Far Fetched Fables

Flash Fiction: “Percy’s Crossing” by Elizabeth Archer

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Sir Percival Pettigrew saw things other men did not see until it was too late.

“I should have named you Cassandra,” said Lady Pettigrew. “Pity you were male.” Only his mother understood him. Sadly, she died in a hunting accident, mistaken by Lord Pettigrew for a pheasant.

“Shame about that damned hat of hers,” Lord Pettigrew lamented to Sir Percival and his siblings. He drank himself to oblivion, and left everything to Percival’s brother Thomas.

Being a second son was dreadful.

Sir Percival decided to affect a large turban, with an enormous pheasant feather, in honor of his Mum. He wore a jeweled silk caftan, and performed at fashionable parties as The All-Seeing Panocculi.

***

“You know your name is redundant, don’t you?” said Lady Beatrice Bumbleshoot. “I suppose you must.”

She was a short, dark woman with the hint of moustache and very keen grey eyes.

“Perhaps I do,” said Sir Percival.

“Tell me,” said Beatrice. “In my dirigible Titanic, I plan to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Will I be successful?”

Sir Percival shut his eyes, and put the back of his right hand dramatically upon his forehead.

“No. I see that you are going to hit an iceberg on your maiden voyage.”

Elizabeth Archer writes flash fiction, short stories, and poetry. Her work has appeared in Every Day Fiction, Daily Science Fiction, Every Day Poets, and many other places. She lives in the Texas Hill Country. Her blog, Let Me Tell You a Story, can be found on Wordpress.

“Percy’s Crossing” first appeared at Every Day Fiction on September 21, 2015.

Main Story: “Olimpia’s Ghost” by Sofia Samatar

My Dear S.,

Emil says you will not come to Freiberg this year; but Mother says you will. Who is right? We all know you hate Vienna with a passion; that is, Mother and Emil know it, and I know it through them, for Mother reads your letters aloud, and sometimes Emil, too, shares a few lines. Pray do not be angry! It is such a little thing, to hear of your successes, and it makes me very happy. And then, your sallies on your masters are so droll, and your remarks on Vienna — St. Stephen’s steeple like a “greatrolled-up umbrella” — Mother can hardly read for laughing.

I am sure you will not begrudge me this diversion, my dear S. On the days when there is no letter from you, life continues just as usual. The weather has been fine. There is fruit on the peach trees. In the long twilight, while Emil reads, I go up and down, up and down the stairs.

A few days ago I did have a new amusement: a marionette theater sprang up overnight in the square, like a white mushroom. I watched the marionettes for several hours, even though a light rain was falling, and the children screamed mercilessly. I suppose you would not have liked the noise, or the look of the dirty little boy who came around afterward, hat extended to gather our coins. As I left I saw him sharing a cigar behind the theater with the puppet-master, a rough, disreputable-looking fellow, undoubtedly his father. Oh, but the marionettes were so beautiful! The little Pierrot had a spangled coat, and two great tears shone under his eyes. He wore his heart on the outside, like any fool. As for Columbine, she carried a hand mirror that reflected her lavender hair.

I looked for them today, but they are gone..

Sofia Samatar is the author of the novel A Stranger in Olondria and winner of the John W. Campbell Award, the Crawford Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Her second book, The Winged Histories, is forthcoming in 2016 from Small Beer Press. She co-edits the journal Interfictions and lives in California.

“Olimpia’s Ghost” appeared in the inaugural volume of Year’s Best Weird Fiction.

About the Narrators:

Rish Outfield is a writer, actor, and podcaster that can be heard as co-host of the Parsec Award-winning Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, which presents genre stories with a full cast. He also performs audiobooks for Audible, and occasionally becomes a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the moon is full and bright.

Nikolle Doolin is a writer and a voice actor. Her fiction, poetry, and plays have been published and presented; and her voice has appeared in various media. Nikolle has performed numerous narrations for a number of popular and award-winning podcasts, such as The NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, and Far-Fetched Fables. She also narrates classic literature by the likes of Austen, Poe, James, and more in her own podcast, Audio Literature Odyssey.

To learn more about Nikolle, visit her website at nikolledoolin.com.

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First Story:

“Mr. Green” by Gary Budgen

Rust fell on Maiden Road, falling in tiny flakes borne by the wind and covering the ground with burnt red like a carpet of autumn leaf. The rust covered the parked cars, the folds and intricacies of privet hedges, the broken concrete surfaces of the front yards.

