Fantasy – Page 3 – The Drabblecast

The Drabblecast brings you “Heart of Clay,” part of D.K. Thompson’s Saint Darwin’s Spirituals series.

D.K. Thompson was the host and co-editor of PodCastle, a fantasy fiction podcast, for five years, and has narrated audiobooks by Tim Pratt, Greg van Eekhout, and James Maxey, among others.

Story Excerpt:

Awareness terrified the golem, but the burning paper in his mouth and the word written on it gave him comfort. It filled him with wonder and fear, knowledge and life. Saint Darwin had fashioned the paper from a certain bush on an Egyptian mountainside that was impervious to fire. When the golem’s life dissipated, the flames would sputter out but the mystical paper would never be consumed.

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Drabblecast 377 – Here There Be Monsters?

By Drabblecast

On February 17, 2016

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

The canary yellow shirt read “Camp Fit,” but it didn’t quite fit the bulbous, pre-adolescent boy cringing in the cabin’s corner. Rows of bunks lined both sides of the room.

Standing over the boy, Worgly raised his shaggy brown arms and roared with his terrible roar. “You’re going to eat me!” And the monster gnashed his terrible teeth, and rolled his terrible eyes, and showed his terrible claws.

The boy’s expression changed from terror to puzzlement. “You want me to eat you?”

“Yes!” shouted Worgly. “Wait… No.”

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Drabblecast 376 – A Last Kiss for Lazarus Winters (A Saint Darwin’s Spiritual)

By Drabblecast

On January 18, 2016

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

This episode of the Drabblecast brings you “A Last Kiss for Lazarus Winters,” another story in D.K. Thompson’s Saint Darwin’s Spirituals series.

D.K. Thompson was the host and co-editor of PodCastle, a fantasy fiction podcast, for five years, and has narrated audiobooks by Tim Pratt, Greg van Eekhout, and James Maxey, among others.

Story Excerpt:

I was born again on New Year’s Eve, full of broken promises, and slick and sticky with two kinds of blood. One of them was a ghost’s. That didn’t surprise me, though. I’ve seen my share of ghost blood.

I’d spent most of my life working with spirits and principalities — tracking ghosts, and making demands of them. That’s what people hired me for. But I wasn’t one of Darwin’s spiritualists, though I’d read his Origin of the Spirits and wore the goggles he’d fashioned. No, the spiritualists aided the spirits, providing a bridge between the living and the dead to help care for them. Me? I took all of Charlie Darwin’s studies and tools, and crossed those bridges to make certain demands of ghosts. I was a spiritual extortionist.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 65 – The Country of the Blind

By Drabblecast

On January 16, 2016

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy

Three hundred miles and more from Chimborazo, one hundred from the snows of Cotopaxi, in the wildest wastes of Ecuador’s Andes, there lies that mysterious mountain valley, cut off from all the world of men, the Country of the Blind…

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Drabblecast 375 – Ghost in the Coffee Machine

By Drabblecast

On January 1, 2016

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

When it comes to ghosts, my grandmother has one solution: brew a pot of coffee. Like today, in Sadie Lancaster’s kitchen.

Sadie clutches her hands beneath her chin and stares at our percolator, her eyes huge. The thing gurgles and hisses as if it
resents being pressed into service. My own reflection in its side is distorted. When I was younger, I thought this was how ghosts see our world.

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Drabblecast 370 – The Little Mermaid of Innsmouth

By Drabblecast

On September 13, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror, Lovecraft Month

The Drabblecast presents: “The Little Mermaid of Innsmouth” by Caroline M. Yoachim.

This is a new take on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fish tale, replete with all the Lovecraftian lore you should expect from The Drabblecast!

Story Excerpt:

Tomiko knelt at the table, across from her father, carefully holding her back rigid and straight as they ate their breakfast. She hoped the formal posture would make him take her arguments seriously, but he barely looked at her as he ate mix of rice and nattō, fermented soybeans that gave off a pungent smell and overpowered even the constant fishy odor of her father’s skin.

