Nil Desperandum

We present the very first August Riordan story, No Such Thing as Private Eyes, by Mark Coggins. Music is Coffee ‘n Scotch from the Chris Greene Quartet.

Flash fiction, Hand That Feeds, by David Tallerman. Narrated by Scott Danielson of A Good Story is Hard to Find. Main fiction, Bold Choices by Ryan Priest. Narrated by Ryno the Bearded. And two selections from Adam Guantlet’s bookshelf: Maus, by Art Spiegelman, and The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price.

We present the conclusion of The Drug Study by James Austin Farrell.

Main fiction is The Drug Study by James Austin Farrell. Adam Gauntlet returns to discuss the “87th Precinct” novels of Ed McBain and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. “Well, I guess we’ve got you by the balls.” This was Davey’s reply once I had explained my predicament to him, perhaps sounding too desperate and, I imagine, [...]

Fisher Cat, by Seth Harwood. Be sure and check out Seth’s crime fiction on his web site, sethharwood.com, or on Podiobooks.com.

An interview with J. Michael Shell. Adam Gauntlett discusses the crime fiction of Chester Himes. And our main fiction is War, by Sandra Jensen. Apart from Religion, school was torture. Lines of white chalk scraping into my head. I sat at the back where on good days I could see Hillbrow Tower out the window [...]

The conclusion of J. Michael Shell’s Preacher Porter’s Cure. The Doggies are the oldest race in the galaxy. At least that we know of. The light beings are almost assuredly older, but like I said, my people pretty much pretend they don’t exist. To those of us who do admit it they’re an embarrassment, because [...]

Part 2 of Preacher Porter’s Cure by J. Michael Shell. Adam Gauntlett opens his bookshelf to find The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell. And Jim is joined by Jennifer Leeper, author of the novella Padre. Be sure and take a look at the very nice trailer! I stayed with the preacher about a week. It [...]

Welcome to the first issue of Nil Desperanum in our new audio magazine format, and the first which will be heard on the No Agenda Stream (Wednesdays at 12p PST / 3pm EST). This week our main fiction is Preacher Porter’s Cure, by J. Michael Shell. Adam Guantlet returns, and finds The Walking Dead, by [...]

Thanks to everyone who listened live to our 2011 Nil Desperandum Christmas Special. This live event was great fun, and everyone definitely enjoyed it. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, by E. T. A. Hoffman. Narrated by Jim Phillips, Lorna Boyle, Richard Kunz, Ken Stoffler, Charlie White, and Paul Alves.

A Princess of the Moon by Patricia Correll. Narrated by Lorna Boyle. Music is In Kamakkura — The Traditional Samurai Metropolitan in Japan by Ichiro NAKAGAWA. The first night in the new village, Hinako couldn’t sleep. The house creaked and sighed all around her. She tried to hear Father breathing in the next room. But [...]

Adam’s Bookshelf disgorges The Dracula Trilogy by Kim Newman.

The Wadi, by Glyn Hedeg. Narrated by Richard Kunz. Music is Marrakesh Breakdown Lane by Guillermo del Noche. This story was previously published online by Yesteryear Fiction. “Go and fetch some water Hassim,” my mother said. I picked up the buckets and started to walk down towards the river. As I did so I overheard [...]

Adam opens his Bookshelf yet again and finds The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum.

Just Another Graveyard Shift, by Tom Swoffer. Read by Charles McFall. “I know it’s the second time this week he ain’t showed up. What the hell am I supposed to do about it?” Whenever my old lady starts up with me, telling me something stupid I already know, something she expects me to do something [...]

Adam returns with another tome from him Bookshelf, this time The Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser.

Padre by Jennifer Leeper. Narrated by John Robinson. Music is Suil a ruin by Ceili Moss. Be sure and pick up a copy of the novel Padre, beginning 01 November, 2011. Death stands beside me. It stands near me like an old prison warden I’ve known for years, but we’ve never quite become friends and [...]

