Far Fetched Fables

Far Fetched Fables

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Far Fetched Fables episodes

  • FarFetchedFables No 120 Rachel Swirsky
    “Broken Clouds” by Rachel Swirsky(Originally published in When the Villain Comes Home.)Alex walked home through light rain that was almost soundless as it silvered the sidewalk. The whole world seemed colorless: overcast sky, grey drizzle, endless cement.The empty, grasping ache in her abdomen gnawed at her, not just because of the pain but because of the frisson of loss that accompanied it. She was like a glass with the water poured out, a vacant vessel.Would it ever stop? Did anyone ever recover from having the magic torn out of their flesh?Her house came into view as she turned the corner, its dilapidated single story dwarfed by the apartment buildings on either side. It always seemed to be cowering, as if the neighboring giants might decide at any moment to crush it into oblivion. Its faded wood siding was the same grayed-out blue as the rainy sky. Battered shutters held tight against wind and water.Rain had swollen the doorframe. Alex grunted as she put her weight into tugging it open. Hinges screeched. Slanting rain pooled inside the threshold.Rachel Swirsky met her husband in 2003 when he began teaching her about the wondrous evolution of life on earth. Ten years later, she wrote a short story about dinosaurs and won the Nebula Award. "Broken Clouds" was written for the anthology When the Villain Comes Home, the sequel to an earlier one called When the Hero Comes Home. She says of the story: "I wanted to play with some of the traditional urban fantasy stuff, like Charles de Lint and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere." You can find her online at rachelswirsky.com and patreon.com/rachelswirsky.About the Narrator:Ashley Storrie is a Scottish stand-up comedian, podcaster, and radio presenter. She's currently performing at the Fringe Festival, and will be there until the 28th of August at The Free Sisters. Follow her on Twitter via @ashleystorrie."

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    49 min
  • FarFetchedFables No 117 Michael M Jones and Lane Robins
    "nd Mercury, Gilt and Glass” by Lane Robins(Originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)42 facts about my wife, Marie:1) Marie was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1984.2) She has blue eyes, and brown hair that falls just below her shoulders, not quite wavy, not quite straight. Her features are regular and even, though her upper lip is a little short and always bares her teeth.3) We met five years ago during a dull business conference mixer. I thought she had a wonderful smile, especially when she turned it toward me.Lane Robins was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of two scientists, and grew up as the first human member of their menagerie. She attended the Odyssey workshop, the Center for the Study of Science Fiction novel and short story workshops, and has a BA in Creative Writing from Beloit College. She is the author of Maledicte and Kings and Assassins, and the romantic mystery Renovation. Under the name Lyn Benedict, she writes the urban fantasy series beginning with Sins and Shadows. Her short fiction has been published in Strange Horizons, Penumbra, and Nightmare Magazine. She currently resides in Lawrence, Kansas.“Your Name is Eve” by Michael M. Jones(Originally published in Clockwork Phoenix 3.)On Monday, Clancy and Eve went out to dinner. They found the ideal place in the dreams of an exhausted Wisconsin woman, a young mother who'd fallen asleep on the couch while watching the Food Network late at night, after an exhausting day taking care of her toddler. She dreamed of cooking with today's secret ingredient, sweet potatoes, and a host of delicious, wonderful dishes were served up by handsome men with swimmers' bodies and the faces of famous network chefs. As part of the judging committee, Clancy and Eve tested a series of dishes, from delicate appetizers to a rich soup, from spiced chicken to a desert casserole, each using the secret ingredient to great result.Michael M. Jones lives in Southwest Virginia, with too many books, just enough cats, a plaster penguin, and a wife who once clothes-lined a legendary author without remorse or mercy. His fiction has appeared in such anthologies as B is for Broken, Clockwork Phoenix 3, and A Chimerical World. He also edited Scherazade's Facade and the forthcoming Schoolbooks & Sorcery.About the Narrator(s):Dan Kelly is an artist allowing the universe to deliver his wildest dreams. Other than a high school diploma and a few random certificates for esoteric skills like Steadicam operation and freediving, Dan is giddily sans credentials and credibility. Born just before all those iconic Americans were rubbed out, he now thrives at the northern edge of the USA amidst paranoid prepper enclaves and socialist sleeper cells. Dan likes movies and with a little luck, he’ll be releasing his first open source inspired featurette, a post-apocalyptic romantic comedy titled Daughter of God sometime in the late summer of 2016. You can learn more at dankelly.sexy.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."

