Posts Tagged ‘Escape Artists’

Cast of Wonders 2017 Award Eligibility

Hello everyone. In case you are eligible to nominate and/or vote for genre fiction awards, here for your consideration are the stories first published by Cast of Wonders in 2017.

All of these stories fall into the Short Story category for both the Hugo and Nebula awards.

Cast of Wonders is eligible for the Best Semiprozine Hugo award. Our editor, Marguerite Kenner, is eligible in the Best Editor: Short Form Hugo category.

2017 reprints:

2017 first publications:

All Four Escape Artists Podcasts Confirmed As SFWA Approved Markets

The Escape Artists podcasts are delighted to announce that Pseudopod, Podcastle and Cast of Wonders have entered the list of approved short fiction markets maintained by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (“SFWA”). They join sister-show Escape Pod.

Since 2006, Escape Artists has been at the leading edge of audio short fiction. Its four podcasts provide free, weekly stories in their respective genres across every element of speculative fiction. Their combined back catalog of nearly 1800 episodes encompass a huge array of authors and narrators, from industry giants to emerging talents. Each episode features flash or short fiction and commentary, supporting EA’s ‘One Story, Told Well’ mission.

‘Everyone at Escape Artists is thrilled to see this confirmed’ said owner, Alasdair Stuart. ‘We’re very proud of the number of authors who have their first professional sales with one of our shows. Bringing all four shows’ pay rates into synch, and being approved SFWA markets, will continue to support our goal of lowering barriers to entry in publishing. Sales to EA podcasts will now count toward SFWA membership requirements for authors, and bring a wider range of voices to genre fiction.

For more information visit escapeartists.net, or follow @EAPodcasts on Twitter.

EA Metacast: 2016 Award-Eligible Stories

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Hello everyone! Award nomination season is upon us. If you’re eligible to nominate your favorite short stories of 2016 for the Nebula, the Hugo, and other awards, we humbly submit the following list of Cast of Wonders short story original publications for your consideration:

2016 Original Publications:

  • Episodes 197 and 198 The Authorized Biography by Michael G. Ryan
  • Episode 199 Leapling by Nicole Feldringer
  • Episode  203 The Universe Dress by Laura-Marie Steele
  • Episode 207 Millions Times Eight by Jake Walters
  • Episode 210  When the Planets Left by J. J. Litke
  • Episode 214 The Price of Stories by Shannon Connor Winward
  • Episode 215 Problematic by Brian Lawrence Hurrel
  • Episode 216  This Story Begins With You by Rachael K. Jones
  • Episode 217 Boys’ Night by Rebecca Birch
  • Episode 218 Saurs by Craig DeLancey
  • Episode 220 Raptor Boy by Elise Forier Edie
  • Episode 221 The Jungle Between by Holly Schofield
  • Episode 223 The Oulough by Francesca Forrest
  • Episode 224 Welcome to Willoughby’s by Michael Reid
  • Episode 225 The Four Stewpots by DK Thompson
  • Episode 225 Her Path Lay Forward by Shane Halbach

2016 Reprints:

Thank you for your consideration!

Where to find Cast of Wonders at WorldCon

Hello everyone!

Cast of Wonders’ editor and host, Marguerite Kenner, will be at WorldCon in Kansas City, Missouri this week. You can find her on the following panels as well as roaming the halls. Come say hello, and get a Cast of Wonders badge ribbon!

Creative Commons Rights for Creators and Fans

The TriWonders Flash Fiction Contest Is Here!

We are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held since the dawn of 2016. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the TriWonders Flash Fiction Contest will be taking place at Cast of Wonders this year!

It’s true! The time for the next Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest is here!

Cast of Wonders is happy to announce we are running the next installment of the much loved Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest. We’re opening a special submission window from August 15 to September 30, and invite each author to submit a single brand new 500 word story. Our normal submission guidelines apply but instead of our slush team, it will be judged by our forum members.

Sharpen your pencils and get your 500 word story ready! Visit our forums to register as a member. Then, between August 15 and September 30, visit our Submittable page for contest rules and to submit your story. Voting will open to registered forum members only, so first publication rights are not spent for the stories that do not ultimately win. The three stories that receive the most votes will be purchased by Cast of Wonders and run as a Little Wonders episode in early 2017.

Voting will open on Sunday October 9, 2016. Again, only registered members of the forums will be able to read and vote on the stories!

Please blog, share on Facebook, tweet, email, send postcards, telephone, text, light smoke signals, and otherwise get the word out!

Writers, Start Your Engines: Submission Call Alert

September 25 through October 1st is Banned Book Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and raising awareness of the immense social value of free and open access to information. We’ve run special episodes spotlighting the event in the past, such as Alex Shvartsman’s The Things We Leave Behind.

To celebrate, later this year (tentatively scheduled for April/May), Cast of Wonders will hold a specific submission call for new YA stories focusing on themes of overcoming censorship, access to information and the transformative power of literature in all its forms.

Full details will be availaible before the submission window opens and will include:

  • Two week submission window to be announced in April or May 2016
  • New stories only
  • Open to both flash and short fiction
  • Our regular pay rates ($0.06/word), submission guidelines and contractual terms will apply
  • We plan to purchase up to seven stories to showcase the week

We hope this inspires you, and we can’t wait to see your stories!

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Artemis Rising 2 Print Available Now

Artemis Rising is the month-long celebration of female and non-binary authors in genre fiction run across three Escape Artists podcasts PodCastle for fantasy, EscapePod for science fiction, and PseudoPod for horror.

