells me she has a sixteen […]

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Drabblecast 435 – Maternal Instinct

Sat, 14 Nov 2020 00:17:00 -0000

Lovecraft and love life mix on this week’s Drabblecast! As our first offering HP Lovecraft month, we present “Maternal Instinct,” by Chris Lester. They say you can find absolutely anything on the Internet. The authenticity and good condition of said “anything,” however, is by no means guaranteed. This caveat applies to rare movies, import CDs, […]

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Drabblecast 434 – The Shadow Over Innsmouth Pt. 2

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 20:57:00 -0000

Part two of a Drabblecast production of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The reality of what I had been through was highly uncertain in my mind, but I felt that something hideous lay in the background. I must get away from evil-shadowed Innsmouth—and accordingly I began to test my cramped, wearied powers of […]

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Drabblecast 433 – The Shadow Over Innsmouth Pt. 1

Sun, 18 Oct 2020 07:49:00 -0000

The Drabblecast Annual Halloween Special kicks off this year simultaneously with HP Lovecraft month on the show, a full month of original Drabblecast-commissioned stories playing around with elements of Lovecraft’s style and mythos. We kick things off this year with a fullcast adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s most popular stories– The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Do […]

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Drabblecast 432 – Housebound

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 02:05:00 -0000

Weirdness is in the air at Drabblecast as we bring you an original story about spousal life and home ownership by author Ao-Hui Lin. “Hey babe, where did the closet go?” The Hubby, Victor, gives me a blank look, like the word “closet” is Swahili for “bratwurst”. He neither understands the question nor the purpose […]

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Drabblecast 431 – A Promise

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 03:01:00 -0000

This week’s Drabblecast features a poignant story about patience, perspective, parenthood and the paranormal. We bring you “A Promise,” by Jennifer Hudak. Enjoy! I reach out nonexistent fingers to catch your arm, the hem of your shirt. You, there. Sitting on the edge of the bed, head bowed, dripping with sorrow. Your hair is thinning, […]

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Drabbleclassics- Maybe the Stars

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 21:56:00 -0000

Drabblecast fan Jen Fischer hosts another Drabbleclassics episode this week, bringing you a touching H.P. Lovecraft mythos story called “Maybe the Stars,” by Samantha Henderson.

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Drabblecast 430 – Notes from the Assistant’s Intern

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 11:17:00 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast: dirty jobs. We bring you a quirky original tale by Bryan Miller about mad scientists and henchmen gone awry. Enjoy! The bulletin board posting specifically stated that the internship required “special skills,” “unorthodox hours,” and an “old-fashioned go-getter,” so I can’t really complain as I’m digging up coffins in search […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut – On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 01:24:00 -0000

“Get Your Home Improvement On, Sucka…” Norm and author Desmond Warzel sit down and talk about fiction, ghosts, aliens, and of course his hit stor which frst appeared on the Drabblecast back in August of 2014, “On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy.” You’re listening to the Mike Colavito Show […]

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Drabblecast 429 – Letter from Lynchburg

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 00:22:00 -0000

Alternate history on this week’s show– an original story by Edward J. Knight about the American Civil War that we perhaps only narrowly missed! 7 August 1865 My darling Emily, I do not know if this letter will reach you, but if it does, I hope it finds you well. General Lee has sent word […]

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Drabblecast 427 – Doubleheader- Matthew Sanborn Smith

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 07:17:00 -0000

On this week’s Drabblecast, Norm and author Matthew Sanborn Smith bring you a dose of perspective during these crazy times where weirdness seems to be the norm. Remember those invisible things around us that support and hold us no matter what our struggles our, and remember to cherish each moment of every day. I wonder […]

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Drabblecast 426- Trifecta: Friends Close, Enemies Closer

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 03:37:00 -0000

This week, another Drabblecast Trifecta, this time with the theme: Friends Close, Enemies Closer. We bring you three stories, with three different narrators, by three different authors! Time Cookie Wars, by Benjamin C Kinney, Sandy, by Bruce McAllister, and Oh What a Privilege to Dwell in the Grand Palace of the Tungerils! by Kelly Moore. […]

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Drabblecast 425 – The Bodies

Fri, 22 May 2020 09:02:00 -0000

Another gripping and macabre tale from Drabblecast fan favorite Tim Pratt. Finding that first body wasn’t so bad, though it rattled me at the time. The dead man was curled up on a piece of cardboard in the alleyway I cut through sometimes on my way to the good coffee shop, and I would have […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut – Necessary Cuts

Tue, 12 May 2020 04:15:00 -0000

“My headlights were streaked pink with frog blood…” Norm and author comedian/writer Bryan Miller about comedy and horror, editing and frog country, Lovecraft and fish horror. Also, Bryan’s H.P. Lovecraft-inspired story, “Necessary Cuts.” The manuscripts I read are haunted. Commas vanish forever into the void. Subjects and verbs struggle in bloody disagreement. Infinitives are cleaved […]

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Drabblecast 425 – Unlike Most Tides

Sun, 03 May 2020 05:52:00 -0000

Norm pays tribute and bids farewell to the greatest unsung hero of the podcast for the past two years: editor Sandra Odell. This fantastic story and many others have been brought to your ears through her hard work! Our story is another original Drabblecast commissioned story for Women & Aliens month, this week by Darcie […]

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Drabblecast 424 – On the Feeding Habits of Humans: A Firsthand Account

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 07:24:00 -0000

Our first Women & Aliens Month commission for 2020– It’s a goodie, a full-cast production of a Drabblecast original by Rachel K. Jones and Khalida Muhammed-Ali. Wash up, it’s time for dinner! On this diplomatic mission, I, Scholar, have two objectives: first, to advise Master Feeder TikTik on Earth customs and linguistic differences, and second, […]

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Drabblecast 423 – The Martians Claim Canada

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 03:10:00 -0000

The Drabblecast begins it’s 9th Annual Women & Aliens Month”– a full month of original commissioned stories by women about (you guessed it) aliens. First though, the Drabblecast presents a story by author Margaret Atwood about musicals, fungus, aliens and… well, you’ll see! The Martians descend to Earth in their spaceship. They intend to go […]

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Drabblecast 422 – The Full Moon Group

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 10:37:00 -0000

On this week’s show Norm makes a case for adult diapers in preparation for the apocalypse before giving us a taste of “The Peoria Plague,” a 1972 radio drama that doesn’t feel so “1972” at all. The feature story this week, “The Full Moon Group” by Dianne M. Williams is a Drabblecast original and reminds […]

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Drabblecast 421 – The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 04:39:00 -0000

Norm begins this episode with a metacast update on what’s been going on behind the scenes at the Drabblecast lately. He initiates a call to action for all Weird Nation to consider registering as organ donors and to find out more at www.organdonor.gov Our story this week by short story legend Flannery O’Connor explores the question, […]

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Drabblecast 420 – Comfort and Joy

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 05:40:00 -0000

This year’s Drabblecast Christmas Special brings you another original commissioned holiday story from the master of Christmas weirdness himself: Tim Pratt. Happy Holidays Weirdo’s! I was in a grubby little bar down in Florida, sitting on a stool beside a plastic palm tree decorated with Christmas lights, when I heard a cough, and smelled cold […]

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Drabblecast 419 – Trifecta: Halloween Special

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 11:35:00 -0000

Special Guest Host Cryptkeeper Norm brings us another Drabblecast Halloween special.

This year the Drabblecast brings you a special 3 original stories from Drabblecast Editors past and present, all centered around the history of a lonesome Texas Graveyard.

We bring you, The Lich Gate Trifecta:

They Went Into the Graveyard, One by One by Matthew Bey

The Armadillo Man by Norm Sherman

Macadam by Samantha Henderson

Enjoy!

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Drabblecast 418 – Not Recommended for Guests of a Philosophically Uncertain Disposition

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 09:01:00 -0000

The Drabblecast takes you to the edge of reality with this week's story by Michelle Ann King, "NOT RECOMMENDED FOR GUESTS OF A PHILOSOPHICALLY UNCERTAIN DISPOSITION"

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Drabblecast 417 – Love in the Balance

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:38:00 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 416 – Necessary Cuts

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 14:44:00 -0000

Closing out this year’s H.P. Lovecraft month, we bring you another Drabblecast original, this time from author by Bryan Milller, about editing a manuscript as if the whole world depended on it… The manuscripts I read are haunted. Commas vanish forever into the void. Subjects and verbs struggle in bloody disagreement. Infinitives are cleaved with […]

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Drabbleclassics 31 – Boojum

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 09:39:00 -0000

In this Drabbleclassics episode, author and Drabblefan Weirdo Abbie Hilton breaks down the hit Drabblecast story Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. The ship had no name of her own, so her human crew called her the Lavinia Whateley. As far as anyone could tell, she didn’t mind. At least, her long grasping vanes […]

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Drabblecast 415 – The Best Scarlet Ceremony Ever!

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 12:58:00 -0000

Sweet Valley High and the Babysitters Club meet cult life and H.P. Lovecraft mythos, as we continue our special Lovecraft anthology month this week, bringing you an original story by Shaenon K. Garrity. The Wakefields were the worst family in Oakes Isle. Even the grown-ups knew it. Whenever a chicken was stolen or the air […]

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Drabblecast 414 – Dance, Siege, Swoop

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 19:24:00 -0000

Lovecraft Month continues as the Drabblecast brings you an original, commissioned piece of H.P. Lovecraft mythos fiction, “Dance, Siege, Swoop” by award-winning author Robert Reed. Be sure to keep a night light on, this one will chill you to the core! Story Excerpt: “My foot did not discover the prize, nor was I the first […]

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Drabblecast 413 – The Rats in the Walls

Sat, 10 Aug 2019 02:48:00 -0000

Kicking off this year’s H.P. Lovecraft month with a classic from the man himself. It’s not your mind playing tricks it’s The Rats in the Walls! On July 16, 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his labours. The restoration had been a stupendous task, for little had remained of […]

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Drabblecast 412 – 1977

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 12:29:00 -0000

This week, the Drabblecast presents a full cast production of “1977” by Carrie Vaughn. “Have another one,” the guy said, and Megan did because she was thirsty, though a martini was probably not what she should be drinking. She was too far gone to question. She downed the drink in three swallows while the guy […]

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Drabblecast 411 – Wholesale Solution

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 23:23:00 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast, something a little different! “Wholesale Solution” is a full cast radio play set in a dystopic science fiction universe where nothing is as it seems. Written and produced by Fred Greenhalgh and Jack Bowman, buckle in for a ride to Europa! Story Excerpt: We are inside a holding cell containing […]

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Drabblecast 410 – Go Between

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 07:52:00 -0000

On this week’s Drabblecast, Norm and NPR’s Chioke I’Anson bring you stories about the voices in your head, including “Go Between” by acclaimed writer China Mieville. “Go Between” tells the tale of a man who, for several years, has been receiving strange instructions to deliver seemingly random items from location to location. Agonizing over effect […]

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Drabblecast 409 – The Dandelion Man

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 04:38:00 -0000

The Drabblecast presents an original story: “The Dandelion Man” by Jack Nicholls. A tale of coming of age, a tale of survival; a fight to discover who is of the soil and who is of the air… Story Excerpt: Teo and Paulus stood at the shore of the pampas, where the grass grew twice as […]

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Drabblecast 408- Doubleheader: Robert Reed

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 10:33:00 -0000

This week the Drabblecast brings you two new, previously unpublished stories by SF genre luminary Robert Reed. Reed published his first novel, The Leeshore in 1987. Since then he has received nominations for both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award, as well as numerous other literary awards. In 2007, he won his first Hugo […]

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Drabblecast 407 – The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 05:51:00 -0000

This week we bring you “The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change” by Kij Johnson. This story depicts a world in the aftermath of “The Change,” a mysterious event whereby all domesticated mammals spontaneously gain near-human intelligence and the ability to speak. It was shortlisted for the 2007 […]

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Drabbleclassics 30- Doubleheader featuring Mur Lafferty (150)

Sun, 19 May 2019 07:04:00 -0000

In this Drabbleclassics episode, fan and audio producer Fred Greenhalgh presents two classic Drabblecast stories by acclaimed author Mur Lafferty exploring the dichotomy of pie and cake. In “The Blueberry Pie” successfully slaying the titular food item stands as the first rite of passage for a child wishing to officially join the tribe of the pie […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut – The Box Born Wraith

Sun, 12 May 2019 01:19:00 -0000

“Just Lookin’ for Chocolate.” Norm and author Kevin Anderson discuss the horror genre, the origins of Cryptkeeper Norm, and of course, the hit story “The Box-Born Wraith” featured as Drabblecast episode 87 back in 2008 and published as our second official Halloween Special. “We all die in the dark, Benny…” Another Drabblecast Director’s Cut bringing […]

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Drabblecast 406 – Beauty Tips for the Apocalypse

Thu, 09 May 2019 19:29:00 -0000

Today The Drabblecast brings you an original story commissioned by Karen Heuler: “Beauty Tips for the Apocalypse.” Karen Heuler wrote her first novel when she was eleven, and she’s been worshiping books at the altar ever since. Story Excerpt: In times such as these, with the world shaken to its core, it is all too […]

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Drabblecast 405 – Wet Fur

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:23:00 -0000

This week The Drabblecast presents “Wet Fur” by Jeremiah Tolbert. From Jeremiah: “This story came to me wholly formed in a dream one day. I wrote it in a white hot tear, desperate to capture all the details and emotions that had seemed so immediate in the dream. It’s about how our pets live such […]

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Drabblecast 404 – Witches for Mars

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 18:57:00 -0000

Closing out Women and Aliens month, The Drabblecast brings you another originally commissioned story: “Witches for Mars” by Eden Royce. It’s a surreal tale about considering greener pastures… Story Excerpt: No one expected the government to allow it. To acknowledge it even, but Maira was looking at the advertisement above a webpage she was […]

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Drabbleclassics 29 – Primary Pollinator (191)

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 04:00:00 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 403 – The Translator

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 09:14:00 -0000

Next up in Women and Aliens month: a Drabblecast original commissioned from author Eboni J. Dunbar, “The Translator.” Eboni Dunbar resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner and specializes in queer and black speculative fiction. She is also a VONA Alum, an associate editor for PodCastle and a freelance reviewer. Story Excerpt: […]

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Drabblecast 402 – The Moving Stars

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:34:00 -0000

We’re in the thick of Women and Aliens month, and we’re keeping it going with an original commissioned story— “The Moving Stars” by Premee Mohamed. Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and specfic auhor based out of Canada. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog, Pseudopod, Mythic Delirium, Automata Review, and other venues. Her debut […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut – Sing

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 06:48:00 -0000

“A Musical on a Submarine” Norm and author Kristine Kathryn Rusch discuss her story from way back in 2008 for Drabblecast #53. This is the “Director’s Cut – Sing.” We also dive into a discussion about unsung women in Science Fiction, like Leigh Bracket and James Tipree Jr. Why use a pen name after all? […]

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Drabblecast 401 – We Who Stole The Dream Pt. 2

Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:03:00 -0000

Women and Aliens Month continues with Part 2 of “We Who Stole The Dream” by James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice Bradley Sheldon. If you have not heard part one, you can find that here. Sadism, slavery, power and oppression… are we ever truly innocent? Or is there the potential of cruelty in all of us? […]

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Drabblecast 400 – We Who Stole The Dream Pt. 1

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 14:35:00 -0000

The Drabblecast launches its 8th Annual Women and Aliens Month with Part 1 of “We Who Stole the Dream” by James Tiptree Jr. This is a dark, dystopian tale about sadism and slavery, and the potential for cruelty in all of us. Published postmortem in the 1990 compilation “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever,” this story […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut – Trifecta: Things We Made

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 08:59:00 -0000

“My Kids Think I’m Nuts” Norm and Drabblecast Audio Producer Adam Pracht talk about the Maker’s Movement, everything wrong with Gloucester, the finer points of audio production and of course the three stories in this classic Trifecta Special themed around “Things We Made.” Drabblecast Director’s Cut Specials are regular monthly features where we bring back […]

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Drabblecast 399 – Trifecta: We Don’t Talk Any More

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 04:39:00 -0000

This week the Drabblecast presents a Trifecta Special: “We Don’t Talk Any More.” “One in Four Adults” by Catherine Schaff-Stump Cath Schaff-Stump writes fiction for children and adults, from humor to horror. She is the author of the Klaereon Scroll series, the most recent of which is The Pawn of Isis, coming in March, 2019. […]

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Drabblecast 398 – The Day After The Day The Martians Came

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 21:23:00 -0000

This week The Drabblecast presents “The Day After the Day the Martians Came” by Frederik Pohl. Jokes can teach you a lot about the underlying anxieties of a culture. The old line “take me to your leader” was actually a jab at President Eisenhower’s leadership during the Cold War. This story is about jokes and […]

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Drabblecast 397 – Fruit and Words

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 12:20:00 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 396 – Trifecta: Losses & Sacrifices

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 08:34:00 -0000

This week the Drabblecast brings you three stories about shipwrecks, murder, and Nazis. It’s a Losses and Sacrifices Trifecta! “Seven Losses of Na Re” by Rose Lemberg This is a brooding look back on things taken, things lost, and things always remembered. Rose Lemberg is a queer, bigender immigrant from Eastern Europe and Israel. Their […]

