Far Fetched Fables

First Story:  “Perchance to Dream” by Isobelle Carmody

Anna woke knowing she had been dreaming, but as so often with dreams, to wake was to forget. Strange to remember vividly that she had dreamed, yet to have no recollection of the dream. On the rare occasion that she did remember, the minute she tried to describe it, the dream would dissolve. Pinning a dream down was like trying to catch hold of a skein of smoke.

Isobelle Carmody wrote her first book, Obernewtyn, when she was 14. It was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to and since then she has written more than thirty books and many short stories, which have been translated and/or won awards including the prestigious CBC Children’s Book of the Year Award. Her most recent book is The Cloud Road, which she also illustrated.
Isobelle is currently working on The Red Queen, the final book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles, and the screenplay for Greylands, on a Film Australia grant. She has also begun a PhD at the University of Queensland. You can learn more at http://www.isobellecarmody.net/ or go to her blog at theslipstream.com.au/

Second story: “The Weather Cinema” by Adam Browne

Yay! It’s the weekend! We’re going to see a movie!

“Movie movie movie!” chanted Mum, doing her silly dance. “We’re going to a movie!”

I sighed and checked her wallet. “Mum,” I said, “there’s hardly any money.”

“Hardly any money!” she chanted. “Hardly any money!”

The newspaper was open on the table. I looked in the cinema listings. “Hey,” I said, “have you heard about this Weather Cinema?”

“Is it cheap?”

“Yep.”

“Weather cinema! Weather cinema!”

“But what is a weather cinema?” I said.

“Don’t know, don’t care. Weather cinema! Weather cinema!”

Adam Browne lives in Melbourne, Australia. His story ‘Neverland Blues’ originally appeared in 2008 in Dreaming Again: Thirty-five New Stories Celebrating the Wild Side of Australian Fiction. It won the 2009 Chronos Award for Best Short Fiction. His first novel, Pyrotechnicon: Being a True Account of the Further Adventures of Cyrano de Bergerac among the States and Empires of the Stars, by Himself (Dec’d), was published by Coeur de Lion in 2012, and is still available as a print-on-demand illustrated hardcover. His collection of short stories, Other Stories, and Other Stories, was recently published by Satalyte, and will be available as an audio book later this year. You can visit his blog at http://adambrowne.blogspot.com.au/

About the Narrators:

Cynthia P. Colby is a Canadian voice artist whose career began by winning an international public speaking contest while she was still in high school. She then spent 15 years as a radio news announcer, reaching a national venue. Her voice was so flexible that she began doing commercials at the radio stations and her ability for doing character voices was recognized. Now as a freelance voice artist and script writer, she lends her voice to numerous short stories, books, game characters, training programs, videos, commercials, phone answering services and accessible websites. She can be reached at [email protected].

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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First Story: “The Funeral, Ruined” by Ben Peek

It was the weight that woke Linette. Her weight. The weight of herself.
The flat red sky above Issuer was waiting when she opened her eyes. Five hours before, when she had closed her eyes, it had been a dark, ugly brown-red: the middle of the night. Now it was the clear early morning red, and a thick, muggy warmth was seeping through her open window with the new light. There would be no rain today. Just the heat. Just the sweat. Just that uncomfortable, hot awareness of herself that both brought. The worse was Linette’s short dark hair, dirty with sweat and ash. The ash that had come through the open window during the night. It had streaked her face and settled in her mouth and she could taste it, dry, burnt and unappealing in her gums. Her left arm, with its thick, straight scars across the forearm, felt heavy and ached; but it always ached.

Ben Peek is the Sydney based author of Black Sheep, Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, Above/Below, and Dead Americans and Other Stories (in which ‘The Funeral, Ruined’, can be found). His most recent novel is the first volume in the Children Trilogy, the Godless.
You can find out more at www.theurbansprawlproject.com

Second Story: “Poison” by Bruce McAllister

In school that day the American boy, whose twelfth birthday was approaching, did just as well as his friends on the Roman history recitation and the spelling test, which included the word stregheria–witchcraft—which could, if you weren’t careful, easily be confused with straggaria, an old-fashioned word for respect.
After school let out, he and his friends celebrated their good fortune by buying new plastic blowguns at the toy store in the fishing village and spending an hour making dozens of little paper cones with sewing needles taped to their points. Every boy in this country had at least one blowgun—they were cheap and no longer than a ruler—so the American boy had one too.