Enjoy (full story is printed below the player):

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Drabbleclassics 22 – Go Beep (173)

By Charity Helton

On July 21, 2015

In Drabbleclassics, Drama, Fantasy

I’m a fan of Nirvana.

I mean I’m a fan of the band rather than a fan of the concept. Although, hey, what’s not to like about the idea of being no longer subject to torture over the fires of greed, hatred and delusion? Free from all suffering – yes, that sounds pretty good. But if I really wanted to free of everything that makes us human then I probably wouldn’t dig bands like Nirvana any more, and that would be bad. Then I wouldn’t be me any more.

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Drabblecast 364 – All of Our Past Places

By Drabblecast

On July 5, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

Aoife always told me that you could go anywhere, as long as you had the right map. So when it happened, my first thought, when I let myself into her apartment after not hearing from her for three days, was this weird feeling of pride.

She’d done it.

She was gone.

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Drabblecast 363 – The Totals

By Drabblecast

On July 4, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

Clutch has killed somebody recently.

This goes without saying.

For as long as Clutch can remember, he has always killed somebody “recently.” If not within the last few hours, then certainly within the last few days. He may have gone as long as a couple of weeks without, from time to time, when circumstances conspired against him. But never as long as a month, no, not for living memory.

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Drabblecast 361 – Time to Say Goodnight

By Drabblecast

On June 10, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

“Then Duck left Mr. Tomkin’s farm and went to swim in Glacier Lake, just like he’d always wanted.” Mommy looked up from the last page, but Clara wasn’t sleeping.

“And then what did Duck do?” Clara asked.

“That’s all there is.”

“Duck died?” Mommy had explained about dying on the way home from visiting Grandpa. Clara didn’t really understand, but it made
her sad.

“No sweetie, Duck didn’t die, this is just the end of the story.”

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Drabblecast 360 – Trifecta: Locked Boxes

By Drabblecast

On May 31, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

I didn’t kill God; we should clear that up right away. I just captured him and put him in a little box.

It sounds harder than it actually was. Hannah helped me make it. Her dark, sad eyes so serious and focused behind the wire-rimmed glasses she always wore, her slender fingers tracing the passages from the Bible. A long time ago, God gave instructions on how to build a tabernacle for him to inhabit. That story made us wonder: if the infinite can be confined to a building or a tent or a room, then why not a box?

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Drabblecast B-Sides 61 – The Horses of Lir

By Drabblecast

On May 24, 2015

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy

I sent this one to The Saturday Evening Post. Three times. They kept losing the ms. I stopped.

The moonlight was muted and scattered by the mist above the loch. A chill breeze stirred the white tendrils to a sliding, skating motion upon the water’s surface. Staring into the dark depths, Randy smoothed his jacket several times, then stepped forward. He pursed his lips to begin and discovered that his throat was dry.

Sighing, almost with relief, he turned and walked back several paces. The night was especially soundless about him. He seated himself upon a rock, drew his pipe from his pocket and began to fill it.

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Drabbleclassics 21 – Mongoose : Part II (171)

By Charity Helton

On May 10, 2015

In Action, Drabbleclassics, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

You couldn’t describe a rath. You couldn’t even look at one for more than a few seconds before you started getting a migraine aura. Rovers were just blots of shadow. The breeder was massive, armored, and had no recognizable features, save for its hideous, drooling, ragged edged maw. Irizarry didn’t know if it had eyes, or even needed them…

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Drabbleclassics 20 – Mongoose : Part I (170)

By Charity Helton

On May 10, 2015

In Action, Drabbleclassics, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Izrael Irizarry stepped through a bright-scarred airlock onto Kadath Station, lurching a little as he adjusted to station gravity. On his shoulder, Mongoose extended her neck, her barbels flaring, flicked her tongue out to taste the air, and colored a question. Another few steps, and he smelled what Mongoose smelled, the sharp stink of toves, ammoniac and bitter…

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Drabblecast 358 – DoubleHeader: Rachael K. Jones

By Drabblecast

On May 3, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

10. _Influenza siderius_ begins as a general malaise. That is always the first symptom. Perhaps you wish to doze on the sofa, but your husband suggests a little fresh air instead. You do feel better after the walk, but by the next morning the listlessness has returned tenfold. Your husband complains when you order takeout instead of making the pot roast, but you feel too tired to care.