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Drabbleclassics 28 – Happy Old Year (308)

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 03:06:00 -0000

Drabbleclassics is a fan-hosted monthly series that features fan-picked stories from the Drabblecast archives. Our fan-host this month is listener Zimmerman Bledsoe, who presents author Tim Pratt‘s take on New Year’s resolutions with his original Drabblecast Commissioned story, “Happy Old Year,” featured as Drabblecast episode 308 and read by Matt Hayes. This story features “Elsie,” […]

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Drabblecast 395 – The Slaying of the Dragon

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:15:00 -0000

This week on the Drabblecast we present “The Slaying of the Dragon” by Dino Buzzati. Enjoy this rare piece of translated fiction by Italian novelist and short story writer Dino Buzzati, about what might happen today if we discovered a dragon. Dino Buzzati was a painter, playwright, poet, novelist, short story writer, opera librettist, mountaineer, […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: The Worm Within

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 12:31:00 -0000

“…And Then What?” Norm and author Vincent Eaton revisit a parasite-oriented listener favorite with this “Director’s Cut Special: The Worm Within.” This classic episode originally aired way back in 2007. Norm and Vincent talk about effective storytelling, disturbing body horror, and then they delve into variations on the “Meet the Parents” movie theme. Yeah, things get […]

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Drabblecast 394 – Dirty Santa

Tue, 25 Dec 2018 13:00:00 -0000

Merry Christmas strangers! The Drabblecast has something rather wicked fixed up for you this holiday season! We present to you a festive tale from fan-favorite Tim Pratt! It’s called “Dirty Santa.” It’s a story that takes us on a journey with one awkward, balding, twenty-something to a Christmas party where he meets a mysterious stranger […]

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Drabblecast 393 – Diamante and Strass

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 14:10:00 -0000

Today the Drabblecast brings you “Diamante and Strass” by Lucy A. Snyder. Lucy A. Snyder is a five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author, appearing in publications such as Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, and Weird Tales. She lives in Columbus, Ohio and is faculty in Seton Hill University’s MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction. Our story today has […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Jelly Park

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 04:38:00 -0000

“It’s about getting on the bus…” Norm and author Aliya Whiteley talk double decker busses, double decker tacos, embracing weirdness for what it is and reinventing yourself. They also get into the in’s and out’s of the first ever Drabblecast People’s Choice Award Winner for “Best Story” back in 2007, for this “Director’s Cut: Jelly […]

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Drabblecast 392 – Single Parent

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 06:51:00 -0000

The Drabblecast brings you “Single Parent” by Sarah Gailey. Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction, and a regular contributor for Tor.com and Barnes & Noble. Single Parent follows one father’s journey to face the monsters in his son’s closet and some demons of his own. It was originally produced for […]

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Drabbleclassics 27 – Go Beep (173)

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 00:51:00 -0000

Drabbleclassics is a fan-hosted monthly series that features fan-picked stories from the Drabblecast archives. Our Drabbleclassics host this time around is Jen Fisher, who presents author Aliya Whiteley’s take on mindless marketing, the grunge rock anti-establishment, and the struggles of a young couple trying to fight a bizarre takeover, in her story “Go Beep.” Oh, […]

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Drabblecast 391 – Day of The Dog

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 21:58:00 -0000

Today, The Drabblecast brings you “Day of the Dog” by Aliya Whiteley. We’ve still got a few bones to pick with our dog-eat-dog micro theme. So if you enjoy last week’s tail, here’s another one to sniff you nose at (and, yes, a few more incollarable puns). Aliya Whiteley is a writer of dark tales […]

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Drabblecast 390 – I Will Remain

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 08:52:00 -0000

Today the Drabblecast brings you “I Will Remain” by David Steffen. It’s a show for all our weird listeners out there that are dog people…maybe literally. Yes, it’s a ruff day in paradise. (Oh yeah, we’re barking up the dog pun tree.) We think you’ll thank us when you hear what we’ve unleashed. The author […]

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Drabblecast 389 – Night of the Living POTUS

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 06:21:00 -0000

The Drabblecast presents “Night of the Living POTUS” by Adam-Troy Castro. Every President Elect has “the briefing.” You know the one. The President opens a binder and learns the awful truths of the world. They all have to learn the same lesson. This is the story of one President who learns the horrifying truth and […]

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Drabblecast 388 – Skullpocket: Part 2

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 22:40:00 -0000

The Drabblecast completes its triumphant return with the conclusion of this two-part Halloween special: “Skullpocket: Part 2” by Nathan Ballingrud! In this riveting finale we learn the origins of the Orchid Girl, the mystery behind Skull Pocket Fair, and the horrible truth behind the Extinction Event. A freak show awaits you indeed! Story Excerpt: But […]

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Drabblecast 387 – Skullpocket: Part 1

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 03:06:00 -0000

The Drabblecast is finally reborn with this special two-part Halloween story: “Skullpocket” by Nathan Ballingrud! It’s been a long year and a half(ish), folks. Death just isn’t what it used to be. Frankly it’s boring. Everyone screaming and crying at each other, the incessant heat, obsessive social media addicts—it gets old, ya know? Can’t we […]

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Drabblecast Reborn Metacast

Tue, 16 Oct 2018 07:41:00 -0000

The Drabblecast Reborn! Yeah, it’s happening! There’s just 48 hours left to be a part of it, folks. That’s right, our Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter Campaign comes to a close this Wednesday, October 17th @ 7 pm EST/4 pm PST. In our recap, Norm wraps up the final Drabblecast Relaunch Prelaunch episode with gratitude, news, and […]

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Drabblecast Presents: The Adventures of Connor Choadsworth

Sun, 14 Oct 2018 20:37:00 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast Fan Picks: To Whatever

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 06:47:00 -0000

Drabblecast Fan Zimmerman goes over his first Drabblecast love, remembering his trip through the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska, in this Drabblecast Relaunch Prelaunch fan pick. The smallness we feel in big places; the conversations we have with ourselves. The real lesson of life is to laugh. “Because life, no matter how dark, when read as […]

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Drabblecast Presents: Far Far Away

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 05:47:00 -0000

A special throwback episode. With One week left in the Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter, Norm presents one of his favorite surreal stories from deep in the archive by Hootingyard writer and Resonance FM radio personality Frank Key, and gives us a teaser about Frank’s commissioned story for Drabblecast Kickstarter Supporters The bullet-riddled corpses of our dead […]

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Drabblecast Fan Pick: Followed

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 06:00:00 -0000

The Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter campaign continues! Today, Fan Picks: Followed, by Will Macintosh as chosen and introduced by Drabblecast fan Boo Yeah. Hear her thoughts on an unsettling story about living with the consequences of our actions.

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Drabblecast Fan Pick: The Belonging Kind

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 02:25:00 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast Presents: Globes

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 23:06:00 -0000

A very special throwback story from our editor/founder/host and general bon vivant Norm Sherman. Listen to 11 year old Norm take us to the edge of the unknown with a story he wrote for 7th grade English class back in the day. And speaking of mishearing those words as “Backing Today,” check out the Drabblecast […]

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Drabblecast Presents: Editor Lagerklatsch

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 23:45:00 -0000

An Editor Lagerklatsch! Just what the hell is a Lagerklatsch? Well if you’ve been to a convention or two you might be familiar with the phrase “coffee klatsch.” You can probably do the linguistics from there, replacing coffee with something…hoppier. Made up German words are fun! In fact, that’s a special charm of the German […]

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Drabblecast Fan Picks: The Last Dog

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 01:42:00 -0000

The 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 […]

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Drabblecast Compilation: Top 5 Drabbles and Twabbles

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 07:40:00 -0000

As a lead up to our Relaunch, The Drabblecast brings you a compilation of our Top 5 Drabbles and Twabbles. That’s 100-word stories and 100-character stories, for those new to the show. They might also known as “flash fiction.” This compilation comes from you, our listeners and fans. Wanna tell us your favorite? Have some […]

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Drabblecast Compilation: Drabble News

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 10:47:00 -0000

This week, The Drabblecast brings you a compilation of our “Drabble News” segments, including songs and skits from the past 10 years. We’ve mined through the years to dig up some our favorite subjects, including fan favorites expressed to us through social media. Subjects might include: Monster Jellyfish Utah Fast Food Rap Zombie Ants RPS: […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 04:16:00 -0000

“Birds are what come after…” We present to you a special Relaunch Prelaunch episode—”The Director’s Cut: Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe.” This story was written by Ramsey Shehadeh and originally aired back in 2012. In it, Norm and author Ramsey Shehadeh talk about grief, Mr. Rogers, the apocalypse, and his popular story about compassion in the end […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Flying On My Hatred of My Neighbor’s Dog

Tue, 07 Aug 2018 04:55:00 -0000

Norm sits down with author Shaenon Garrity to talk ghosts, comedy, and angry dogs in the Director's Cut: Flying on My Hatred of My Neighbor's Dog.

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Drabblecast Presents: Inside Drabblecast Audio

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 23:52:00 -0000

This episode takes you inside Drabblecast audio production. Ever wonder how we produce an episode of the Drabblecast? Wonder no more! We dig into all the technical aspects like voice acting, sound editing and mixing, foley effects, music and more. Preproduction? Reading? Acting? Yeah, it’s all here folks, all the blood sweat and tears that […]

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Drabblecast Presents: Bases Covered

Tue, 24 Jul 2018 06:16:00 -0000

In this week’s Relaunch Prelaunch a chunk of classic Drabblecast musical joy: Bases Covered – “For His—or Her—or Its—or Their Glory” This (fake) album unites all faiths (fake or not) into one perfectly fine and marketable sales campaign! Maybe we’re all just part of some weird baby mouse dream, or maybe Zeus is going to turn […]

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The Drabblecast: 10 Years of Strange Stories (Part II)

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 03:06:00 -0000

And now we present the thrilling conclusion, Drabblecast: 10 Years of Strange Stories (Part II). The Drabblecast had several editorial shifts over the years. We made friends. We won awards. And we were off to the races. What kind of races? I like to think they were wiener dog races (yes, that’s a thing). Tiny, […]

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The Drabblecast: 10 Years of Strange Stories (Part 1)

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 14:47:00 -0000

In honor of the eleventh tenth year of the podcast, we thought we’d take you back in time through 10 years of strange stories for strange listeners. That’s right we’re going back to our oh-so-humble beginnings. And they’re pretty humble. And humiliating. Ain’t that show business, folks? Origin story! Yeah that’s the phrase. Every culture’s […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Morris and the Machine

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 06:45:00 -0000

The 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 […]

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Drabblecast Compilation: Holiday Specials

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 00:12:00 -0000

A compilation of our holiday highlights, including songs, skits and intros from 10 years of Drabblecast Holiday Specials, including: ~ “How the Government Saved Christmas” ~ Conclusion of the Mongolian Deathworm Saga ~ Cryptkeeper Norm segments ~ “Here Comes Phantom Claus” ~ “Twas the Night” ~ “The Thirteen” (Yule Lads)

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely

Mon, 02 Jul 2018 01:19:00 -0000

As a part of the Relaunch Prelaunch we revisit a listener favorite with special insight from the author, David D. Levine. Enjoy the “Director’s Cut: Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely.” Our feature originally aired in Episode # 113 way back in 2009. It is a unique tale set inside a televised cartoon world. […]

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Teddy Bears and Tea Parties

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 06:04:00 -0000

As a part of the Relaunch Prelaunch we revisit a listener favorite for the “Director’s Cut: Teddy Bears and Tea Parties.” This story was written by S. Boyd Taylor and was originally aired in 2010. It’s a heart-breaking horror story about little girls, stuffed animals, and hunger. Excerpt: Shadows move on the mantelpiece and the […]

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The Relaunch Prelaunch

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 06:21:00 -0000

“That is Not Dead, Which Can Eternal Lie.” What is the Relaunch Prelaunch? The Drabblecast is back in business, with ambitious plans that you won’t want to miss hearing about. Every week we’ll be digging through the archives to bring you fan favorite stories with author commentary. We’ll also be featuring some fun compilations, news, […]

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Drabblecast 386 – Garen and The Hound

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 05:32:00 -0000

This week the Drabblecast presents an originally commissioned story: “Garen and the Hound” by Jeremiah Tolbert. It is a story about the dream world and the relentless pursuit of something dark and sinister. This story is part of our Lovecraft Month, a celebration of all things H.P. and Old Ones. Story Excerpt: The veils of […]

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Drabblecast 385 – The Innsmouth of the South

Sun, 11 Dec 2016 23:04:00 -0000

The Drabblecast continues Lovecraft Month with “The Innsmouth of the South,” an originally commissioned story by Rachael K. Jones. Imitation and authenticity are as much a part of the H.P. Lovecraft mythos as any of the Old Ones in today’s open source fiction universe. If one theme pierces all of Lovecraft’s work it is that […]

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Drabblecast 384 – The Cats of Ulthar

Mon, 05 Dec 2016 05:55:00 -0000

We begin our month-long celebration of H.P. Lovecraft with a dramatic reading of “The Cats of Ulthar.” Lovecraft Month is our yearly celebration of H.P. and his sprawling mythos. All this month you’ll enjoy some awesome original stories commissioned just for Drabblecast listeners. We’re excited to be featuring works by three of our favorite authors, […]

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Drabblecast 383 – SUN MOON CAT MAN

Mon, 05 Sep 2016 23:50:00 -0000

The Drabblecast concludes Women and Aliens month with “SUN MOON CAT MAN” by Julia Reynolds. This is a story about #Language#. #Language# is a key. #Language# can open doors of emotion, of empathy, and of connection. It unites us, it bonds us. #Language# can also lock those doors and keep us together alone. Story Excerpt: […]

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Drabblecast 382 – Down the Well

Sat, 20 Aug 2016 22:13:00 -0000

Women and Aliens month continues with “Down the Well” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. Alaya is the author of speculative and historical fiction and has written six novels. Her stories have been featured in Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Welcome to Bordertown. She is also a recipient of the Cybils and Nebula awards. Story Excerpt: […]

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Drabblecast 381 – Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs

Sun, 08 May 2016 22:42:04 -0000

Women and Aliens Month slithers forward with this week’s story: “Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs” by Lauren Beukes. Lauren Beukes is an award-winning, best-selling novelist who also writes comics, screenplays, and TV shows. Her novels include The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters and Zoo City. Story Excerpt: Unathi was singing karaoke when the creature attacked Tokyo. Or […]

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Drabblecast 380 – The Four Generations of Chang E

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 12:50:54 -0000

We kick off Women And Aliens Month with “The Four Generations of Chang E,” by Zen Cho. It’s a dystopian space story steeping in Eastern mythology and tradition. And rabbits. Moon rabbits. Story Excerpt: In the final days of Earth as we knew it, Chang E won the moon lottery. For Earthlings who were neither rich […]

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Drabblecast 379 – Water Spots

Mon, 04 Apr 2016 15:55:18 -0000

This episode of the Drabblecast presents “Water Spots,” by Rebecca Gomezrueda, a troubling tale of murk, darkness, and the complexity of the human experience. Is it something in the water? Consider yourself warned. Story Excerpt: “They found your brother…” Her mother leaves the sentence unfinished, and she wants to tell her not to go on. He […]

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Drabblecast 378 – Giraffe Cyborg Cleans House!

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 08:09:05 -0000

A plate, a plate, another plate burst upon the kitchen tile. This one broke into three large pieces and assorted ceramic crumbs. Giraffe closed her long-lashed eyes and prayed to her many makers. Why in the world would the people make one hard thing that was so likely to smash into a second hard thing? […]

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Drabblecast 377 – Here There Be Monsters?

