magic – The Drabblecast

This Drabblecast B-Sides episode features “The Man Who Has Been Killing Kittens” by Douglas Warrick.

This story is available to our $10/month B-Sides subscribers! Not a member yet? Here’s how you can support the show!

Story Excerpt:

So you want to know about the man who has been killing kittens.

There’s a little congress of dead men in bad suits at the bottom of the reservoir. Some are handcuffed to steering wheels and float upside-down from shattered windshields, and others have their ankles chained to old cinder blocks. Some, their murderers evidently keen on homage, even have their feet sealed in buckets full of cement. They bicker and gossip and lie to one another. Blank-eyed and bloated and secretive are the dead men in their underwater garden.

The Man Who Had Been Killing Kittens

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Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Teddy Bears and Tea Parties

By Drabblecast

On June 26, 2018

In Director's Cut, Drabblecast, Interview

As a part of the Relaunch Prelaunch we revisit a listener favorite for the “Director’s Cut: Teddy Bears and Tea Parties.”

This story was written by S. Boyd Taylor and was originally aired in 2010. It’s a heart-breaking horror story about little girls, stuffed animals, and hunger.

Excerpt:

Shadows move on the mantelpiece and the end tables. She freezes. The family pictures are moving. Brass frames buckling into bow-shaped mouths. They want to eat her.

Don’t be scared, she says. Of course they’re hungry. Everything must eat. And there isn’t much food…

Drabbleclassics 12 – Gifting Bliss: Fifteen Years Later, Jason Avery’s Magic is Still Saving the World (91)

By Charity Helton

On December 2, 2014

In Drabbleclassics, Strange

“When I first met Jason he was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the studio, surrounded by burning candles. The air smelled like flowers and a sort of a fog hung in the room and I’m thinking- this dude is a little off…”

This podcast begins with a content warning, beware the “f-bomb.” Norm takes the occasion of Thanksgiving to politely thank civilization and his listeners. The feature is a faux documentary from Josh Roundtree, a contributor to “Realms of Fantasy.” Its subject is a record called “Gifting Bliss” from fantasy musician Jason Avery, whose band “Broken” has a magical healing power to listeners. The reading includes fake commercial breaks and Norm’s hysterical imitations of several sub-standard bands and clueless musicians. Lastly, Norm reads the feedback for the recent Halloween story, “The Box Born Wraith.”

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Drabbleclassics 4 – Annabelle’s Alphabet (129)

By Charity Helton

On July 22, 2014

In Drabbleclassics, Drama, Fantasy

Annabelle’s mother closed her eyes. “Get it sharp,” she said. “Very sharp, so it doesn’t hurt much. I’ll boil some water.”

Somewhere in the house, far from the green places she’d known, baby Annabelle lay on her stomach and cried…

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Drabblecast B-Sides 45 – Buried Talents

By Drabblecast

On May 4, 2014

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Horror

A man in a wrinkled, black suit entered the fairgrounds. He was tall and lean, his skin the color of drying leather. He wore a faded sport shirt underneath his suit coat, white with yellow stripes. His hair was black and greasy, parted in the middle and brushed back flat on each side. His eyes were pale blue. There was no expression on his face. It was a hundred and two degrees in the sun but he was not perspiring.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 297, The Apothecary's Apprentice, by Sean Azzopardi

Drabblecast 297 – The Apothecary’s Apprentice

By Drabblecast

On September 24, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

In the back of the shop I scrubbed three large cauldrons clean, stripping the seasoning from them because Master Aloz insisted on it once the trade caravans stopped coming at the end of summer. Tallow, he called me, on account of my paleness. I used a brush made of iron bristles instead of horse hair, scraping away the brown muck inside, various plant and animal parts rendered into sludge like droppings from a sick bull. My book lay on the floor beside the cauldrons. Sir Tannis and the Hydra. It seemed I wouldn’t get to read much of it today…

Drabblecast 250 – Trifecta XXII

By Drabblecast

On July 25, 2012

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

My name is… John.

I am…

I have a wife and a daughter. They are visiting me today. Their names– Alice. And Anna.

I can see, sort of. Everything is blurry. I am submerged in a coffin, a clear coffin with green water. There’s a tube in my mouth so that I can breathe, machine-like.

