Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 38: In The Cemetery of Frozen Ships (Part 2)
Show Notes
Today we present Part 2 of In The Cemetery of Frozen Ships by Suzanne van Rooyen.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 37: In The Cemetery of Frozen Ships (Part 1)
Show Notes
Today we present Part 1 of In The Cemetery of Frozen Ships by Suzanne van Rooyen. Suzanne is a freelance writer and author from South Africa, currently living in Finland. She is the author of the cyberpunk novel Dragon’s Teeth, and has had several short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine, Earthbound Fiction and others. Her non-fiction articles on travel, music and other topics can be found scattered throughout the Internet. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers writings strange tales of the SpecFic persuasion and playing in the snow with her shiba inu. You can find out more about Suzanne here.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Genres: Fantasy, Modern Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 36: The Next Joe Jones
Show Notes
Today we present The Next Joe Jones by Russ Colson. He lives with his wife, Mary, on a farmstead in northern Minnesota, far enough from city lights to see the Milky Way and the aurora borealis. He teaches planetary science, meteorology, and geology at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He writes a variety of speculative fiction and non-fiction pieces that have appeared in in Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine, NewMyths.com and others. You can find out more in a NewMyths.com interview done with Russ.
The picture is by hotsoup25 on Flickr, who kindly gave us permission to use it.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 35: The Most Precious of Treasures (Part 2 of 2)
Show Notes
Today we present Part 2 of The Most Precious of Treasures by Desmond Warzel.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
The Most Precious of Treasures (continued)
by Desmond Warzel
Cardia aimed the wand and shouted an arcane word; the jewel at the instrument’s tip glowed and spewed forth a tremendous sphere of fire, which sped across the room and spent itself against the demon’s trunk, leaving the fiend unharmed. As she and the demon circled one another warily like festival prizefighters, she tossed the wand aside and chose another; this time, lightning. The bolt shot forth and found its home, but was absorbed into the demon’s body as if it had never been.
(Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 34: The Most Precious of Treasures (Part 1 of 2)
Show Notes
Today we present The Most Precious Of Treasures by Desmond Warzel. You may remember Desmond from Episode 15 Same-Day Delivery. The Most Precious Of Treasures first appeared in issue #5 of Shelter Of Daylight. Desmond lives in northwestern Pennsylvania, and has had stories published in Daily Science Fiction, the anthology Candle in the Attic Window from Innsmouth Free Press, and at Tor.com.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
The Most Precious of Treasures
by Desmond Warzel
When Cardia entered the Talking Carp, Melorin was situated in the far corner, at a table which already bore two depleted pint mugs and an empty plate. She was the establishment’s only occupant except for old Chen himself, who fussed about the open kitchen slicing various odds and ends of meat and fish for the exotic foreign fare that made up much of his menu. When he looked up from his work, Cardia ordered herself a cup of tea, as well as a third beer for Melorin. A drink in each hand, she made her way across the empty dining room and joined her former colleague.
(Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 33: A Clean Sweep Of It
Show Notes
Today we present A Clean Sweep Of It by Thomas Canfield. Canfield’s phobias run to lawyers, politicians and oil company executives. He likes dogs and beer.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 32: Flash Collection I
Show Notes
Today we present a series of flash fiction stories by Rose Blackthorn. Rose lives in the high mountain desert of Eastern Utah with her boyfriend. She also has a two-year old Australian Shepherd nicknamed Boo, and a Yorkie puppy fittingly named Shadow. She spends her time writing, reading, photographing the surrounding wilderness, and doting on the aforementioned fur-kids. She is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association and has been published in several magazines both print and online. She contributed to the zombie anthology New Dawn Fades released in Nov 2011 and the Necon E-Books flash anthology released in Mar 2012. She suffers from an overactive imagination, but rather than complaining… she just goes with it. You can find out more about Rose at her site.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Genres: Fantasy, Modern Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 31: Inksucker
Show Notes
Today we present Inksucker by Aidan Doyle. Aidan is an Australian writer and computer programmer who loves travelling and has visited more than 70 countries. His experiences include teaching English in Japan, interviewing ninjas in Bolivia and going ten-pin bowling in North Korea. The majority of Inksucker was written during a 51-hour ferry ride from Osaka to Shanghai; it was originally published in the Worlds Next Door anthology and was shortlisted for the prestigious Aurealis Award. Aidan is currently working on a zombie novel set in Japan. You can find out more about him online.