I saw this on the day I visited my mother for the first time in a year, tail between my legs — basically skint — in hope of at least a Sunday lunch. Mr Jutley had been washing his white BMW and was standing, shaking his head at the covering of rust grains that had come from the sky. It was everywhere, even on Mr Jutley’s turban.

Gary Budgen grew up and lives in London, UK. He has had fiction published in many magazines and anthologies. Recent stories are in Sensorama from Eibonvale Press and We Can Improve You from Boo Books. He is a member of Clockhouse London Writers and can be found at garybudgen.wordpress.com

Second Story:

“Changelings” by Melanie Tem

Bridget sat quietly in the house of the creature who had stolen her child.

In her hand was a mug of the best coffee she’d ever tasted: strong and aromatic, and Still hot even though she’d been mostly ignoring it for some time. On the table at her elbow was a bowl of dry-roasted peanuts, which even under the circumstances she had a hard time resisting; they nearly filled a dark, thick wooden bowl of an odd shape, whose polished planes made her want to keep running her fingertips over it. An old Waylon-and-Willie tape of love songs was playing, one of her favorites. The creature knew.

Melanie Tem’s work received the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards, and a nomination for the Shirley Jackson Award. She published over one hundred short stories, twelve solo novels, two collaborative novels with Nancy Holder, and two collaborative novels and a short story collection with her husband, Steve Rasnic Tem. Among her novels were Prodigal, Wilding, Revenant, The Yellow Wood (her latest), and Black River, a fictional exploration of grief as a hero’s journey. She was also a published poet, an oral storyteller, and a playwright. As a social worker and administrator she worked for the elderly, the disabled, and adoptive children and their parents. A speech of hers on unconditional commitment is still used in parts of the country in the training of prospective adoptive parents. She had four children and six grandchildren.
Melanie passed away in February of this year from metastatic breast cancer.

Of Melanie’s love of oral storytelling, Steve had this to say:

Those stories can be heard here.

About the Narrators:

Chris Mack is an enigmatic actor, voice artist, acting coach, father, and a New Yorker-turned-Parisienne. His credits include the animated feature Persepolis and the best-selling videogame Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. Find out more at chrismack.net.

Nicola Seaton-Clark lives in the wilds of (almost) Eastern Europe with her long-suffering husband, phenomenal children and a grumpy cat. Trained as an actress and singer, she has worked in entertainment for over 20 years and currently splits her time between writing speculative fiction, helping her husband run their voice-over company, Offstimme, and voicing everything from commercials and documentaries to public transport announcements. She also hosts this podcast…

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This month’s cover art is Plains of a Different World by Leon Tukker. For more of his work, visit www.artstation.com/artist/leontukker or tryingtofly.deviantart.com/

Novel excerpt: “King of Shards” by Matthew Kressel

The demon had saved Daniel, but the fool didn’t know it yet.

They fell.

They fell.

No matter existed in this place before places, not a single atom in this void of voids. If he had a mouth to scream, the demon would have, because he remembered this terror, remembered tumbling into the Abyss, when the Creator had ripped his world apart and tossed her screaming children into the Great Deep.

Our mother, the demon thought. Our destroyer.

The blind idiot tumbled beside him, a spark of unsteady light, flashing in panic as they went down and down and down.

They fell.

They fell.

Milton had it wrong. It wasn’t nine days. It was nine eternities. Ages crept past them in a silence that had lain undisturbed since before the first universe. The demon was more ancient than the oldest mountains, older than Earth, but the Great Deep mocked such notions of duration.

It could swallow all the years of his life a trillion, trillion, trillion times. When he had been thrust into the Abyss the first time, he had known only fear. But he had been a child then. Now, he fell with purpose.

They fell.

They fell.

Time passed. An eon or a nanosecond. All was meaningless in the breadth of eternity. An orange pinprick formed in the emptiness below, a miniscule spark of light. They fell towards it.

Flowing out from its glare, in currents long and wispy, came ballads of forgotten kings, cries from the death of children, a dying man’s last breath. Like smoke, the currents drifted into the vastness to be forgotten, the broken sounds of a broken people in a broken universe.