Obligatory Leanings, by Carissa Halston. Read for us by Richard Kunz. During the unfortunate decade that heralded the popularity of polyester, frosted bangs, and designs shaved into white kids’ hair, I grew up in Billings, Montana. In the wake of my undergraduate education, I fled to Chicago, forsaking my hometown and, as my Mom called [...]

We rejoin Adam at his Bookshelf, for a look at the Sergeant Cribb series of detective novels, written by Peter Lovesey.

The Autobiography of God, by J. Michael Shell. Music is The Knowledge, by Robert A. Wolf. Special thanks to Charles McFall for his narration assistance. Actually, I’m not entirely sure this isn’t a preface as opposed to an introduction. In fact, the entire body of this work will, for most readers, be an introduction. Still, [...]

Adam returns for the third installment in The Bookshelf, wherein he discusses Tarantula, by Thierry Jonquet.

Adam returns with another selection from The Bookshelf. This time he discusses The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Some Things Never Change, by M.R. Jordan. Music for this episode is Sedona Sky, by 2012. Jim Gable cradled a cheap plastic grocery bag between his arm and ribcage because the handles had broken. In the other hand he thumbed his retro iPhone X, flipping through songs. He walked with his head down, on autopilot. [...]

Nil Desperandum presents The Bookshelves. Adam discusses The Beetle, by Richard Marsh.

Memories of Childhood, by D. Thomas Minton. Narrated by Riki Robinson. Music is Rolling Memories, by Alexandre Falcao. “All right, all right,” said Margie, waving her hands for silence. “Enough war-on-terror talk.” The four of us had finished several bottles of wine, and her face glowed flush in the soft lamplight. I felt a little [...]

Legs, by Tara Barnett. Narrated by Lorna Boyle. Music is The Body, by Android Lust. I love my legs. I chose the custom red striping on the sides when I was twelve, with vintage ball joint knees and toes, patterned with scrolls; a more expensive model than my parents wanted. We customized the calves with [...]

The new Nil Desperandum promo is now available. Please distribute far and wide!

Jim interviews Miss Shelly Li, author of he Architect of Apathy.

The Architect of Apathy, by Shelly Li. Narrated by John Robinson, host of The Dark Forest Podcast. It is said that if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. So let me tell you a story about apathy, and how it came into this world. Now, some people think [...]

Corseting, by Brandon Blackburn. Narrated by Ken Stoeffler. Around midnight, pedestrians cutting through Olmstead Park in north Boston would sometimes look up to the west façade of the Feniston Building where a few lights in a few lonely offices on the eleventh floor were still burning, their luminescence quickly swallowed by the cloying night. In [...]

Jim is joined by DeAnna Knippling, author of Miracle, Texas. We discuss her story, why Westerns should always end badly, and zombies.

Miracle, Texas by DeAnna Knippling. If he’d meant to leave his wife for her, he shouldn’t have shot her horse. Justine waved to the banditos and hefted her saddlebags. She’d sold the banditos her saddle and tack in payment for the ride from El Paso to Miracle, Texas. They’d heard of Marguerite’s Amazons and therefore [...]

Smoke Signals, by Cody Quinn. Regret pulled a cigarette from her pack of Camels. Rolling it between her rough fingers she examined it closely, her deep brown eyes dissecting its details, admiring its simple perfection and soothing promise. “Got a smoke?” Coy asked. She looked up at him from her position on a low window [...]

Nil Desperandum presents our first collection of flash fiction: Regarding Emma, by Elizabeth Barton. Narrated by Julie Sigwart. Casey’s Hope by Alexandra Seidel. Narrated by Erin McFall. Counterculture by Elizabeth Creith. Narrated by Charlene Huang-Roberts. A Drink, the Devil, and My Mother, by Lisa Gurney. Narrated by Jim Phillips.

With the kind permission of, and really at the request of, Michael Saad – author of An Even Temper – we present the full unabridged text in PDF format. Please enjoy!