This year we have commissioned a special art print by legendary ilustrator Galen Dara. The print will be available for purchase through Society6 until March 31, 2016.

Artemis Rising 2 FINAL
Galen likes monsters, mystics, and dead things. She has created art for Uncanny Magazine, 47North publishing, Skyscape Publishing, Fantasy Flight Games, Tyche Books, Fireside Magazine, Lightspeed, Lackington’s, and Resurrection House. She has been nominated for the Hugo, the World Fantasy Award, and the Chesley Award. When Galen is not working on a project you can find her on the edge of the Sonoran Desert, climbing mountains and hanging out with an assortment of human and animal companions. Her website is www.galendara.com plus you can find her on Facebook and Twitter @galendara.

For Your Consideration

Hello everyone, this is Alasdair, the voice of Escape Artists. This is our 2016 metacast to present the stories we ran in 2015 which are eligible in the upcoming Hugo nomination season.

First, a quick plug four ourselves. All four EA shows – Podcastle, Pseudopod, Escapepod and Cast of Wonders – are themselves eligible in the SEMIPROZINE Hugo category.

Not Fancast. Not Fanzine. Semiprozine.

Yes, the categories are confusing and often overlap. Fancast as a category is traditionally dominated by commentary shows and sketch based audio programs. Take at look at the finalists over the last couple of years. Whereas the Semiprozine category is home to the types of publications we consider our publishing peers.

While there’s an argument to be made we could split the shows and compete in multiple categories to increase our chances, we don’t think benefits anyone. The division would be artificial at best, extremely difficult to explain given all four of our shows have harmonized pay rates and submissions policies, and smack of gamesmanship which doesn’t interest us.

Don’t get us wrong, we LOVED seeing Podcastle and Escapepod on last year’s Hugo long lists, and we’d be honoured for one of our shows to be a finalist. But that’s a decision that rests solely in the hands of you, our fans and supporters.

And just a note, Mothership Zeta doesn’t qualify this year because they’re too new.

Update: all of our editors (Graeme Dunlop and Rachael K. Jones at PodCastle, Shawn Garrett at Pseudopod, Marguerite Kenner at Cast of Wonders and Norm Sherman at EscapePod) are themselves eligible in the Editor, Short Form category.

These show notes contain links to a few different aggregation projects, where fiction fans are building cumulative lists of those eligible in the various categories. They’re great tools, and we’d like to thank David Steffen in particular for his efforts. We’ll also link to our Wikia page, containing links to all the stories mentioned.

And with that, we present the following for your consideration:

Editor, Short Form:

Marguerite Kenner

Cast of Wonders 2015 Short Story first publications:

• Aisha Bets Her Life on Magic by Jarod K. Anderson
• There Are No Marshmallows in Camelot by Christian McKay Heidicker
• Lost Socks by Lisa Montoya
• Above Decks by Terry Ibele
• Fairy Bones by Guy Stewart
• A Troll’s Trade by Sandra M. Odell

2015 reprints:

• The Mothgate by J.R. Troughton – originally published by Shimmer
• The New Kid Is Not An Alien by Bert Lowe originally published in the July 2015 issue of Spaceports & Spidersilk from Nomadic Delirium Press

A Huge Announcement: Cast of Wonders is joining Escape Artists!

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Hello everyone, Marguerite here!

Two years ago, Graeme and I had an idea. I was taking over as editor and host, and along with Barry we were trying to come up with ways of expanding our audience as well as the formats and types of episodes we could produce.

Some of those changes you’ve already seen, like the introduction of the Little Wonders flash episodes and our Camp Myth serial. Others haven’t been as visible – bringing aboard additional audio producers and slush readers. We stepped up our convention presence in 2015, with appearances at Nine Worlds in London, WorldCon in Spokane, and we’ll be at FantasyCon later this month in Nottingham.

All leading up to what today I am thrilled and humbled to announce. Cast of Wonders is about to take one giant step out into the larger genre fiction world, arm in arm with some of the best respected podcasters in the business. In 2016, Cast of Wonders will be joining the Escape Artists family of podcasts, home to Podcastle, Escapepod, and Pseudopod. Did you know that the three shows combined currently have a listenership of over a quarter of a million downloads a month? Combine that with the newly launched Mothership Zeta digital magazine, and EA is one of the largest genre fiction markets out there. There’s no place better suited for Cast of Wonders’ unique and wonderful young adult stories.

You can listen to EA’s owner, Alasdair Stuart, and myself talk about the announcement in Part 1 of their annual metacast. (Listen to Part 2 and Part 3 as well – free stories!)

This also means that, as far as I know, Cast of Wonders is about to become the first PRO RATE paying young adult short fiction audio market. That’s right everyone, once the transition is complete, Cast of Wonders will be offering SFWA pro rate payments on all new fiction. Plus stepping up our reprint rates. We’ll have new contracts as well, which we’ll post an example of for our authors to review as part of the migration.

We don’t have exact dates available to share just yet. To prepare for the change-over we’ve closed to submissions, and we’ll announce when we’ll be re-opening as soon as possible; I’m thinking December is likely right now. There are lots of details still to iron out, and I’d like to prepare a list of great example stories for the EA audience to get to know what we’re about here at Cast of Wonders. If you have some favorites you think should be included, let us know.

Thanks everyone. From all of us, we hope you’re as excited as we to finally be able to take Cast of Wonders to a new professional level of audio fiction and entertainment. We’ll keep you posted as the details are confirmed. And as always – thanks for listening!