Matthew Kressel is a multiple Nebula Award finalist and World Fantasy Award finalist. His first novel, King of Shards, debuted October 13th from Resurrection House. His fiction has or will soon appear in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Nightmare, io9.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interzone, Apex Magazine, and many other markets. He was the former editor and publisher of the acclaimed ‘zine Sybil’s Garage and he published the World Fantasy Award-winning Paper Cities. Alongside veteran editor Ellen Datlow, he co-hosts the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City. He has been a member of the Altered Fluid writers group for more than a decade, studies the Yiddish language in his spare time, and is preternaturally obsessed with the film Blade Runner. Find him on Twitter as @mattkressel and his blog at matthewkressel.net.

King of Shards is currently available on Amazon.com.

About the Narrators:

Sarah Frederickson was born in Oregon in the United States, and was raised in beautiful Minnesota. At a young age she realized her passion for musical performance and the creative arts. Sarah spent most of her childhood singing and acting – both onstage and off – and affecting various accents for fun.

Sarah graduated with a degree in Music business and Audio Production from Bethel University in St.Paul Minnesota. Shortly after graduation she traveled to Australia for a one-year holiday. During that time she became smitten with an Australian man who asked her to stay, and the couple — now married — live and work in Australia, go on adventures, write music, and read stories to their cat.

Matthew Frederickson is in his mid-30s, living in Memphis, Tennessee, with a rockstar plastic surgeon wife. He reads and writes and runs in his spare time. He loves to brew beer, and he’d love to make that his career. He will soon start the second season of his podcast, Freddy’s Fan Fiction. You can find him on Twitter as @swami.

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Story: “The Rabbit Catcher of Kingdom Come” by Kellie Wells

One sudden spring, when trees and flowers, bamboozled by warmth, began budding in January, the prematurely honeyed air flatly refusing to chill again until late December, the town of Kingdom Come, Kansas, was beset by a plague of black-tailed jack rabbits that were not only many but jumbo, bigger than great danes they were, gargantuan rabbits, suspiciously well-fed, slavering over the zoysia, plump middles heaving, back feet long and brawny as a sailor’s forearm and ears you could fan a fainting princess with. And not at all timid, never darting under privet or disappearing behind fences at the last minute, but glaring tauntingly at cats and hobbled crones, whom the town feared would be dragged away to an unspeakable end in the riparian thickets whence these strapping rabbits multiplied, their numbers seeming to double each week. They licked their paws and stroked their ears and whiskers while leveling a menacing eye and leering toothily at any passerby bold enough to look them in their flea-bitten mugs. They stood up on their whopping hoppers and waggled their ears, as though receiving a communiqué from jack rabbit HQ, the air crackling with animal electricity, and then they’d charge a neighbor’s chihuahua, the javelin of their ears at a determined tilt, and the runt mutt would leap with a shriek through its doggy door. They hopped defiantly into busy intersections, and station wagons and pick-up trucks, afraid a collision with one of these sturdy lagomorphs would surely cause their vehicles to crumple like beer cans against an obdurate forehead, hit one another and rolled in ditches instead, coming to rest tires-up among the cattails. At night the rabbits drummed their feet so rhythmically the earth seemed to growl and the sleepless citizens of Kingdom Come locked and relocked their doors and windows until the thumping ceased at sunrise. The town was in a pickle, had a big-eared crisis on its hands, fast multiplying pestilence, cotton-tailed epizootic, and, well, it feared for its safety and solitude.

Which is why when the man in the parti-colored coat appeared and claimed he could, for a nominal, one-time fee, rid the town of this nuisance forever, the drowsy burghers fell gratefully at his feet.

Kellie Wells is the author of a collection of short fiction Compression Scars (winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award) and the novels Compression Scars, Skin, and the Paterson Prize finalist Fat Girl, Terrestrial. She’s the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and the GLCA New Writers Award for Fiction. “Rabbit Catcher of Kingdom Come” was chosen by Kevin Brockmeier for inclusion in the 2010 Best American Fantasy anthology. She teaches in the MFA Programs at the University of Alabama and Pacific University.

You can find her online at kelliewells.com, via Twitter as @KellieWells, at Instagram as mugwump.ink, and at her comics blog blunderbussandmugwump.tumblr.com.

About the Narrator:

Martin Reyto is an educator, writer, and musician. He has worked in an eclectic variety of fields, including 18 years as a technical writer and software developer, 16 years as a teacher of creative writing, computer science, and business communication, and shorter stints as a symphony musician and audiobook narrator. He has published short fiction and two collections of his poetry.