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    51 min
  • FarFetchedFables No 116 Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas and Paul Jessup
    "n Xochitl in Cuicatl in Shub-Niggurath” by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, translated by Silvia Moreno-García(Originally published in Sword & Mythos.)Screams. The sun had not risen yet when the Mexica priests entered the Valley of Toluca, carrying the effigies of their gods. They carried the whistles of death tied around their necks: small clay skulls that produced terrifying shrieks when they blew them. This is how they announced the arrival of war, and with it, of Huitzilopochli and Tezcatlipoca, the lords that the Matlazinca would be forced to worship after being defeated by the Mexica.Šuti spat when she saw the procession coming closer. Those feathered puppets would never be her gods.Nelly Geraldine Garcia-Rosas is Mexican but lives in the UK with her husband. Her stories have appeared in anthologies like The Apex Book of World SF 3 and She Walks in Shadows. She can be found online at nellygeraldine.com or tweeting mostly in Spanish as @kitsune_ng.“Sun Sorrow” by Paul Jessup(Originally published in Sword & Mythos.)...and then Beyla sat down, under the lost arch and thought again of Carcosa, and the hidden secrets she’d searched for in its crowded temples and burning libraries. She picked up the rabbit head, deep in her own thoughts, staring into the dead eyes. Wanting to forget. Wanting to remember. Perverse, the way her mind worked. She rubbed the tips of the ears, pushing them back against the head. Slick, like hair. The oracle. She had found him. He was dead, but she had found him.Paul Jessup is a critically acclaimed and award winning author, poet, and playwright. He's been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, and has three books out by various small presses. You can find him online at pauljessup.com.About the Narrators:Karen Bovenmyer earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine in 2011. She has published approximately 25 poems, short stories, and novellas and has a novel coming out next year. She teaches and mentors students at Iowa State University and serves as the Nonfiction Assistant Editor of Escape Artists’ Mothership Zeta Magazine. Karen’s narrations can be heard on the Strange Horizons, StarShip Sofa, Gallery of Curiosities, and Pseudopod podcasts. You can find her online at karenbovenmyer.com.Julie C. Day's fiction has appeared in such venues as Interzone, Podcastle, and Resurrection House’s anthology XIII. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and a Masters of Science in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts. You can find Julie’s latest story “Florida Miracles” in Interzone 261. As well as narrating for StarshipSofa, Julie is also the host of the Small Beer Press podcast. If you want to hear more of Julie’s voice, you can find her narration of Carmen Maria Machado’s “I Bury Myself” at smallbeerpress.com. Finally!: You can find Julie herself on Twitter @thisjulieday or through her website stillwingingit.com."

