Posts Tagged ‘Young Adult fiction’

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Cast of Wonders 167: Setting My Spider Free

Originally published in Electric Velocipede Issue 17/18 (Spring 2009).

Content Warning: This week’s story features spiders front and center. Arachnophobes may want to skip this episode and join us again next week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:50 — 19.1MB)

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Setting My Spider Free

by Caroline M. Yoachim

Cool air swirled in through the window and carried with it the faint tapping of claws scratching against stone.  A spiderling was climbing my tower.

Lilymiya stirred.  She’d spent the daylight hours in her corner with all her legs fanned out across the floor, trying to ward off the summer heat.  My poor spider. Her fur, so thick and comforting in the winter, was patchy and ragged. Clumps of it gathered along the base of the walls, and thick strands clung to the grimy sweat on my skin.

The spiderling appeared on my windowsill.  It was medium-sized — bigger than a loaf of bread, but a hundredth the size of Lilymiya.  I didn’t want it to disturb the webs that decorated my walls, so I reached up and grabbed it with both hands.  The spiderling twirled its legs in the empty air as it tried to cool itself.

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Cast of Wonders 166: Hard Passage

Originally published by Perihelion SF (2014).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:17 — 32.3MB)

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Show Notes

Juliet Mushens’ book Get Started in Writing Young Adult Fiction is available now in the UK, and forthcoming in the US. You can find her on Twitter.

Hard Passage

by Holly Schofield

Daylan hurried along the edge of the crowd. He would violate the Heartcreed if he was late again.

As he approached the main wormhole gate, a new wave of arrivals washed over him. There should have been a few minutes grace. I’ve got the schedules wrong again, he thought, flicking his grimy pad into begging mode with an aching thumb.

“Help a poor orphan boy save for a ticket home,” Daylan called out to the kindliest-looking ones as he forged upstream, against the hectic flow of passengers, hunching to make himself shorter. He waved his pad, the large zero indicating his lack of credits. Most arrivees let their eyes pass over his ragged clothes and unblemished forehead, the lack of a visible brain implant labeling him idios.

Endless multitudes streamed by, a cacophony of colour and shapes: tall, elegant Naiphs; stocky Rassakits; right-sized Terrans. Humankind and the two known extraterrestrial species surged in a constant flux; arriving and departing ships determining the tidal ebb and flow of the spaceport.
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Cast of Wonders 165: Into The Forever Place

Originally published in the The Devilfish Review (December 2012).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:08 — 39.5MB)

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Show Notes

Our story this week is a special re-broadcast of Into the Forever Place by Luke Thomas. This story originally ran in July of last year, but the recording suffered from a technical failure that meant we took it down almost as soon as it went up, so we’ve decided to re-release it for your listening pleasure.

Into the Forever Place

by Luke Thomas

I fasten the last braid about Jad’s shoulder and step back. My belly flutters as I look him over, which isn’t normal. Jad’s my best friend. I’m never more comfortable with anyone than with him. Today, though, he is to be venerated, and he looks the part. I knew the dyes used for this sash were precious, but only now do I understand what that means.

We both examine his reflection in the slab of mirrored glass leaning against the wall. The mirror’s old tain yellows everything—the wood and mortar walls, my pale skin and Jad’s dark—it’s all yellowed except the braids of the sash. They wind around Jad’s lanky torso in blues and greens more vivid than life. I know a veneration ceremony is about the clan, not about Jad, but we can both see he looks splendid. His chest swells. I can’t help but laugh. “Jad… you’re preening.”

He blinks, realizes how puffed up he is, and laughs. This doesn’t last long though; Jad recovers himself more quickly than I can manage. He’s a trained storykeeper, after all, and can isolate the rhythm of his breathing and trim the laughter right out of it. I’ve no such control.

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2014 Parsec Award Nominations are Now Open!

Hello everyone!

The 2014 Parsec Awards nomination window is now open, and every one of the stories listed below is eligible for nomination in the Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Short Form) category.

The nomination window is open until May 31st, 2015, so spread the word on whatever social media platforms you like. Cast of Wonders itself is eligible in the Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast category and we’d love your support.

Thank you all!