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First Story: “The King Beneath the Waves” by Peter Fugazzotto

Werting could not break free.

The frigid sea held the boy, his feet churning, tired arms paddling. The rocky shore, so close, taunted him with every swell. His lame foot felt heavy as a stone.

Just as he was ready to give up, a wave lifted him. The water folded and he tumbled head over heels against sand and stone, grey sky replaced by a veil of bubbles and froth.

His hands dug at broken shells and shiny weed and he crawled out of the embrace of the sea. The water pulled at him but it could no longer drag him back. He would not join Hreoth and the long ship in the depths.

Peter Fugazzotto is a writer of fantasy and science fiction. His short stories have been published in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Grimdark Magazine. His gritty fantasy series The Hounds of North was launched with The Witch of the Sands in 2014. He is a lifelong martial artist and a World Champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Visit peterfugazzotto.com to learn more and get a free book.

This story originally appeared in Grimdark Magazine #3.

Second Story: “Serpents of Albion” by Adrian Chamberlin

Bedevere rode into the sunrise, leaving Arthur alone with the slain warriors and the creature that had caused their deaths.

The knight’s helm and mail armour flared gold in the rising sun, briefly hiding the scarlet gore of battle and bloodshed. It reminded Arthur of his brotherhood of knights’ former glory: how they were like shining gods riding to battle evildoers, to uphold the laws of Arthur’s kingdom and ensure the land prospered for all. 

The dream of Camelot had ended. This was the reality of Arthur’s reign: a charnel pit of twitching corpses, of man and horse bleeding their last together, of raptors gorging on the flesh of fallen warriors and flies secreting eggs into the flesh wounds of dead knights. The realisation it was all over, that Albion would become chaos once more, pained Arthur more than the head wound from Mordred’s broadsword.

Oh Merlin. Did you not foresee this end? Why did I not listen to you, old friend?

Adrian Chamberlin is a British writer of dark fiction and lives in the small south Oxfordshire town of Wallingford that serves as a backdrop to the UK television series Midsomer Murders, not far from where Agatha Christie lies buried, dreaming in darkness. He is the author of the critically acclaimed supernatural thriller The Caretakers as well as numerous short stories in a variety of anthologies, mostly historical or futuristic based supernatural horror. He co-edited Read the End First, an apocalyptic anthology with Suzanne Robb (author of the acclaimed thriller Z-Boat) and has many other projects in the pipeline.

His next release will be “This Envious Siege”, a Lovecraftian account of the Battle of Trafalgar, in Exaggerated Press’s After the War, a collection of supernatural warfare novellas scheduled for October 2015.

He is aware of the concept of “spare time” but swears it’s just a myth.

Further information can be found on his website, archivesofpain.com.

About the Narrators:

Graeme Dunlop is a software solution architect and voice actor living in Melbourne Australia. He is the co-editor of the fantasy podcast Podcastle, and used to host the YA podcast Cast of Wonders. You can find him on Google Plus and he occasionally tweets as @kibitzer on Twitter.

Anthony Babington is a voice in the internet’s head. he looks almost, but not quite, exactly how you expect him to. He currently resides in Houston, Texas, but hastens to add that it was not his idea. He can be found on Google Plus.

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Story: “A Shard Glows in Brooklyn” by Alex Shvartsman

One by one, I set off car alarms.

I walked along the curb and methodically gave each parked car a gentle kick, just hard enough to trigger the siren. Behind me, a dozen violated vehicles already blared out of tune.

The prospect hung back, sullen and quiet. He was having a tough week, and my erratic behavior wasn’t helping his mood any. With each siren adding its voice to the cacophony, the prospect got a little twitchier. To his credit, he hadn’t cut and run. Yet.

“Philippine Energy Beetles are nasty critters,” I lectured him as we walked, straining to be heard over the noise. “They nest by the power lines and feed off the electricity. Those flickering lights the power company says are caused by faulty wiring are often caused by an infestation.”

Having finished with the cars, I fumbled with the lock on the front door of a vacant house.

“This place is lousy with beetles,” I explained. “We’re gonna have to fumigate.”

“That’s just great,” said the prospect. “I can’t stand bugs. Now you tell me the Watch is in the exterminator business? This couldn’t possibly get any worse.”

