The Overcast

Singing at the Great Wall of the Ocean by Chris Kuriata.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Chris Kuriata.  #fantasy #fiction #ocean #song

"Heavy blocks, enough to build a thousand pyramids, stretched in either direction until disappearing into the horizon.  Local history contained a dozen sad stories about boats sailing along the edge of the wall, looking for gaps, but any discoveries remained secret.  Only broken sails and hollow bones floated home from these failed explorations."

Chris Kuriata lives in (and often writes about) the Niagara Region.  His short stories about home-invading bears, whale-hunting-clowns, and time-traveling kittens have appeared in many fine publications.  He used to edit depressing documentaries about homicide victims, but now works cheerfully in a bakery making donuts.  Find him at chriskuriata.wordpress.com or on Twitter @CKuriata.

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A Thousand Echoes in One Voice by Deborah L. Davitt.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Deborah L. Davitt.  #Scifi #timetravel #fiction #podcast

"You've snuck through doors that should have been locked to get here.  Here, the subway station is silent, the kind of silence that comes deep underground, isolated from the hum of the human hive overhead.  No electric lights.  No neon.  No vibrations.  No voices.  Not even a breath of moving air."

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 and Pushcart nominations and has appeared in over twenty journals.  Her short fiction has earned a finalist showing for the Jim Baen Adventure Fantasy Award (2018) and has appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, Compelling Science Fiction, and Galaxy's Edge.  For more about her work, including her Edda-Earth novels, please see www.edda-earth.com .

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Not My First Choice by Alexandra Grunberg.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword written by Alexandra Grunberg.  #scifi #nanobots #fiction #podcast

"It's not as bad as being impaled by an icepick," she said. "Though, as someone who has never been impaled by an icepick, I could be wrong."

"Ice picks have gotten a pretty bad reputation," said Kevin.  "But I hear they're nothing compared to medieval torture devices."

Jessica nodded.  She knew a lot about medieval torture devices.  She had ranked most of them, both on a pain scale and a time scale.

Alexandra Grunberg is a Glasgow based author, screenwriter, and poet.  Her short stories have appeared in multiple magazines and anthologies, including SFWA certified publications such as Daily Science Fiction, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, and Flash Fiction Online.  You can learn more on her website, alexandragrunberg.weebly.com 

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Life to the Power of Three by Rebecca Birch.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Rebecca Birch.  #fantasy #fiction 

The spray can's cold metal chilled my fingers when I shook it - three times side to side, three times diagonally to the left, then three times diagonally to the right. Snow filtered down outside the shelter of the highway overpass, like little golden flakes in the streetlamp light. I wished I could bottle that color.  The pigments in my spray paint were so drab and lifeless. They might never be enough to paint my way back home.  

Rebecca Birch is a science fiction and fantasy writer based in Seattle, WA.  She's a classically trained soprano, hold a deputy black belt in Taekwondo, and enjoys spending time in the company of trees.  Her fiction has appeared in markets including Nature, Cricket, and Flash Fiction Online. Find her online at www.wordsofbirch.com and on Twitter @wordsofbirch.

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The Moctezuman by E.C. Stever.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by E.C. Stever.  #Scifi #fiction #Aztec #humor #aliens #podcast

"I wish he'd hurry up and sacrifice me already, like I planned it.  Otherwise I might die in this dank temple.  But here he stands, nephew to the emperor of a quarter-million Aztec warriors, and he does the one thing I don't want: Moctezuma waits."

Eric "E'C." Stever is an author and archaeologist in Salmon, Idaho.  He lives with a geologist, two unrepentant marshmallow fanatics, and several hundred eyebrow mites.  Don't judge, you have them too.

Remarkably, this is the only story he's written in first person.  He has been published in Kaleidotrope, The Harrow, and many other magazines.  Eric recently released his first collection of short stories Non Metallic, which features near-future families facing the Singularity (the point where humans transcend their bodies via technology.)  A kick-ass novella about caving on distant planets is also forthcoming.

You can find out more on his website: ecstever.com, or on Goodreads.

