This week’s show has it all: vampires, evolutionary biology, and quivering jacked up Taylor Swifts.
We bring you three flash fiction pieces about the complications of being in love: Taylor Swift by Hugh Behm-Steinberg, The Evolution of a Breakup by Etgar Keret, and May I Come In by Adrienne Ryan.
Narrations provided by Avery Alexander, Adam Pracht and Norm Sherman.
Art by Anike Kirsten
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The leadup to our Relaunch Kickstarter campaign continues with this Fan Pick: The Last Dog.
This was a favorite of one of our newest team members, Jen Fisher, d(r)abbler of all things and master of none. We’ll be doing more of these with opportunities for fans to record their own introductions to their favorite stories in the future. Hit us up on Facebook and Twitter or give us a shout out in our forums to tell us your favorite stores.
In “The Last Dog,” the titular ultimate canine and his master, the last man on Earth, form a strong bond helping one another to survive on a war-ravaged planet. When they encounter an alien assassin, they are forced to make hard choices.
He was panting now, his breath coming in a never-ending series of short spurts and gasps. His sides ached, his eyes watered, and every now and then he would trip over the rubble of the decayed and ruined buildings that lined the torturously fragmented street…
Enjoy:
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The Relaunch Prelaunch marches forward as we present the listener-requested “Director’s Cut: Morris and the Machine.”
This fan-favorite story originally aired in 2010. It is a haunting tale about relationships, time travel, and the poisonous nature of nostalgia.
Author Tim Pratt lives in Berkely, CA and has been featured on the Drabblecast many times. He is a Hugo Award winner alongside many other accolades and is currently working on a space opera series for Angry Robot.
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“Pardon, Winston Sinclair, I am not here to sell you something. I am not here to buy something. Winston Sinclair, sir, I am here to apologize…”
Jeff Soesbe, graduate of The Viable Paradise Workshop, gives us a tender feature about a family of the future, and a unique robot with a special purpose. In Drabble News, Norm Sherman makes all the men jealous with the tale of a sexual powerhouse: a prolific, philandering Guinea Pig! Norm tells us more about the Mega-Beast Death-Match. Feedback is for Episode #70 “Reality Bites!” and Episode #71 “Perfect Down Further.”
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One of the reasons Joshua loved Lydia as much as he did was all the secret rituals they’d devised. Their shared jokes were treasured secrets, never to be shared with the other kids at high school; some days, the way Lydia could send Joshua into high titters with a raise of her pierced eyebrow was the only thing that kept Joshua from slitting his wrists…
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Allan Thermoose’s wife is in love with a blade of grass. It’s the 375th blade directly even with the crack in the third slab of sidewalk east of the mailbox. The blade gets full sun all day, and Allan, a stickler for lawn maintenance, is careful to water it, along with all the others, for approximately thirty minutes per day, moving the sprinkler three times to ensure even water distribution. He occasionally counts the residual droplets left on the tufts of grass fifteen minutes after he shuts off the water. If he’s not happy with the results, he repeats the process until he’s positive his lawn has had enough to drink.
This episode of the Drabblecast is concerned with strange love. In the drabble, a mother’s last thoughts are for her son as the mower’s blades cut her down but pass over him. In the feature, Allan Thermoose’s wife falls in love with a blade of grass. Her behavior increasingly unconventional includes: standing outside staring at the lawn, forbidding Allan to cut that blade, sleeping outside on the lawn, and dressing up for the blade. It soon becomes clear that action must be taken.
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We discover old scrolls that we wrote to each other in high school, back in the Early Pneumatic Tube Era. That was back when a PT message took five minutes to get across the city.
We shake our heads. Now you can send a living butterfly to Dubai in ten seconds…
This Valentine’s Day episode of the Drabblecast’s theme is centered on odd love. Norm rattles off a staggering set of fart/love puns, and waxes on about the travails of staying together in the digital age. In the drabble, we experience love through a fighter’s eyes. In the feature story, two soul mates seperated by great distance negotiate an alternate, steampunk (tube punk?) future. In addittion the Drabblecast 2010 People’s Choice nominations are announced.
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The Drabblecast presents Morris and the Machine, by author Tim Pratt.
Tim Pratt lives in Berkely, CA and has also been featured on the Drabblecast many times. He is a science fiction and fantasy author, Nebula award nominee, and a Hugo award winner.
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Now that his supernal caress has become the familiar sanctum of her nights, she fears that no mere human partner could ever satisfy her again…
This episode starts with Norm announcing the return of the Nigerian Scam Spam contest, now with a tight $100 prize! The Drabble concerns a Martian trying to deal with erratic human behavior. The Feature, preceded by a content warning from Norm (sexy times ahoy), concerns an alien and his human bride. The couple is vexed by the tribulation of their strange marriage, their poor finances, and privately, the bride suffers fears of public reprisal.
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Kelly Lester, a soft-spoken, unassuming young girl, with lovely sparkling green eyes and a smile that seemed fresh-born each time she used it. I fell in love with her the day she started here, and I convinced myself she’d never have anything to do with me the day after.
Of course, I was not all-knowing at the time…
This episode of the Drabblecast begins with a Drabblenews segment on mind-controlled zombie fire ants in Texas. The drabble is yet another end-of-the world story (geez guys, lighten up!) about a man from Omaha, Nebraska toasting to his emanate demise as he’s missing a scheduled IRS audit, so really, is it that bad? The feature introduces us to a young man who knows everything. Not a smart ass – a man who literally everything. Does he use it for love or profit? And is there such a thing as knowing too much?