Alex Shvartsman is a writer and game designer from Brooklyn, NY. More than 60 of his short stories have appeared in Nature, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Galaxy’s Edge, Daily Science Fiction, and many other venues. He’s the winner of the 2014 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction. He edits Unidentified Funny Objects, an annual anthology of humorous SF/F. His short story collection, Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma, is available at amazon.com.

You can find him online at alexshvartsman.com.

About the Narrator:

Mark “the Encaffeinated One” Kilfoil loves fiction, so much so that he’s written some (such as the Parsec-nominated Tainted Roses), read quite a lot (a library of over a thousand half-read books and growing), and now narrates it (sometimes actually recorded for others). He’s found that volunteering for a dozen years in radio was a decent way to get a full-time job as a Program Director at a community radio station in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, but not such a great way to finish his thesis, so he stopped at a Masters in Computer Science. He can be heard frequently on CHSRfm.ca, and two of his shows regularly appear as podcasts, and can be found at encaffeinated.ca and theweirdshow.com. He likes cats enough to pet them but not enough to own one, and computers enough to own several but pet none of them. He will someday write a million words, but at this rate, that will require life extension, so he eagerly awaits the ability to upload into a computer, if that hasn’t already happened and this is all only a simulation.

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Story: “Blood and Stardust” by Laird Barron

Three years later, as I hike my skirt to urinate in a dark alley in the slums of Kolkata, my arms are grasped from behind. The Doctor whispers, “So, we meet again.” His face was ruined in the explosion — its severe, patrician mold is melted and crudely reformed as if an idiot child had gotten his or her stubby fingers on God’s modeling clay. I can’t see it from my disadvantaged perspective, but that’s not necessary. I’ve been following him and Pelt around since our original falling out.

Speaking of the Devil… Pelt slips from the shadows and drives his favorite dirk, first through my belly, then, after he smirks at the blood splattering onto our shoes, my heart. He grins as he twists the blade like he’s winding a watch.

“— and this time the advantage is mine.” I laugh with pure malice, and die.

Laird Barron is the author of several books, including The Croning, Occultation, and The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. His work has also appeared in many magazines and anthologies. An expatriate Alaskan, Barron currently resides in upstate New York. His limited edition reprint collection A Little Brown Book of Burials is currently available from Borderlands Press.

You can find him online at lairdbarron.wordpress.com.

About the Narrator:

Nikolle Doolin is a writer and a voice actor. Her fiction, poetry, and plays have been published and presented; and her voice has appeared in various media. Nikolle has performed numerous narrations for a number of popular and award-winning podcasts, such as The NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, and Far-Fetched Fables. She also narrates classic literature by the likes of Austen, Poe, James, and more in her own podcast Audio Literature Odyssey.

To learn more about Nikolle, visit her website at nikolledoolin.com.

Featured Artist

Jason Rainville is a freelance Fantasy and Scifi illustrator living in Ontario, Canada. He works in the tabletop/card game industry for small and large publishers such as Rite Publishing, Paizo Publishing, and Wizards of the Coast. If you want to view Jason’s work, purchase prints or have your Magic Cards/prints signed, you can visit his website; http://www.jasonrainville.com/ You can see more art and updates from Jason if you follow him on Facebook or Twitter – https://www.facebook.com/Rhineville https://twitter.com/rhineville

This piece is called Lyssa, which is one of five winners of the ArtOrder Evolution Challenge.

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First Story: “The Kite of Stars” by Dean Francis Alfar

The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du’l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she’d first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him.

Maria Isabella had just turned sixteen then, and each set of her padrinos had given her (along with the sequined brida du caballo, the dresses of rare tulle, organza, and seda, and the diadema floral du’l dama – the requisite floral circlet of young womanhood) a purse filled with coins to spend on anything she wanted.  And so she’d gone past the Calle du Leones (where sleek cats of various pedigrees sometimes allowed themselves to be purchased, though if so, only until they tired of their new owners), walked through the Avenida du’l Conquistadores (where the statues of the conquerors of Ciudad Meiora lined the entirety of the broad promenade) and made her way to the Encantu lu Caminata (that maze-like series of interconnected streets, each leading to some wonder or marvel for sale), where little musical conch shells from the islets near Palao’an could be found. Those she liked very much.