An Even Temper, by Michael Saad Narrated by John Roberts, co-host of GAG The Manager. The shopping cart slammed into the doorframe, causing a crash that pierced the silence of our apartment hallway. Crouched in the front basket, I held up my forearm to prevent my body from barreling through our front door. “Monty, you [...]

Dioscuri, by Edward R. Morris. Part two of two. Mr. Morris can be found online at http://edwardrmorrisjr.blogspot.com/. Public bathrooms are supposed to be safe, to a child. What could ever happen there? Public bathrooms occupy their own corner of Spacetime, their own cosm that gets examined as little as possible by anyone. When you’re four [...]

Dioscuri, by Edward R. Morris. Part one of two. Mr. Morris can be found online at http://edwardrmorrisjr.blogspot.com/. Special thanks to Steve Cox (http://fromtheedge.com) and Erin McFall (http://erinsaves.ning.com/) for their narration assistance. If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, continue the experiment. If it continues to run away, terminate it [...]

Uncle Rick, by M. Shaw – who can be found online at http://mshaw.wordpress.com/. Narrated by Ken Stoeffler, of the Flatus Show. http://theflatusshow.com/. Geoffry’s dad tells him that his Uncle Rick will be coming for a visit tomorrow. Geoffry has never been this cold before. Earlier, his mom told him that his pre-school is closed today [...]

The Algorithms for Love, by Ken Liu. Ken can be found online at http://kenliu.name/. Narrated by the lovely Lorna Boyle. Lorna can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/lornawynn217. So long as the nurse is in the room to keep an eye on me, I am allowed to dress myself and get ready for Brad. I [...]

The first Nil Desperandum metacast. No story here, just some information about the podcast and how you (yes YOU!) can help.

Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, by Mark Twain. Part 2 of 2. Narrated by Charlie White, who you can find online at http://www.cewtwo.com. Learn about, and purchase, the full manuscript of Mark Twain’s long-awaited autobiography at http://www.thisismarktwain.com/ I had been having considerable trouble with my wings. The day after I helped the choir I made [...]

Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, by Mark Twain. Part 1 of 2. Narrated by Charlie White. Well, when I had been dead about thirty years I begun to get a little anxious. Mind you, had been whizzing through space all that time, like a comet. LIKE a comet! Why, Peters, I laid over the lot [...]

An Occidental Book of the Dead, by J. Michael Shell. Part 3. Consciousness grabbed Malcolm and shook, causing him to jump to his feet. When he did, he noticed he was standing, once again, on that endless, grassy plain. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he said out loud. “Damn all this grass.” As soon as [...]

An Occidental Book of the Dead, by J. Michael Shell. Part 2. He wasn’t sure if his feet were quite touching that so-green grass. Aimed straight and grim, Malcolm was stretching whatever sinew it was he wore to put distance, rapidly, between himself and Aminae’s forest. He was aware at a gut level…no, at a [...]

An Occidental Book of the Dead, by J. Michael Shell. This is part one of three. Malcolm Stark kept an appointment with his soul to meet in a dream, and died in his sleep. As they walked, arms around shoulders, through that twilit place, his soul let something silver fall from its hand, and left [...]

Markheim, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Read by Charles McFall of The Bear Crawling Nation. “Yes,” said the dealer, “our windfalls are of various kinds. Some customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior knowledge. Some are dishonest,” and here he held up the candle, so that the light fell strongly on [...]

His Garden, original fiction by Edward McDermott. Narrated by Ken Stoeffler, host of The Flatus Show. I was in grade five when I first met Mr. Hamilton. That was the year my father died and my mother had to start working again. That was the year that Mike Todd and his friends decided to make [...]

At long last, the very first issue of Nil Desperandum! We present the classic short story Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce. Narrated by Charlie White. A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the [...]

Nil Desperandum. It’s about truth, life, and the human condition. Fiction from the Bear Crawling Nation. Coming to an audio player near you, June, 2010.