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    58 min
  • Far Fetched Fables No. 115 Richard Parks and Wendy Nikel
    This month's cover art is "Dragonfly Kiss" by Susan McKivergan, a digital muse, graphic designer, and artist. When not working and improving her skills in digital art, she enjoys cooking, 3-D modeling, texturing, painting, crafts, sewing, the beach, gardening, traveling, and more. She has done artwork for many CD and book covers, magazines, E-zines, and commissioned and licensed work. She has won several awards, has appeared in ImagineFX, and has sold thousands of prints through deviantART. Her virtual gallery can be found on Renderosity and deviantART, and she can be found on Facebook and Twitter.Flash Fiction: “Rain Like Diamonds” by Wendy Nikel(Originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)The queen hoarded the barrels of seed, keeping them locked within her coffers among the diamonds and gold and strings of perfect pearls, remnants of the former days of prosperity and excess. The seeds would receive neither sun nor water nor nutrients from the soil until unlocked by the shining key strung around her neck. Day after day, she sat upon her throne, and the villagers lined up before her, pleading. It was only her loyal guards, with their sharp swords glimmering in her peripheral, who kept the villagers from severing her neck to get at that key. When Wendy Nikel isn't traveling in time, exploring magical islands, or investigating mysterious phenomena, she enjoys a quiet life near Utah's Wasatch Mountains with her husband and sons. She has a degree in elementary education, a fondness for road trips, and a terrible habit of forgetting where she's left her cup of tea. Her short fiction has been published by AE, Daily Science Fiction, and others, and she is a member of SFWA. For more info, visit wendynikel.com.Main Story: “Cherry Blossoms on the River of Souls” by Richard Parks(Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #131, named to the 2013 Locus Recommended Reading List.)The tales varied as to why the well was outside the village rather than inside. Some say that an earthquake and rockfall destroyed the original town site and the survivors rebuilt the village at a safer distance, leaving the now-dry well where it was. Others say that a saké-addled farmer relieved himself in the well one night, so offending the spirit of the well that it had moved itself and had been dry ever since. Whichever version one believed, the well was where it was, and nearly every evening the boy called Hiroshi came to stare down into the darkness, and listen.The well was full of music.Richard Parks has written and published science fiction and fantasy longer than he cares to remember... or probably can remember. His works were finalists for both the World Fantasy and Mythopoeic Awards, and has appeared in Asimov’s, Realms of Fantasy, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and several “year’s best” anthologies. Other adventures featuring Yamada no Goji were collected in Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter (Prime Books, 2013) and the novels Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate and Yamada Monogatari: The War God’s Son (Prime Books, 2014 and 2015, respectively). Parks blogs at the Den of Ego and Iniquity Annex #3, also known as richard-parks.com.About the Narrators:Catherine Logan had many years of training in theatre and voice in her youth, and then many years of teaching acting, drama, writing, and English literature as a grown-up. She has taken plenty of workshops and has studio experience in narration, commercial and animation voiceover work. Catherine is now involved in a second career which takes her back to her first love. She can be reached at catherineloganvoice.com.Eric Luke is the screenwriter of the Joe Dante film Explorers, which is currently in development as a remake; has written for the comic books Ghost and Wonder Woman; and wrote and directed the Not Quite Human films for Disney TV. His current project, Interference (a meta horror audiobook about an audiobook... that kills), is a bestseller on Audible.com. His website for creative projects is Quillhammer.com.

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    57 min
  • Far Fetched Fables No. 114 Paul Magrs and Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold
    Flash Fiction: “Harlekin” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold("Tales of the Rose Knights" #5, originally published on Daily Science Fiction.)Harlekin was fair as a maiden, with a blush to match. Women can possess the kind of beauty that was his and still be taken seriously, but not men -- or so it seemed to the beautiful youth. Is it any wonder that he chose to wear particolor and play the clown?This strategy went well for him for a time--being underestimated has its advantages. But when Harlekin decided to become a Rose Knight and serve the forces of Prince Arthur de Sansal in the Kingdoms of the East to fight against the Forces of Darkness, the proctors of the Kingsguard looked at his fair skin and rosy cheeks, at his suit of creamy white and blushing red, and chuckled.Jay Lake lived in Portland, Oregon until his death in 2014, shortly before his 50th birthday. His books include Kalimpura from Tor and Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh from Prime. His short fiction appeared regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay was a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. In 2015, he posthumously received the Locus Award for his collection Last Plane to Heaven.Learn more about him and his work at jlake.com.Ruth Nestvold has published widely in science fiction and fantasy, her fiction appearing in such markets as Asimov's, F&SF, and Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of her novella Looking Through Lace won the Premio Italia award for best international work. She maintains a web site at ruthnestvold.com and blogs at ruthnestvold.wordpress.com.Jay and Ruth's collection of short stories, Almost All the Way Home from the Stars, is available at Amazon and via iTunes.Main Story: “Talented Witches” by Paul Magrs(Originally published in Resurrection Engines.)My Aunts were nimble creatures, standing on the steep slopes of this is how it happened, although I couldn’t quite remember what I found down there. It’s starting to come back now. They reached out because they felt my presence. In some truly here in the past, in this benighted place.I can feel the chill, feel the breezes and the springy turf between tall black gravestones. It is as if I am actually dashing after my churchyard where those Brontë sisters used to play and live, in the last century. She’s in the ways I have settled in very nicely, adapting to their rituals and routines, and I can. I can. I’ll get into terrible trouble.I see the idea take light behind young Emily’s eyes. From across the room I can hear her heart beating faster and harder. And along the cobbled streets of Haworth bristling with resentment and fury. Why am I patting her hand as he coaxes her into committing arson?Paul Magrs lives and writes in Manchester. In a twenty year writing career he has published a number of novels in a variety of genres, including books about trans-temporal adventuress Iris Wildthyme and also the Brenda and Effie Mysteries, which are about the Bride of Frankenstein running a B&B in the seaside town of Whitby. He has also written fiction for young adults, including Strange Boy, Exchange, and most recently, Lost on Mars (Firefly Press). Over the years he has contributed many times to the Doctor Who books and audio series. He is the author of a beloved cat memoir The Story of Fester Cat (Berkley). He has taught Creative Writing at both the University of East Anglia and Manchester Metropolitan University, and now writes full time. He blogs at lifeonmagrs.blogspot.co.uk, and he can be found on Twitter and Facebook.About the Narrators:Seth Williams is the avatar for a three-kilometer sentient starship that is parked (probably uncomfortably) close to the third planet. Surprisingly he has not yet been discovered. He is very happy that the inhabitants have discovered enough technology to that he can communicate in this limited fashion. Any communications can be directed to theboojum.org.Katherine Inskip weighs galaxies for a living, and builds worlds in her spare time. She is addicted to chocolate and Japanese logic puzzles.