In the vicinity of the Plaza Emperyal, she saw a young man dressed in a coat embroidered with stars walk almost surely to his death.  In that instant, Maria Isabella knew two things with the conviction reserved only for the very young:  first, that she almost certainly loved this reckless man; and second, that if she simply stepped on a dog’s tail — the very dog watching the same scene unfold right next to her — she could avert the man’s seemingly senseless death.

Dean Francis Alfar is a fictionist and advocate of speculative fiction. His stories have been published and anthologized in the Philippines and abroad in Strange Horizons, The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, The Apex Book of World SF, The Time Traveler’s Almanac, and the Exotic Gothic series among many others.
His books include the novel Salamanca; short fiction collections The Kite of Stars and Other Stories, How to Traverse Terra Incognita, East of the Sun and Other Stories, and A Field Guide to the Roads of Manila and Other Stories; and the children’s book How Rosang Taba Won A Race. He has edited or co-edited volumes of the Philippine Speculative Fiction annuals, Horror: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults, The Farthest Shore: Fantasy from the Philippines, Outpouring: Typhoon Yolanda Relief Anthology, and Maximum Volume: Best New Philippine Fiction.
Dean lives in Manila with his wife and tango partner, award-winning fictionist Nikki Alfar, and their daughters Sage and Rowan.

Second Story: “The Wood of Ephraim” by Edward M. Erdelac

2 Samuel 18:8 — For the battle was there spread over the face of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword.

The Judean soldiers had run all day previously from Mahanaim, plunging into the wooded hill country of Gilead, where they surprised the massing forces of the rebel prince Absalom.

The fighting was bitter and terrible. The outnumbered Judean loyalists of King David drove into the heart of the wayward Israelite tribes, beguiled by the king’s son into open revolt. All day they fought a confused, bloody skirmish. By nightfall Absalom’s forces broke and scattered across the countryside.

Just what had brought about their overwhelming victory was a matter of excited debate between the ten Gibborim, David’s elite warriors who had spearheaded the attack behind General Joab.

They talked around the fire as they broke their evening bread, stuffing their bellies with old Barzillai’s kine cheese, there being no game to be found.

“We’ve the craftiness of the king to thank for this victory,” Zalmon the Ahohite mumbled as he chewed. “Had he not secretly sent his man Hushai into Absalom’s council, the old wizard Ahithophel would surely have advised the prince to run us down as we fled Jerusalem.”

“Be careful when you mention Ahithophel, idiot,” hissed Elez the Paltite, who looked up just then from rubbing balm into a cut on his forearm. “You know the wizard’s son Eliam fought for us today. I hear Ahithophel went home and hung himself because he knew what David would do to him when Absalom failed.”

“What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t say with your mouth,” Zalmon admonished, waving Elez off. “Anyway, Eliam is loyal to David. He can’t help his father was a sorcerer or a traitor.”

Edward M. Erdelac is the author of eight novels, including the acclaimed Judeocentric/Lovecraftian weird western series Merkabah Rider and Andersonville from Random House. His fiction has appeared in dozens of anthologies and periodicals, including most recently the Stoker Award-winning After Death, Atomic Age Cthulhu, Edge Of Sundown, and Star Wars Insider Magazine. Born in Indiana, educated in Chicago, he lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and a bona fide slew of kids.

News of his work and excerpts may be found at emerdelac.wordpress.com.

About the Narrators:

Deanna Sanchez is a voiceover talent and actress who has performed professionally for 14 years. She has voiced various commercials, industrials, and characters, and specializes in the “sexy voice” of powerful female roles. An avid fan of science fiction since her grandfather gave her a copy of Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky when she was 9, she feels greatly privileged to help bring this story to life. While pursuing a voice talent and acting career, Deanna also consults in Geographical Information Systems and develops custom mapping applications for real estate and other industries. Her background in I.T. management does not prevent her from owning multiple old computers, some with Windows 98 still running. Three-dimensional visualization of spatial data is a favorite pastime, and she has spent many hours translating real-Earth elevation data into unique 3D worlds. Deanna’s voice over demo can be heard at the Lambert Studios website, an outstanding full service recording studio.

Rish Outfield is a writer, actor, and podcaster that can be heard as co-host of The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, which presents genre stories with a full cast. He also performs audiobooks for Audible, and occasionally becomes a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms, and the moon is full and bright.

The music featured in “The Wood of Ephraim” is “Past the Edge” by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com, used under Creative Commons License 3.0.

