The Overcast

The Bird by Edward Ashton. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Edward Ashton.

"Spontaneous remission," the doctor says. "The primary mass in your pancreas is gone. Your PET scan is clear. It happens sometimes."

Callie stares at the doctor's mouth, waiting for him to speak again, sure that she's imagined what she's just heard.

"No promises," he says finally. "Sometimes it lasts. Sometimes it doesn't. We'll bring you back in eight weeks for another set of scans. If those come back clean, you can start thinking about making long-term plans again."

Callie's gaze drifts to the half-open window behind the doctor's desk. A bird lands on the sill. It looks in at Callie, seems to meet her eye.

"Close your mouth," it says. "You look like an idiot."

Edward Ashton lives in Rochester, New York with his adorably mopey dog, his inordinately patient wife, and a steadily diminishing number of daughters, where he studies new cancer therapies by day, and writes about the awful things his research may lead to by night. He is the author of the novels Three Days in April and The End of Ordinary, as well as of several dozen short stories which have appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Flash Fiction Online, Analog, and Escape Pod. Find him on Twitter @edashtonwriting and at: http://www.edwardashton.com/

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

Papyrates by Deborah L. Davitt. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Deborah L. Davitt. #fantasy #fiction #pirates #paper #podcast

She stood on the jetty, watching the ship unfurl itself with geometric precision, unfolding from its flattened state into sweeping white arcs of bow and stern. Her crew carried the long white rolls of the masts aboard and then lifted them into place with a call and response that drifted on the wind like a chanson.

As Papyra strode aboard, she called, "Ready the sails!" and her crew unfolded the last sheaves, tying them in place to catch the first breaths of wind.

It was time to hunt.

Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Nevada, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son. She's worked as a technical writer on contracts involving nuclear submarines, NASA, and computer manufacturing. Her poetry has received Rhysling, Dwarf Star, and Pushcart nominations and has appeared in over fifty venues; her short fiction has appeared in Galaxy's Edge, Compelling Science Fiction, and Flame Tree anthologies. For more about her work, including her Edda-Earth novels and her poetry collection, The Gates of Never, please see www.edda-earth.com.  You can also find her on Twitter @DavittDL and on facebook https://www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

Sympathy For the Devil by Brenda Kezar. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword written by Brenda Kezar. #fantasy #comedy #humor #fiction #podcast

A glowing, orange man-shape swept into the bedroom. "Ah, there you are."

She yelped and fell back onto the bed. "How the hell did you get in here?"

"No mere lock will keep me at bay." The glow brightened, illuminating him. His skin was red, and long, curved horns jutted from his head. His feet were cloven, his thighs covered in fur. His loincloth had caught-up on the worn leather pouch around his waist. He was naked underneath.

He followed her gaze and flipped the loincloth back into place. "It is frigid in here. Shrinkage is to be expected."

Brenda Kezar writes horror, fantasy, and science fiction from the dark tundra of North Dakota. She is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association and mom to an evil corgi named Honey Booboo. Her short stories have appeared in Dark Moon Digest, Daily Science Fiction, Silverthought, Welcome to Miskatonic University, Zombidays: Festivities of the Flesheaters, and many other publications. To read more, visit: www.BrendaKezar.com

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

A Handful of Stardust by Kai Hudson. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Kai Hudson. #scifi #clones #podcast #fiction #space #colonization

"The vote is in two days." The anger was gone now, leaving only grief and sharp betrayal that made Alice's words come out choked. "And Anita made it clear who she thinks should get wiped. You know what she called me? Stubborn. 'Stubbornness might have gotten us here,' she said, 'but now she'll only trap us in our ways.'"

"Craters. Your leadership personality said that?"

"Anita's not leadership." Because Amelie, the true leader, had volunteered for the first wipe. "She's charisma."

Kai Hudson lives in sunny California where she writes, hikes, and rock-climbs with enthusiasm if not skill. Her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, PodCastle, Anathema: Spec from the Margins, and other fine places. Find her at kaihudson.com.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

Blunder by Kristin Kirby. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Kristin Kirby. #fantasy #horror #fiction #spiders #podcast #trailerpark #landlord

Rankin went up the steps, his huaraches crunching on faded fake grass, and knocked on the aluminum front door. A cobweb sagged from the upper corner of the porch screen. Rankin reached up and swiped at the web, then shook it off his hand. A brown spider plopped onto the porch and started to scramble off.

But Rankin hurried to smash it with his foot. Then he grimaced as he scraped the dead thing off his shoe onto the step.

Kristin Kirby is an award-winning fiction writer, screenwriter, and editor who currently makes her home in the Pacific Northwest. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Space and Time, 365tomorrows, Eldritch Tales, MYTHIC, and other publications. Her short story "Meat" was a finalist in the Masters Review Fiction contest, and her novella "Maze" was a semifinalist in the ScreenCraft Short Story contest. When she's not writing, Kristin enjoys traveling, watching film noir, restoring antique furniture, and carrying on her never-ending quest to find the best Italian restaurant on the planet. Find her online at www.kristinkirby.net or on Twitter @WriterKristin.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

Illicit Alchemy by Eric Lewis. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword written by Eric Lewis. #Fantasy #Alchemy #Fiction

"Unfortunately, we're unable to offer you a position at this time…" Emony stopped paying attention after that. She'd heard it a hundred times before. But the alchemist's mouth just kept moving so she reached out, grabbed the glass retort off his desk and smashed it into his fat face.