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 08:01:08 -0000

The canary yellow shirt read “Camp Fit,” but it didn’t quite fit the bulbous, pre-adolescent boy cringing in the cabin’s corner. Rows of bunks lined both sides of the room. Standing over the boy, Worgly raised his shaggy brown arms and roared with his terrible roar. “You’re going to eat me!” And the monster gnashed […]

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Drabblecast 376 – A Last Kiss for Lazarus Winters (A Saint Darwin’s Spiritual)

Mon, 18 Jan 2016 06:14:50 -0000

This episode of the Drabblecast brings you “A Last Kiss for Lazarus Winters,” another story in D.K. Thompson’s Saint Darwin’s Spirituals series. D.K. Thompson was the host and co-editor of PodCastle, a fantasy fiction podcast, for five years, and has narrated audiobooks by Tim Pratt, Greg van Eekhout, and James Maxey, among others. Story Excerpt: […]

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Drabblecast 375 – Ghost in the Coffee Machine

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 02:41:39 -0000

When it comes to ghosts, my grandmother has one solution: brew a pot of coffee. Like today, in Sadie Lancaster’s kitchen. Sadie clutches her hands beneath her chin and stares at our percolator, her eyes huge. The thing gurgles and hisses as if it resents being pressed into service. My own reflection in its side […]

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Drabblecast 374 – Jump I’ll Catch You

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 21:35:34 -0000

Anton drew his legs up underneath him. The car seat was huge and puffy, and the leather made a breathy creak when he moved. It sounded like it was sighing. ‘How much longer?’ he said. For a while, nobody answered. He thought maybe they hadn’t heard him, but then his mother said, ‘We’ll be there […]

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Drabblecast 373 – Trifecta: Things We Made

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:12:38 -0000

Sato lay on the cement floor of the workshop in a pool of his own blood and tried desperately to get Kuro-4’s legs working again. The robot, in turn, tried to deal with the gaping wounds in Sato’s smashed leg and pelvis. Useful Objects by Erica L. Satifka After he passes the age of […]

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Drabblecast 372 – Delicate Parts

Fri, 27 Nov 2015 22:08:49 -0000

Earnest was in kindergarten when Jackie the Janitor got fired for “choking the chicken” in the girls’ bathroom. That phrase, along with his best friend Bradley Watson’s accompanying hand gestures, stuck in Earnest’s head so hard that whenever he looked at the thing between his legs, all he could see was a bald, pointed bird […]

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Drabblecast 371 – Old Dead Futures

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 06:54:33 -0000

There are two things I love, and one is the tiny grey owl outside my window. He is not afraid of me. He hoots and hops to my windowsill so I can stroke his downy head and feed him worms I’ve saved in my pocket. It is hard to get the worms from my pocket, […]

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Drabblecast 370 – The Little Mermaid of Innsmouth

Sun, 13 Sep 2015 09:42:11 -0000

The Drabblecast presents: “The Little Mermaid of Innsmouth” by Caroline M. Yoachim. This is a new take on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fish tale, replete with all the Lovecraftian lore you should expect from The Drabblecast! Story Excerpt: Tomiko knelt at the table, across from her father, carefully holding her back rigid and […]

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Drabblecast 369 – In The Walls

Sun, 06 Sep 2015 17:27:27 -0000

The deadliest things in war are not bullets and guns, but hunger and desperation. I’m hungry. Penny gets the bed tonight, I’m on watch, Erik is out looting for food and supplies. If he were white, he tells us seriously, the press would say he was scavenging. But for him, it’s looting. Not that there’s […]

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Drabblecast 368 – Restless in R’lyeh

Sun, 30 Aug 2015 21:37:29 -0000

Dear Doctor Saperstein, I’m a 44-year-old librarian from Kansas and a loyal reader of askdoctorsaperstein.com. Last night, after a relaxing day spent gardening, binge-watching “America’s Got Talent,” and organizing my snowglobe collection, I had a nightmare. A hideous octopus-headed monster performed a ukulele solo on “America’s Got Talent,” then killed and ate Howard Stern. Afterwards, […]

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Drabblecast 367 – The Whisperer in Darkness pt. 2

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 05:20:48 -0000

Then, apparently crossing my incoherent note and reaching me Saturday afternoon, September 8th, came that curiously different and calming letter neatly typed on a new machine; that strange letter of reassurance and invitation which must have marked so prodigious a transition in the whole nightmare drama of the lonely hills. Again I will quote from […]

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Drabblecast 366 – The Whisperer in Darkness pt. 1

Sun, 09 Aug 2015 23:37:03 -0000

Bear in mind closely that I did not see any actual visual horror at the end. To say that a mental shock was the cause of what I inferred – that last straw which sent me racing out of the lonely Akeley farmhouse and through the wild domed hills of Vermont in a commandeered motor […]

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Drabblecast 365 – This Secular Technology

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 02:26:40 -0000

Leah woke up, said the blessing upon waking, then turned on her overlay with a mental command. She hissed with displeasure — it was a _gevurah_ day, again. She was supposed to contemplate restriction, discipline, withdrawal. She was beginning to wonder if her teachers were doing this on purpose; the assignments were said to be […]

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Drabblecast 364 – All of Our Past Places

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 03:18:55 -0000

Aoife always told me that you could go anywhere, as long as you had the right map. So when it happened, my first thought, when I let myself into her apartment after not hearing from her for three days, was this weird feeling of pride. She’d done it. She was gone. All of […]

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Drabblecast 363 – The Totals

Sat, 04 Jul 2015 04:27:28 -0000

Clutch has killed somebody recently. This goes without saying. For as long as Clutch can remember, he has always killed somebody “recently.” If not within the last few hours, then certainly within the last few days. He may have gone as long as a couple of weeks without, from time to time, when circumstances conspired […]

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Drabblecast 362 – Starter House

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 02:06:40 -0000

Dale looked up through the ribbed Lucite dome of Asteroid Cintas II, his eyes lit from within by thoughts of a bright future. “I never thought,” he said, “I’d own a purebred house.” Pam locked her eyes on his. “I knew you would. I knew we would. This makes it all worth it.” They kissed. […]

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Drabblecast 361 – Time to Say Goodnight

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 04:51:11 -0000

“Then Duck left Mr. Tomkin’s farm and went to swim in Glacier Lake, just like he’d always wanted.” Mommy looked up from the last page, but Clara wasn’t sleeping. “And then what did Duck do?” Clara asked. “That’s all there is.” “Duck died?” Mommy had explained about dying on the way home from visiting Grandpa. […]

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Drabblecast 360 – Trifecta: Locked Boxes

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 01:27:25 -0000

I didn’t kill God; we should clear that up right away. I just captured him and put him in a little box. It sounds harder than it actually was. Hannah helped me make it. Her dark, sad eyes so serious and focused behind the wire-rimmed glasses she always wore, her slender fingers tracing the passages […]

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Drabblecast 359 – Trifecta: Unnatural Growth

Sat, 09 May 2015 21:15:27 -0000

My twin brother had been a dry-eyed baby, and he grew into a dry-eyed boy. “Yaakov, why don’t you ever cry?” I asked him the day we buried my uncle’s family. He shrugged. “Maybe you carry all the tears for both of us, Anna.” I thought he might be right. In the past month I […]

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Drabblecast 358 – DoubleHeader: Rachael K. Jones

Mon, 04 May 2015 02:23:39 -0000

10. _Influenza siderius_ begins as a general malaise. That is always the first symptom. Perhaps you wish to doze on the sofa, but your husband suggests a little fresh air instead. You do feel better after the walk, but by the next morning the listlessness has returned tenfold. Your husband complains when you order takeout […]

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Drabblecast 357 – Trifecta: Embarrassing Personal Problems

Sun, 03 May 2015 08:32:28 -0000

It looks like a quantity of strawberry jam squeezed into a cheap polythene shower cap. Even down to the darkened pips and the intimation someone’s attempted to pick it up and squished it in the middle. Clint adjusts the telescopic sight and tilts his head, upping the magnification, but knocking the thermal readout to the […]

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Drabblecast 356 – An Exodus of Wings

Fri, 17 Apr 2015 04:01:36 -0000

Before Heidi came along, Michael did everything he could to keep the damn faeries out of his apartment. Every night he washed and dried his dishes, never left one dripping in the drying rack. Always fished the food particles from the drain, took the trash out, sealed his cereal in glass jars. […]

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Drabblecast 355 – Kiriki Grocery

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:39:38 -0000

The last day of orientation at New Plymouth University, Work Placement called students up in pairs. Rhonda Morillo took the chair next to a big-boned blond girl–Deirdre, pretty sure–as their peer advisor announced their “exciting cultural opportunity”: stocking shelves at Kiriki Grocery. Kiriki Grocery by Tory Hoke The last day […]

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Drabblecast 354 – DoubleHeader XVIII: Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 04:10:57 -0000

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. Alienated […]

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Drabblecast 353 – Primrose or Return to Il’maril

Sat, 21 Mar 2015 16:47:21 -0000

“I will not leave this cavern,” the voice said as soon as I stepped into the cave mouth. A baritone decaying into vibrato, an old man’s voice, full of dignity and pride. I tried to pinpoint its source, but the air was thick with fog. The haze seemed to originate from inside the chamber, where […]

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Drabblecast 352 – Snow Day

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 05:56:51 -0000

The shovel bit through the foamy snow on the top stair of my front porch, then stopped with a clang. I scraped away the snow to see what was beneath. Ice. Serve me right for not shoveling after the snow had fallen last night. It had thawed, then the temperature had dropped into the deep […]

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Drabblecast 351 – DoubleHeader XVII: Camille Griep

Sun, 08 Mar 2015 08:22:29 -0000

The fiery orange sun hung high over the Bangkok skyline to the south. Professor Tina Montri rearranged her skirt and adjusted the alligator skin briefcase on her lap which held the presentation and research notes from her talk at the university. A breeze stirred on the back of her neck, warm and relaxing. She could […]

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Drabblecast 350 – Trifecta XXX: Something Fishy

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 09:20:36 -0000

Izam’s fingers moved on their own. They found his sunken chest. And counted his ribs. His father would have slapped his hand away. A stupid habit of a stupid boy. A stupid starving boy who counted his ribs when he was hungry even though it only made him hungrier. Izam knew it was stupid but […]

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Drabblecast 349 – The Island of White Houses

Mon, 09 Feb 2015 03:59:47 -0000

Today I am going to the island. I climb the slick wood stairs down to Whitmuth beach. The wind blows fierce through the town like usual and swirls back out to sea, smoky with our coal fires and smacking with hot oil from the fry shops up and down the boardwalk. […]

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Drabblecast 348 – DoubleHeader XVI: LiAnn Yim

Sun, 25 Jan 2015 21:27:29 -0000

The fish were restless. They spun the water mossy dark until the pond was the color of crushed bottles. Pey held onto her sister’s hand. They peered down at the water. This morning, their mother opened her eyes and said she was too cold to get out of bed, so their father said they would […]

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Drabblecast 347 – Why I Hate Zombie Unicorns

Sun, 11 Jan 2015 04:02:01 -0000

The good news is, zombie unicorns almost never bite. The bad news is, even a tiny scratch from a zombie unicorn horn will turn you into a zombie. Mom discovered that by accident. Why I Hate Zombie Unicorns by Laura Pearlman The good news is, zombie unicorns almost never […]

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Drabblecast 346 – Remission

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 10:17:56 -0000

Susan found her boss’s feelings drawer by accident. She drank too much and took a wrong turn in Sundrun’s apartment at the office holiday party, while looking for the bathroom. It had been all the rage five years ago, getting your feelings surgically removed. After a sensectomies, some people had the feelings stuffed or encased […]

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Drabblecast 345 – Cat With Blue Fur Trifecta

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 23:58:59 -0000

A collection of stories from the Cat With Blue Fur Writing Contest. Meow Meow Bang Bang by Oliver Buckram She was the kind of dame you never forget. Lips as moist and pink as smoked salmon. Legs as long and well maintained as the […]

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Drabblecast 344 – Doubleheader XV

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 02:00:23 -0000

The chair first appeared on a Thursday afternoon on the sidewalk in front of the Dollar Bank and Trust on Lancaster Street in Pulaski, Kansas. Nobody saw how it got there. At least, no reliable eyewitnesses have ever come forward, so we are unable to pinpoint the exact moment of its arrival. Customers began to […]

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Drabblecast 343 – Captain Confederation

Sun, 23 Nov 2014 22:19:13 -0000

Captain Confederation was annoyed when he got off the elevator and it showed. It would have been so simple and logical for him to land on the roof of the Superhero Administration Centre, or in the ample grounds surrounding it, but these alternatives were no longer open to him. Last month Transport Canada had proposed […]

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Drabblecast 342 – I’m Bill Kurtis

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 19:55:30 -0000

Nate had expected the first serial killer. In fact the first thing he’d said to Kelly once their Ford rolled to a stop on the shoulder was, “This is serial killer country. We’re finished.” She made scaredy-cat eyes and drew a finger across her throat. “Finished,” he enunciated. She’d heard his bake before, something to […]

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Drabblecast 341- The Litany of Earth

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 05:49:13 -0000

After a year in San Francisco, my legs grew strong again. A hill and a half lay between the bookstore where I found work and the apartment I shared with the Kotos. Every morning and evening I walked, breathing mist and rain into my desert-scarred lungs, and every morning the walk was a little easier. […]

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Drabblecast 340 – On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy

Sun, 05 Oct 2014 16:54:09 -0000

You’re listening to the Mike Colavito Show on Cleveland’s home for straight talk, WCUY 1200. The opinions expressed on this program do not reflect those of WCUY, its management, or its sponsors. Fair warning; I’m in a mood today, folks. We’ve got a mayor whose only talent seems to be showing up at luncheons and […]

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Drabblecast 339 – Trifecta XXVIII: Offbeat Afterlife

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 21:30:28 -0000

The ghost in my attic is Margaret, but she lets me call her Margie. She was seventy-six years old when she died, and now that she’s a ghost she sits in her rocking chair day and night, holding a tiny baby in her arms. The baby rarely moves and almost never cries. His name is […]

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Drabblecast 338 – The Crevasse

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 23:59:27 -0000

What he loved was the silence, the pristine clarity of the ice shelf: the purposeful breathing of the dogs straining against their traces, the hiss of the runners, the opalescent arc of the sky. Garner peered through shifting veils of snow at the endless sweep of glacial terrain before him, the wind gnawing at him, […]

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Drabblecast 337 – The Only Game in Town

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 23:34:57 -0000

Walking back up the road toward home, I saw Rich Hartzell locking up his cabin. His car was stuffed to the roof with cardboard boxes and black trash bags; only the driver’s seat was empty. The Only Game in Town by Desmond Warzel Walking back up the road […]

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Drabblecast 336 – The Mouth of God

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 14:43:49 -0000

There’s a dream you have. It’s not a proper dream. It’s impatient, fired with urgency. It arrives without warning, veering suddenly out of the night. You’re kneeling on the bridge. It’s late afternoon. Clouds mass low in the sky, seagulls wheel over the bridge spans, humidity hangs thick in the air. Cars speed by on […]

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Drabblecast 335 – To Whatever

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 07:08:08 -0000

H.P. Lovecraft Month continues with an originally commissioned story: “To Whatever” by Shaenon Garrity. To know or not to know is the penultimate question in Lovecraftian horror. What mysteries lie beyond the wall of our understanding? What if we were to commune with whatever lay beyond that wall? Or in that wall? That is the […]

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Drabblecast 334 – The Colour Out of Space

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 04:17:17 -0000

West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentler slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, […]

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Drabblecast 333 – After the Cure

Sat, 02 Aug 2014 21:26:10 -0000

I was shot with the cure in the dark. Later, someone would tell me it was a Tuesday, but before the tranq dart I didn’t know such a thing existed. It was either day or night, hungry or sated, alive or dead. Then there was the cure and I was hauled to the Sanitation Center […]

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Drabblecast 332 – Mister Bob

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 04:14:35 -0000

“It all began with the chicken in the end of the road,” she said. “Pardon?” I gestured. “Could you say that again?” Miss Sanderson reached out and tapped the translation device on the table, then picked it up and fiddled with its settings. She was the ugliest female of her species I’d ever seen– obscenely […]

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Drabblecast 331 – Night of the Cooters

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 22:50:32 -0000

Sheriff Lindley was asleep on the toilet in the Pachuco County courthouse when someone started pounding on the door. “Bert!” the voice yelled as the sheriff jerked awake. “Gol Dang!” said the lawman. The Waco newspaper slid off his lap onto the floor. Night of the Cooters by Howard Waldrop Sheriff […]

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Drabblecast 330 – Trifecta XVII

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 21:54:09 -0000

For the Drabblecast’s 28th trifecta anthology, we explore ‘changes of heart.’ EARTH MUSIC By Miriah Hetherington A potted arrangement of anemones recoiled from Polbo’s wake of odorous irritation as he jetted through the passageway. His meeting with the Grand Curator of the Inter-species Museum of Music […]

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Drabblecast 329 – The Gravity Mine

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 03:18:46 -0000

Call her Anlic. The first time she woke, she was in the ruins of an abandoned gravity mine. At first the Community had chased around the outer strata of the great gloomy structure. But at last, close to the core, they reached a cramped ring. Here the central black hole’s gravity was so strong that […]

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Drabblecast 328 – Local Delicacies

Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:03:41 -0000

My boss, Danny, liked to brag that El Corazon was the best Tex-Mex restaurant just off the Vegas Strip. “Because of you, Bescha,” he’d say to me. “You keep the customers happy. You keep me out of trouble.” I won’t say which part of my job was harder. I kept an eye on the help-wanted […]

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Drabblecast 327 – Tree, Fire, World

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 16:13:47 -0000

An oral history, recorded in the annals of sentientkind, spoken by Sven Al’bedo di’Cantara, on the eve of the ninth flying. 1. The Tree And so it came to pass, in the years past reckoning, when I served as a scribe in the court of the king, that there stood the last and only tree. […]

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Drabblecast 326 – The Last Tiger

Mon, 02 Jun 2014 15:56:37 -0000

Hunger has made you reckless. You track the sound of human voices through the woods until you find a man and a woman. They are shouting at each other. The woman slaps the man’s face. He presses his hand to his cheek for a moment, and then lunges at the woman, knocking her to the […]

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Drabblecast 325 – Jackalope Wives

Thu, 22 May 2014 19:20:34 -0000

The moon came up and the sun went down. The moonbeams went shattering down to the ground and the jackalope wives took off their skins and danced. They danced like young deer pawing the ground, they danced like devils let out of hell for the evening. They swung their hips and pranced and drank their […]

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Drabblecast 324 – The Ball Room

Thu, 15 May 2014 18:28:24 -0000

I’m not employed by the store. They don’t pay my wages. I’m with a security firm, but we’ve had a contract here for a long time, and I’ve been here for most of it. This is where I know people. I’ve been a guard in other places—still am, occasionally, on short notice—and until recently I […]

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Drabblecast 323 – Missed Connection

Sun, 04 May 2014 19:04:16 -0000

Lawson was already regretting the decision to go shopping by the time he was standing in line waiting to buy a ticket for the tube. All but one of the time- and labour-saving automatic ticket dispensers was either closed or unable to give change, and it was all he could do not to let out […]

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Drabblecast 322 – The Carnival Was Eaten, All Except the Clown

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 21:51:17 -0000

The magician’s table was covered by a sheet of plywood, four feet square, completely wrapped up in aluminum foil. Sugar magic was messy magic, and the foil made for easier cleanup. Scattered across the aluminum were misshapen chunks of candy, the seeds from which the carnival would grow. And grow it did. […]

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Drabblecast 321 – The Goat Cutter

Sat, 19 Apr 2014 22:23:01 -0000

The devil lives in Houston by the ship channel in a high-rise apartment fifty-seven stories up. They say he’s got cowhide sofas and a pinball machine and a telescope in there that can see past the oil refineries and across Pasadena all the way to the Pope in Rome and on to where them Arabs […]

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Drabblecast 320 – Half a Conversation, Overheard While Inside An Enormous Sentient Slug

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:23:17 -0000

Thank you, Inspector. I’m ready. Yes, I understand my rights as a resident extraterrestrial. No, that won’t be necessary. Of course. Ask me anything. I only wish to see justice done. It grieves me to say so, but I concur. There’s no doubt about who murdered Lord Ash. Half a Conversation, Overheard […]

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Drabblecast 319 – Trifecta XXVII

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 18:51:36 -0000

The Drabblecast April Fool’s Day episode! Recorded live: A Drabblecast story slam that took place March 27th 2014 in Baltimore Maryland at the EMP Art Collective.