Marguerite

2014 PARSEC ELIGIBLE EPISODES

123: Taxidermy and Other Dangerous Professions by JR Johnson, read by M K Hobson

124: Old People Rules by Holly Schofield, read by Melissa Bugaj

125: The Clasp by Jarod Anderson, read by Elie Hirschman

126: The Perfect Prom by Kat Otis, read by Mur Lafferty

127: Learning the Game by Michael Haynes, read by M K Hobson

128: Robots Don’t Cry by George Edwards, read by Pete Milan

129: Into The Forever Place by Luke Thomas, read by Heather Welliver

130: The Phobos Monolith by Preston Dennett, read by Amy Robinson

131: Survivor by Josh Roseman, read by Marguerite Kenner

132: The Collector by Jameyanne Fuller, read by Alasdair Stuart

133: A Well-Lit Dungeon by Mark Mills, read by Adam Black

134/135: Flowers For the Dead by Jamie Mason, read by Paul Cram

136: Flotsam by Rebecca Schwarz, read by Jeff Hite

137: The Filigreed Cage by Krystal Claxton, read by Andrew Clarke

138: Things We Leave Behind by Alex Shvartsman, read by the author

139: Little Wonders 6: A Little Laughter. Continue? by James Vachowski, read by John Cmar; The Girl With The Picollo by Charity Tahmaseb, read by Fiona “Princess Scientist” Van Verth; Some Assembly Required by Terry L. Mirll, read by Dave Robison

140: Of Pumpkin Soup and Other Demons by Natalia Theodoridou, read by Katherine Inskip and The Ghost of Grammy Goneril by Austin H. Gilkeson, read by Christiniana Ellis

141: Reading Time by Beth Cato, read by Dave Thompson and A House In The Forest by Shawn Bailey, read by Lizzie S

142: Marrow by Mav Skye, read by Barry J. Northern

144: The Middle Rages by Joseph L. Kellogg, read by John Cmar

145: Tell Them Of The Sky by A. T. Greenblatt, read by Pete Newman

146/147: 30 Minutes for New Hell by Rick Kennett, read by Marguerite Kenner

148: Shimmer by Amanda Davis, read by Lizzie S

149: Bricks and Sunlight by M. K. Hutchins, read by Dani Daly

150: Little Wonders 7: The Season of Goodwill. Christmas Lights by Jamie Lackey, read by Marguerite Kenner and The Secret Ingredient Is by Emmalia Harrington, read by Anne Fortune

155: Aisha Bets Her Life on Magic by Jarod K. Anderson, read by Julia Rios

156/157: The Seal King by Jennifer Noelle Welch, read by Paul Cram

158: This Is Your Problem, Right Here by David Steffen, read by Graeme Dunlop

159: There Are No Marshmallows in Camelot by Christian McKay Heidicker, read by Marguerite Kenner

160: The Haunted Jalopy Races by Matthew Bennardo, read by Alasdair Stuart

161: The Rum Cake Runner by Jessi Cole Jackson, read by Michelle Ristuccia

162: Sister Winter by Jenni Moody, read by Melissa Bugaj

163: Speaking to Skull Kings by Emily Cataneo, read by Katherine Inskip and Jeremy Carter

164: Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages, read by Rikki LaCoste, Isis LaCoste and Fiona “Princess Scientist” Van Verth

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Julia Rios, our narrator on Episode 155, Aisha Bets Her Life On Magic, for winning the 2015 Ditmar and Aurealis Awards for the excellent anthology Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories which is also on this year’s Tiptree Award Honor list.

And if you’re a fan of Podcastle’s very own Dave Thompson, his short story collection And Welcome Back is on Kickstarter now. His stretch goals including a chapbook and audio book collection of Easter Werewolf mad libs stories by such luminaries as Ann Leckie, Amal El-Mohtar, Rachael K. Jones, Nathaniel Lee, M.K. Hobson, Matt Wallace, Mur Lafferty, and more. You don’t want to miss it.

-Marguerite

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Cast of Wonders 164: Amicae Aeternum

Originally published in Reach for Infinity (May 2014).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:50 — 24.7MB)

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Show Notes

Available from Solaris in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 9 (May 2015), and from Tor.com.

Once you’ve listened to the story, here’s the lullaby Rikki wrote!

Amicae Aeternum

by Ellen Klages

It was still dark when Corry woke, no lights on in the neighbors’ houses, just a yellow glow from the streetlight on the other side of the elm. Through her open window, the early summer breeze brushed across her coverlet like silk.

Corry dressed silently, trying not to see the empty walls, the boxes piled in a corner. She pulled on a shirt and shorts, looping the laces of her shoes around her neck and climbed from bed to sill and out the window with only a whisper of fabric against the worn wood. Then she was outside.

The grass was chill and damp beneath her bare feet. She let them rest on it for a minute, the freshly-mowed blades tickling her toes, her heels sinking into the springy-sponginess of the dirt. She breathed deep, to catch it all—the cool and the green and the stillness—holding it in for as long as she could before slipping on her shoes.

A morning to remember. Every little detail.

