Posts Tagged ‘Young Adult fiction’

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

Genres:

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)

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

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.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 163: Speaking to Skull Kings

Originally published in Betwixt issue 4, Summer 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:13 — 33.2MB)

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

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.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 162: Sister Winter

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:41 — 23.5MB)

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

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.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 160: The Haunted Jalopy Races

Originally published in Shimmer, Number 16 (2013).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:11 — 23.1MB)

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

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.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

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: 22:45 — 20.8MB)

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

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.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres: , ,

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: 12:14 — 11.3MB)

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

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.”
(Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 157: The Seal King (Part 2)

Cast of Wonders 157: The Seal King (Part 2) is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:26 — 28.0MB)

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

The Seal King (Part 2)

by Jennifer Noelle Welch

Rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle…

Lou’s forehead hurts where it rests, mashed against the keel, and tracing the source of the sound, her brain awakens with a pinch. The coat is wrapped around her shoulders, and somewhere a steel cleat is vibrating. Raising her head, she remembers. The skiff, the size of a tiny teacup, spinning lazily towards the horizon. Are those really the first stars? had been her last thought, before her eyes swam and the darkness swallowed all.

In the stern, the seal king hugs his curled legs, shuddering uncontrollably, his eyes locked on her face.

“You did it,” she whispers. “How did you…”

Forming the words, he seizes, his voice fluttering into her head instead. S-swam. I had t-trouble pulling you back in. I’m s-sorry. He nods at her side, and Lou finds a bleeding scrape above her hip.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 156: The Seal King (Part 1)

Cast of Wonders 156: The Seal King (Part 1) is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:40 — 21.8MB)

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

The Seal King (Part 1)

by Jennifer Noelle Welch

The girl with apricot-colored hair sits on a dock the color of driftwood, her back against a stone wall retaining the land against the push and pull of the sea. Buoys bob and clang. On this small peninsula on the shoulder of the Atlantic, close-set fishermen’s cottages cluster together for comfort. When the wind rakes the swells into whitecaps, yellow foul-weather waders lift on the clotheslines.

It is early September, and the saline haze of summer still hangs ripe and full over the harbor. Louellen, or Lou, as she is called, pulls the frayed cuffs of her father’s coat farther over her hands and presses her spine against the afternoon of too-busy family and heckling high-school classmates. The splashing kids have cleared the dock platform and small swimming beach for another season, leaving her mind to dance with everything and nothing.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres: ,

Cast of Wonders 155: Aisha Bets Her Life on Magic

Cast of Wonders 155: Aisha Bets Her Life on Magic is a Cast of Wonders original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:53 — 15.6MB)

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

Aisha Bets Her Life on Magic

by Jarod K. Anderson

Aisha Gonzalez was half asleep when the ceiling pressed against her nose.  She made an unconscious move to brush away whatever was touching her and smacked the textured surface of the ceiling hard with the back of her hand. She started awake, scraping her forehead. She barked out a scream and shoved hard at whatever was hovering over her.

Aisha’s mattress receded from the ceiling, bumped against her box springs, then slowly floated upwards. She watched the ceiling move closer with wide eyes, then raised her foot and pushed off back toward the floor. She rolled onto her stomach and looked over the edge of the mattress. She was still in her little studio apartment. Her work clothes from the day before were scattered on the floor next to her humming box fan. Outside the French doors that led to her rickety little balcony she could see the lights from the Speedway gas station next door. The mattress rose and gently pressed her back against the ceiling.

She lay still, sandwiched between mattress and plaster, staring down at her apartment.

“I’m awake,” she said aloud just to hear her own voice. “I’m not dreaming.”
(Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 154: Sundae (Staff Pick 2014)

Originally published as a Kindle eBook (2012).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:21 — 36.9MB)

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

Show Notes

Every year in January Cast of Wonders takes a break to catch our breath, plan out the year ahead, and highlight some of our favourite episodes from the year just passed.

We hope you enjoy Allen’s favorite story from 2014, Sundae by Matt Wallace, which originally aired April 27, 2014 as Cast of Wonders 122.

Sundae

by Matt Wallace

The old woman in the wheelchair has a brutal face and hands as soft as the mother of all children.

“You will be more than a warrior, little one,” she whispers in German, her delicate and wrinkled fingertips sewing a pressed metal button into his left ear. “You will be a guardian. You will protect more than tender flesh and frail bodies. You will be the sentinel that stands between the darkness and innocence itself.”

With eyes made of glass and wood he sees her thin, withered lips form the words. He cannot hear her; his ears, even the one with the signature button, were not made to hear, just as his mouth was not made to speak. However the small stuffed bear finds he understands her; the meaning of her words, if not the words themselves.
(Continue Reading…)