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Drabblecast 356 – An Exodus of Wings

By Drabblecast

On April 17, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

Before Heidi came along, Michael did everything he could to keep the damn faeries out of his apartment. Every night he washed and dried his dishes, never left one dripping in the drying rack. Always fished the food particles from the drain, took the trash out, sealed his cereal in glass jars.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 59 – The Sound of Useless Wings

By Drabblecast

On March 26, 2015

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy

I try to ignore my brothers and sisters as I do my work under the hot twin suns. They call me names. They call me dreamer. They call me innocent. They call me ridiculous.

All the while, I herd the rodents into the pen. I collect animal droppings and scatter them in the garden. I chew what long grass I can find and spit it out into the buckets so my mother can make the doughy bread that is a staple of the Hort diet.

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Drabblecast 351 – DoubleHeader XVII: Camille Griep

By Drabblecast

On March 8, 2015

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy

The fiery orange sun hung high over the Bangkok skyline to the south. Professor Tina Montri rearranged her skirt and adjusted the alligator skin briefcase on her lap which held the presentation and research notes from her talk at the university. A breeze stirred on the back of her neck, warm and relaxing. She could almost fall asleep if it weren’t for her precarious perch at the top of a tree.

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Drabblecast 350 – Trifecta XXX: Something Fishy

By Drabblecast

On February 18, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

Izam’s fingers moved on their own. They found his sunken chest. And counted his ribs.

His father would have slapped his hand away. A stupid habit of a stupid boy. A stupid starving boy who counted his ribs when he was hungry even though it only made him hungrier. Izam knew it was stupid
but he could not help it. He was so hungry.

The ocean was silent. The boat was still, the fishing line as motionless as ever. The last rays of sun sparkled on the waves. There would be no fish today. No food. Izam’s fingers brushed his chest and began counting his ribs again. No food for another day.

The line tugged. The rod tore from his hand.

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Drabblecast 349 – The Island of White Houses

By Drabblecast

On February 8, 2015

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

Today I am going to the island.

I climb the slick wood stairs down to Whitmuth beach. The wind blows fierce through the town like usual and swirls back out to sea, smoky with our coal fires and smacking with hot oil from the fry shops up and down the boardwalk.

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Category: Fantasy Page 3 of 11

Drabblecast B-Sides 66 – Heart of Clay (A Saint Darwin’s Spiritual)

Story Excerpt:

Drabblecast 377 – Here There Be Monsters?

Drabblecast 376 – A Last Kiss for Lazarus Winters (A Saint Darwin’s Spiritual)

Story Excerpt:

Drabblecast B-Sides 65 – The Country of the Blind

Drabblecast 375 – Ghost in the Coffee Machine

Drabblecast 370 – The Little Mermaid of Innsmouth

Story Excerpt:

Drabbleclassics 22 – Go Beep (173)

Drabblecast 364 – All of Our Past Places

Drabblecast 363 – The Totals

Drabblecast 361 – Time to Say Goodnight

Drabblecast 360 – Trifecta: Locked Boxes

Drabblecast B-Sides 61 – The Horses of Lir

Drabbleclassics 21 – Mongoose : Part II (171)

Drabbleclassics 20 – Mongoose : Part I (170)

Drabblecast 358 – DoubleHeader: Rachael K. Jones

Drabblecast 356 – An Exodus of Wings

Drabblecast B-Sides 59 – The Sound of Useless Wings

Drabblecast 351 – DoubleHeader XVII: Camille Griep

Drabblecast 350 – Trifecta XXX: Something Fishy

Drabblecast 349 – The Island of White Houses