The original paraphernalia for the Flash Fiction Contest had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Stuart, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Lieberman spoke frequently to the forum members about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box. There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here. (Continue Reading…)

Our story calendar for 2019 is almost completely buttoned up, and we are starting to slot stories into the 2020 calendar. What follows is our plans for submissions for the remainder of 2019.

As identified on our Submissions Page, we will be open for one more review period right around Halloween: October 25 through November 3. Please see the Escape Artists Prime page for the announcement and any updates regarding the current status of Artemis Rising.

Across the globe, the dreams of the artists are causing many a restless and feverish night. Someday soon the call would come, when the stars were ready. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Flash Fiction Contest; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Flash Fiction Contest would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

A special Flash Fiction contest portal will open on Submittable at midnight Eastern on 8/10 and close at midnight on 8/31. If the portal disappears, submissions are formally closed and will not reopen. (Continue Reading…)

The results of our poll are in! The listeners voted Epsiode 610: Beneath Their Hooves by Katharine E.K. Duckett as their favorite!

Runners up were Episode 578: Alarm Will Sound by Christopher Shultz, Episode 617: The Culvert by Maxwell Price, and Episode 624: Ten Things I Didn’t Do by Maria Haskins.

Our stories are only half of what they can be without our narrators. Many thanks to the voice work of Larissa Thompson, Scott Campbell, Susan Gage, Paul Cram, and Rebecca Wei Hsieh.

Please give your congratulations to these winners! (Continue Reading…)

Greetings from Pseudopod Towers,

We were amazed and honoured to win the first Best Fiction Podcast THIS IS HORROR award two years ago. We were even more amazed and honoured to win it a second time this past year. None of our staff are in the same time zone, we all work day jobs, and we all love creating PseudoPod. To hear that other people love it as much as we do? Day made, forever.

That got us thinking about all the years we’ve worked out of the spotlight and how it felt to have such hard (though rewarding) work go unrecognized. Horror, like it or not, is still a genre with relatively few industry awards. Horror podcasting, even less so. Hard work deserves recognition.

With that in mind, remaining eligible for an award we’ve already won twice isn’t something we want to do.

We’d like to recuse PseudoPod from competition for the next three years. We’ve been in this spotlight, it’s great. Other people need to have that opportunity too. So, instead of being in contention, we’re going to signal boost other deserving podcasts and the finalists. Not just because professional (and slightly squishy) enthusiasm is our raison d’etre, but because a rising tide lifts all boats. Or colossal sleeping gods… Regardless, every boat rises and that’s a good thing and we want to help. And for the next three years, this is one way we can rise up others.

So here’s what we’d like you to do. Before January 14, 2018, go check out the categories for the THIS IS HORROR AWARD and nominate your favorites from 2018. When the finalists are announced, we want you to go check out and vote for the best. Help us shine the spotlight into all the dark and creepy corners of the podosphere.

Sincerely,

Shawn Garrett and Alex Hofelich, co-Editors

Karen Bovenmyer, Assistant Editor

Alasdair Stuart, Host

And all the PseudoPod Tentacles

For your consideration we present the Escape Artists stories that ran in 2018 which are eligible in the upcoming award nomination season.

Below are links to some aggregation projects, where fans are building lists of those eligible in the various categories. They’re great tools, and we’d like to thank all the contributors for their  efforts. When it’s ready, we’ll also link to our Wikia page, containing links to all the eligible Escape Artists stories.

• Escape Artists Stories eligible for Award Nominations (2018)
• Hugo Nominees for Best Semi-prozine and Best Stories (2018)
• Renay’s Spreadsheet of Doom

The list of individual stories for PseudoPod follows in order of publication: (Continue Reading…)