In November we welcomed Mother Horror Sadie Hartmann who is visiting the back catalog and reviewing some of the short stories of years past. She began with “The Pit” by Joe N. Lansdale narrated by John Bell. (Continue Reading…)
Reviews of It Came from the Multiplex edited by Josh Viola and Echoes of a Natural World: Tales of the Strange & Estranged edited by Michael P. Daley were written and read by Shawn Garrett, co-Editor.
Ted woke up in the dark with a dull headache, deciding to sneak out before the rest of the family got up. Going home for Thanksgiving was a terrible idea. He’d have to find some excuse to stay on campus for Christmas. Maybe he’d come home New Year’s Day, if he wasn’t too hungover.
He’d slept in the same clothes he wore at dinner. He didn’t know why he hadn’t changed; he didn’t remember going to bed. His dad worked all day on their ancient furnace, banging a hammer and making dinner late. Mom was furious, and that started the first argument. Then his brother got into it, followed by his brother’s wife. There’d been something about Ted’s major, the wasted college fees, his low grades, and other upsets he couldn’t remember at all. Politics maybe. Or a neighbor’s careless and tragic end. So much he couldn’t quite point to. For once his dad hadn’t participated. He just sat there staring at them. Ted remembered leaving the table mad at everybody, but nothing after. (Continue Reading…)
Reviews at the end by co-Editor Alex Hofelich, read by Associate Editor Scott Campbell.
The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature is a collection by Christopher Slatsky.
Wonder and Glory Forever is an anthology edited by Nick Mamatas.
THURSDAY, 8th March, 1849.—
It has been a trying journey over narrow deer-paths and rutted trails. Heavy branches of ancient oaks cast the way in shadow, yet I continue to write my thoughts in my diary—what Father mockingly refers to as “belles-lettres”. When I was a child, I kept a daily record during the two-month emigration from New-England to the Willamette Valley where Father had been hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company; as an adult, a mere two-days’ travel will not dissuade me from continuing to write. These valleys, these streams that break the monotony of impenetrable alder and oak forests make the wagon’s passage that much more difficult. (Continue Reading…)
Reviews at the end by Associate Editor M.M. Schill, read by Assistant Editor Karen Bovenmyer.
Black Cranes is an anthology edited by Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn.
Halloween Season is a collection by Lucy A. Snyder.
She dreams of death and rebirth on her mother’s table.
The smell of antiseptic: chemicals, artificial cherries and other-fruit. The specimen on the table. Herself, slipping a needle under the specimen’s skin to obtain samples for reconstruction. Finally, the disposal of the body while the new one grows inside her crimson egg, kicking her little amphibian feet. Later, a telepathic matrix imparts an (edited) library of the Prodigal’s memories. This reinforces the desired traits, knitted carefully into the genome.
In twelve days and twelve nights, there will be a single, perfected being: waking in the specimen’s old room with only a vague, uneasy sense of displaced time. There will be no official record, no trace of the original (save for the genetic profiles, buried deep in her mother’s libraries).
Everyone dreams those strange, mundane dreams of themselves performing their daily rites. The genetic alchemist’s daughter is no different; why should she be? But still, Leto Alicia Chua Mercado wakes as if she were a child waking from a nightmare. Leto thinks: there are fragments of bone and marrow in her pyjamas, in her blankets, her bed. For a moment, her hands are viscous with ruby red. (Continue Reading…)
We thought we’d share a number of the places PseudoPod was mentioned in the media during October 2020:
Frolic calls out two stories which have run on PseudoPod as scarring including 20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett and The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree, Jr: https://frolic.media/10-horror-tales-that-scarred-me-for-life-by-laura-marks/amp/
I looked up when Carlos came in with a girl, two Domino’s pizzas, and a bag of marijuana gummies. It was a big basement, finished in places, dirt in others, a kind of half-assed bathroom in the corner with no walls or a door for privacy. You got used to smelling somebody drop a deuce or rinse blood out of their hair in the utility sink.
They said they were vampires. Sometimes I believed them and sometimes I didn’t, but I didn’t really care. I got enough to eat. There was always plenty of drugs and dancing and people to fuck. The screams bothered me sometimes, but not so much I wanted to leave the basement or Luca. Not that he would have let me leave. (Continue Reading…)
Join me, Sadie Hartmann, aka “Mother Horror”, each month as I take a deep dive into the back catalog of PseudoPod episodes. My first choice is a recommendation from the PseudoPod “About” page: THE PIT by Joe R. Lansdale.
I chose this episode for 3 reasons:
Please head over to the Escape Artists Patreon for information about the parade clues.
Audio notes:
Theme music for show: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/none_given_2414
Commercial track: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/WITCHY_BATTY_SPOOKY_HALLOWEEN_IN_SEPTEMBER_/Monster_Parade
Transcript of What’s on the Table, Episode 92:BERTRAND COBB, host:
This is What’s on the Table. I’m Bertrand Cobb. If you’re like me, the past few months have challenged your culinary capabilities. Anyone who’s listened to this show is aware that I’ve dabbled in the sweet science of baking. I have produced a number of edible breadbox basics. This includes current instagram favorites sourdough and banana bread. However, I’m no maître pâtissier.
But our guest today, Pricilla van Pelt, is a master baker. She recently published her first book at the tender age of seventy-five, collecting recipes and personal stories from her award-winning blog. It’s called What I’m Talking About When I Talk About Cooking Country. Her book has generated a lot of buzz on pinterest and instagram, as well as the discussion boards of reddit since publication.
I’m still working from my home studio and connected with Ms. van Pelt via Zoom from her grandson’s home in Buford, Georgia.
Pricilla van Pelt, can you tell us What’s on the Table?
PRICILLA VAN PELT:
Well, Mister Cobb, there’s a pretty little centerpiece my great-grandbabies put together, wildflowers mostly, and this computer. We don’t need much more than that.