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Drabblecast 318 – How They Tried to Talk Indian Tony Down

Sun, 30 Mar 2014 13:08:41 -0000

This happened about ten years ago, out at Tobin Farm. Back in the sixties, somebody bought Tobin Farm for the purposes of holding a renaissance fair there during the summers. Off seasons it became a kind of commune for the people involved in putting on the fair. They lived modestly in sheds and trailers scattered […]

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Drabblecast 317 – Doubleheader XIV

Sat, 22 Mar 2014 06:12:21 -0000

You do not know me yet, my love, but I can hear you in my future. You are there from the beginning–at first just a few stray notes, but your presence quickly grows into a beautiful refrain. I wish you could hear time as I do, my love, but this song was never meant to […]

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Drabblecast 316 – A Memory of Seafood

Mon, 17 Mar 2014 02:46:47 -0000

This week’s column is not about a restaurant, exactly, but about a memory. A distinct and painful memory, like a softened tooth you can’t help but poke at with your tongue to see if it still hurts. A memory of seafood. (That sounds like one of those divine collections, doesn’t it, like a flight of […]

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Drabblecast 315 – Heaven is a Place on Planet X

Fri, 07 Mar 2014 21:08:46 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 314 – The Blue Celeb pt. 2

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 06:35:59 -0000

“Get out of sight, Joe.” He hustled into the shop and locked himself in the bathroom. The first cruiser that pulled up had Frank Boone riding shotgun. Less than a minute later, the sidewalk was swarming with cops. The Blue Celeb by Desmond Warzel When me and Joe got […]

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Drabblecast 313 – The Blue Celeb pt. 1

Mon, 24 Feb 2014 22:26:43 -0000

When me and Joe got home from Vietnam, we went into business together, cutting hair. Bought a little shop in the old neighborhood and been there ever since. Back then, wisecracking Harlem barbers weren’t a cliche yet — at least not south of 110th Street. The Blue Celeb by Desmond […]

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Drabblecast 312 – Day Million

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 04:10:49 -0000

On this day I want to tell you about, which will be about a thousand years from now, there were a boy, a girl, and a love story. DAY MILLION by Frederik Pohl On this day I want to tell you about, which will be about a thousand years […]

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Drabblecast 311 – Birds of the Air

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 15:49:41 -0000

Thomas takes his lunch outside the shelter, on one of the park benches that look out over the interstate and down all the way to the containment pond. He has wondered whether a passerby seeing him from the highway would know whether he worked at the shelter or was one of its clients. He has […]

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Drabblecast 310 – The Ugly Chickens

Thu, 16 Jan 2014 07:10:30 -0000

My car was broken, and I had a class to teach at eleven. So I took the city bus, something I rarely do. I spent last summer crawling through The Big Thicket with cameras and tape recorder, photographing and taping two of the last ivory-billed woodpeckers on the earth. You can see the films at […]

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Drabblecast 309 – All the Young Kirks and Their Good Intentions

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 15:41:23 -0000

2249 A.D. All the young Kirks in Riverside Public High School are assigned to the same Homeroom class. They sit together in the back corner on the far side from the door. They speak only to each other. The young Kirk on the Moon goes to school with no one. Each of the colonists has […]

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Drabblecast 308 – Happy Old Year

Tue, 31 Dec 2013 21:36:23 -0000

This week the Drabblecast Presents “Happy Old Year” by Tim Pratt. Tim is a regular Drabblecast contributor, bringing us such classics as Postapocalypsemas, Rangifer Volans, and fan-favorite Morris and the Machine. He also runs a Patreon page where you can read and download a new, unpublished story from Tim every month for a little as […]

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Drabblecast 307 – Unbelief

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:30:47 -0000

IT HAPPENED IN BRYANT PARK, a little after six o’clock in the evening. He was sitting by himself in lamp shadow amongst the trees, at one of the rickety green metal tables along the north side, close to where the Barnes & Noble library area is during the day. He was warmly dressed in nondescript, […]

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Drabblecast 306 – Trifecta XXVI

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 04:45:25 -0000

While sipping my tea in the morning, I find a small, only two inches long, naked female corpse on the bottom of the cup. Her white skin fades int the white porcelain, tiny gobs of tea leafs cover her round breasts. I immediately slap the cup down, and snick across to the phone to call […]

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Drabblecast 305 – Testimony Before an Emergency Session of The Naval Cephalopod Command

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 01:25:42 -0000

The squid is a solipsistic psychopathic God with a lust for submarine hull and a mandate from Ronald Reagan branded on its hunting tentacles. It sweeps east from Iceland in the cold under the thermocline, alone in the dark, solitary lord of a solitary place. TESTIMONY BEFORE AN EMERGENCY SESSION OF […]

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Drabblecast 304 – Hero, The Movie pt. 2

Sat, 23 Nov 2013 15:58:21 -0000

Rick takes the money the Mayor of Corkscrew has wired him and flies to Florida, feeling his oats, full of hope. He’s met at the airport by one of Mayor Delameter’s staff and driven to his hotel, the old but clean and dry Swamp Hotel in downtown Corkscrew. The next morning he’s out at the […]

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Drabblecast 303 – Hero, The Movie pt. 1

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 23:12:48 -0000

This romantic comedy begins where all low-budget ’50s creature-features ended: The mutant insects born of atom-bomb radiation (or invaders from space, or monsters from the sea, or fifty-foot women) have at last been defeated and our small-town hero, with girlfriend Janie or June or Betty at his side, must now face the rest of his […]

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Drabblecast 302 – The Next Logical Step

Wed, 13 Nov 2013 06:40:59 -0000

“I don’t really see where this problem has anything to do with me,” the CIA man said. “And, frankly, there are a lot of more important things I could be doing.” Ford, the physicist, glanced at General LeRoy. The general had that quizzical expression on his face, the look that meant he was about to […]

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Drabblecast 301 – Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

Sun, 10 Nov 2013 01:19:04 -0000

Just as we were all getting back into the mainland domestic groove, somebody started in with dragons and crop blights from across the North Sea. We all knew who it was. A turncoat Norwegian monk named Naddod had been big medicine on the dragon-and-blight circuit for the last decade or so, and was known to […]

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Drabblecast 300 – Bloodchild

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:07:14 -0000

My last night of childhood began with a visit home. T’Gatoi’s sister had given us two sterile eggs. T’Gatoi gave one to my mother, brother, and sisters. She insisted that I eat the other one alone. It didn’t matter. There was still enough to leave everyone feeling good. Almost everyone. My mother wouldn’t take any. […]

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Drabblecast 299 – The Revelation of Morgan Stern

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 05:16:58 -0000

It is July 31, your birthday, and I can’t reach you. I’ve been trying all day, but the cell networks are down, the internet is down. I even tried a pay phone–there are two left in town that I know of, and I collected all of my change and walked to the 76 in the […]

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Drabblecast 298 – Flying On My Hatred of My Neighbor’s Dog

Thu, 03 Oct 2013 04:08:08 -0000

The week we present to you Flying On My Hatred of My Neighbor’s Dog by Shaenon Garrity. Have you ever been so exasperated that you could feel the energy rippling off of you? Just how far could the power of that hate carry you? Could it fuel your car? How about a rocket ship? […]

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Drabblecast 297 – The Apothecary’s Apprentice

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:24:12 -0000

In the back of the shop I scrubbed three large cauldrons clean, stripping the seasoning from them because Master Aloz insisted on it once the trade caravans stopped coming at the end of summer. Tallow, he called me, on account of my paleness. I used a brush made of iron bristles instead of horse hair, […]

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Drabblecast 296 – Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 00:47:32 -0000

Over the years, Tikka’s job as a Minor Propagandist for the planet Porcelain’s Bureau of Tourism had shaped her way of thinking. She dealt primarily in quintets of attractions, lists of five distributed by the Bureau: Five Major China Factories Where the Population of Porcelain Can Be Seen Being Created; Five Views of Porcelain’s Clay […]

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Drabblecast 295 – Twenty Ways the Desert Could Kill You

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 01:39:52 -0000

1. A poisonous snake could bite you, and you could die. 2. You could prick your finger on a previously undiscovered poisonous cactus. 3. The cactus isn’t poisonous, and neither is the snake, but the snake’s venom is a powerful anti-coagulant. You could bleed to death from the place you were bitten and/or pricked. […]

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Drabblecast 294 – Partial Inventory

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 02:42:53 -0000

The air conditioning only worked when the speedometer crept past 70 MPH which the lumbering GMC van (on loan from a friend of a friend who took pity on the family and their situation) rarely did. November in the South is hardly hot, but thirteen hours in any vehicle with nearly a half dozen relatives […]

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Drabblecast 293 – The Call of the Pancake Factory

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 20:32:27 -0000

The bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells. Tourists from all over the world are sitting around, ordering drinks non-stop because the sun is so hot […]

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Drabblecast 292 – Hollow as the World

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 20:29:21 -0000

One 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 […]

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Drabblecast 291 – The Lurking Fear

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 03:04:29 -0000

There was thunder in the air on the night I went to the deserted mansion atop Tempest Mountain to find the lurking fear. I was not alone, for foolhardiness was not then mixed with that love of the grotesque and the terrible which has made my career a series of quests for strange horrors in […]

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Drabblecast 290 – The Screaming Door

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 22:08:02 -0000

It has been two hundred days since the door to my study began screaming. I was nodding over a volume of Edwin Corang’s collected prose when I first felt it; a curious ripple that moved through the room, standing my hair on edge, followed by the sensation of coffee spilling into my lap as the […]

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Drabblecast 289 – The Cold Equations

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 02:49:58 -0000

He was not alone. There was nothing to indicate the fact but the white hand of the tiny gauge on the board before him. The control room was empty but for himself; there was no sound other than the murmur of the drives — but the white hand had moved. It had been on zero […]

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Drabblecast 288 – Bayou Witch

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 16:08:33 -0000

Cat’s tail flicked impatiently back and forth across Elle’s face. She resisted the urge to brush it away. Mud tugged at her feet, and putrid water soaked through her shoes. She ducked beneath a low hanging branch dripping with old man’s beard. It trailed over her shoulders, and evidently Cat, who dug his claws into […]

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Drabblecast 287 – Sweetie

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:48:04 -0000

Audiences have so little respect, these days. Admittedly, my little travelling show isn’t what it once was. We’ve been on the road for a long, long time. But I like to think that for the discerning customer, we still provide value for money. An experience you can’t get from the computer screen–the modern freakshow–despite all […]

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Drabblecast 286 – Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse

Sun, 30 Jun 2013 06:02:49 -0000

Father Leggett stood on the sidewalk and looked up at the three narrow stories of gray brick that was 207 East Charlton Street. Compared to the other edifices on Lafayette Square—the Colonial Dames fountain, the Low house, the Turner mansion, the cathedral of course—this house was decidedly ordinary, a reminder that even Savannah had buildings […]

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Drabblecast 285 – Doubleheader XIII

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:45:54 -0000

Samuel sat on the balcony, enjoying the fading light of day. When the ventilator pushed air into his lungs, he savored the salt brine from the sea. He pretended that he had control over breath, but it was much a fantasy as adjusting his wheelchair…. Locked In by Mary Robinette Kowal […]

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Drabblecast 284 – Turning Point

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 21:39:39 -0000

Please, mister, could I have a cracker for my oontatherium?” Not exactly the words you would expect at an instant when history changes course and the universe can never again be what it was. The die is cast; In this sign conquer; It is not fit that you should sit here any longer; We hold […]

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Drabblecast 283 – The Man Who Drew Cats

Thu, 23 May 2013 23:54:13 -0000

Old Tom was a very tall man. He was so tall he didn’t even have a nickname for it. Ned Black, who was at least a head shorter, had been ‘Tower Block’ since the sixth grade, and Jack, the owner of the Hog’s Head Bar, had a sign up over the door saying ‘Mind Your […]

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Drabblecast 282 – Liane the Wayfarer

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:55:05 -0000

Through the dim forest came Liane the Wayfarer, passing along the shadowed glades with a prancing light-footed gait. He whistled, he caroled, he was plainly in high spirits. Around his finger he twirled a bit of wrought bronze—a circlet graved with angular crabbed characters, now stained black. By excellent chance he had found it, banded […]

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Drabblecast 281 – Doubleheader XII

Wed, 01 May 2013 23:39:49 -0000

Pabstus Tack, Pabstus Sludge, Pabstus! Pabstus! Of him we sing. We sing his praises, it seems to me, for want of anything better to do. Pabstus Tack sits on his great golden throne, belching out light, a blinding light as gorgeous as it is uncanny. And yet it is an impure light, that is certain, […]

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Drabblecast 280 – Trifecta XXV

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:41:03 -0000

You’ve been one-legged since the lasso trap. Your personal ad says “Kids: undecided” even though you desperately want two. When the maître d’ shows you to your blind date’s table, you are pleased with her prominent forehead and symmetric face. She has potential. Before you can sit, her eyes drift to where your missing leg […]

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Drabblecast 279 – The Country Doctor

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:20:39 -0000

Gardner was drowning, and strangers were laying hands on the bones of my forebears. I felt obligated to see that liberties weren’t taken with my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and other good, God-fearing ladies, so I put the business on auto pilot and made the drive as if on auto pilot myself.

