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PseudoPod 576: Flash On The Borderlands XLI: Flash Fiction Contest 5 Winners

PseudoPod 576: Flash On The Borderlands XLI: Flash Fiction Contest 5 Winners is a PseudoPod original.

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Show Notes

Third Place: The Taking Tree by Evan Dicken narrated by Karen Bovenmyer

Second Place: Legal Tender by Stephanie Malia Morris narrated by Alexis Goble

First Place: Two Step by Drew Czernik narrated by Austin Malone

The Taking Tree

by Evan Dicken

Governor Porter,

I deserve to die for what I’ve done, just please don’t bury me.

I’m reaching out because I got no one else. Even my lawyer keeps asking where the bodies are buried. I wish I knew. Then I could chop the damn thing down, but the tree don’t work like that.

I see it sometimes–out in the yard, beyond the prison fence–waiting for me. At night, I dread the moment when the heater clicks off and all that’s left is the rustle of leaves in the vents.

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. (Continue Reading…)

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For Your Consideration 2018: Original PseudoPod Fiction in 2017

For your consideration we present the Escape Artists stories that ran in 2017 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 David Steffen for his efforts. We’ll also link to our Wikia page, containing links to all the eligible Escape Artists stories.

Additionally in 2017, Escape Artists published the anthology “For Mortal Things Unsung: A PseudoPod 10th Anniversary Special.” This book was published in March of 2017. (Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 575: Christmas Present

“Christmas Present” originally appeared in the NAMELESS PLACES anthology edited by Gerald W. Page in 1975, followed by THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR STORIES: SERIES IV anthology, also edited by Page, in 1976. A slightly different version of the story was broadcast on BBC radio Mersey-side on December 24th, 1969, there read by Gavin Richards, produced by Tony Wolfe and with a special electronic score by Donald Henshilwood – and the story is thus dedicated to these three gentlemen. This presentation features audio production by your editor, Shawn Garrett using some sounds from Freesound,org and dedicated to Zoviet France, the sisters of St. Francis Academy and the 1971 film THE NIGHT CALLER.

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PseudoPod 574: While the Black Stars Burn

“While the Black Stars Burn” originally appeared in the Cassilda’s Song anthology. It was reprinted in Turn To Ash, and is the title story in Lucy’s Stoker Award-winning collection While the Black Stars Burn.

Content warning:

Spoiler

Child abuse

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:17 — 25.7MB)

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Show Notes

I wrote “While the Black Stars Burn” while I was attending a winter MFA residency at Goddard College in Vermont. I knew I wanted to write a story evocative of both the Robert Chambers story “In the Court of the Dragon” and Lovecraft’s story “The Music of Erich Zann” but which was not a copycat pastiche of either one. The heat wasn’t working well in my dorm room, and my being profoundly cold and under-slept definitely influenced my writing!

While the Black Stars Burn

by Lucy A. Snyder

Caroline tucked an unruly strand of coarse brown hair up under her pink knit cap, shrugged the strap of her black violin case back into place over her shoulder, and hurried up the music building stairs. Her skin felt both uncomfortably greasy and itched dryly under her heavy winter clothes; it had been seven days since the water heater broke in her tiny efficiency and the landlord wasn’t answering his phone. Quick, chilly rag-baths were all she could stand, and she felt so self-conscious about the state of her hair that she kept it hidden under a hat whenever possible. She hoped that her violin professor Dr. Harroe wouldn’t make her take her cap off.

Her foot slipped on a spot of dried salt on the stairs and she grabbed the chilly brass banister with her left hand to keep from pitching forward. The sharp, cold jolt made the puckered scar in her palm sharply ache, and the old memory returned fast and unbidden:

“Why aren’t you practicing as I told you to?”

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PseudoPod 573: Bitter Perfume

This story was originally published in She Walks in Shadows anthology, eds. Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles, October 2015 from Innsmouth Free Press. Prime Books issued the American edition, which is called Cthulhu’s Daughters. This will be its first reprint.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:00 — 22.8MB)

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Show Notes

Some listeners will recognize characters and story elements from H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air.” That’s because this story was written for She Walks in Shadows, an anthology of stories containing female characters from Lovecraft’s stories. All contributors to the anthology were women. She Walks in Shadows won the 2016 World Fantasy Award in the anthology category, and “Bitter Perfume” received an Honorable Mention from Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 8 editor Ellen Datlow.

PseudoPod 572: Deconstructing Hillsdale

PseudoPod 572: Deconstructing Hillsdale is a PseudoPod original.

Click to view content warnings:

Spoiler

The events described occur in America and are told from an American perspective. Being a multicultural society, it is not unusual for Americans from all walks of life to partake in diverse celebrations like St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, or Cinco de Mayo regardless of their individual heritage. Nor is it unusual for people of all backgrounds to enjoy themed activities ranging from Civil War reenactments, to Mardi Gras, to amusement parks styled after the Old West, etc. Therefore, events like the Gypsy Carnival are mentioned with the American understanding that these are themed affairs and not connected with a particular people.

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Deconstructing Hillsdale

By D. Morgan Ballmer

What do you recall about the horrific events that unfolded in Hillsdale Heights on December 2nd, 2014? I remember thinking that the town seemed populated by ghosts, mostly. All over Jefferson County living room windows framed our friends and neighbors as they bathed in the cold glow of their televisions, transfixed by the ongoing standoff. The reports didn’t make any sense. Even when it ended, nothing made any sense.

The media attempted to paint a portrait of the gunman, Randy Hollstrom. They sprinkled buzzwords throughout their coverage as if ‘veteran’, ‘loner’, or ‘PTSD’ somehow explained what we were seeing. Our eyes screamed that the words we were hearing did not match up with the footage. Perhaps after so many hours our hunger for peace of mind outweighed our appetite for the truth.

There was no real way for the news to tell the story anyway. Think of those 3-D sculptures which appear as an elephant when seen head on, but take four steps to the right and suddenly it looks like a giraffe. Same with the Hillsdale event – you look directly at the facts and you will never see the evidence that matters. You have to approach it sideways. (Continue Reading…)

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PseudoPod 571: Haunted

This story was originally published in Issue 31 of Fireside Fiction in February 2016

Click to view content warnings:

Spoiler

Domestic Violence

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:26 — 27.9MB)

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Haunted

by Sarah Gailey

Read the full text here.