Bruce McAllister’s fantasy and science fiction stories have been published over the years in the science fiction/fantasy/horror field’s major magazines and many “year’s best” volumes (including Best American Short Stories: 2007, Stephen King ed.). His short story “Kin” was a finalist for the Hugo Award; his novelette “Dream Baby” was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards; his novelette “The Crying Child” was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. His short fiction has been collected in the career-spanning The Girl Who Loved Animals and Other Stories. Four of his short stories—science fiction and horror—are currently under option, in development or in production as films. He is the author of three novels: Humanity Prime, Dream Baby, and most recently The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic. He lives in Orange County, California, with his wife, choreographer Amelie Hunter, and works as a writer, writing coach, and book and screenplay consultant.
Note: “Poison,” in a slightly different form, is from the novel THE VILLAGE SANG TO THE SEA: A MEMOIR OF MAGIC, appeared originally in ASIMOV’S, and was reprinted in the Hartwell/Kramer YEAR’S BEST FANTASY.  Learn more at www.thevillagesang.com

About the Narrators:

With a background in theater and an English degree that didn’t lead to teaching or full-time novel writing, Kim Mintz turned to the persuasive arts known as sales and heard multiple clients say, “You have a great voice. I would listen to you all day!” Finally, she decided to marry these skills together and enter the world of professional voice acting. Employing a wide range of voices and expressions in commercial and narrative work, she contributed to the financial, travel, and health insurance industries, utilizing clear, direct articulation. She is currently expanding her repertoire with audio book passages by exhibiting a range of emotions, including warm, sultry, cheerful, sarcastic, and many others. She is also working on scripts with her writing partner for animated projects to which she hopes to give a voice. For more information, please visit her website at www.kimmintzvoiceactor.com

Andrew Leman is a producer, designer, actor, writer and director, not necessarily in that order. He has appeared on professional stages in Chicago and Los Angeles, and is a member of Theatre Banshee in Burbank, California. He has designed graphics and props for numerous films and TV shows, and a number of digital fonts that have been used extensively by graphic designers worldwide. With his friend & collaborator of many years, Sean Branney, Andrew has been running The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society since 1984, and has developed numerous film, audio, and gaming projects, including the award-winning motion pictures The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness, musical projects including A Shoggoth on the Roof and Dreams in the Witch House, and several 1930s-style audio dramas in the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series. He is the author of Lovecraftian Times, a non-scholarly history of the 1920s and ’30s for HPL fans, and is the designer of highly authentic prop documents for Call of Cthulhu gamers. Andrew is pleased also to be a frequent contributor to the H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. And once upon a time he was a fossil preparator for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. You can learn more at www.cthulhulives.org and www.hppodcraft.com

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First Story: “The Flying Woman” by Laurel Winter

The boats rested uneasily on the surface of the sea, waiting to leave. Chief Loah gripped Raff’s shoulder in one hand and tilted Dannilla’s face up with the other. “Swear you will not use your unnatural power to leave this island,” he said. “Swear on your father’s life.”

His fingers squeezed Dannilla’s chin. Their father sat in one of the boats, his face shiny with tears. “I swear,” she said. “I swear. Please don’t hurt him.”

Raff held silent, and then he gasped as the leader’s hand closed on his arm. “I swear.”

The leader pushed him, hard, and let go of Dannilla. Her eyes blurred and she fell to her knees in the sea.

Laurel Winter grew up in the mountains of Montana and attended a one-room country grade school with 12 to 25 students in grades 1 through 8. She then went 30 miles one way on the bus to Absarokee High School, where there were 33 in her graduating class. Since then she’s acquired an eclectic education, including credits in English, physics, and psychology from Montana State and numerous writing and art classes. A number of high school literature textbooks contain “egg horror poem” and she’s hoping her novel Growing Wings gets a baby sister this year. Her current passion is playing poker.