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    46 min
  • Far Fetched Fables No. 113 Steven Toase and Stephen S. Power
    Flash Fiction: “River Boys” by Stephen S. Power(Originally published in Faed.)The river gives our village food and blood, breath and beat, and, one evening, it gave us a boy.A girl named Minu found him in a coracle caught on a mossy bank upstream. She didn’t recognize the weave of his boat or the cloth knotted at his hips. He was terribly thin. He couldn’t speak or open his eyes. He only pointed at his mouth. She helped him onto shore and laid his head across her lap. As the river shares with us, we must share with others, so Minu fed the boy a pinch of the fishballs she’d brought in a blue and white cloth. He took her wrist with a slippery hand and sucked her fingertips clean. He seemed to fill out as she watched. Then he pointed at his mouth again.She looked toward the village and, seeing no one coming, she fed the boy another fishball. And another. In a few moments he’d eaten them all. When he let go of her wrist and pointed at his mouth, Minu held up the empty cloth and shook it. His eyes sprang wide. They were mud brown and raging like the river under a storm. Minu gasped, fell into them and drowned.As the river gives all to us, we give ourselves to the river.Stephen Power's novel The Dragon Round, will be published by Simon & Schuster on July 19, 2016, and is available for pre-order. His work has recently appeared at AE, Daily Science Fiction, and Flash Fiction Online, and he has stories forthcoming in Amazing Stories, Deep Magic, and Lightspeed. He lives in Maplewood, NJ, tweets as @stephenspower, and can be found online at stephenspower.com.Main Story: “Skin Like Carapace” by Steven Toase(Originally published in Cabinet des Fees's Scheherezade's Bequest Vol 1.)I sleep shallow and my memories whisper in my ear, their hand on my shoulder so I cannot evade them. They speak to me of the first time I came to the market of fragrance, 16 years old and face bare apart from one age branch carved above the broken brow of my nose. I pay them no heed, but it's hard, hard to ignore the first taste of the air surrounding the market. Then and still the greatest wonder of the Land of No Light.Here you can buy powders to stain your skin with the scent of fly agaric and birch bark, or smoke to disguise you as a freshwater pool to hide from violent and determined creditors.Everyday, between the fourth and the fifth bell, dancers gather on the cobbled square. Each one is bathed since birth in a different essence. They weave their scents into epic stories of the origins of the four Royal houses, and the spectres whose tattered odour is carried on the wind. Those who brush against the dancers never clean that patch of skin and carry the story on them throughout their lives.Steven Toase lives in North Yorkshire, England and occasionally Munich, Germany. His stories tend towards the unsettling and unreal, and his work has appeared in Cabinet de Fees' Scheherezade's Bequest, Innsmouth Magazine, Not One of Us, and Cafe Irreal among others. His story "Call Out" was published in The Best Horror of The Year Anthology 6 in 2014. He is currently working with Becky Cherriman and Imove on a commissioned project called Haunt. To read more of Steve's work please visit stevetoase.wordpress.com.About the Narrators:Kaushik Narasimhan is a management consultant by day and a writer by night, with a keen interest in psychedelics and role playing video games. You can find him online at kazarelth.net.Rob Matheny is a Salem, Oregon-based producer, voice guy, book fiend, metal head, and the host of The Grim Tidings Podcast. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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    26 min
  • Far Fetched fables No. 112 Michael J. Martineck and Anna Zumbro