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Flash Fiction: “Dancing with Fire” by Caroline M. Yoachim

The pond where I grew up was swampy and buzzing with insects. I slept in a bed of stargrass, and Mother whispered lullabies in the gentle current. Mother grew up in the ocean, and she hated our pond. Too many memories of Father lingered beneath the surface, long after drought had stolen him away.

“Why don’t we go back to the ocean?” I asked.

“I’m too old,” she said. “I don’t flow as smoothly anymore, and cloud hopping is for the young. Go play.”

There weren’t any other water spirits, so I did mud magic with the earthy kids. We made soldiers from dirt and water and green swamp sludge. Every night, the soldiers got soggy and fell apart, ending the war until we remade them the next morning.

Caroline M. Yoachim lives in Seattle and loves cold, cloudy weather. She is the author of dozens of short stories, appearing in Lightspeed, Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and Daily Science Fiction. For more about Caroline, check out her website carolineyoachim.com, and via Twitter as @CarolineYoachim.

Main Story: “In From the Snow” by Lee Battersby

It is snowing outside the house. Snow is dangerous. You leave tracks, and tracks can be used to follow you. I am to stay inside. Father will not permit me outside, not until I am fully trained. The Darrington boy went out last winter and brought the weight of the gallows down upon his whole family. There are few families left. Snow is too great a risk.

Lee Battersby is the author of the novels Magrit (Walker Books, forthcoming) and The Corpse-Rat King and Marching Dead (Angry Robot Books, 2012 and 2013), as well as more than 80 short stories in the US, Australia and Europe. A collection of his shorter works, titled Through Soft Air has been published by Prime Books (US). He lives in Western Australia with his wife, author Lyn Battersby, and blogs irregularly at The Battersblog.

About the Narrators:

Geoffrey Welchman is a voice actor, writer, and producer who lives in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). You can find him online at geoffreywelchman.com.

Martin Reyto is an educator, writer, and musician. He has worked in an eclectic variety of fields, including 18 years as a technical writer and software developer, 16 years as a teacher of creative writing, computer science, and business communication, and shorter stints as a symphony musician and audiobook narrator. He has published short fiction and two collections of his poetry.

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Story: “Flesh of the City, Bones of the World” by John R. Fultz

The Surgeon’s hands are his most delicate instruments.

From the slim silver bones of the ten fingers to the minute arrays of gears, cogs, and springs set for agility and precision, to the pale elastic skin that stretches over the whole array, his hands are marvels of science. The rest of his body is no less amazing, no less detailed in its construction, a silver skeletal scaffold filled with organs of bronze and copper sheathed in that same supple skin without blotch or blemish.

His patients take these things for granted, ignorant of the miracles of design that sustain their existence. But he is a Surgeon and he knows the secrets of human biology as intimately as he knows the body and mind of his own wife.

While prepping for the operation, he recalls her silver skull laid bare and glimmering as she removed the demure porcelain mask that is her public face. The memory is from last night. They had danced in the courtyard of glass sculptures, baring body and soul beneath a canopy of stars. Tonight they will celebrate the return of their son from five years at the Ministère de Education. In a few days the boy will enter this chamber and at last become a man.

John R. Fultz lives in the North Bay area of California, but grew up in Kentucky. His latest novel, The Testament of Tall Eagle, arrives in June 2015 from Ragnarok Publications. John’s Books of the Shaper trilogy includes Seven Princes, Seven Kings, and Seven Sorcerers (Orbit Books). His first short story collection is The Revelations of Zang, a series of interrelated tales born in the pages of Weird Tales and Black Gate. John’s work has also appeared in Year’s Best Weird Fiction (Vol. 1), That Is Not Dead, Shattered Shields,Lightspeed: Year One, Way of the Wizard, Cthulhu’s Reign, The Book of Cthulhu II, and other fine publications.

Learn more about him at johnrfultz.com, or find him on Twitter as @JohnRFultz.

About the Narrator:

Nicola Seaton-Clark lives in the wilds of (almost) Eastern Europe with her long-suffering husband, phenomenal children and a grumpy cat. Trained as an actress and singer, she has worked in entertainment for over 20 years and currently splits her time between writing speculative fiction, helping her husband run their voice-over company, Offstimme, and voicing everything from commercials and documentaries to public transport announcements.  She also hosts this podcast…

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