Second story: “Intelligent Design” by Ellen Klages

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. He squeezed his eyes almost shut and let off a single shot. Ping! The pinprick of light at the far edge of the firmament, just where it touched the rim of the earth, glowed faintly red.

God got bored. Ratatatatatatatat! He peppered one corner of the sky with tiny specks of light clustered tight together. Each one glowed steadily. God lay down on his back and looked up at what he’d created. It was okay.

Ellen Klages’ short fiction has appeared in science fiction and fantasy anthologies and magazines, both online and in print, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Black Gate, Eclipse, and Firebirds Rising. Her story, “Basement Magic,” won the Best Novelette Nebula Award in 2005. Several of her other stories have been on the final ballot for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Hugo Awards, and have been reprinted in various Year’s Best volumes.

She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award, and is a graduate of the Clarion South writing workshop.

In addition to her writing, she serves on the Motherboard of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and is somewhat notorious as the auctioneer/entertainment for the Tiptree auctions at Wiscon.

Ellen was born in Ohio, and now lives in San Francisco. You can read more at http://ellenklages.com/index.html

Flash Fiction: “Act of Penance” by Michael Haynes

You created me. An act which I suspect that even you now know was your greatest sin.  Even as I stand here, naked, hunched in upon myself through habit against a winter’s chill I no longer feel, I smell the megahounds and hear the distant footfalls of the mercenaries who follow those beasts’ lead. They’ve hunted me down, back almost to the place of my birth, your home. They think they will capture me, their perfect soldier, their perfect weapon. Capture me and return me to the work for which I have been crafted, the skulking and the stealing and the killing. The killing, the killing… They will be too late.

Michael Haynes lives in Central Ohio where he helps keep IT systems running for a large corporation during the day and puts his characters through the wringer by night. An ardent short story reader and writer, Michael has had over 20 stories accepted for publication during 2012 by venues such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Daily Science Fiction. When he’s not reading or writing he enjoys watching movies, going to hockey games, cooking, and taking photographs. You can visit http://michael-haynes.blogspot.com/ for more info.

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.
She soon found herself competing in local, state and national forensics competitions (that’s competitive speaking). Her experience and awards landed her a forensics scholarship to Bethel University in St.Paul Minnesota, where she continued to compete as well as train other speakers at the collegiate level. Sarah graduated with a degree in Music business and Audio Production. 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 four years later the couple live and work in Australia, going on adventures, writing music and reading stories to their cat.

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…..

Marvin Münstermann is an actor, musician and all-round interesting person, living in Germany while he figures out the rest of things.  He has a day-job which provides him with amusing anecdotes to share in his free time and he plays guitar for a rocking band, Schwarzlicht, who are going to be huge one day, really soon!

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Art by Chang Yuan
changyuanjou.com
changyuanjou.deviantart.com

First Story: “Of Men and Wolves” by An Owomoyela

I woke with salt on my face, ghost trails of the night’s tears. My skin was cold. Even my back was cold where my husband should have rested; he was gone, and I should have enjoyed that aloneness. Instead a noise from the verandah roused me: a soft scuffle against the swept clay, coupling with wet, insistent sounds.

It turned my stomach. I pulled my beddress tight around me, and went out.

An Owomoyela is a neutrois author with a background in web development, linguistics, and weaving chain maille out of stainless steel fencing wire, whose fiction has appeared in a number of venues including Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Lightspeed, and a handful of Year’s Bests. An’s interests range from pulsars and Cepheid variables to gender studies and nonstandard pronouns, with a plethora of stops in-between. Se can be found online at an.owomoyela.net, and can be funded at patreon.com/an_owomoyela

Second story: “Stray” by Benjamin Rosenbaum

She’d found him by the side of the road. Ivan, who had been prince of the immortals, lying in long grass. Ivan, against whose knees weeping kings had laid their cheeks, who had collected popes, cons, prophets, martyrs, minstrels, whores, revolutionaries, poets, anarchists and industrial magnates, who could send armies into the sea with a movement of his hand. She’d stopped her Model T where he lay by the side of the road. He was shell-shocked, marooned at the end of one kind of life, an empty carapace, soul-dry….