    Flash Fiction: “The Pixie Game” by Anna Zumbro

    (Originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)

    The rain has stopped shortly before the dismissal bell rings, and the ground is spongy and quivering with worms. Someone taps Gage’s shoulder. He spins around and sees Dasha, her mouth upturned at some private joke.

    “We’re playing the pixie game. Want to come?”

    It’s the third time someone has talked to him at this school and the first time he’s been invited to do anything. He follows her, half running, to the hedges surrounding the playground.

    Iver and Jack are already waiting at the greenest part of the hedge. Gage has never spoken to either of them, but he’s noticed that everyone laughs at Iver’s jokes whether they’re funny or not, that even fifth-graders defer to him in the lunch line.

    Iver nods at Dasha and turns to Gage. He grins. “Hey, new kid. You go first.”

    “Okay.” Gage approaches the hedge, ready to thrust his hand through the branches on the count of three. “Am I going against you?”

    “What? Didn’t you ever play before? Show him, Jack.”

    Anna Zumbro lives in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared in Cricket, Daily Science Fiction, Fantasy Scroll, and other publications. You can find her online at annazumbro.com.

     

    Main Story: “Greener Pastures” by Michael J. Martineck

    (Originally published in The Urban Green Man.)

    Esther’s pine-green boots swung together from the cab, planted on the curb, and let her blossom from the door. She stretched and opened and engulfed what pitiful level of sunlight managed to ricochet down to street level in this song of concrete, glass and steel they called a city.

    “Loveless,” she said, looking up at her destination. She adjusted her skirt and jacket, greens so dark as to seem black in the dull autumn day. Primping? Her left upper lip curled like ivy ‘round a twig. She never primped. Usually. Except, she admitted, for today. Esther jangled her blond curls. The flow of pedestrians crossing the sidewalk paused, curious and smiling.

    Seven pigeons landed before her, limning a runway between her and the gray revolving door she eyed.

    The door rotated to match her stride. She crossed the tiled lobby, toward a white plastic arch, attended by 220 pounds of male muscle obstructed by a blue shirt and badge. She winked. The guard smiled.

    “How sad,” she said passing under the arch. “A trellis with no roses.”

    Michael J. Martineck’s latest novel — The Milkman (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy), a murder mystery set in a world with no governments — won a gold medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was also a finalist in the Eric Hoffer awards, given each year for salient writing from small presses. His previous novel, Cinco de Mayo, was a finalist for an Alberta Reader’s Choice Award. He has written for DC Comics, several magazines (fiction and non-fiction), the Urban Green Man anthology, and two urban fantasy novels for young readers. Michael has a degree in English and Economics, but has worked in advertising for several years. He lives with his wife and two children on Grand Island, New York. He can be found online at michaelmartineck.com.

    About the Narrators:

    Bennie Matesich was born during the information age of the second millennium. She is a graduate of Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, where she studied Theatre, English and Creative Writing while playing with power tools on a daily basis. (Her favorite is the skill saw.) Bennie has primarily worked as a stage actress and is new to the world of voice acting. Currently, she resides in Northern Michigan, where she is a mere mortal by day and one of the world’s best waitresses by night. She loves good beer, good stories, and bad jokes. “Why did the psychic decide to start podcasting? She had a very positive aural sense.”

