Posts Tagged ‘Little Wonders’

ice flower

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 576: Little Wonders 43 – Young Authors

Cast of Wonders 576: Little Wonders 43 – Young Authors is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:17 — 22.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

At the Edge of Nowhere

by Peter Gooley

It saddens me to look out my window and see the secrets lying sad and broken across the dusty road. The sprays of wind toss them along, scattering the letters among the little, cream-coloured chunks of gravel. I think that sadness was what made me first start collecting them. I gather the tiny, sparkling thoughts from the dew-painted ground each morning as I tend my garden, like manna from heaven. (Continue Reading…)

glowing butterflies in a jar in the darkness

Genres: , ,

Cast of Wonders 548: Little Wonders 41 – Mortality

Cast of Wonders 548: Little Wonders 41 – Mortality is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:14 — 22.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Glass Flies

by Gwen C. Katz

At dawn they poured from the ground, from crevices in the rock, from underneath tree bark. Glass flies. June 25. You could set your clock by it.

Newly hatched, they were clumsy. They collided with windows, smeared themselves across car grates, got entangled in hair. Jonas found one trembling on his porch, one transparent green and yellow wing shattered. He scooped it up. Its thread-thin legs clung to his finger.

“A glass fly is not a pet,” said his mother. Jonas didn’t listen. He placed the glass fly in a shoebox and offered it some Oreo crumbs. (Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 542: Little Wonders 40 – Stepping out of your comfort zone

Cast of Wonders 542: Little Wonders 40 – Stepping out of your comfort zone is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:15 — 33.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Monstech

by Adam Gaylord

It’s tough being a monster nowadays. With the constant threat of terrorism, global warming, and yet another Michael Bay film, the average person just doesn’t have enough fear left at the end of the day for what’s lurking under the bed. (Continue Reading…)

old books, herbs, pestle and mortar

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 536: Little Wonders 38 – Advice

Cast of Wonders 536: Little Wonders 38 – Advice is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:02 — 29.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

A Letter to A Bully’s Mother

by Priya Sridhar

Dear Opal’s Mom:

This is Jem, Opal’s classmate. Last week, you asked my Magical Cupcake club to make two hundred cupcakes for Opal’s birthday–chocolate chip and peanut butter. Even though you pay well, I would have refused on behalf of the Magical Cupcake Bakers. The girls outvoted me since we need the money for new cooking equipment. My friends made all the cupcakes in the school kitchens and used my mom’s bakery ovens when we ran out of room in the ones used for cooking classes. That explains the taste you complained about on BakeHub this morning. As you wrote in your post, it was my special touch you were paying for–and that was missing.

Enclosed are a few extra cupcakes for you and Opal’s dad. These I did make, cardamom vanilla, with some hints of ginger from infused milk. This proves that I haven’t “lost it”, as you posted, my Jersey family baking touch. (Continue Reading…)

Genres: , ,

Cast of Wonders 529: Little Wonders 37 – Seeking Connections

Cast of Wonders 529: Little Wonders 37 – Seeking Connections is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:33 — 40.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Show Notes

Birding With My Human was originally published in Nature Futures on July 7th, 2021.

Haunting the Docks

by Marie Vibbert

No one comes to my dock anymore. It’s so empty I can hear the ping of metal struts relaxing. The sounds of life elsewhere on the station, transmitted through multiple bulkheads, are muted, inchoate moans. I cycle through checks on systems unperturbed by human hands. I tidy what is already tidy.

I’m so bored. I power on a tug-drone.

“Aft Supplemental Dock Petty Tug Drone 2 reporting for duty. You can call me Pettie!” Her voice abruptly loses its chipper tone. “Oh, it’s you.” (Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 506: Little Wonders 35 – Memories of Home

Cast of Wonders 506: Little Wonders 35 – Memories of Home is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:08 — 41.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

The Past Laid Out On The Table

by Matt Tighe

The sky above his mother’s house is the bright orange and pink of a frozen dawn when David stops by after work.

‘Mum!’ he yells as he slings the grocery bags at the kitchen bench. They slow to a stop in mid-air. A yellow lemon drops out of one bag and spins lazily, nowhere to go. No when to go.

‘Yes, dear?’

“Have you looked out the window?” David says, trying to keep the edge from his voice. He wishes she would just leave the past alone.

“Oh, I’ll put it all back,” she says, and of course she will. She was always good like that. Always the ordered one. Always the careful one.