Benjamin Rosenbaum’s fiction has appeared in Harper’s, McSweeney’s, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Nature, Asimov’s, F&SF, and other fine venues; nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, and BSFA awards; animated (http://fox-gieg.com/orange.html) and awarded Best Animated Short at SXSW; and translated into over twenty languages. After seven years living in Basel, Switzerland, he has moved back to Washington, DC — just four days before this episode airs. You can visit his website at http://www.benjaminrosenbaum.com/

About the Narrators:

David Ackert writes science fiction when he isn’t running his e-learning company. Before turning to entrepreneurship, he was a professional actor and documentary producer, with roles on such shows as Bones, Monk, The West Wing, Six Feet Under, and NYPD Blue. He currently resides in California with his wife, Rebecca.

Rish Outfield

Rish Outfield is a writer, actor, and podcaster that can be heard as 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. Pop over to www.dunesteef.com and have a listen – it’s great!

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First Story: “Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls – Part 2” by Rachel Pollack

Jack Shade, known in varied places and times as Journeyman Jack, or Jack Sad, or Handsome Johnny (though not any more), or Jack Summer, or Johnny Poet (though not for a long time), or even Jack Thief, was playing Old-Fashioned Poker. That was Jack’s name for it, not because the game itself was antiquated—it was Texas Hold Em, the TV game, as Jack thought of it—but because of the venue, a private hotel room, comfortable, elegant even, yet unlicensed and by private invitation only, in the age of Indian casinos no more than a few hours drive from anywhere. ….

Rachel Pollack is the author of 35 books of fiction and non-fiction, including Unquenchable Fire, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Godmother Night, winner of the World Fantasy Award. Rachel’s books have been translated into fourteen languages, and are sold all over the world. Rachel’s most recent work is The Burning Serpent Oracle, co-created with Robert M. Place. Her new novel, The Child Eater, will be published by Jo Fletcher books in England in July, 2014, and the U. S. in Spring of 2015. You can visit her website at www.Rachelpollack.com

Narrator:  Larry Oliver

Larry’s voice is often described as: warm, engaging, storyteller-like, believable, the guy next door; yet it can be professional, authoritative and quite sarcastic. It can be very character-like and quirky, with many different distinct character voices. His natural voice is clear, clean and articulate, with a “near-neutral” American accent. Larry’s training provides to him acting skills and self-directing skills, yet he takes direction very well. Larry’s dialects include: Appalachian, Southern US Seaboard, refined Southern, Hillbilly, Texas Drawl, West TX, Colorado/cowboy, General UK, Scottish Brogue, Irish, Middle-East, East Europe/Russian/Yiddish. His training and ‘honing-the-craft’ are continual, with award winning luminaries such as: Pat Fraley, Scott Brick, Hillary Huber, Bob Deyan, Marc Guss, Edge Studio to mention BUT A FEW: Larry enjoys: reading, hiking, yoga, Zumba, and cooking. Oliver has narrated several audio books available on audible, Amazon and iTunes, narrated documentary films done commercials, corporate training videos and much more. Go and take a listen at soundloud.com/revilo1951

Second story: “Night of the Goblin Girl” by Amal El-Mohtar

Gobdolyn was pretty, in the way that goblin girls were, which is to say, a manner too profound and esoteric for human understanding. She had strong, splendid teeth and pleasantly kept fangs which locked in a shapely fashion over her green lower lip; her thick and exquisite hair was a corn-silk blonde that fairly blossomed from her head to her ankles, her bosom to her belly, her back to her bottom, and between her generously proportioned green toes.

Amal El-Mohtar is the Nebula-nominated author of The Honey Month, a collection of poetry and prose written to the taste of of twenty-eight different kinds of honey. Her work has appeared in multiple venues online and in print, including Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Mythic Delirium, Stone Telling, and most recently in Lightspeed magazine’s “Women Destroy Science Fiction” special issue. She is a member of the Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours performance collective, and edits Goblin Fruit, a web quarterly devoted to fantastical poetry. She lives in Glasgow with her partner, a harp, and two jellicle cats. Find her online at amalelmohtar.com.