    Catherine Logan had many years of training in theatre and voice in her youth, and then many years of teaching acting, drama, writing, and English literature as a grown-up. She has taken plenty of workshops and has studio experience in narration, commercial and animation voiceover work. Catherine is now involved in a second career which takes her back to her first love. She can be reached at catherineloganvoice.com.

     


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    33 min
  • Far Fetched Fables No. 111 Julie Frost

    Featured Story: “The Cow & The Beanstalk” by Julie Frost

    (Originally published in Azure Valley, April 2013)

    Once upon a time, I was unfaithful to my fiancée. That went… aye, about as well as you’d expect.

    “You traitorous varlet!” Mary screamed at me.

    “Please, beloved! This isn’t what it looks like — ” I dodged the chamberpot she flung at my head. Fortunately, it was empty. Unfortunately, this was in fact exactly what it looked like.

    “With my own sister?”

    Katherine, the sister in question, waved a languid hand.

    “You should be pleased with how long it took me to wear him down. Quite noble, your young man, ‘struth. I finally had to bespell him before he’d give in, and even that wasn’t easy.”

    Mary growled, a noise I’d never heard her make before.

    “You’ve always hated me, witch, and tried to steal every bit of happiness away that you could. I should have killed you in your cradle.” She leaped on top of the bed and aimed her nails at Katherine’s eyes, while I struggled off the other side and fell to the floor, fumbling with my clothes.

    Katherine caught Mary’s wrists and flung her backwards.

    She seemed rather amused by the whole thing. “You silly cow,” she said, leaning out of the way when Mary came back with a wild swing of a delicate fist. “Mmm, yes.”

    She flicked her fingers, and suddenly a whitish-cream, doe-eyed Jersey cow stood on the bed where Mary had. “Much more suitable, I think,” Katherine said.

     

    Julie Frost writes every shade of speculative fiction and lives in Utah with her family, which consists of an equal number of guinea pigs and people, and a collection of anteaters and Oaxacan carvings, some of which intersect. Her short fiction has appeared in Cosmos, Unlikely Story, Plasma Frequency, Stupefying Stories, and others, and was a finalist at Writers of the Future and the Hidden Prize for Prose. Her first novel, Pack Dynamics, was released at Salt Lake ComicCon 2015 by WordFire Press, and sold out there, much to everyone’s delight. She whines about writing, a lot, at agilebrit.livejournal.com.

     

    About the Narrator:

    Rish Outfield is a writer, actor, and podcaster who 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.

     


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    1 hr 10 min
  • Far Fetched Fables No. 110 Krystal Claxton and Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold

    Flash Fiction: “Golden Unicorn” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold

    (“Tales of the Rose Knights” #4, originally published in Daily Science Fiction.)

    The Rose Knight known as Golden Unicorn was a creature of field and forest, flowing across the mountain slopes as fire flows across the stubbled fields of autumn. She was born in the misty hills of the Farmost West, raised among the simple nut farmers of Chemeketa, bound to the service of no man nor spirit save her own will and the glories of those mountains. Her coat was the brown of polished walnut burl, and the horn upon her head glinted sunset gold. The relationship between unicorns and virgins is storied past the point of recognition, but the question of unicorn virginity is another matter entire. The Golden Unicorn had spent her youth dancing around the attentions of stallions and lusty lads alike, preferring to hold her heart–and body–for whatever the future might bring. Thus she arrived at adulthood with distant dreams and little grounding in the ordinary mechanics of pleasure. 

    Jay Lake lived in Portland, Oregon until his death in 2014, shortly before his 50th birthday. His books include Kalimpura from Tor and Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh from Prime. His short fiction appeared regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay was a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. In 2015, he posthumously received the Locus Award for his collection Last Plane to Heaven.

    Learn more about him and his work at jlake.com.

    Ruth Nestvold has published widely in science fiction and fantasy, her fiction appearing in such markets as Asimov’s, F&SF, and Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of her novella Looking Through Lace won the Premio Italia award for best international work. She maintains a web site at ruthnestvold.com and blogs at ruthnestvold.wordpress.com.