Well, she fantasized about it anyway. Instead she nodded, and muttered, "Thank you for your time and kind consideration" through gritted teeth.

By day Eric Lewis is a research scientist weathering the latest rounds of mergers and layoffs and trying to remember how to be a person again after surviving grad school. His short fiction has been published in Nature, Electric Spec, Bards & Sages Quarterly, the anthologies Into Darkness Peering, Best Indie Speculative Fiction Vol. 1, Crash Code and other venues detailed at ericlewis.ink. His debut novel The Heron Kings and short story collection Tricks of the Blade are both due out in early 2020. Find him on Twitter @TheHeronKing.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

Grizzelka's Bridegroom by Mary E. Lowd. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Mary E. Lowd.

On the dais at the front of the great hall, Rhun's bride stood, resplendent in lace, pearls, ruffles, and diamonds -- all of the sugary sweetness of silk and satin that her attendant minions had been able to gather, all of it draped over her bulging tentacles.  She looked like an octopus who had choked to death on a rack of wedding dresses.  She had never looked more lovely.

Mary E. Lowd is a prolific science-fiction and furry writer in Oregon.  Her fiction tends to feature spaceships and talking animals.  She's won an Ursa Major Award, two Cóyotl Awards, and two Leo Literary Awards.  She edited FurPlanet's ROAR anthology series for five years, and she is now the editor and founder of the furry e-zine Zooscape.  She lives in a crashed spaceship, disguised as a house and hidden behind a rose garden, with an extensive menagerie of animals, some real and some imaginary. Find her online at www.marylowd.com on Twitter @Ryffnah and Instagram at mary.lowd.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com 

The Stories We Tell Ourselves by Curtis C. Chen. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Curtis C. Chen. #fantasy #flashfiction #wishes

Gerald sat and stirred his coffee, waiting to change the world.

The front door of the cafe swung open, and the bell jingled. The balding man who walked in wore a thick overcoat, scarf, and gloves. His nervous, desperate eyes scanned the room.

Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen now writes speculative fiction and runs puzzle games near Portland, Oregon. His debut novel Waypoint Kangaroo (a 2017 Locus Awards Finalist and Endeavour Award Finalist) is a science fiction thriller about a superpowered spy facing his toughest mission yet: vacation. The sequel, Kangaroo Too, lands our hero on the Moon to confront long-buried secrets. Curtis' short stories have appeared in Playboy Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Mission: Tomorrow, and Oregon Reads Aloud. He is a graduate of the Clarion West and Viable Paradise writers' workshops. Find him online at: https://curtiscchen.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtisCChen

https://www.instagram.com/curtiscchen/

http://www.facebook.com/CurtisCChen

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

ASCENT, Book One of J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle has launched! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com

It's Spring in the Forever Zoo by Bo Balder. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Bo Balder. #scifi #flashfiction #prosepoem 

It is spring, a moonlit night in the Forever Zoo, starless and bile-black, the hunched, despairing and forgotten in the cages limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, starshipbobbing sea.

Hush, the aliens are sleeping, the star-fished, the multiples, the genderless and thousand-armed, vegetable, outward-digesting, trader and cannibal, the carrion-eater and the scent-luring, the pierced and the rocking lives.

Bo Balder lives and works close to Amsterdam. Bo is the first Dutch author to have been published in F&SF, Clarkesworld and Analog. Her fiction has also appeared in Escape Pod, Nature and other places. Her sf novel "The Wan"was published by Pink Narcissus Press. She is a member of SFWA, Codex Writers and a graduate of Viable Paradise.

For more about her work, you can visit her website or find Bo on Facebook. 

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

ASCENT, Book One of J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle is coming January 13th! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story.

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com.

Blue Christmas by Jessica Levai. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Jessica Levai. #fantasy #dark 

She woke to find Nick standing over her. The thin dawn light showed him ragged and tired, turned his face red and his beard blue. He held her forgotten mug in his hand.

"You went to the secret room," he said, so softly she could scarcely hear.

Jessica Lévai has loved stories and storytellers her whole life. After a double major in history and mathematics, a PhD in Egyptology, and eight years of the adjunct shuffle, she devoted herself to writing full-time. You can read her work in Luna Station Quarterly, Body Parts Magazine, and Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts Volume 2. Her first novella is a vampire romance in Pushkin sonnets. She has begun work on her second long-form piece and dreams of one day collaborating on a graphic novel, and meeting Stephen Colbert.

Check out her website, JessicaLevai.com, for her newsletter and more.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

ASCENT, Book One of J.S. Arquin's Crimson Dust Cycle is coming in January! Go to www.arquinworlds.com to download your free prequel story!

Are you an author who loves J.S. Arquin's narrations? Ask him to narrate your audiobook at www.arquinaudiobooks.com.