Narrator:  Sarah Frederickson

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.

She soon found herself competing in local, state and national forensics competitions (that’s competitive speaking). Her experience and awards landed her a forensics scholarship to Bethel University in St.Paul Minnesota, where she continued to compete as well as train other speakers at the collegiate level. Sarah graduated with a degree in Music business and Audio Production. 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 four years later the couple live and work in Australia, going on adventures, writing music and reading stories to their cat.

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First Story: “Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls – Part 1” by Rachel Pollack

Jack Shade, known in varied places and times as Journeyman Jack, or Jack Sad, or Handsome Johnny (though not any more), or Jack Summer, or Johnny Poet (though not for a long time), or even Jack Thief, was playing Old-Fashioned Poker. That was Jack’s name for it, not because the game itself was antiquated—it was Texas Hold Em, the TV game, as Jack thought of it—but because of the venue, a private hotel room, comfortable, elegant even, yet unlicensed and by private invitation only, in the age of Indian casinos no more than a few hours drive from anywhere. ….

Rachel Pollack is the author of 35 books of fiction and non-fiction, including Unquenchable Fire, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Godmother Night, winner of the World Fantasy Award. Rachel’s books have been translated into fourteen languages, and are sold all over the world. Rachel’s most recent work is The Burning Serpent Oracle, co-created with Robert M. Place. Her new novel, The Child Eater, will be published by Jo Fletcher books in England in July, 2014, and the U. S. in Spring of 2015. You can visit her website at www.Rachelpollack.com

Narrator:  Larry Oliver

Larry’s voice is often described as: warm, engaging, storyteller-like, believable, the guy next door; yet it can be professional, authoritative and quite sarcastic. It can be very character-like and quirky, with many different distinct character voices. His natural voice is clear, clean and articulate, with a “near-neutral” American accent. Larry’s training provides to him acting skills and self-directing skills, yet he takes direction very well. Larry’s dialects include: Appalachian, Southern US Seaboard, refined Southern, Hillbilly, Texas Drawl, West TX, Colorado/cowboy, General UK, Scottish Brogue, Irish, Middle-East, East Europe/Russian/Yiddish. His training and ‘honing-the-craft’ are continual, with award winning luminaries such as: Pat Fraley, Scott Brick, Hillary Huber, Bob Deyan, Marc Guss, Edge Studio to mention BUT A FEW: Larry enjoys: reading, hiking, yoga, Zumba, and cooking. Oliver has narrated several audio books available on audible, Amazon and iTunes, narrated documentary films done commercials, corporate training videos and much more. Go and take a listen at soundloud.com/revilo1951

Second story: “Gathering Rosebuds of Rust” by Nicola Belte

His reputation preceded him. Each letter of his name was a polished pearl upon a string, the tongue a pink, velvet pad beneath them. Fathers grew nervous, mothers swooned; the hair of young ladies sprung overnight into curls, the eyes of young gentlemen narrowed with suspicion.

My mother rushed around the parlour, spraying herself with icy water as she tried to bleed the blush from her cheeks. She couldn’t look too desperate, we couldn’t, she said, meaning me.

Nicola Belte lives in Birmingham, U.K and is a part-time MA student, part-time factotum and an in-between time writer of weird things. Say hello at http://nicolabelte.blogspot.com/ or @NicolaBelte

Narrator: Sarah Frederickson

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.

She soon found herself competing in local, state and national forensics competitions (that’s competitive speaking). Her experience and awards landed her a forensics scholarship to Bethel University in St.Paul Minnesota, where she continued to compete as well as train other speakers at the collegiate level. Sarah graduated with a degree in Music business and Audio Production. 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 four years later the couple live and work in Australia, going on adventures, writing music and reading stories to their cat.

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First Story: “Blood, Oak, Iron” by Janny Wurts

The old king of Chaldir lay dying. Everyone knew. Scarcely anyone cared. He lay under quilts in a bed with gold posts and purple hangings, his waxy, cadaverous face throwing grotesque shadows by the guttering glare of the candles. Whole seconds passed, while his unsteady breath seemed to stop….