    Jay and Ruth’s collection of short stories, Almost All the Way Home from the Stars, is available at Amazon and via iTunes.

     

    Main Story: “Heartless” by Krystal Claxton

    (Originally published in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #224.)

    I should leave the man in the dark, face­down on the dirt path where I find him. Entangling myself in the affairs of a Shebeast is high on my list of things to avoid. But the chance that he still lives draws me in. Grunting, I roll his limp form to rest on his back, my breath turning to puffs of fog in the chill air.

    His heartstrings splay from the wound in his chest like delicate red ribbons. Drained of heat and color, his face is lifeless­­handsome with amber hair and strong brow, but empty nonetheless. She left him here for dead.

    Krystal Claxton was tragically born with a miscalibrated sense of humor and lived in nine US states before the age of thirteen. The combination of the two has left her with an oscillating accent and a habit of laughing at things that aren’t funny. She currently lives in Georgia with her long-suffering spouse, a dog who thinks she’s a cat, and a number of children that is subject to change. She enjoys breaking Heinlein’s Rules, getting distracted by Dragon Con, and feverishly researching whichever random topic has just piqued her interest. Keep up with her at krystalclaxton.com and on Twitter via @krystalclaxton.

     

    About the Narrators:

    Andrea Richardson is a British singer and actress. With extensive stage and film performances to her name, she began narration and voiceover work in 2014 but enjoys using her existing skills in a different way. You can find Andrea at andrea-richardson.co.uk and on Facebook.

    Karen Bovenmeyer earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine in 2011. She has published approximately 25 poems, short stories, and novellas and has a novel coming out next year. She teaches and mentors students at Iowa State University and serves as the Nonfiction Assistant Editor of Escape Artists’ Mothership Zeta Magazine. Karen’s narrations can be heard on the Strange Horizons, StarShip Sofa, Gallery of Curiosities, and Pseudopod podcasts. You can find her online at karenbovenmyer.com.

     


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    30 min
  • Far Fetched Fables No. 109 Pat Bowne

    Fiction: “Want’s Master” by Pat Bowne

    (Originally published in Tales of the Unanticipated, 2002.)

    When William Harrison Gracile came in to work at four-thirty in the afternoon looking as if he had aged twenty years overnight, his suit hanging loose on a wizened frame, his secretary wished him good day and went back to her typing. Gracile was offended. He had never been late to work before; he had never come in with a hair out of place. He deserved better from his secretary, he thought. She should make shocked noises, ask after his health, give unsought advice; she should stop him, as he went into his office. “I’m sorry,” she should say, “I don’t want to intrude, but…”

    “Oh, by the way,” said his secretary, “a package came for you. I put it on your desk.” 

    A package was exciting, even to someone of an age and station that begged for unsolicited, meaningless packages.

     

    Pat Bowne missed graduate school, so she made up her own university: The Royal Academy of the Arcane Arts and Sciences at Osyth, where “battling your demons” is more than a figure of speech. Folks at the Royal Academy have been suffering through meetings, attending ill-fated conferences, and pursuing their research into denizens of the netherworld ever since. Fans of academic satire can follow them through three novels’ worth of adventure (Advice From Pigeons, A Lovesome Thing, and Swept and Garnished), and a variety of reissued novellas, either standalone or in the collection Want’s Master and Other Stories from Osyth. The best place to keep up with all things Osyth is the Royal Academy’s website at raosyth.com.

    About the Narrator:

    Dan Kelly is an artist allowing the universe to deliver his wildest dreams. Other than a high school diploma and a few random certificates for esoteric skills like Steadicam operation and freediving, Dan is giddily sans credentials and credibility. Born just before all those iconic Americans were rubbed out, he now thrives at the northern edge of the USA amidst paranoid prepper enclaves and socialist sleeper cells. Dan likes movies and with a little luck, he’ll be releasing his first open source inspired featurette, a post-apocalyptic romantic comedy titled Daughter of God sometime in the late summer of 2016. You can learn more at dankelly.sexy.


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    46 min

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