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Drabblecast 278 – The End of the World as We Know It

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 18:27:08 -0000

Between 1347 and 1450 AD, bubonic plague overran Europe, killing some 75 million people. The plague, dubbed the Black Death because of the black pustules that erupted on the skin of the afflicted, was caused by a bacterium now known as Yersinia pestis. The Europeans of the day, lacking access to microscopes or knowledge of […]

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Drabblecast 277 – The Universe of Things

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:09:00 -0000

The alien parked its car across the street from the shop and came and sat down in the waiting room. The mechanic must have seen this happen, peripherally. But he was busy settling the bill with a smartly dressed middle-aged woman, to whom he’d taken an irrational dislike. Those who deal with Joe Punter, day […]

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Drabblecast 276 – Hullabaloo

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:23:07 -0000

The Town Council meeting was split down the middle — Hullabaloo colonists on the one side and Fenella Elane Tyne on the other. Jerram stood in the back and admired the way Fenella strove to convince the tired farmers. Pacing around the podium, she brought to bear the power of unmatched intelligence, impeccable honesty, and […]

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Drabblecast 275 – A Riddle in Nine Syllables

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:14:12 -0000

After the attack, my team brought me straight to the med lab at base camp. They must have commed ahead, because as soon as the stretcher went through the door seals, Dr. Traynor was yelling orders…

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Drabblecast 274 – Amid the Words of War

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:45:07 -0000

Every few day-cycles, it receives hate-scented lace in anonymous packages. It opens the bland plastic envelope to pull one out, holding the delicate fragment between two forelimbs. Contemplating it before folding it again to put away in a drawer. Four drawers filled so far; the fifth is halfway there. “Traitor,” say some of the smells, […]

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Drabblecast 273 – The Electric Ant

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:07:33 -0000

This episode of the Drabblecast brings you a very special presentation of “The Electric Ant” by the one and only Philip K. Dick! Garson Poole wakes up after a flying-car-crash to find that he is missing a hand. He then finds out that he is an ‘electric ant’ – an “organic” robot. He further finds […]

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Drabblecast 272 – Power Armor: A Love Story

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:30:20 -0000

It was quite a party. The women wore gowns. The men wore tuxedos. Anthony Blair wore power armor. Armor that was sleek and black and polished, and made not a whisper as Blair paced the lawn behind his mansion, passing a word here or there with one of his guests. In those days the most […]

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Drabblecast 271 – Trifecta XXIV

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:39:20 -0000

We listen to the spidersong. The spiders are far away, just at the edge of our senses, whispering a haunting and beautiful melody into our minds. The grown-ups are oblivious, as always. They are having several conversations at once around the campfire, laughing and gossiping. It’s a nuisance because we can’t enjoy the spidersong nearly […]

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Drabblecast 270 – The First Conquest of Earth

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:25:51 -0000

When the alien fleet was first sighted just beyond the asteroid belt, end-of-the-world riots broke out in cities around the globe. But when astronomers calculated that the huge, silent ships would take nearly three weeks to reach Earth, all but the most committed rioters felt their enthusiasm wilt. By the end of the day they’d […]

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Drabblecast 269 – Bright Lights

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:30:40 -0000

The water fountains are low. The lockers are empty. The summer air is warm but there are people in the classrooms. People are talking, are moving. A female emerges from the nearest classroom. She is fully grown. She has dyed hair and competing odors and all of her teeth. Showing her teeth, she asks, “Are […]

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Drabblecast 268 – I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:05:18 -0000

Whatever you do, don’t call me Ishmael. Don’t call me anything at all. Give me my pint of piss-poor ale and leave me be in this yellowed corner where men relieve themselves when they are too lazy to make three extra stumbling steps to the streets of Nantucket. I am done. Finished. Come to this […]

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Drabblecast 267 – Postapocalypsemas

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:16:02 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 266 – Little Grace of the House of Death

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:55:45 -0000

The niece of King Death had not yet chosen a name. She was the only daughter and youngest child of Death’s sister, Merciful Grace, and everyone still called her by her baby name, Little Grace…

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Drabblecast 265 – Pop Quiz

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:53:07 -0000

“By the Earth-Stypei Treaty of The Twenty-third Local Year of Our Interaction, as amended, suspected Stypean sympathizers may be detained by duly empowered authorities only so long as the unbreachable sovereignty of the Stypean body-host is not violated, and only for the purpose of deportation upon confirmation of Stypean inhabitance. Tests to determine inhabitance are […]

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Drabblecast 264 – The Belonging Kind

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:47:52 -0000

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… […]

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Drabblecast 263 – Betty Flesh and the Meat Man

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:17:34 -0000

“Your suitor’s here!” Ma Flesh hurried into the back room of the butcher’s shop. “Are you presentable?” Betty waited there amongst the swinging, marbled yellow cow carcasses. The wooden butcher’s table was smooth under her fingertips, and solid as the earth. Knives glinted from the walls, each reflecting a tiny, seated Betty and the thin […]

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Drabblecast 262 – My True Lovecraft Gave to Me

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:15:50 -0000

Dear Mr. Kugelmacher, This letter is to inform you of my resignation. As you know, I have spent the last fifteen years of my life working in your department store, from the age of twelve when I was hired as a stock boy, to my years spent in the jewellery department, to my time in […]

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Drabblecast 261 – The People of Sand and Slag

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:34:40 -0000

“Hostile movement! Well inside the perimeter! Well inside!” I stripped off my Immersive Response goggles as adrenaline surged through me. The virtual cityscape I’d been about to raze disappeared, replaced by our monitoring room’s many views of SesCo’s mining operations. On one screen, the red phosphorescent tracery of an intruder skated across a terrain map, […]

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Drabblecast 260 – Trifecta XXIII

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:02:52 -0000

You don’t remember anything, do you? Selective memory loss; what an achievement for a mind as young as yours. Locked in a cupboard of your consciousness, the guilt will eat at you from the inside…

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Drabblecast 259 – The Last of the O-Forms

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:18:23 -0000

At the sack’s bottom, beneath an empty donut box, he found the beef jerky. It tasted mostly of pepper, but underneath it had a tingly, metallic flavor he tried not to think about. Who knew what it might have been made from? He doubted there were any original-form cows, the o-cows, left to slaughter…

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Drabblecast 258 – Brown Dust

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 17:45:16 -0000

“Adao, no.” Teo, the older boy’s second-in-command, lays a staying hand on his master’s arm. “The stories I told you about this one… they’re true.” “True?” Adao casts a skeptic’s eye over Santos. Can those flimsy ribs cage anything as fugitive as truth?

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Drabblecast 257 – Judgement Passed

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:17:32 -0000

We stared up at the sunlit peaks, each thinking our own thoughts. I thought about Dessica. We’d waited two months after landing to name it, but the decision was unanimous. Hot, dry, with dust storms that could blow for weeks at a time– if ever there was a Hell, that place had to be it. […]

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Drabblecast 256 – Roanoke, Nevada

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:58:45 -0000

“It’s the extra-terrestrials,” the General said, watching for my reaction. “Our extra-terrestrials are falling ill.” “Really?” I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice. My eyes wandered back to the picture on the general’s wall. He noticed. “That’s an untouched photo,” he said. “The aliens are real, and they’re here…”

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Drabblecast 255 – The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward pt. 2

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:41:49 -0000

Looking away from the light that showed the Charles Dexter Ward was no longer entirely dead was as hard as opening a rusted zipper. But Cynthia did it, and didn’t let herself look back She pulled Hester a little further down the corridor and said, “Now we really need to know how she killed him. […]

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Drabblecast 254 – The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward pt. 1

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:21:22 -0000

Six weeks into her involuntary tenure on Faraday Station, Cynthia Feuerwerker needed a job. She could no longer afford to be choosy about it, either; her oxygen tax was due, and you didn’t have to be a medical doctor to understand the difficulties inherent in trying to breathe vacuum. You didn’t have to be, but […]

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Drabblecast 253 – Maybe the Stars

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:05:53 -0000

Presently it rose, and with a shuffling walk it supported itself along the bars until it reached the bucket. With a sigh it plunged its hands inside. Little Useless inched closer and watched while the creature cupped the salt water and brought it to its face: not to drink, but to moisten its skin… This […]

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Drabblecast 252 – The Elder Thing and the Puddle People

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:20:43 -0000

Upon the coming of the rain and the and the reawakening of the Krr’at race, the Elder Thing returned to us and squealed Its sky-splitting squeal and waded in among us. It came with the green feet that had eyes and mouths, and with the yellow, rubbery outerskin, and with the lace and the glitter […]

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Drabblecast 251 – The Music of Erich Zann

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:47:29 -0000

My room was on the fifth story; the only inhabited room there, since the house was almost empty. On the night I arrived I heard strange music from the peaked garret overhead, and the next day asked old Blandot about it. He told me it was an old German viol-player, a strange dumb man who […]

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Drabblecast 250 – Trifecta XXII

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:14:59 -0000

My name is… John. I am… I have a wife and a daughter. They are visiting me today. Their names– Alice. And Anna. I can see, sort of. Everything is blurry. I am submerged in a coffin, a clear coffin with green water. There’s a tube in my mouth so that I can breathe, machine-like. […]

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Drabblecast 249 – Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 22:40:54 -0000

This episode of the Drabblecast presents Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe by Ramsey Shehadeh. It’s a tale about running a shanty café off I-95, in a post-apocalyptic, plague-ridden America. Jimmy cobbles together the shanty between the guardrails of the highway, where he assists passersby. Scavenged goods, hard truths, or a place to rest, Jimmy’s kindness becomes an […]

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Drabblecast 248 – The Cockroach Hat

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 01:55:21 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 247 – How I Crippled a World for Just 0.01 Cents

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:16:44 -0000

“You are accused of stealing the intellectual property of Einstein, Dirac and Heisenberg.” The middle-aged speaker waved his finger at Professor Hillabin, more in the manner of a prosecutor than a judge. This episode of the Drabblecast illustrates the folly of bureaucracy. In the drabble, one by one an entire classroom of students are promoted […]

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Drabblecast 246 – The Kidney

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 05:36:59 -0000

The shop bell rang at the front of the St. George Tim Hortons. I didn’t see who came in, but when Shel looked up, his eyes widened. “Crap.” He whispered. “It’s my kidney.” “Your kidney?” I asked. I turned in my seat, but Shel jerked me back by the shoulder. He held up his free […]

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Drabblecast 245 – A Nice Jewish Golem

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 09:09:14 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 244 – Doubleheader XI

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:09:33 -0000

It had rolled and tumbled, whatever it was, gelatinous and tentacled, from lake to canal to stream. People watched from the shore, following it with opera glasses and sea telescopes. Some thought it was a squid, others an octopus, others still just a glob of fatty flesh from some aquatic animal long torn apart and […]

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Drabblecast 243 – The Other Lila

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:16:57 -0000

I step out of a porter booth in the overheated Los Angeles station and reach up to peel off my winter coat. That’s when I realize something’s wrong with my hand — it feels numb and prickly, and the fingers aren’t quite responding the way they’re supposed to. Weird. I don’t recall circulatory problems being […]

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Drabblecast 242 – Transfer of Ownership

Sat, 12 May 2012 06:44:18 -0000

My new occupant is larger than Carson was. I was made for her, within a certain tolerance for the inevitable changes in human specifications that come with age, changes in health, and abundance or scarcity… This episode of the Drabblecast is all about Mechs, aside from the beat poetry that it begins and ends with. […]

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Drabblecast 241 – The Dead

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:45:04 -0000

Three boy zombies in matching red jackets bussed our table, bringing water, lighting candles, brushing away the crumbs between courses. Their eyes were dark, attentive, lifeless… This episode of The Drabblecast is all about zombies. In the drabble, a post-outbreak actor is almost too talented for his own good. In the feature, a job interview […]

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Drabblecast 240 – Trifecta XXI

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:45:47 -0000

We bought our first yarn baby at a garage sale. The ends of its arms were frayed and its eye buttons dangled loose on bare threads. This theme of this episode of the Drabblecast is family unties: Nontraditional homes and family situations. In the drabble, the enterprising resident of a haunted house fools its ghosts […]

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Drabblecast 239 – Killing the Morrow

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:01:21 -0000

You know, I’ve heard my share of disembodied voices. I’m accustomed to their fickle, sometimes bizarre demands. But tonight’s voice is different, clear as gin and utterly compelling. I must listen… This episode of the Drabblecast concerns time and inter-dimensional travel. In the drabble, a being hurriedly fleeing its own dimension accidentally merges with a […]

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Drabblecast 238 – From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:42:52 -0000

Translating… Appendix 820 of The Forbidden Greeny Jungle Field Guide. This series of audio files was created by TreeFrog7. It has been automatically translated into text In this episode of the Drabblecast, heavily pregnant jungle explorer TreeFrog7 keeps a recorded diary of data she and her husband are collecting for the Forbidden Greeny Jungle Field […]

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Drabblecast 237 – Test Drive

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 04:02:42 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 236 – When You Visit the Magoebaskloof Hotel Be Certain Not to Miss the Samango Monkeys

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:06:40 -0000

In the place where I was born, stones had been used to mark boundaries for four hundred years. We harrowed stones up in fields, turned them up in roadcuts. We built the foundations of houses from stones, dug around and between them. We made stone walls, and our greatest poet wrote poems about those walls […]

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Drabblecast 235 – Unreliable Witness

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:55:17 -0000

I don’t know if this is the same tape as last time, because They keep moving things around and stealing them. I don’t know who does it. It may be the staff here, or my own family when they come to visit, or the aliens, but somebody’s always doing it — taking my glasses, my […]

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Drabblecast 234 – Jagannath

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:46:27 -0000

Another child was born in the great Mother, excreted from the tube protruding from the Nursery ceiling. It landed with a wet thud on the organic bedding underneath. Papa shuffled over to the birthing tube and picked the baby up in his wizened hands. He stuck two fingers in the baby’s mouth to clear the […]

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Drabblecast 233 – A Blade of Love

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:13:17 -0000

Allan 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 […]

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Drabblecast 232 – Valentine’s Day with the Gods

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:16:23 -0000

The first ‘Go to Hell!’ The Angels did say To certain poor bastards On Valentine’s Day; ‘Go to Hell! We do our job well! It ain’t who you are It’s what you can sell…’ On Valentine’s Day, The World demands Love With a milk-chocolate fist In a red tin-foil glove. Romance is featured in this […]

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Drabblecast 231 – Trifecta XX

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:24:42 -0000

The six of them meet for the first time in front of the sagging clapboard house where Everett Montrose was born. All are tired, with hollows under their eyes from driving or riding buses for days. Even so, they greet each other with shy, relieved smiles. Few words are said; most seem unsure of how […]

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Drabblecast 230 – Bears Discover Fire

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:42:17 -0000

This 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 […]

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Drabblecast 229 – Singularity Knocks

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:32:22 -0000

“You don’t have to talk like that to us, mister,” I said. “We know town-speak just fine.” The man with the hat put it back on his head and smiled with a hint of embarrassment. “Sorry, folks. Sometimes it helps, you know, smooth the way.” That man with the computer was lurking by the corner […]

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Drabblecast 228 – A Fairy Tale of Oakland

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:55:20 -0000

In some parts of the world — Austria, Croatia, Hungary — they still remember. They understand. You can’t have something bright without having something dark to balance it. If you’ve got St. Nicholas, you also need the Krampus… This episode of the Drabblecast opens with Norm’s reflections on the holidays, Santa Claus, and the origins […]

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Drabblecast 227 – The Star

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:40:43 -0000

It is three thousand light years to the Vatican. Once, I believed that space could have no power over faith, just as I believed that the heavens declared the glory of God’s handiwork. Now I have seen that handiwork, and my faith is sorely troubled. I stare at the crucifix that hangs on the cabin […]

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Drabblecast 226 – The Heroics of Interior Design

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:22:43 -0000

I can’t fly faster than a speeding bullet. I can’t lift a car. I can’t climb slick surfaces with my bare hands or breath underwater or stop time. All I can do is change blue things to yellow. I didn’t bother to buy a cape or a spandex suit like the others. I just bought […]

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Drabblecast 225 – Trifecta XIX

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:29:05 -0000

Once, 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 […]

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Drabblecast 224 – Doubleheader X

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:23:07 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 223 – Bearing Fruit

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:24:11 -0000

This, of course, is what comes of being overly friendly with strange mangoes. One day you’re a wide-eyed virgin, with nary a care in the world; the next, you find yourself most unexpectedly and all but inexplicably burdened in a manner that afflicts virgins only once every two thousand years or so, to the best […]

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Drabblecast 222 – Rules for Living in a Simulation

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:57:08 -0000

Now if we, like those characters in recent movies, discovered specific clues in the world around us suggesting that we do in fact live in a simulation, we would of course consider those clues carefully to see what they say about how we should live our lives. — Robin Hanson Norm begins this episode of […]

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Drabblecast 221 – Year of the Rabbit

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:03:40 -0000

It 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 […]

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Drabblecast 220 – Trifecta XVIII

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:39:10 -0000

Another of the Drabblecast’s vaunted Trifecta series. Three short stories, each with a unique twist. The episode begins with an interview of author J.R. Hamantaschen, Norm runs fingers through his troubled mind, learning of the seeds from which his horrors spring. The theme of this Trifecta: getting the boot – stories of rejection and alienation. […]

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Drabblecast 219 – The Big Splash

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:56:11 -0000

I passed the sign that read Warning: Shark Zone. The sun was setting, lighting up the tops of the condos sticking out of the water. They had been swallowed by the swollen ocean, when it spilled over, like everything else: the skyscrapers, the cars, the fast food joints, the schools and supermarkets and liquor stores… […]

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Drabblecast 218 – Orange

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:32:11 -0000

I take time-lapse photographs of an orange. The result is always the same. First I remove the previous orange from the spike in front of the black velvet backdrop and replace it with a new orange. I set an incandescent spotlight out of frame as a light source… Episode Sponsor: You Shall Never Know Security […]

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Drabblecast 217 – Followed

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:33:52 -0000

This episode of the Drabblecast presents “Followed” by Will McIntosh. Norm also starts to ponder the nature of the undead. We conclude In Search of the Brain-Eating Nandi Bear serial featuring cryptozoologist Connor Choadsworth. Following that is our feature story by Will McIntosh, author of Soft Apocalypse and the upcoming Hitchers. Story Excerpt: She came […]

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Drabblecast 216 – The Book of Eternity

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 01:26:21 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 215 – Dread Unlocks

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:57:52 -0000

Okay, no one expects eldritch horror in LA. Not that I know what eldritch horror really is. My old boyfriend (about fifteen boyfriends back) called anything that inspired dread “eldritch horror.” I guess that would describe my entire job, really… Another story from Lovecraft month – elder horror in LA. Dread Unlocks is on the […]

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Drabblecast 214 – The Wish of the Demon Achtromagk

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:47:34 -0000

Achtromagk shuddered, lost in nightmare images: crimson lightning dotting a wasteland, twilight despair and feeble railings, isolation in a mewling throng. It thrashed and twisted but could not escape, could not stop the unwanted vistas in its mind. It was silent. And soft. And dark… Next up in Lovecraft month, a heart-warming tale of an […]

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Drabblecast 213 – The Haunter of the Dark

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:35:34 -0000

I have seen the dark universe yawning Where the black planets roll without aim— Where they roll in their horror unheeded, Without knowledge or lustre or name… To kick of Lovecraft Month Norm once again reads an H.P. Lovecraft classic.