Janny Wurts’ current audio book titles include stand-alones Master of Whitestorm, Sorcerer’s Legacy, and the Cycle of Fire trilogy, and the Empire trilogy written in collaboration with Raymond E. Feist; in print, a stand-alone fantasy, To Ride Hell’s Chasm, and the Wars of Light and Shadow series.
Her imaginative paintings and cover art have appeared in exhibitions of imaginative artwork, among them, NASA’s 25th Anniversary exhibit, Delaware Art Museum, Canton Art Museum, and Hayden Planetarium in New York, and been recognized by two Chesley Awards, and three times received Best of Show at the World Fantasy Convention.
Story excerpts, announcements, and print shop can be found at www.paravia.com/JannyWurts

Second Story: “Comber” by Gene Wolfe

The news whispered by his radio this morning was the same as the news when he and Mona had gone to bed: the city had topped the crest, and everything was flat and wonderful–if only for a day or two.

“You’re flat yourselves,” he told it softly, and switched it off.

Gene Wolfe is a prolific short-story writer and novelist and has won many science fiction and fantasy literary awards.  Wolfe is most famous for The Book of the New Sun (four volumes, 1980–83), the first part of his Solar Cycle. In 1998, Locus magazine ranked it third-best fantasy novel before 1990.

He has this to say about himself – Lives have shapes, and mine has been a circle.  I grew up in Texas and took a job far away where I was soon lonely.  Impelled by loneliness, I married a beautiful girl whom I came to love deeply.  We had children; I found myself anything but lonely in the midst of a large family.  One by one our children moved away until the two of us were left alone.  My lovely wife grew ill; I nursed her as long as I could, and when I could no longer care for her watched her fade and die in a nursing home.  Now I am alone once more.  Once around, and we get off.

About the Narrators:

Mark Nelson (aka Harry Shaw) has been recording audiobooks since 2006, starting as a Librivox volunteer and later for such producers as Audible, Audible Frontiers, Hachette, Wonderaudio and Iambik. Recording as Mark Nelson and as “Harry Shaw”, he’s narrated more than fifty commercial audiobooks, including classics, horror, mysteries, and contemporary and classic science fiction. He still regularly contributes to Librivox, which he credits for getting him out of Human Resources and into something useful. Visit his website at www.markdouglasnelson.com

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.

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Art by René Aigner
http://www.rene-aigner.de/
http://facebook.com/reneaignerillustration

First Story: “Tengu Mountain” by Gregory Frost

Ando met his fate in the form of a priest while he was climbing up the mountain to his Aunt Sakura’s house. Ando nearly stepped on him. The priest lay across his path like a log that had rolled down the mountain-side and come to rest where the path cut between two outcroppings of stone and, at first, that’s what Ando thought he was seeing….

Gregory Frost is the author of eight novels (including Shadowbridge, Lord Tophet, and Fitcher’s Brides) and well over fifty short stories of the fantastic, including dark thrillers, historical fantasy and science fiction. His novelette “No Others are Genuine” (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Oct/Nov 2013) was a 2014 “Long Fiction” finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. Other current works include a collaborative novella with Jonathan Maberry, “T.Rhymer”, in Dark Duets (HarperCollins, January 2014), an anthology of dark fantasy collaborations. Visit his site at www.gregoryfrost.com or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Second story: “Lost Wax” by Leah Bobet

In the Factory at Calendar Point, the carvers and the wizards and the casters make magic. Simon sweeps up.

The wax is carted in from beekeepers scattered across the country, each licensed and watched and reporting to the provost every season on the movement of their flocks. Simon washes the floors after the carters have come and gone.