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In this episode of the Drabblecast, we present “Arms and the Man” by Mary Turzillo. It’s a story of a divorced woman, burned out to love, who finds hope with a change of phylum. It’s truly squidlicious!
Norm Sherman also presents a Drabble News segment on the Hubble space telescope, topping it off with the now infamous bbardle on satellites and how best to pimp them.
Courtney had never considered squid love before. She was an accountant for a Chicago restaurant chain, and not really looking. After a bitter, acrimonious divorce, Courtney was burned out on romance…
Our Drabble is “Happy Endings” by Michael Young. The popular girls ignore this typical geek—that is until a very atypical bomb throws unusual wrinkles.
Enjoy the show!
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The wicked witch business wasn’t what it used to be. It had been such a simple thing, to lure children with candy; back in the old days when candy had been hard to come by…
In this episode’s Drabble, a moth eloquently expresses her attraction to a bright light and her own subsequent destruction. The feature story, The Wicked Witch Looks at 40 (Decades), follows Winnie the witch through her (long overdue) midlife crisis. After a particularly discouraging Halloween, where not a single child is captured, she takes the advice of an article in Martha Stewart Living magazine, changing her house and her lifestyle.
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He was panting now, his breath coming in a never-ending series of short spurts and gasps. His sides ached, his eyes watered, and every now and then he would trip over the rubble of the decayed and ruined buildings that lined the torturously fragmented street…
This episode opens with the announcement of the three drabbles and five features stories nominated for the Drabblecast People’s Choice Award. In the Drabble, the narrator muses on the nature of his fatalistic precognition. In the feature, The Last Dog, the titular ultimate canine and his master, the last man on Earth, form a strong bond helping one another to survive on a war-ravaged planet. When they encounter an alien assassin, they are forced to make hard choices.
Podcast: Download
The 100th episode of the Drabblecast opens with Norm thanking donors, contributors, and listeners for its success and growth. Norm announces the opening of nominations for the second annual Drabblecast People’s Choice Awards, now including a category for drabbles as well as feature stories. In Cork Ringtone and the Break Dancing Pig, a desperate, Jesus-costumed liquor store robbery, which may be wholly unnecessary when a loan shark experiences an alien-induced vision of god. In Gerri’s Sounds, the events occurring in a torture chamber are experienced in disturbing detail by its sounds alone. In Cupid, Playing, new love is cut short by a deranged cherub.
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From a small, dusty box similar to a contact-lens case, she took a fresh iDreams bindi, a self-adhesive circlet displaying the iDreams logo: a stylized human head wreathed in fluffy clouds and displaying a Third Eye…
This episode of the Drabblecast explores the relationship between technology and romance. In the Drabble, cryotechnology brings new dimensions to love, loss, and grieving. The feature, Daydream Nation, is a post-modern fairy tale exploring how the development of an iDreams caster, a device allowing users to broadcast crafted or purchased iDreams to one another, might affect courtship and relationships. After the story, Norm waxes poetic about the effect of our instant message society on “good old fashioned cheesy flirting.”
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The fifth of the Drabblecast’s Trifectas gathers three stories about addiction to love. Due to the subject matter, Norm issues a warning about it’s kid unfriendliness. First, the narrator of Suzanne Vincent’s story, “Strange Love,” discovers the erotic secret behind the popularity of tattoos among space alien visitors. Next, Jim Bernheimer, (who had previously contributed the story “Reality Bites!”), offers “Cookies,” a quixotic tale leaving listeners to ponder whether we raise our kids, or they raise us. Finally, “Forbidden Love,” by Ian Fossberg, describes the final quest of a familiar love-lorn character from our shared childhood.
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I sense a diference the instant I step out of the water. In the unnatural stillness there is an arid taste in the air that assaults the back of my throat…
Norm Sherman brings us an episode about endings, and why they don’t always have to be bad. The Drabble is about a “beautiful” end. The feature is a touching tale of family’s facing their impending end with strength and solidarity. Feedback is for “Apologies All Around,” episode 76.
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“Pardon, Winston Sinclair, I am not here to sell you something. I am not here to buy something. Winston Sinclair, sir, I am here to apologize…”
Jeff Soesbe, graduate of The Viable Paradise Workshop, gives us a tender feature about a family of the future, and a unique robot with a special purpose. In Drabble News, Norm Sherman makes all the men jealous with the tale of a sexual powerhouse: a prolific, philandering Guinea Pig! Norm tells us more about the Mega-Beast Death-Match. Feedback is for Episode #70 “Reality Bites!” and Episode #71 “Perfect Down Further.”
Podcast: Download
We’re lying in the sun, letting our wings dry, when a thought suddenly occurs to me. “Do you think it’s fair” “What’s that?” says Bob. He’s sitting there beside me, fat and lazy, with his three tales flickering lightly in the spring breeze.
The fourth of the Drabblecast’s Trifecta episodes gives us three different views of the beginnings and endings of life. In “Ephemeroptera’s Lament,” mayflies look for love in their one-day life cycle. In “The Crack in the Cosmic Egg,” B.J. Harrison of “The Classic Tales Podcast” reads us a story of the end, and beginning, of everything. “No Strings Attached,” read by Steve Eley from Escape Pod, shows us the beginnings of a man’s new life. The show concludes with one of Norm Sherman’s original bbardle songs, “75 Lines,” a catchy tune referencing each of the first 75 episodes of The Drabblecast.
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