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Drabblecast 212 – Ancient Engines

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:40:56 -0000

“Planning to live forever, Tiktok?” The words cut through the bar’s chatter and gab and silenced them. The silence reached out to touch infinity and then, “I believe you’re talking to me?” a mech said…

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Drabblecast 211 – At the End of the Hall

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:43:20 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 210 – Trifecta XVII

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:23:36 -0000

Another in the Drabblecast trifecta series. This time, we dip in to the Alphabet Quartet collection.

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Drabblecast 209 – Babyhead

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:05:16 -0000

Cynthia 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 […]

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Drabblecast 208 – Hokkaido Green

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:05:34 -0000

The 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 […]

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Drabblecast 207 – Pinion

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:44:51 -0000

The witness was beautiful, in a way that was almost hard to look at. His face was abstract and fashionable, all eyes and angles, with a luminous innocence too perfect to be entirely sincere…

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Drabblecast 206 – Creature

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:44:25 -0000

And so came Creature out of the wasteland and into the city, bouncing from hilltop to hilltop like a bulbous ballerina skipping across the knuckles of a great hand. He was big as the moon and black as the night, and he came crashing into the city like a silent meteor. The cityfolk watched his […]

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Drabblecast 205 – Trifecta XVI

Thu, 19 May 2011 03:43:44 -0000

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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Drabblecast 204 – Doubleheader IX

Tue, 10 May 2011 03:14:17 -0000

Here is the first joke of Betty L. Duncan. Why do the three-eyed aliens bank on the moon? Because there is not enough sun to go around. Press the blue button when you have finished laughing…

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Drabblecast 203 – Boojum Part II

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:30:05 -0000

The first sign was the chief engineers frowning and going into huddles at odd moments. And then Black Alice began to feel it herself, the way Vinnie was… she didn’t have a word for it because she’d never felt anything like it before. She would have said balky, but that couldn’t be right. It couldn’t. […]

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Drabblecast 202 – Boojum: Part I

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:54:49 -0000

The ship had no name of her own, so her human crew called her the Lavinia Whateley. As far as anyone could tell, she didn’t mind. At least, her long grasping vanes curled—affectionately? — when the chief engineers patted her bulkheads and called her “Vinnie,” and she ceremoniously tracked the footsteps of each crew member […]

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Drabblecast 201 – Trifecta XV

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:49:10 -0000

“Are these fiddlebacks ferns mommy?” Cindy asked. Fiddlehead honey. Margery said absently. “Fiddlebacks are nasty spiders.” It was only later that she would realize Cindy, for once in her vacuous, Barbie obsessed life, was right.” The first episode of Women and Alien’s month 2011 featuring three stories, each exploring nasty, insectile alien menaces. Fiddleback Ferns, […]

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Drabblecast 200 – The Last Question

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:41:34 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 199 – In the Octopus’s Garden

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:36:36 -0000

I woke to this new darkness, swirling about me. A phrase sticking in my mind — “Lazarus Syndrome.” What happened to people when they had died, but, for some reason, some lack of death’s completion — some unfinished business — had rejoined the living. In this episode of the Drabblecast, with a theme ‘Control,’ Norm […]

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Drabblecast 198 – Love in the Pneumatic Tube Era

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:52:12 -0000

We discover old scrolls that we wrote to each other in high school, back in the Early Pneumatic Tube Era. That was back when a PT message took five minutes to get across the city. We shake our heads. Now you can send a living butterfly to Dubai in ten seconds… This Valentine’s Day episode […]

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Drabblecast 197 – Death Comes But Twice

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 02:59:32 -0000

As always, he took delight in my interest in the scientific pursuits. ‘My assistant took the journey yesterday, by way of a shot to the heart. Prior to that, our trials on convicts included strangling, drowning, and beheading. By Jove! That reanimation was a sight to see…

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Drabblecast 196 – Moons Like Great White Whales

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:22:10 -0000

The pilot and her companion skimmed through the atmosphere on organic wings. They had completed their survey and the planet sampling, so this flight out from the landing craft and back was purely for their own joy. They’d timed it exactly so they could see all three moons rise together…

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Drabblecast 195 – A Matter of Size

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:30:07 -0000

“Wow.” Tiny Tim shakes his head slowly. Peels off his crimson domino mask and slaps it down on the meeting table. “That makes three of us.” “We’re marked men….” Dust Mite’s voice trembles. He tugs at the hood of his pale gray body suit. “Every costumed avenger with the power to shrink…”

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Drabblecast 194 – A Distant Sound of Hammers

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:05:15 -0000

The horn blares and the red light floods down over the Cragmer’s Slaughter House sign and thirty feet below me the gates part wide like a huge and starving mouth. Then pours forth the herd…

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Drabblecast 193 – Scales

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:50:40 -0000

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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Drabblecast 192 – Rangifer Volans

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 02:49:23 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 191 – Primary Pollinator

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:01:48 -0000

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. “Great news, Oliver! Big Spike is in season,” Dr. Lopez said. “He finally wants to fertilize Thick Root…” The theme of this Drabblecast […]

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Drabblecast 190 – The Wheel

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:56:46 -0000

“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow, Davie. In the orning the priest will come here to see your box. It’ll be still there because nobody dares to touch it…” This episode of Drabblecast deals with fear and rationality. The feature takes us to a world where fear of knowledge and how it can […]

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Drabblecast 189 – Doubleheader VIII

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:24:49 -0000

They needed a virgin to make a bargain with the sea monster who hunted the waters off their coast, and they were not willing to sacrifice their daughters… With the theme this week being about freedom, this episode of Drabblecast sees Norm musing about the irony of song about freedom written by a man name […]

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Drabblecast 188 – The Store of the Worlds

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 18:00:13 -0000

Tompkins sighed. “What happens is this: You pay me my fee. I give you an injection which knocks you out. Then, with the aid of certain gadgets which I have in the back of the store, I liberate your mind…” This episode of Drabblecast starts with Norm recommending and playing an excerpt from Frank Key’s […]

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Drabblecast 187 – Doubleheader VII

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:08:48 -0000

The episode begins with a DrabbleNews segment on blow-up weaponry (it’s Nerf or Nothing!). Next, a drabble from Kelley Zanfardino. on What follows is a doubleheader from Hugo nominated, cognitive psychologist, author Lawrence M. Schoen (with author’s notes), as read by Phil Rossi. In A Fool’s Death we follow a man as he attempts a […]

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Drabblecast 186 – Garkain

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:08:34 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 185 – Horror World 2025: Part II

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:58:24 -0000

Kyle lifted another lightsaber. “Want one? They’re not as random or clumsy as a flamethrower.” “Sh*t. The geek is strong in this one. Sure, Jedi me.” Kyle tossed it to her with a grin. Hang on Grandpa. We’re coming… Norm starts this week’s Drabblecast starts with a bbardle about Phantom Claus, to get us in […]

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Drabblecast 184 – Horror World 2025

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:04:19 -0000

It started in the cemetery, like these things usually do. Everyone knows being in a cemetery after dark’s a bad idea, which is exactly why Kyle had begged his grandpa to take him… This episode of Drabblecast is a Halloween Special where our (g)host Norm gives us suggestions on how to simultaneously celebrate Breast Cancer […]

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Drabblecast 183 – Angel of the Ordinary

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:26:38 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 182 – Trifecta XIV

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:00:45 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 181 – Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:27:30 -0000

A puppet’s words infect. They taint. They do this without ever sounding like a thing, without the listener realizing they have been spoken. A true ventriloquist, as those who are educated and informed may or may not choose to tell you, is an adept in the art of keeping those mouths shut… On this episode […]

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Drabblecast 180 – Something Borrowed, Something Doomed

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:51:11 -0000

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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Drabblecast 179 – The Red Bride

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 03:21:55 -0000

You are to imagine, Twigling, the Red Bride to be a human, such as yourself, although she is in truth a creature of the Var...

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Drabblecast 178 – The Tentacled Sky

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:51:47 -0000

The note itself simply read, “TUESDAY 7:13 PM”. Unsigned, undated, unadorned. Stuck into my door, just above the latch where I’d be sure to find the note immediately upon my return from my errands about the city…

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Drabblecast 177 – Floaters

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:42:38 -0000

That’s when I saw it. A thing — no, not even a thing, just an impression of a thing; a momentary imperfection in that seamless blue — that teased at the edge of my vision. My eye flicked toward it, but it either whipped away faster than the eye could follow or it hadn’t really […]

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Drabblecast 176 – Cinderlands

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:04:19 -0000

Dexter crouched beneath the toxic fruit trees in his grassless back yard, turning over black earth with the spade he’d taken from the old man, and every shovelful revealed worse things: clumps of cinders and the dust of ashes; rusting nails, practically dripping tetanus; wickedly-curved shards of brown glass; bullets of various sizes, crusted with […]

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Drabblecast 175 – The Outsider

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:08:58 -0000

Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness. Wretched is he who looks back upon lone hours in vast and dismal chambers with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books. Such a lot the gods gave to me – to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the […]

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Drabblecast 174 – The Fantasy Jumper

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:03:54 -0000

“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…

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Drabblecast 173 – Go Beep

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:06:12 -0000

The Drabblecast brings you “Go Beep” by Aliya Whiteley. Aliya Whiteley is a writer of dark tales in science fiction and fantasy, and was the winner of the Drabblecast People’s Choice award for Jelly Park! She has also been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, BSFA, and British Fantasy Society Awards. Story Excerpt: I’m a fan […]

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Drabblecast 172 – Trifecta XIII

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:05:32 -0000

Trifecta 13, oh yeh, the end of all things

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Drabblecast 171 – Mongoose : Part II

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:04:33 -0000

You 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, […]

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Drabblecast 170 – Mongoose : Part I

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:04:01 -0000

Izrael Irizarry stepped through a bright-scarred airlock onto Kadath Station, lurching a little as he adjusted to station gravity. On his shoulder, Mongoose extended her neck, her barbels flaring, flicked her tongue out to taste the air, and colored a question. Another few steps, and he smelled what Mongoose smelled, the sharp stink of toves, […]

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Drabblecast 169 – The Reenactment

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:03:07 -0000

For fourteen years the North Piscataway High School History Department, under my stewardship, has honored the tradition of Duel Day, our annual reenactment of the famous, deadly confrontation of 1804, between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. And for all fourteen of those reenactments, I, Robert Stanley, have taken the role of noble Hamilton, and Paul […]

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Drabblecast 168 – Route Nine

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:49:52 -0000

Two years ago it must’ve been. Me and Manny and a couple of the other boys — Carlos and T-Bone — met up at the last Dairy Queen outside of Lompoc. Manny was going on at me about that shortcut I liked, Route Nine. “I’m telling you that place is God-awful weird, Joe.”

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Drabblecast 167 – Snowman’s Chance in Hell

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:49:09 -0000

If the snowman, whose name was Wink, had known that the meat man would invent such a rotten thing, he never would have built the man in the first place… 3rd Annual Nigerian Scam Spam Contest Ducks are Bastards: Part I:

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Drabblecast 166 – Jubilee

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:48:22 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 165 – Doubleheader VI

Wed, 26 May 2010 15:47:37 -0000

The baby list is not very long. Babies only come in about six colors — we’re getting one that matches Mother and me. Humans are a lot less interesting than Legos or iBots…

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Drabblecast 164 – The Observer

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:46:51 -0000

And so we went in. Combat formation, all five of us, me first, face masks on so tight that the edges of our eyes pulled, suits like a second skin. Weapons in both hands, back-ups attached to the wrists and forearms, flash-bangs on our hips. No shielding, no vehicles, no nothing. Just us, dosed, altered, […]

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Drabblecast 163 – Once a Month on a Sunday

Wed, 12 May 2010 15:46:02 -0000

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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Drabblecast 162 – Birdwatcher

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:44:43 -0000

I was poisoning crows the day the aliens arrived. They’re smarter than you might think – crows, not aliens – and they don’t go for any of the easy stuff anymore…

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Drabblecast 161 – Higher than Usual

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:25:30 -0000

“We’ve got one of them,” he told me gleefully. “One of what?” I asked, bewildered. “One of them,” he said, as if that explained it. “Cheeky sod from Accounts came upstairs and tried to get a coffee out of our vending machine. Can you believe it? Out of OUR vending machine!” Nothing cheekier than a […]

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Drabblecast 160 – Trifecta XII

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:24:44 -0000

An apocalyptic trio of stories on this week’s Drabblecast featuring works by authors G.A. Semones, Douglas Warrick, and M. Thomas.

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Drabblecast 159 – Intelligent Design

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:23:57 -0000

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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Drabblecast 158 – Dr. Diablo Goes Through the Motions

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:28:03 -0000

Overlord always goes on like this when all he really has to do is slap down a dossier with “This Guy Needs His Ass Handed to Him” stamped on the cover. I’m just cutting to the chase.

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Drabblecast 157 – Brief Candle

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:19:18 -0000

The children washed up early this year; we raced down to the beach as soon as we heard. There was already a traffic jam coming out of the inland cells. My pockets are always filled with notes, so I left them well-anchored on the beach. Cells may not survive without new children, but without our […]

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Drabblecast 156 – Going to the Chapel

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:20:30 -0000

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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Drabblecast 155 – The Second Conquest of Earth

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:17:07 -0000

I barely recall how it used to be, before the Kus slashed open our sky—before their ships descended, battering the clouds with hurricanes and lightning. I remember the thunder and the majesty. And I remember the weeks of fire that followed… Prehistoric Croc vs. Monster Snake Hairy Mango Promo

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Drabblecast 154 – Family Values

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:59:53 -0000

Although she was tired, Wu was careful not to show it. Her pregnancies were progressing nicely. The eldest foetus, Hoo, was about to be born, and she was getting too big for parties, but the Senate elections were only months away and her visible pregnancy gave her an advantage she could not afford to waste… […]

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Drabblecast 153 – What Fluffy Knew

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:47:01 -0000

“Her routine was perfect in its simplicity. She spent her mornings in the kitchen waiting for someone to brush her, her afternoons sprawled on the couch in the warm sunshine, and her evenings on the nearest lap. Sometimes she watched the water droplets in bathtub after her people took showers. Yes. It was a good […]

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Drabblecast 152 – Trifecta XI

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:46:14 -0000

Maeve 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 […]

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Drabblecast 151 – The Society of Eccentric Moustaches

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:45:32 -0000

“I’m going to cut to the chase,” Zephyr said. “You’ll never make it as a magician. You just don’t have the moustache for it…” Ig Awards Josh Roseman

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Drabblecast 150 – Morris and the Machine

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:27:00 -0000

The 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. Here’s an excerpt from Morris and the Machine: “The lock,” she […]

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Drabblecast 149 – So You’re Going to Die

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:26:28 -0000

The energy and personality of a person can get stuck before it evaporates from our world. Wood is a fair dumping ground. Something about its pore size and how cellulose vibrates. A person can get himself pasted inside the wall or the floorboards. The body and brain quit, but the rest of the bastard lingers, […]

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Drabblecast 148 – The Last Great Clown Hunt

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:57:12 -0000

It was clown-hunting weather. It was time to gather the musty costumes, clean the slide whistles, bag up the guns, and spin the lures of cotton candy…

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Drabblecast 147 – Cassie

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:25:11 -0000

The other gamblers ignored her. They were a mixed bunch– middle aged men in ties and shiny suits, women in evening gowns, young men with gleaming teeth and haunted expressions. Roulette was a sucker’s game. Unless you were Cassie…

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Drabblecast 146 – Teddy Bears and Tea Parties

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:24:28 -0000

The Drabblecast brings you Teddy Bears and Tea Parties written by S. Boyd Taylor. It’s a heart-breaking horror story about little girls, stuffed animals, and hunger. It’s a bit of a graphic one, folks, so make sure to put the ear muffs on the kids. Excerpt: Shadows move on the mantelpiece and the end […]

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Drabblecast 145 – Varmits!

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:23:17 -0000

Those damn raccoons were here again. I know it’s raccoons. Rather easy to deduce considering the scores of chocolate footprints everywhere….