Leah Bobet’s first novel, Above, was nominated for the 2012 Andre Norton Award and the 2013 Aurora Award, and her short fiction has appeared in several Year’s Best anthologies and as part of online serial Shadow Unit. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, where she edits Ideomancer Speculative Fiction, picks urban apple trees, and works as a bookseller at Bakka-Phoenix Books, Canada’s oldest science fiction bookstore. Leah’s second novel, On Roadstead Farm — a literary dustbowl fantasy where stuff blows up –will appear from Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015. Her website can be seen at http://www.leahbobet.com

Bob Raudys is a voice actor, musician and marketing/advertising guy. He probably should have figured out that voice acting was in his future when he had to do paragraph reads in grade school. The nuns were none too happy with his need to add accents to the stories. Born and raised in the Southwest Side of Chicago (pron. sout-west syde uv shi-kaw-go) as a first generation Lithuanian, he was fortunate to have his first of several European experiences visiting Lithuania, Moscow and Leningrad (now once again St. Petersburg) in 1976. One of the more memorable moments (aside from being arrested in the summer resort town of Palanga) was when he was being chased by an old, screaming Muscovite. Unfortunately Bob didn’t speak Russian, nor did the old woman speak Lithuanian or English. Bob’s migration into voice acting began 2 years ago, but his roots started in 1967 as a classically trained pianist. To his parent’s chagrin, his musical tastes and time moved into blues and rock ‘n roll (and yes, he was a wedding singer at one time). He currently is the keyboard player with the SouthSide Exiles. Performing was, and continues to be in his blood. Bob currently resides in the Chicago area with his wife, daughter and a cat, who is just waiting for the chance to take over the house. You can contact him or just plain hire him by going to this website – www.wordtomouthstudios.com

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First Story:  “Lost Son” by Maurice Broaddus

“I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.” Deuteronomy 32;42

“Favor us with a tale, storyteller,” Ghana Menin asked in his way of implying a threat if disobeyed. His lanky frame slumped in his high backed seat, still unused to the power at his command. The celebration of their latest trade agreement had gone well. Soon, more treasure would be flowing to them, insuring Wagadugu’s place as the pride of the continent. The central fire roared before them. The tall flames danced wildly in the night, holding the ghana’s court of counselors, ministers, interpreters, and treasurers in rapt attention.

Maurice Broaddus has written hundreds of short stories, essays, novellas, and articles. His dark fiction has been published in numerous magazines, anthologies, and web sites, including Asimov’s Science Fiction, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine, and Weird Tales Magazine. He is the co-editor of Streets of Shadows (Alliteration Ink) and the Dark Faith anthology series (Apex Books) and the author of the urban fantasy trilogy, Knights of Breton Court (Angry Robot Books). He has been a teaching artist for over five years, teaching creative writing to students of all ages. Visit his site at www.MauriceBroaddus.com.

Second Story: “Ten Things I Know about the Wizard” by Steven Rasnic Tem

One: That He Has a Beautiful Daughter

Clarence first met Amanda in the marketplace when she stole several fruits from his vending cart. He’d been completely en­tranced by her: her long, silky black hair falling loosely to her shoulders, her narrow face and full lips. And her eyes3 like emeralds on snow; He was watching those eyes when he should have been watching her hands. It was only as she started to turn away that he saw her slipping the fruit into the front pockets of her dress.

Steve Rasnic Tem is a past winner of the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards. His most recent novel is Blood Kin (Solaris Books). His most recent story collections are Celestial Inventories (ChiZine) and Here with the Shadows (Swan River Press). You can find out more at www.m-s-tem.com

About the Narrators:

Beginning his career as a somewhat under-produced playwright, Gregory Austin switched his desires to acting and article writing. After spending half a decade as a head writer and featured performer for the Chicago-based improv group The Human Touch, Gregory gave up doing gigs at bars five nights a week (and his liver thanked him once it began functioning again). From there he returned to his home town of Buffalo, New York where he obtained his legal degree. While that Juris Doctor continues to collect dust in his flooding basement, Gregory flourishes as a freelance writer for numerous internet comedy sites and also books gigs locally as a voice actor. When he’s not busy polishing the finer points of his novel or saving the world from injustice, Gregory enjoys arguing semantics with his partner and two beloved cats, Nala and Zelda.

Shaun Hayworth is from Northern California, where he makes a living as the world’s least interesting filmmaker. In his spare time, he plays music, does magic, and plays probably too many role-playing games. You can find his video cast, Fire in the Garden, at http://bit.ly/fireitg, or follow him on Twitter at @SCHayworth.

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First Story: “Neverland Blues” by Adam Browne

Michael Jackson bobs mothsoft and white in the North African nightsky.