My legs are transparent. I see veins and arteries, thin muscles that look like spiderwebs bundled together. The doctors say my memory will be fuzzy. It’s supposed to come back quickly.

I am…

The theme of this Drabblecast Trifecta is “if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” In Faithful Servant, a long-suffering butler’s poorly timed fit of temper is nearly the end of him. In Selfless, a man with an incurable illness goes to great lengths to ensure his wife and daughter enjoy a normal, happy life. In Prophecy Negotiations, a fateful farm boy learns that if you want to rise to a new station, it pays not to accept the first offer.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 245, A Nice Jewish Golem, by Tom Morganti

Drabblecast 245 – A Nice Jewish Golem

By Drabblecast

On June 10, 2012

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Romance, Strange

“Mrs. Levine, it is hard enough for someone to find the right person to love in the world, even with all the people in it. For Yeshua, it is almost impossible. Would you have him fall in love with a human girl and pine for her until his heart broke and we would have to erase
the letter that gives him life? Reduce him back to a lifeless thing?”

This episode of the Drabblecast is about adoption. In the drabble, a grieving father performs terrible experiments with the comfort food brought by well-intentioned neighbors. In the feature, a fawning mother grapples with conflicting fears for her son, a golem, when he falls in love with a non-Jewish construct. Despite her distress, she must ask: In a world where options for love are severely limited, what role does faith play?

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 225, Trifecta XIX, by Steve Santiago

Drabblecast 225 – Trifecta XIX

By Drabblecast

On December 5, 2011

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

Once, at the beginning, you asked why you were brought here. This is what I told you: your parents made a deal. I would rid them of their plague of rats, and they would pay me. I cleared the town of pests, easily done, and returned for my payment. They laughed at me and tried to send me away with less than they promised. Money is not important. Deals are.

The theme of this episode of the Drabblecast is fairy tale child abduction. In David is Six, David cannot wait to be seven. In his desperation, he strikes a bargain with a fairy that appears to him as a talking toad and is taken to the fairy queen. The Best Boy, The Brightest Boy picks up where the Pied Piper of Hamlin left off, following the children and the Piper into his kingdom under the mountain where after a series of cruel games and tests, only one boy remains alive. He becomes the Piper’s apprentice. In Broken, a father stumbles upon a fairy in the act of exchanging his disabled child for her own enchanted brood. A heart-breaking decision follows.

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Drabblecast 216 – The Book of Eternity

By Drabblecast

On September 10, 2011

In Drabblecast, Horror

Cover for Drabblecast episode 216, The Book of Eternity, by Jan Dennison

His name was Marvin Kasselmeier, though he changed it to Marcus Magnus
because he thought it sounded more impressive. He’d been a bright student,
solitary and humorless, with no friends, and a single obsession: he wanted to live forever…

Is eternal life real worth it? A demonic tale from Mike Resnick explores the question in the final week of Lovecraft months Story features In Search of the Brain-Eating Nandi Bear Part V.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 210, The Alphabet Quartet, by Matt Schindler

Drabblecast 210 – Trifecta XVII

By Drabblecast

On July 6, 2011

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

Another in the Drabblecast trifecta series. This time, we dip in to the Alphabet Quartet collection.

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Drabblecast 205 – Trifecta XVI

By Drabblecast

On May 18, 2011

In Drabblecast, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi

A Trifecta is comprised of three similarly themed stories selected by The Drabblecast’s editors. Now for some raucous scary fun!

Love means never letting go. And biting..

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 189, DoubleHeader 8, by Tania Henderson

Drabblecast 189 – Doubleheader VIII

By Drabblecast

On November 24, 2010

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Strange

They needed a virgin to make a bargain with the sea monster who hunted the waters off their coast, and they were not willing to sacrifice their daughters…

With the theme this week being about freedom, this episode of Drabblecast sees Norm musing about the irony of song about freedom written by a man name Key… it could be a trap. Mermaids of the Old West centers on the mistreatment of captured Mermaids. In Darkness we learn what makes a sacrifice worthy.