Your narrator is Danielle Daly, who last read for us in Episode 27, My Boogie Man.
Due to our website crash in April 2014, we are in the process of reconstructing our back catalog. Please enjoy listening to the episode – we’ll have the show notes up as soon as we can!
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Inksucker
by Aidan Doyle
If you’re a monster, stop reading this right now!
I’ve hidden lots of traps in these words. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
My name is Zoe and I’m 14 years old. I know how dangerous words can be. My family owns the best bookshop in all of Melbourne. There are thousands and thousands of books and the shelves stretch as far as you can see. The further you walk from the shop’s entrance, the older the books get. If you keep walking in a straight line for more than a few hours you can find books thousands of years old.
(Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy, Modern Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 30: Karlsson
Show Notes
Anatoly told us, “In the original Swedish book by Astrid Lindgren, Karlsson is a more selfish, more obnoxious version of Dr Seuss’ Cat in the Hat, a negative character. The translation into Russian was wildly successful; without changing the literal meaning of a single sentence, it changed Karlsson into a hero. The cartoon provided an iconic image for Karlsson, and added several of the greatest voice talents of the last century. Karlsson became symbolic of the so-called ‘internal emigres’ – members of various suppressed counterculture movements.”
Here is a link to Part 1 of the original Karlsson cartoon. And here is one to the sequel that introduces Frekken Bock.
Karlsson
by Anatoly Belilovsky
“Where is Charlie?” I asked.
Lynne didn’t look up from her laptop. “Watching his stupid cartoons, I think,” she said.
“I’m going to work,” I said. “Night shift.”
“Bye,” she said.
She used to say, ‘Be careful.’
(Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 29: Eggs Under Moon
Show Notes
Of Eggs Under Moon Elizabeth said “This poem came out of the March 1, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl, a live poetry activity that I hold monthly in The Wordsmith’s Forge. It was inspired by a prompt from Mary-Grace Ellington.”
Eggs Under Moon
by Elizabeth Barrette
The girl nearly steps on the nest
before she sees it,
throws herself back against the sand
to avoid the faint damp hollow.
She runs to the beach house,
pounds on the door, yells,
“Dragon dragon dragon dragon!”
as fast as she can draw breath. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 28: Jack In The Box
Show Notes
Today, we present Jack In The Box by R B Harkess. Born in Bristol, he now lives just outside London. He studied a mad mixture of subjects at the Open University which had nothing to do with my career in I.T. Having only “started writing seriously again” in 2009, he likes to look at ways of getting his stories out in as many media as he can besides the conventional ‘dead tree’ method.
You can find out more about Mr Harkess at his blog or Facebook. Aphrodite’s Dawn is available from Proxima Books or from Amazon as a Kindle edition.
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.
Genres: Fantasy
Cast of Wonders 27: My Boogie Man
Show Notes
Today, we present My Boogie Man by Harley May. You can find our more about Harley at her blog, where she says “I am a writer and reader of many things. I blog about everything: writing, books, movies, music, my husband, three children, and other random things that make me laugh. My parents are from Alabama, but I grew up in South Korea. Essentially, I am a foreigner with an American passport. I love my life.
I am a regular contributor for An Army of Erma’s. I have a few things up at Fictionaut.”
Making a welcome return to Cast of Wonders is your narrator, Danielle Daly. Dani is a forecast analyst who works for a pharmaceutical company on Long Island NY, happily married to the love of her life. Their children are hypoallergenic Siberian cats that think they’re puppies. (I wonder how’d they’d get along with my dog, Jake?) Dani loves to read, garden, listen to music, cook and daydream. She says, “Narrating stories is great for someone like me who can’t write well but still burns with a desire to be part of the literary world.”
Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com.