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Drabblecast 144 – joanierules.bloggermax.com

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:20:17 -0000

This sounds ridiculous, I know. It’s like watching an old movie where everyone has a British accent, even if they’re supposed to be in ancient Rome or something. God is just impossible to translate… Magpie Yarns

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Drabblecast 143 – The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part II)

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:19:33 -0000

The Drabblecast continues this two-part series with “The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part II)” by John Aegard. If you haven’t heard Part I, you should listen to it here. We also conclude Connor Choadsworth’s adventures in “In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm.” Story Excerpt: The crowd was lined up six deep along the […]

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Drabblecast 142 – The Golden Age of Fire Escapes (Part I)

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:18:42 -0000

This week The Drabblecast presents “The Golden Age of Fire Escapes” by John Aegard who lives in Seattle, Washington with his blind dog. We also meet a slew of cryptids as we continue the adventures of Connor Choadsworth in “In Search of the Mongolian Death Worm.” A festive special, to be sure! Story Excerpt: The […]

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Drabblecast 141 – On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War Machines of the Merfolk

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:17:57 -0000

We see it happen: the great machines of the merfolk coming up over the shore, rampaging through the city with devastating effect. We watch a robotic mermaid hammer her fist into an apartment block, the dust cloud from the explosion engulfing the nearby camera. It’s quick, sudden, a surprise that’s ruined by the later repetition […]

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Drabblecast 140 – Trifecta X

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:17:14 -0000

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Drabblecast 139 – Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:16:39 -0000

Today’s story is Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs by Leonard Richardson. It’s a story about awesome dinosaurs from Mars doing radical things! Motocross? Drag racing? Murder?! As a special treat, Norm Sherman, Sleaze Patrol and Gringo Motel write and perform all the music for this episode. Story Excerpt: “I want to buy a gun,” […]

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Drabblecast 138 – Kingdom Come

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:15:56 -0000

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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Drabblecast 137 – Doubleheader V

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:15:06 -0000

Sam Android found Gail Galaxy skipping monopoles off the inactive accretion disk of a small black hole on the outskirts of the galaxy. Every once in a while, she shot one in at too large an angle, and it was captured by the black hole and, with a blinding burst of X-rays, swallowed up. “I […]

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Drabblecast 136 – The Great Old Pumpkin

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:14:24 -0000

You must know, Doctor, that I did not choose to seek psychiatric help. I have no faith that I shall exit this room a healed man; I know now that I have been destined for the asylum since childhood. No mere conversation with you can steer me clear of that fate. That said, let us […]

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Drabblecast 135 – “Hello,” Said the Stick

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:13:22 -0000

“Hello,” said the stick. The soldier stopped, and looked around. He did not touch the hilt of his sword, but he adjusted his stance so he could reach it quickly, if need be. But there was nothing to be seen. The moors stretched flat and empty for miles about. “Who said that?”

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Drabblecast 134 – Bone Sigh

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:12:26 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 133 – Over the Walls of Eden

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:11:38 -0000

“Why do you remember the books?” he finally asks. She smiles again. “O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere, Till pride and worse ambition threw me down…”

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Drabblecast 132 – Doubleheader IV

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:10:33 -0000

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: […]

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Drabblecast 131 – Storm Comes A’ Callin’

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:09:09 -0000

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, […]

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Drabblecast 130 – Trifecta IX

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:44:24 -0000

Trifecta 9, dinosaurs, love, monsters, everything you need. Featuring works by Bruce Holland Rogers, Steve Calvert and Bruce Boston.

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Drabblecast 129 – Annabelle’s Alphabet

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:43:24 -0000

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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Drabblecast 128 – The End of the Universe

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:42:18 -0000

“Countdown commencing,” the computer announced. “Termination of the universe in 10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . .” Eight seconds until the end of everything. No Earth, no galaxy, no existence…

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Drabblecast 127 – Nanuq

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:36:51 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 126 – Dagon

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:33:38 -0000

As I crawled into the stranded boat I realized that only one theory could explain my position. Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval, a portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface, exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths…

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Drabblecast 125 – Little Brother™

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:12:59 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 124 – Ghosts and Simulations

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:11:34 -0000

“You’re looking for people to mind the ghosts?” I asked, as I signed for the co-pay…

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Drabblecast 123 – Toast

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:08:46 -0000

This week The Drabblecast presents “Toast” by Jamie Lackey. Jamie is the Assistant Editor for Triagulation Annual Anthology series and was previously featured on Episode #81: Snuffles. Our feature is a peculiar story about love, loss, and moldy, potentially radioactive bread. Story Excerpt: Elayne won’t eat toast anymore. A week ago, she never would have […]

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Drabblecast 122 – The Fallen and the Muse of the Street

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:07:17 -0000

Angels, fallen or otherwise, weren’t known for their appreciation of human art… On this episode of the Drabblecast, a Gaiman’esque tale of the urban supernatural from fan favorite Tim Pratt. How will a pair of fallen angels behave on a visit to New Orleans?

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Drabblecast 121 – Trifecta VIII

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:04:56 -0000

A series aquatically oriented tales make up the Drabblecast’s 8th Trifecta.

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Drabblecast 120 – Doubleheader III

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:15:44 -0000

We 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 […]

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Drabblecast 119 – The Seven Deadly Drabbles

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:17:17 -0000

Damascus started to object, but feeling the stares from those in the infinite line behind him, he angrily flipped open his courier’s bag and grabbed two bloody, dripping muslin bags. He slapped them on the counter and huffed away… A special episode of the Drabblecast podcast. For each of the seven deadly sins: gluttony, envy, […]

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Drabblecast 118 – The Relativity Prison

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:31:18 -0000

It took weeks for me convince myself that my condition is universal, and I’m still not entirely sure. It’s almost always something in the eyes, and sometimes also in the corners of the mouth. Resignation. I had to learn to look for it. Otherwise, the illusion of volition is perfect. Everyone looks as if they’re […]

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Drabblecast 117 – Curse of the Alien’s Wife

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:28:50 -0000

Now 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 […]

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Drabblecast 116 – It’s All in the Knowing

Thu, 28 May 2009 01:27:37 -0000

Kelly Lester, a soft-spoken, unassuming young girl, with lovely sparkling green eyes and a smile that seemed fresh-born each time she used it. I fell in love with her the day she started here, and I convinced myself she’d never have anything to do with me the day after. Of course, I was not all-knowing […]

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Drabblecast 115 – Clown Eggs

Tue, 26 May 2009 01:19:39 -0000

This week the Drabblecast presents “Clown Eggs” by Jay Lake. It is a story that introduces us to old “bull” clown Uncle Swarmy. It’s not just another day at the beach. You’ll learn more about the clown life cycle than you’re probably comfortable with! Story Excerpt: The spring tide rolled across Momus Beach, tossing the […]

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Drabblecast 114 – Arms and the Man

Thu, 14 May 2009 01:18:06 -0000

In this episode of the Drabblecast, we present “Arms and the Man” by Mary Turzillo. It’s a story of a divorced woman, burned out to love, who finds hope with a change of phylum. It’s truly squidlicious! Norm Sherman also presents a Drabble News segment on the Hubble space telescope, topping it off with the […]

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Drabblecast 113 – Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely

Thu, 07 May 2009 01:15:15 -0000

This 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 […]

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Drabblecast 112 – The Guardian

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:54:14 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 111 – Frequent Flier Miles

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:53:17 -0000

He folds his barely eaten burrito away in its paper wrapper and regards me seriously with his warm, friendly eyes. “I have a *lot* of frequent flier miles. I’d be more than happy to share them.” I understand that we’re not talking about the kind of miles the airlines give you. This has nothing to […]

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Drabblecast 110 – Trifecta VII

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:42:50 -0000

The village of Kriegerwald on the shores of Lake Teufel high in the Swiss Alps couldonly be reached by foot or ski lift, which suited the villagers. Each villager possessed broadforeheads and flat noses with strange guttural accents even the people in the valley below barelyunderstood. They also had a singular tourist attraction, popular enough […]

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Drabblecast 109 – Babel Probe

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:39:44 -0000

This episode of the Drabblecast features “Babel Probe” by David D. Levine. This superbly narrated tale follows a nano scale robot on its mission to the past. Six thousand years earlier it uncovers the myths surrounding the Tower of Babel. A thought-provoking story unfolds. Which came first, God or man? Story Excerpt: I have been […]

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

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:38:24 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 107 – The Alchemical Automaton Blues

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:37:13 -0000

“How often does it do that?” the faun asked. “Most of the time. The poor thing’s totally neglected. They never speak to it or interact with it– except for when the kids are throwing rocks at it…” This episode of the Drabblecast begins with a Drabble News story about an employee finding a Brazilian wandering […]

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Drabblecast 106 – Boiled Black Broth and Cornets

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:35:56 -0000

“From fortress-building to cornet-playing, you never cease to amaze me, Beckie.” I replied, dumping my weekend luggage in a corner of the grm brickish vestibule… In this episode’s Drabble, reading a spy thriller helps pass the time while an assassin waits for his target to return home. The feature story, Boiled Black Broth and Cornets, […]

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Drabblecast 105 – Doubleheader 2

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:34:47 -0000

She’d been hunting full-grown pies for four years now. The little hand-held fruit pies were for kids– the preservatives made them slow and stupid– but pies in the wild, they were the true treasure, they had formed the culture of her people… This episode of the Drabblecast features two pie-themed stories set in one fantasy […]

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Drabblecast 104 – The Food Processor

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:31:59 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 103 – Out of His League

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:30:14 -0000

An influx of uniformed combatants filed into the room, some mumbling, others grumbling– the sure sign of another loss. In moments the place smelled of dirty socks and planetary jocks… This episode opens with a reminder to vote for the Drabblecast People’s Choice Award on the Drabblecast discussion forums, which neatly segues into a Drabble […]

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Drabblecast 102 – The Last Dog

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:29:01 -0000

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… This episode opens with the announcement of the three drabbles […]

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Drabblecast 101 – Bemused

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:24:20 -0000

My Muse is the life of every party. He does keg-stands and plays beer-pong like he was born to the game… This episode of the Drabblecast podcast opens with a DrabbleNews story about immortal jellyfish, jellyfish that under certain circumstances can reverse the aging process. In the Drabble, a stalker cheerfully greets, drugs, and kidnaps […]

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Drabblecast 100 – Trifecta VI

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:42:58 -0000

The 100th episode of the Drabblecast opens with Norm thanking donors, contributors, and listeners for its success and growth. Norm announces the opening of nominations for the second annual Drabblecast People’s Choice Awards, now including a category for drabbles as well as feature stories. In Cork Ringtone and the Break Dancing Pig, a desperate, Jesus-costumed […]

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Drabblecast 99 – Sarah’s Window

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:37:35 -0000

The shadow lingered at Sarah’s window, balanced on air, certain to fly away the next step I took. Another moment and it would be gone. Another moments and I would call the police, report my daughter missing, and spend the rest of my life convincing myself I’d imagined it… This episode of the Drabblecast opens […]

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Drabblecast 98 – The Graggleberry Thief

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:34:02 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 97 – Daydream Nation

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:13:15 -0000

From a small, dusty box similar to a contact-lens case, she took a fresh iDreams bindi, a self-adhesive circlet displaying the iDreams logo: a stylized human head wreathed in fluffy clouds and displaying a Third Eye… This episode of the Drabblecast explores the relationship between technology and romance. In the Drabble, cryotechnology brings new dimensions […]

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Drabblecast 96 – L’wek and Sarah

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:09:24 -0000

Since the Emergence they’d all had to learn: humans, certainly, but mostly the Lemurians… Norm opens the episode with the “Top 10 List” of the most badass animals of 2008, each mentioned in the listener and news forums (winner: the “colossal squid,” of course). This episode’s Drabble, by Shane Shennen (who also contributed a Drabble […]

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Drabblecast 95 – On Dasher

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:06:27 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 94 – Squidges

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:04:51 -0000

“Squidges?” This was a term I hadn’t heard before. I was used to Maine brother colloquialisms, they had adopted a vocabulary largely unique to themselves, but this went beyond even that… Norm rewards forum participant Wonko by reading his Drabble about an unwilling exposure to the majesty of nature. Rish Outfield and Big Ankelvitch, narrators […]

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Drabblecast 93 – Blue

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:02:43 -0000

I had a dog, his name was Blue Betchya five dollars he’s a good one too. Come on Blue! I’m a-comin’ too. Glum weather in Baltimore inspires Norm to treat us all to a pair of melancholy stories. In Shane Shennen’s Drabble, “Ancient Apple Tree,” the passing of an old, faithful robot is mourned by […]

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Drabblecast 92 – Synesthesia

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:59:05 -0000

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 […]

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Drabblecast 91 – Gifting Bliss: Fifteen Years Later, Jason Avery’s Magic is Still Saving the World

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:56:44 -0000

“When I first met Jason he was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the studio, surrounded by burning candles. The air smelled like flowers and a sort of a fog hung in the room and I’m thinking- this dude is a little off…” This podcast begins with a content warning, beware the “f-bomb.” Norm takes […]

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Drabblecast 90 – Far Far Away

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:37:19 -0000

The 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 […]

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Drabblecast 89 – Starry Night

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:33:51 -0000

“They were frozen in place, and their bodies blazed. The angel was before them, and they were silent, burning with no heat…” The episode opens with a Drabble by John Medaille, a veteran of Podcastle, the Dunesteef, and the “Three-Lobed Burning Eye.” It discusses the depredations and terror experienced by survivors of a post-apocalyptic elevator […]

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Drabblecast 88 – The Toys of Peace

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:30:41 -0000

Harvey retreated to the library and spent some thirty or fourty minutes in wondering whether it would be possible to compile a history, for us in elementary schools, in which there should be no prominent mentions of battles, massacres, murderous intrigues, and violent deaths… Norm thanks listeners who voted in the recent election, before punishing […]

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Drabblecast 87 – The Box Born Wraith

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:28:12 -0000

“I don’t want to die in the dark!” “We all die in the dark, Benny…” Norm spends this episode doing his very best cheesy Vincent Price styled horror show host (Note: not a Vincent Price imitation, but an imitation of a really bad Vincent Price imitator), complete with an interminable string of puns about “ghouls” […]

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Drabblecast 86 – Half-Sneeze Johnny

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:25:44 -0000

If he ain’t comfortable, he can’t sneeze proper to save his life… During the Drabble News, Norm introduces us to the cutest little tongue-biting-then-tongue-impersonating parasite that one could ever hope to meet. The Drabblecast then ticks off another row on its scorecard for “Bodily Functions Bingo” by delivering fiction about the act of sneezing. In […]

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Drabblecast 85 – Trifecta V

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:23:55 -0000

The 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 […]

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Drabblecast 84 – Doubleheader 1

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:22:32 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 83 – Floating Over Time

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:21:42 -0000

She was a machine, fabulously complex and durable and imaginative. She was also alive… This well regarded episode of the Drabblecast shares the poetic story of two complex individuals welcoming, dreading, and ultimately learning from the finality of their own end.

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Drabblecast 82 – An Overgrown Clump of Narcissists

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:18:31 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 81 – Snuffles

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:15:57 -0000

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? […]

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Drabblecast 80 – Standing in Line

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:14:42 -0000

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. […]

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Drabblecast 79 – Low-Carb Cheesecake

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:13:05 -0000

“Just one thing,” I said, nodding towards the cheesecake. “How do you do it?” Norm Sherman gives us more of the Mega-Beast Death-Match. The Drabbles for this episode depict lawn ornament assassins and a man’s true form. The feature story describes the horrible price others pay for your health foods. Feedback from “Witchcraft in the […]

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Drabblecast 78 – Panel Discussion

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:11:17 -0000

“So, where do you get your ideas?” he asked. “I get my ideas from thinking about things.” “Like what?” “Like this panel.” In this episode of the Drabblecast, we listen in on a convention panel sidetracked by the Sci-Fi version of “Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner?” The Bbardle is a hard rock tale of a […]

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Drabblecast 77 – Permanent Detention

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:10:04 -0000

“But Dad, he scares me….” “I don’t care if he’s got three eyes and tentacles. He’s your teacher and you need to pass his class. Case closed…” High school horrors delight us in this episode. In the news, we learn that Bigfoot is dead, if he was ever alive, which he might not have been, […]

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Drabblecast 76 – Apologies All Around

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:07:40 -0000

“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 […]

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Drabblecast 75 – Trifecta IV

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:06:05 -0000

We’re lying in the sun, letting our wings dry, when a thought suddenly occurs to me. “Do you think it’s fair” “What’s that?” says Bob. He’s sitting there beside me, fat and lazy, with his three tales flickering lightly in the spring breeze. The fourth of the Drabblecast’s Trifecta episodes gives us three different views […]

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Drabblecast 74 – Witchcraft in the Harem

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:04:29 -0000

“I’m in serious trouble here,” I said to the pale man. “Give me some words of wisdom.” This episode’s Drabble details a disturbing beginning. The feature is a haunting tale of desire and eternity. Norm Sherman gives us more information on the Mega-Beach Death-Match, which contains a squid with tank treads, a giant wasp, and […]

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Drabblecast 73 – All In

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:02:36 -0000

The medical profession doesn’t talk about “The Treatment”…it came from Argentina, but the scientist was from Mumbai, or the other way around… This episode’s Drabble shows us life by Etch-a-Sketch. The feature story for this episode is a dark drama posing the question “Is your body worth your life?” Norm Sherman announces that The Drabblecast […]

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Drabblecast 72 – Exit

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:01:13 -0000

“Lieutenant,” she said, “Stevens obviously has it, or he would have quit this crap…”

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Drabblecast 71 – Perfect Down Further

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:59:42 -0000

“All the Kings have been doubtful at first. To be honest, there have been humans who have declined, but it’s just a matter of trying….and believing…

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Drabblecast 70 – Reality Bites!

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:49:47 -0000

“Well Mr. Merrill, as my associate informed your brother, it is the official opinion of Fundamental Insurance that you are not dead per se….”