“Do you have time for a cup of tea?” she asks. (Continue Reading…)

alien landscape

Genres: , ,

Cast of Wonders 502: Little Wonders 34 – Separation & Connection

Cast of Wonders 502: Little Wonders 34 – Separation & Connection is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:05 — 49.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Show Notes

Of Bugs, Debts and Distant Planets was originally published in Fifth Di… Magazine in June 2021

Of Bugs, Debts, and Distant Planets

by Vera Brook

The blue-green farming fields of Kenor surround me like a waist-deep sea as I sweep another fern, the bugs rattling like pebbles down the clear tube of my vacuum. One cold, alien sun hangs to my right, another to my left.

There’s nothing I’ll miss about this world when I leave tonight.

Except Jace. (Continue Reading…)

woman with colourful wisps of light

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 491: Little Wonders 33 – Dreams & Identity

Cast of Wonders 491: Little Wonders 33 – Dreams & Identity is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:56 — 19.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Show Notes

“In the Library of Longing” was first published by Daily Science Fiction, February 2021

Sleep Tight

by Mark Joslyn

You were right, you know. When you were a child.

I was hiding under your bed.

You knew it, even though you couldn’t prove it. Even after your mother kissed your cheek, and tucked you in, and told you there was nothing to be afraid of. Even after your father knelt and checked and told you there was nothing hiding down there. Even when you summoned up all your courage and looked for yourself, hanging off the edge of your bed, your trembling flashlight shining on nothing but forgotten socks and lost toys. You still knew, that somehow, someway, I was down there. (Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 488: Little Wonders 32 – the Power of Imagination

Cast of Wonders 488: Little Wonders 32 – the Power of Imagination is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:46 — 15.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Interview with a Sixth Grade Science Fiction Food Stylist

by B Myers

A full excerpt from Gustatory Semiotics Review (Winter) follows.

It was our privilege to conduct this interview at the Matz residence in Saukinee, casually situated near our subject’s working environment—the Matz kitchen table. Kevin Matz, in his brief tenure as an originator of radical alterities in the foodsphere, has already reworked several well-known genre themes (via found objects, snack items, condiments, and food coloring) into novel tableaux formats. We found the artist a voluble if elliptical subject.

GSR: Kevin, let’s talk about the nearly complete canvas we see before us—Jelly Caravan. This installation, which will remain on exhibit until—.”

Kevin: About 5:30.

GSR: At first glance, this piece seems to represent graphically the terror of distances. Upon a vast expanse of black construction paper we see a tenuous line of objects. What is the significance or purpose of these objects you refer to as jelly galleons?

Kevin: The jelly galleons bring jellies from other star systems. Probably because the flavors come from the starlight. It’s hard to tell. No one understands the language of the jelly galleons. (Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 458: Little Wonders 31 – Acceptance

Cast of Wonders 458: Little Wonders 31 – Acceptance is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:37 — 22.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Rosie’s Ghosts

by Srikripa Krishna Prasad

They sway in front of the bay window, sunlight tinting their translucent bodies gold. Rosie watches from under her eyelashes, her book lying uselessly on her lap despite her attempt to focus. Don’t look, she thinks, shame burning her throat, but they are magnetic as they dance together, the short woman’s head fitting perfectly into the crook of her partner’s neck. Their laughter rings in the air; Rosie knows it intimately. She hears it often when they reminisce about their time in this house, when they touch each other, when they waltz impromptu around the room. The creature in her chest cries out for this joy, this bright love that has transcended even death, despite how much she tries to suppress it.

The short woman leans up, and the tall woman leans down, and their lips meet, their arms bracketing each other tenderly, like they hold something precious. (Continue Reading…)

alien and human

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 455: Little Wonders 30 – Not So Alien After All

Cast of Wonders 455: Little Wonders 30 – Not So Alien After All is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:48 — 25.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Toward the Sploff Zone

by Brenna Harvey

“Kids, you’re switching bodies today!” said Coach Sningarax.

Our whole gym class groaned.

“Why?” I asked.

“To build character! Now, what’s the number one rule of neuroswapping?”

“Respect,” we droned in unison. (Continue Reading…)

magic butterflies

Genres: , , ,

Cast of Wonders 452: Little Wonders 29 – Flash Fiction Contest Winners

Cast of Wonders 452: Little Wonders 29 – Flash Fiction Contest Winners is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:04 — 20.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Porch Light for the Lonely

by Alyson Grauer

When the wide western sky is black, embroidered with thousands of silver stars, and crickets sing unseen in the dry grass, critters come to the porch of the old house. The rug has long since lost its color from years of harsh sun. The wrought-iron bench is rusted, enamel flaking away like tree bark. The mailbox is crooked, and the torn curtains blow gently in the wind. Though it’s the sturdiest house left on the block, it sits unlived in, untrespassed. Only the flies and spiders know how empty it truly is inside.

Many cats come: strays, abandoned pets, and feral. They drape themselves about the empty porch, meowing with quiet yearning. (Continue Reading…)