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Market Value by Gerri Leen.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Gerri Leen.  #Fantasy #Princess #Snakes #Castle #Fairytale 

"I know where I have to go: she is in the topmost room.  That's what the people I've talked to say.

Talked to -- more like threatened with snakes such as the one I carry.  It's amazing what someone will let slip when faced with a spitting viper.  

They probably think I want to steal her, this figure of legend, this not--quite-queen.  I don't want to steal her; I want to save her.  She's my sister, after all."

Gerri Leen lives in Northern Virginia and originally hails from Seattle.  In addition to being an avid reader and an at-times sporadic writer, she's passionate about horse racing, tea, whiskey, and art.  She has work appearing in: Nature, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction, Grievous Angel, Grimdark, and others.  She's edited several anthologies for independent presses, is finishing an urban fantasy novel, and is a member of SFWA and HWA.  Find her online at www.gerrileen.com and on Twitter @GerriLeen.

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Water Childe by Gwen Tolios.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Gwen Tolios.  #Fantasy #Fiction #Podcast #PNW #Seals #Sea #Family

"I can't die without my fur coat.  I can't die like this.  I know he hid it, I know it.  Can you find it?"

"I'll look, Grandma.  Promise."

Gwen Tolios is a speculative fiction writer living in Chicago with a cat who refuses to cuddle.  When not distracted by words, she likes to hike and rewatch Dreamworks animations for the dozenth time.  Find her online at www.gwentoliosblog.net , on Twitter @GwenTolios, and on Instagram at Gwen Tolios.  

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Oh Ghost Of Mine by Zach Bartlett.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Zach Bartlett.  #Fantasy #Ghosts #Fiction #Podcast #Urbanfantasy

"The second thing I'd learned as an adjunct was that I would need yet a third job to keep me afloat during the summer.  The first thing I'd learned was that it never hurts to oversell your experience to a potential employer.  So I decided to leverage the single experience that I'd had with banishing eldritch horrors by placing a classified ad for my services..."

Zach Bartlett is a librarian and former Masshole currently pushing books around in New Orleans.  His short fiction has appeared in Gallery of Curiosities, Mad Scientist Journal, and Speculative City.  His first novel To Another Abyss was recently published by Spaceboy Books, if this story didn't have enough punk references for you.  Fine him online at http://zachbartlett.net.

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The Farmgirl and the Kitsune by Patrick Hurley.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword by Patrick Hurley.  #Fantasy #Ghosts #Fiction #Japanese #Folktales

In a land far away, where dragon sages watch the stars and turtle gods rule the rivers, there was a girl named Ishiko, the only child of a prosperous farmer.  She was small and quick, taking after her father, and smart and stubborn, taking after her mother.

Patrick Hurley worked as an editor for The Great Books Foundation in Chicago for ten years and then as an editorial project manager for Becker & Meyer Books in Seattle.  Patrick has had short fiction professionally published in dozens of markets, including Galaxy's Edge, Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, Flame Tree Publishing's Murder Mayhem Anthology, Hy Bender's forthcoming Ghosts on Drugs Anthology, Abyss & Apex, Penumbra, and The Drabblecast.  IN 2017, Patrick attended the Taos Toolbox Writer's Workshop, taught by Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams.  He is a member of SFWA and Codex.

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Butterflies by Stewart C. Baker.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword written by Stewart C. Baker.  #SciFi #podcast #fiction #manyworlds

Jeyna was four when they furrowed her, opening holes in her skull and channels through her brain.  She was four when they prepared her for the Tree.

Stewart C. Baker is an academic librarian, speculative fiction writer and poet, and the editor-in- chief of sub-Q Magazine.  His fiction has appeared in Nature, Galaxy's Edge, and Flash Fiction Online, among other places.  Stewart was born in England, has lived in South Carolina, Japan, and California (in that order), and currently resides in Oregon with his family - although if anyone asks, he'll usually say he's from the internet.  Find him online at http://infomancy.net or on Twitter @stewartcbaker.

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