His many eyes tic and tick. Expensive lenses shiver into place, swivelling down. He takes in the view.

Morocco. Tangier; the Kasbah; so beautiful, an Aladdin’s Carpet a thousand metres below him.

Wanting to see more, Michael Jackson twitches an aileron. But he’s still clumsy in this body, and the movement is too emphatic. He spins, the city revolving under him, the soukh a disordered whirl, the Old Mosque glimpsed then gone, the Oriental Quarter a flash of red and gold…

Adam Browne, 50, lives in Melbourne, Australia. His story ‘Neverland Blues’ originally appeared in 2008 in Dreaming Again: Thirty-five New Stories Celebrating the Wild Side of Australian Fiction. It won the 2009 Chronos Award for Best Short Fiction. His first novel, Pyrotechnicon: Being a True Account of the Further Adventures of Cyrano de Bergerac among the States and Empires of the Stars, by Himself (Dec’d), was published by Coeur de Lion in 2012, and is still available as a print-on-demand illustrated hardcover. His collection of short stories, Other Stories and Other Stories, was recently published by Satalyte, and will be available as an audio book later this year.

You can find out more at http://adambrowne.blogspot.com.au/

Second Story: Excerpt from “Deadly Curiosities” by Gail Z. Martin

“You know each other?” Rebecca said, confused. She looked from me to Teag and back again, as Anthony walked over and gave me a hug.

I chuckled, realizing I’d been set up. “Teag and I work together at the shop, and Anthony is a dear friend,” I said.

“We’re your back-up,” Teag explained, pressing a glass of wine into my hand. “I told Anthony about the email you got and about you coming here by yourself—”

Gail Z. Martin is an American writer and the author of The Chronicles of The Necromancer fantasy adventure series for Solaris Books and Double Dragon Publishing.

She began writing fiction as a child (her first story was about a vampire), and says she does not remember a time when she was not enthralled with ghost stories. A voracious reader since childhood, she frequently chose to read books with a supernatural slant, including folktales, compilations of regional ghost stories and gothic mysteries. She credits the TV show Dark Shadows with her lifelong fascination with vampires.

Martin is a frequent contributor of non-fiction articles for local, regional and national magazines. She is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and teaches adult continuing education for Central Piedmont Community College. She is a truly prolific writer and you can learn more about her and what she has written at http://www.ascendantkingdoms.com/

Flash fiction: “The Swan Maiden” by Barbara A. Barnett

The windowless theater makes it impossible to keep track of the days, but I am certain that years have passed since Fyodor’s last visit. I fear that he has died while his magic has not, for here I still stand, a swan maiden poised forever on pointe. Forever cursed.

I often wonder how our Swan Lake tableau looks from the seats: a circle of ballerinas in white-feathered skirts, one arm raised, the other swept down and back, the entire body mimicking the curve of a swan’s neck.

Barbara A. Barnett is a writer, musician, librarian, Odyssey Writing Workshop alum, coffee addict, wine lover, bad movie mocker, and all-around geek. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Shimmer, Daily Science Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, Fantasy Magazine, Black Static, and Wilde Stories 2011: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction. Barbara lives with her husband in southern New Jersey and has been known to frequently burst into song. You can find her online at www.babarnett.com, or babbling as a member of the Star-Dusted Sirens writing group at stardustedsirens.wordpress.com.

About the Narrators:

James Silverstein is a budding author and role-playing game designer, with credits from the 7th Sea and Stargate RPG lines. He’s working on the upcoming ‘Cairn’ RPG, as well as a series of stories about a 1940’s private eye in a city of the undead. James feels that there are always more amazing stories that need to be told, and he writes, narrates, and runs games to share them with the world. He loves speculative fiction, noir detective tales, and pulp fantasy, and is honored to be a returning reader in the District of Wonders.

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……

Rachel Dee is new to the audio world and excited to step in. She has always enjoyed reading and was the child who read out loud to her mother, not the other way around. Taking away books was also how she was grounded when she was younger. Currently she lives in the DFW area with her husband, cat, and dog and is pursuing film and television acting. You can learn more about her at www.actressracheldee.com

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