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Cast of Wonders 163: Speaking to Skull Kings

Originally published in Betwixt issue 4, Summer 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:08 — 33.1MB)

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Speaking to Skull Kings

by Emily B. Cataneo

When Bird with his crown of black roses disappears from the clearing, Genevieve knows she and Joseph won’t be safe anymore. At night, while Joseph sleeps, she sorts the walnuts and lingonberries that Bird gathered for them to eat, counting fewer each time. Her stomach aches and she flinches at the rustle of the skull kings in the ghost forest beyond the clearing.

Sometimes, she clambers up trees, her boots slipping on bark, straining to hear the rustle of Bird’s wings, the growl of his caw.

Night after night, Bird doesn’t return.

Night after night, the skull kings crunch through the undergrowth, closer and closer.

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Cast of Wonders 162: Sister Winter

Originally appeared in The Colored Lens, Issue 12, Summer 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:38 — 23.5MB)

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Sister Winter

by Jenni Moody

We were just going to bed when the townfolk came, led by Mrs. Hutch with her know-all voice.

I climbed up the cabin ladder to the loft, careful to curl my toes over the rough beams of wood. Ma had fallen off the stairs just a week ago, and now she slept downstairs on the sofa. The cabin was just one big room, so she could still yell up at me and Minn to make us quiet down.

Minnie had the covers pulled up over her head. I could see her eyes shining out from a little hole, like a cat in her cave.

“Move over, Minn.” I swung my legs under the covers. She scooted back, and I pressed my feet against her thighs.

Minnie wrapped her hands around my feet. Their warmth prickled. “So cold!”

The underside of the covers twinkled with little points of light. Minnie touched her finger to the sheet. When she pulled it back there was a warm, red star there. She made two rectangles, a star in each corner of the boxes. An arc of stars lead from the bottom of one rectangle to the center of the other. My feet in Minnie’s hands.

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Cast of Wonders 160: The Haunted Jalopy Races

Originally published in Shimmer, Number 16 (2013).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:08 — 23.0MB)

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The Haunted Jalopy Races

by M. Bennardo

It all started when gallant Joe Jones and shiftless Sylvester Sneep agreed to race each other for the hand of pretty Sadie Merriweather. Except that’s not really how it started at all, not the first year anyway, not back in 1938.

Back then, that first year, Joe Jones wasn’t thought especially gallant and Sylvester Sneep wasn’t thought especially shiftless. Sadie Merriweather was indeed thought especially pretty–at least by most of the boys in Rock Falls–but Joe and Sylvester weren’t racing for her hand.

Not even in Rock Falls, not even in 1938, did anybody think that the outcome of a jalopy race could decide the affections of a teenaged girl. Instead, it was purely a matter of honor. Sylvester had felt his pride pricked when Sadie chose Joe over him, and so the challenge for the race had been given. The challenge was well-known among the upper classes at Rock Falls High School, but the rest of the town only got their first inkling of what was happening when the boys revved up their modified flatties at the top of the square pointing out to Falls Bridge down on Five Falls Road, and by then it was too late.

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Cast of Wonders 159: There Are No Marshmallows in Camelot

Cast of Wonders 159: There Are No Marshmallows in Camelot is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:42 — 20.8MB)

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Show Notes

Learn more about the new LGBTQ podcast Glittership!

There Are No Marshmallows in Camelot

by Christian McKay Heidicker

Leticia Andrews saw the wizard hat on a Monday morning at 7:06 a.m. She was eating Lucky Charms in the kitchen nook. The hat was gray and tattered and sat in the window of her plastic princess house, which was in the backyard.

“MOM!” she screamed down the hallway. “DO I HAVE A WIZARD HAT?”

“Don’t think so! Unless Uncle Lewis . . .”

“DOES JAKEY?”

“Honey, I don’t know! I’m working?”

Jake, Teece’s baby brother, did not have a wizard hat. She was 96.2% sure. At least not one so pointy and floppy and not covered in glitter like the ones from Toys ‘R’ Us. Even though Teece had never seen one before, she knew the hat that currently sat in her princess house was a real wizard hat. And that meant things.

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Cast of Wonders 158: This Is Your Problem, Right Here

Originally published in Daily Science Fiction (November 2012).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:44 — 10.8MB)

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This Is Your Problem, Right Here

by David Steffen

“This is your problem, right here.” The plumber’s deep voice resounded from beneath the maintenance hatch by the main pool at Cascade Reef water park. “You’ve only got one troll left. For a pool this big, you need fifty minimum, seventy-five if you want everything to run smoothly.”

“Pardon?” shouted Anita Westegard, the owner. “I only have one of what left?”

The plumber appeared beneath her. His arms were covered to the elbows with green slime. “Trolls. See?” He held one grimy hand up toward her holding a tiny skull. It was almost human in shape, with two thick tusks and curved ram’s horns. “Poor things must have been starved to turn on each other like that.”
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