Description: Flash prompt. Days after the fact. Kind of grim. Excerpt: It wasn’t usual anymore, the burying of bodies, but I had insisted. “I want to bring him home. I want to bury him next to his grandfather.” And so, even though we live in an age when the dead are cremated and the ashes […]

Description: Mel Babble. Raw, unedited chatter. Probably you should just skip it. Excerpt: Vegetables can be cute. My house makes me sad. Links & References: The Dog Days of Podcasting homepage Learn more about me at MissMeliss.com Credits: The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is […]

Description: Several months ago, I was reminded that K’Ehleyr from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Marshall’s mom on How I Met Your Mother were both played by Suzi Plakson. Fanfiction happened. Nuchtchas was kind enough to read it for me. Excerpt: “Arch!” Again, her commands were spoken too quietly for him to hear, but […]

Description: Flash-fiction. Ravens and Crows aren’t quite the same bird. Excerpt: “I’ve grounded and centered and counted to ten – to fifty, even. I’ve done the incantation. I’ve drunk the calming tea, and no matter what I do, I cannot banish the thoughts of Unkindness for longer than a couple of minutes.” “Unkindness? Unkindness?” The […]

Description: This week’s Sunday Brunch column – thoughts on Community. Excerpt: As is the nature of living organisms, Communities ebb and flow. Sometimes you’ll have intense relationships with only a few members of a community and more casual ones with the rest. Sometimes you’ll feel like there are people who don’t ‘get’ you, or you […]

Description: Thomas Jancis reads “Vampire Fashion Tricks” Excerpt: “Results were inconclusive.” “How so?” “Well. Vlad didn’t combust or anything.” “That seems conclusive to me.”   Links & References: The Dog Days of Podcasting homepage Thomas Jancis website Credits: The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is […]

Description: “Truth” and “Power”  – two pieces of micro-fiction. Excerpt: “Sometimes,” I answered. “But sometimes Truth hides in darkness because it’s too real, or too painful, or because we aren’t yet ready to see it.”  Links & References: The Dog Days of Podcasting homepage Credits: The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and […]

Description: Flash-fic, read by Selena Taylor. Life finds a way. Excerpt: She scooped the transparent fish out of the water, expecting it to gasp in desperation, but it seemed completely tranquil, suspended between her hands as content as it had seemed in the tide pool where she’d found it.   Links & References: The Dog […]

Description: This episode is SUPER RAMBLY! In a departure from her usual offering of stories, the Bathtub Mermaid discusses her first adventure with CSA. Excerpt: CSA – Community Sustained Agriculture. I received my first farmbox today. I was going to do a live unboxing, but it was too noisy – dogs were barking, a squall […]

Description: A little girl faces her fears… in jet blank ink. Excerpt: Mandy stopped using pencils when she was six, except for math. She moved beyond wide-ruled paper when she was seven, and they sent her to Special Education to learn cursive because the Advanced Reading workbook had bits of cursive in it. She likes […]