Special thanks to Salim Fahdley and Jan Dennison for lending voices and artistic help.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 181, Funeral Song For a Ventriloquist, by Caroline Parkinson

Drabblecast 181 – Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist

By Drabblecast

On September 24, 2010

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery

A puppet’s words infect. They taint. They do this without ever sounding like a thing, without the listener realizing they have been spoken. A true ventriloquist, as those who are educated and informed may or may not choose to tell you, is an adept in the art of keeping those mouths shut…

On this episode of Drabblecast, Norm focuses on the bliss of ignorance versus the pain of knowledge. In Drabble news he muses about the fact that (oh no!) scientists have decided that the Triceratops never existed. The feature, narrated by podcast regular Mike Boris, is a new, sinister spin on puppetry. Ventriloquists, it turns out, are the guardians of terrible secretes tasked with preventing their loose-lipped dummies from bringing darkness in to the world.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 167, Snowman's Chance in Hell, by Skeet Scienski

Drabblecast 167 – Snowman’s Chance in Hell

By Drabblecast

On June 9, 2010

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror, Strange

If the snowman, whose name was Wink, had known that the meat man would invent such a rotten thing, he never would have built the man in the first place…

3rd Annual Nigerian Scam Spam Contest
Ducks are Bastards: Part I:

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 151, The Society of Eccentric Moustaches, by Aaron Cambridge

Drabblecast 151 – The Society of Eccentric Moustaches

By Drabblecast

On February 18, 2010

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Strange

“I’m going to cut to the chase,” Zephyr said. “You’ll never make it as a magician. You just don’t have the moustache for it…”

Ig Awards
Josh Roseman

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 147, Cassie, by Phil Pomphrey

Drabblecast 147 – Cassie

By Drabblecast

On January 21, 2010

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

The other gamblers ignored her. They were a mixed bunch– middle aged men in ties and shiny suits, women in evening gowns, young men with gleaming teeth and haunted expressions. Roulette was a sucker’s game. Unless you were Cassie…

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Drabblecast 146 – Teddy Bears and Tea Parties

By Drabblecast

On January 14, 2010

In Action, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

The Drabblecast brings you Teddy Bears and Tea Parties written by S. Boyd Taylor. It’s a heart-breaking horror story about little girls, stuffed animals, and hunger.

It’s a bit of a graphic one, folks, so make sure to put the ear muffs on the kids.

Drabblecast 129 – Annabelle’s Alphabet

By Drabblecast

On September 10, 2009

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy

Annabelle’s mother closed her eyes. “Get it sharp,” she said. “Very sharp, so it doesn’t hurt much. I’ll boil some water.”

Somewhere in the house, far from the green places she’d known, baby Annabelle lay on her stomach and cried…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 127, Nanuq, by Rodolfo Arredondo

Drabblecast 127 – Nanuq

By Drabblecast

On August 26, 2009

In Action, Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

His years away from me had bled any belief he once had in the old ways. I had thought to educate him, to make him wise in the ways of science and the world. I thought after he graduated he would return and learn the way of the angatquq, the shaman, and take his place in the secret circles of the People, as his mother had.
But the University had narrowed his mind instead of widening it. He had turned his back on his people…

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Tag: magic Page 1 of 2

Drabblecast B-Sides 71 – The Man Who Has Been Killing Kittens

Story Excerpt:

The Man Who Had Been Killing Kittens

Drabblecast Director’s Cut: Teddy Bears and Tea Parties

Excerpt:

Drabbleclassics 12 – Gifting Bliss: Fifteen Years Later, Jason Avery’s Magic is Still Saving the World (91)

Drabbleclassics 4 – Annabelle’s Alphabet (129)

Drabblecast B-Sides 45 – Buried Talents

Drabblecast 297 – The Apothecary’s Apprentice

Drabblecast 250 – Trifecta XXII

Drabblecast 245 – A Nice Jewish Golem

Drabblecast 225 – Trifecta XIX

Drabblecast 216 – The Book of Eternity

Drabblecast 210 – Trifecta XVII

Drabblecast 205 – Trifecta XVI

Drabblecast 189 – Doubleheader VIII

Drabblecast 181 – Funeral Song for a Ventriloquist

Drabblecast 167 – Snowman’s Chance in Hell

Drabblecast 151 – The Society of Eccentric Moustaches

Drabblecast 147 – Cassie

Drabblecast 146 – Teddy Bears and Tea Parties

Drabblecast 129 – Annabelle’s Alphabet

Drabblecast 127 – Nanuq