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Drabblecast 69 – The Story-Teller

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:47:58 -0000

“Once upon a time there was a little girl named Bertha, who was extra-ordinarily good…”

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Drabblecast 68 – The Wiggly People

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:45:03 -0000

Uncle Karl shouts when he’s mad, and sometimes he smacks Mama. That always makes the sharp things hurt me and the wiggly people come out… On this episode of the Drabblecast, a dark tale from favorite author Eugie Foster. A troubled youth, a view in to his chaotic mind, and deeply effected life. Shake hands […]

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Drabblecast 67 – Malish

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:43:49 -0000

His method of running was simple and to the point: he was usually last out of the gate, last on the backstretch, last around the far turn, and last at the finish wire…

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Drabblecast 66 – Creatures in Disguise

Wed, 28 May 2008 17:42:18 -0000

They didn’t feel things the way humans did…things like mercy…

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Drabblecast 65 – Old Clara’s Favorites

Wed, 21 May 2008 17:41:00 -0000

Old Clara only bought gourds. God only knew why, and folks weren’t asking themselves. Not that Clara would have answered…

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Drabblecast 64 – Thus Spake Bleerbo

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:38:48 -0000

Planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, he moved, helping people, saving lives, redeeming himself…and never finding the necessity to a speak a word…

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Drabblecast 63 – Time Shift

Wed, 07 May 2008 17:36:00 -0000

A few seconds (approximately 3.21, her processors told her) wasn’t a lot of time- a human brain wouldn’t have had the same opportunity for reflection…

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Drabblecast 62 – Sizzle

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:59:23 -0000

Insanity wears many masks…

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Drabblecast 61 – Trifecta III

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:57:36 -0000

The third Drabblecast trifecta. Featuring facial hair and fantasy fair!

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Drabblecast 60 – Dysfunction

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:40:16 -0000

“I have to see for myself, or else I’ll never know. I’ll lie there, half-in and half-out of a dream, listening to them every night…”

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Drabblecast 59 – The Interview

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:38:51 -0000

“Your son appears to be quite exceptional, Mrs. Warren,” Dr. Ethridge said, looking up through wire-framed glasses from the test results on his desk. “He has the gift.”

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Drabblecast 58 – Eggs

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:37:56 -0000

“Get into the prep room! We need to wash you off and destroy your pants!”

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Drabblecast 57 – The Tiger Fortune Princess

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:36:34 -0000

“Your daughter will die unborn unless she rides the dragon’s tail…”

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Drabblecast 56 – 33 Seconds

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:35:16 -0000

Inside the TecknoAir factory, deep within the Earth’s core, cheap was a necessity…

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Drabblecast 55 – Circe’s

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:32:27 -0000

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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Drabblecast 54 – Unholy Fruit

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:30:45 -0000

The demon oranges- one for every tree in Roland’s orchard – appeared on an otherwise average Tuesday morning…

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Drabblecast 53 – Sing

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:29:29 -0000

Today the Drabblecast brings you “Sing” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It’s a story about aliens, music, and strange frequencies! Story Excerpt: Child, you sing all the time- when you’re walking, when you’re eating, even when you’re laughing. You people make the most beautiful music in the entire galaxy… Enjoy! Drabblecast #53 – Sing

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Drabblecast 52 – Sleep Age

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:28:01 -0000

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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Drabblecast 51 – Crimson

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:26:53 -0000

What wonders my kin saw as the passed away, none living will ever know. Only those willing to taste the waters see as they did. Only those willing to taste the waters die with their eyes open…

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Drabblecast 50 – Trifecta II

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:23:49 -0000

He was the size of a child. One of those twiggy ones they show you on the guilt-o-mercials that you can keep in shoes and chickens for just 30 cents a day. Only he was an old man. His black t-shirt had holes in it.

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Drabblecast 49 – Heart to Heart

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:22:49 -0000

Here’s the thing Sheila- you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. You’re also funny, intelligent, sex is fantastic and you certainly have an interesting career but…I just don’t think I can date you anymore..

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Drabblecast 48 – The Destiny of Man

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:21:43 -0000

I know what they teach you in school, Bobby, but don’t let anyone tell you that the human race isn’t the greatest, most glorious of all earth’s creatures… Norm presents his one-minute review of the monster movie, “Cloverfield.” The Drabble speculates on the Bleak Reaper’s off-duty recreation activities. The feature story, originally published in the […]

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Drabblecast 47 – The Silver Ring

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:20:42 -0000

“What have you got there, Dell?” Lars twisted his hand painfully to get a look at the ring. “Where did you find that?…” Norm introduces all and sundry to his latest favorite, real-life monster animal: the four-inch “Giant Water Bug,” which sucks out its prey’s innards. It can fly and also play dead in order […]

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Drabblecast 46 – The She-Wolf

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:19:03 -0000

Leonard returned to his home circle garrulous about his Russian strike experiences, but oppressively reticent about certain dark mysteries, which he alluded to under the resounding title of Siberian Magic… Norm details numerous urban legends about revolting items found in fast food as an introduction to this week’s Drabble, a terrifying story about moldy fast […]

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Drabblecast 45 – The Fine Point

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:18:08 -0000

Once you start to see them, they seem to be everywhere… The Drabble News report, of a 5-year scientific study which showed staring at women’s breasts prolonged the lifespan of males, inspires a now-infamous skit. Norm details the riot among medical test subjects when the non-boobie control group was chosen. The feature story continues with […]

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Drabblecast 44 – The Arc of Hronos

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:16:51 -0000

I’ve almost finished checking those measurements. That tooth—it looks homo sapien. This could be huge… Norm presents, in his inimitable style, a one-minute review of his long-awaited movie indulgence, “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.” The week’s Drabble concerns an auto thief reaching the top of his game through — what else — nefarious means. The feature […]

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Drabblecast 43 – Jelly Park

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:14:37 -0000

Drabblecast #43 presents “Jelly Park“ by Aliya Whiteley. In consideration of the holidays, Norm begins to see a common theme to this Drabblecast season: celebrating relationships. Take, for example, the relationship between the holidays and a pile of extremely rare rhinoceros dung. Four piles, actually. All collected by conservationists and auctioned on E-bay to raise […]

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Drabblecast 42 – 40 Quarters

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 04:13:06 -0000

“Your work does sound most commendable, but I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do. Volunteer work, no matter how worthy, doesn’t pay taxes. There’s no such thing as a free lunch…” Building on last episode’s interest in a Nigerian scam spame e-mail, Norm announces the first annual “Nigerian Scam Spam E-mail Contest,” arising from listener […]

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Drabblecast 41 – Set Another Place at the Table, I’m Bringing My Pimple

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:10:34 -0000

It starts off like any normal bout of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. I’m constipated, I’m depressed and I’ve got a pimple the size of a hazelnut on my chin… This week’s Drabble details a junk mail scam, betraying Norm’s deep interest in e-mail spam scams, later manifesting itself in the Drabblecast’s signature “Nigerian Scam Spam Contest.” Norm […]

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Drabblecast 40 – Marbles

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:42:36 -0000

“Michael…” his mother said, smiling and bending toward him. “Don’t you think we should invite your new neighbor over to play?” In Drabble News: the field of Taxidermy triumphs with the successful recovery of a famous cryptozoological (mystery) animal. This week’s Drabble, “Shark attack,” provides a surprising role reversal. The feature story, also by author […]

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Drabblecast 39 – The Beekeepers

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:40:18 -0000

The Tehtix move so damn fast – scientists can’t ever keep up… and populations never know what hit them… In a mind-bending tale of parasitic worms, intelligent wasps and a symbiotic virus, author J. Alan Pierce describes an unusual alien invasion that preserves its victims forever. The story connects themes of dreams and communication. Mr. […]

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Drabblecast 38 – Trifecta

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:38:05 -0000

The Drabblecast’s first ever trifecta special, three short stories asking there interesting questions. Is best model, best witness? How much is a dream worth? And what would you do to get a pound of flesh? This episode marked the first “Trifecta,” as Norm produced an anthology of three short-ish stories connected by a theme. Norm […]

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Drabblecast 37 – Luna Springs

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:36:27 -0000

They say the gravity’s lessened here, air’s purified, filtered with vitamins and proteins. Even the light’s better – Luna Springs is on a mobile foundation timed to keep optimum reflected sunlight at all hours… In Drabble News: a young girl born with four arms and four legs in India, believed to be the incarnation of […]

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Drabblecast 36 – Pumpkinseeds

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:32:52 -0000

Their orange gazes came from devilishly carved eyes and their vigilant stares sent a chill up Kincade’s neck. He had never liked the gutted vegetables that people found hauntingly ornamental this time of year…

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Drabblecast 35 – The Guilt Trader

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:30:34 -0000

The rocking of the train soon lulled Patience into a deep sleep, and when Brian noticed her unconscious state he moved over opposite Eddie and asked, “So Eddie, what’s in the bag? It has a rather unpleasant odor…”

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Drabblecast 34 – The Suit

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 02:26:45 -0000

I watched him traverse the crowded room. He seemed physically different. It was not his attire, for that was unchanged. He was in the same ice-cream white suit….

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Drabblecast 33 – Dessert Storm

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:02:21 -0000

Fimlick the thief becomes restless as he and his companions journey across the desert….

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Drabblecast 32 – The Warden’s Last Day

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 04:01:01 -0000

“It was 11 at night, and only a few shouts of men in the lifer block penetrated the concrete walls of death row. My name is Michael Zlocinac, and I am a warden of U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Magdalena, New Mexico…” On this episode of the Drabblecast, on his last day as warden, the titular […]

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Drabblecast 31 – Office Consultation

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:59:55 -0000

“What seems to be the problem John?” “It’s difficult to explain Doctor. To put it in a nutshell, I’m increasingly unable to come to grips with being…. On this episode of the Drabblecast, a panicked patient visits his physician with a ‘unique’ ailment.

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Drabblecast 30 – 2084

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:57:20 -0000

“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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Drabblecast 29 – Code Brown

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:56:01 -0000

The Drabblecast presents “Code Brown” by Dermot Glennon. This episode opens with a little gospel, hehe. Then we move on to the Drabble Poetry Corner with a wonderful diddy by William D. Tucker. This poem is the second in a three-part series. We also tease the People’s Choice awards with special props to today’s episode. […]

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Drabblecast 28 – The Hog-Faced Man

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:54:37 -0000

I listened to my father talk about the hog-faced man who came into his hospital room and stood at the foot of his bed. “What does he say to you?” I asked. My father turned his head and looked at me. “He tells me he’s too early…” On this episode of the Drabblecast, a spooky, […]

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Drabblecast 27 – Crazy

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:53:17 -0000

Ma called it the crazy. She always had. The old lady called it something else. Most of the time, before I- touched one- I used the word Ma used, or sometimes I called it the weirdness, to myself… On this episode of the Drabblecast, the mother of a unique child must guide him towards greater knowledge of […]

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Drabblecast 26 – Once Upon a Hill in this City

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:52:09 -0000

Two young men slink behind her…I catch the glint of metal from their back pockets and the answering glint of their teeth as they exchange smiles..

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Drabblecast 25 – The Worm Within

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:49:20 -0000

Today we bring to you The Worm Within, by Vincent Eaton. It’s a strange tale. A rather gross tale… about a tail. It’s a tale about a worm tail and a man’s tail area. And meat. Have you ever felt something was off inside your body? Have you ever racked your brain straining to remember […]

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Drabblecast 24 – Black and White Animals Part 3 : Chromatic Conclusions

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:46:05 -0000

Part Three of the Black and White Animals Trilogy, Brenda and the Black and White Animals Prepare for the Final Battle with Emperor Mersatz…

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Drabblecast 23 – Momentum

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:40:51 -0000

Even after it really hit the fan out there, Dwight never ventured far from the carnival grounds. His fellow carneys had all left in search of family members to be with. But Dwight’s family was still here…

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Drabblecast 22 – Black and White Animals Part 2 : Vengeful Hearts

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:08:01 -0000

With humanity’s fate at stake, Ling Ling and his Black and White followers face a new and mighty foe…

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Drabblecast 21 – The Metamorphosis of the Phosphorescent Avenger

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:39:17 -0000

Jell, Porp and Oct decide to stick it to the man…

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Drabblecast 20 – A Day with Daddy

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:40:55 -0000

A man and his daughter encounter trouble at the local grocery store…. On this episode of the Drabblecast, an eccentric parent takes his ‘child’ out for a day of shopping… complications ensue.

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Drabblecast 19 – Sredni Vashtar

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:38:44 -0000

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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Drabblecast 18 – The One That Got Away

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:37:11 -0000

“Christ, what the hell is that thing?” “Hell if I know, but it ain’t no speckled perch- I can say that much…”

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Drabblecast 17 – Morton

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:34:46 -0000

He was a genetic disaster – holding in his impressive repertoire of infirmities: asthma, severe lactose intolerance, a disposition to rashes, acute ugliness, a chronic blob shape and an allergy to anything you can find on the periodic table…

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Drabblecast 16 – I-81

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:32:48 -0000

A man and his wife encounter a new type of road rage….

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Drabblecast 15 – Roanax

Thu, 31 May 2007 01:19:27 -0000

Taygath couldn’t wait – the scouts had reported that these predator specimens were truly magnificent. His pedipalps twitched with anticipation…

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Drabblecast 14 – Mouse

Thu, 24 May 2007 01:17:19 -0000

A day in the life of a varmint

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Drabblecast 13 – RORRIM

Thu, 17 May 2007 01:15:04 -0000

This is a story about how one thing leads to another, if you know what I mean. It’s about what the Chinese mean when they say: “I curse you with an interesting time”…. In this episode of the Drabblecast, a convention goer encounters a unique, magical threat. Trapped in a world of strange magic, with […]

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Drabblecast 12 – Free Willy 2.4

Thu, 10 May 2007 01:12:40 -0000

A textbook example of whale robotics gone terribly wrong… Episode 12 sees the climax of the first ever Super Animal Deathmatch (also know as the Mega-Beast Death-Match), with Norm revealing the winner – Telephant. It also includes Anna Luther’s story “Free Willy 2.4” – the reintroduction of (robotic) killer whales, and how mad science and […]

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Drabblecast 11 – Black and White Animals Part 1 : Secret Weapons

Thu, 03 May 2007 01:07:00 -0000

A day at the zoo turns into humanity’s ultimate struggle for survival… Episode 11 of the Drabblecast brings us Secret Weapons – the first chapter of the Black and White Animals trilogy. Norm and Kendall Marchman share this story of a trip to the zoo turned strange and terrible. Drabble News reports on recent research […]

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Drabblecast 10 – A Little Black Death

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:02:06 -0000

He kept them in jars in his garage. Row after row of mayonnaise jars, each one containing a small, shiny blob of instant death…. In its tenth episode, the Drabblecast presents Lance Arthur’s story ‘A Little Black Death’ – a spider story, not recommended for the squeamish. Norm encourages listeners to vote in the Super […]

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Drabblecast 9 – Vengeance at 4 a.m.

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:00:27 -0000

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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Drabblecast 8 – Epiphany

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:58:50 -0000

Ever had one of those days? Drabblecast episode 8 brings a hard-luck tale like few before – Adam Carvin’s “Epiphany,” which explores just how bad things can really get, and how to keep them in perspective. And a momentous first, Norm launches the original Super Animal Deathmatch, later re-titled the Mega-Beast Death-Match, featuring Telephant vs […]

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Drabblecast 7 – Rutabaga

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:56:51 -0000

Tony goes undercover for the police to get a deal with “The Boss” recorded on tape… In Episode 7 Norm shares the full version of ‘Rutabaga’, a tale of crime and unusual punishment, the now iconic song played as opening theme music for every episode of the Drabblecast. He reports on the progress of the […]

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Drabblecast 6 – The Frog Prince

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:52:52 -0000

Nikki’s looking for a Prince… Episode 6 of the Drabblecast brings us The Frog Prince, a story exploring the transformative potential of frog smooching. Norm recommends his favorite podcast Escape Pod, and invites authors to submit their weird stories. He closes by asking the fans to spread the word about the Drabblecast.

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Drabblecast 5 – Guardians

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:49:44 -0000

A terrible accident on the highway brings about an even greater collision of forces… A problem with Norm’s planned story for this week results in him falling back on one of his own – Guardians. This tale explores a world where guardian angels exist. Norm also reports on one of his favorite personal topics – […]

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Drabblecast 4 – Uncle Ollie’s Gift

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:45:36 -0000

Some things are just too precious to leave behind… Episode 4 of the Drabblecast brings us “Uncle Ollie’s Gift,” a story of keeping your family close, and your prized possessions closer. The story’s author Kendall Marchman joins Norm to provide sound effects and records a moral for the story’s conclusion.

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Drabblecast 3 – Next Stop

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:35:46 -0000

The metrotrain at 6am can be a great place to make new friends… The Drabblecast’s third episode brings us Luke Coddington’s Next Stop, a short, atmospheric story of an encounter with a homeless man on Baltimore’s metro, with some unexpected consequences. Norm puts his versatile voice to good use, delivering both an unnerved protagonist and […]

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Drabblecast 2 – Longing for Love: A Unicorn’s Story

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:12:38 -0000

Not your average fairy-tale about an obese squirrel and a unicorn with back acne…. In episode 2 Norm brings us the quirky story of Gregory, a unicorn cursed with bad health and worse luck. This is also the first episode in which Norm introduces the show as: “strange stories by strange people, for strange listeners.”

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Drabblecast 1 – The Coughing Dog

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:36:49 -0000

In the Drabblecast’s very first episode, ‘Norman’ Sherman introduces his own story The Coughing Dog. It’s a tale about a family reuniting at Christmas, and a domestic pet with a very… unusual condition. Norm also introduces the basic concept of the show. He describes it as “flash fiction of an atypical nature […] by very […]

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