Podcasts about fantastic stories

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Alex Jennings is a writer/editor/teacher/poet living in New Orleans. He was born in Wiesbaden (Germany) and raised in Gaborone (Botswana), Tunis (Tunisia), Paramaribo (Surinam) and the United States. He constantly devours pop culture and writes mostly jokes on Twitter (@magicknegro). He loves music, film, comix, and even some TV. He is the Program Director of DreamFoundry's Con or Bust and pens a regular speculative poetry review column in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction called “Chapter and Verse.” In 2022, he was the inaugural recipient of the Imagination Unbound Fellowship at Under the Volcano, a guided writing retreat held annually in Tepoztlan, Mexico.His writing has appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Electric Velocipede, Uncanny Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, New Suns, and Current Affairs, among other venues. His debut novel, The Ballad of Perilous Graves is available wherever books are sold. You can find him goofing around on Instagram: (@magicknegro) He is also an instructor of fiction and popular fiction at The University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA program .Creators & Guests Rob Lee - Host ALEX JENNINGS - Guest Rob Lee & The Truth in This Art present "Black Cinema Series"April 26 at 5:30pm for more information and to secure ticketsMay 25 at 5:30pmfor more information and to secure ticketsJune 22 at 5:30pmfor more information and to secure tickets To support the The Truth In This Art: Buy Me Ko-fiUse the hashtag #thetruthinthisartFollow The Truth in This Art on InstagramLeave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. ★ Support this podcast ★

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: a deliciously beautiful book subscription and some middle-marriage mayhem Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: we are trying a new Boss My TBR Segment! The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  We are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). The goal here is to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your laundry detergent, if you recently got obsessed with switching up your laundry game) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . 2:19 - Currently Reading Patreon 3:44   - Bookish Moment of the Week 4:01 - Fairy Loot Book Only Box Adult and YA 4:21 - Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim  5:04 - Scythe Series Three Book Set by Neal Shusterman 5:25 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer 9:43 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 10:31 - East of Eden by John Steinbeck 11:16 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas 11:18 - Current Reads 11:29 - Laura Tremaine 11:38 - Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (Kaytee) 14:00 - Jason's Birthday Carrot Cake Recipe 14:05 - Sour Cream Apology Cake Recipe 14:45 - Black Cake Recipe 15:41 - Aurora by David Koepp (Meredith) 20:45 - Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (Kaytee) 20:54 - The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood 20:56 - S4E21 Our Top Ten Books 24:47 - Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (Meredith) 24:51 - A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes 27:00 - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 32:39 - For Every One by Jason Reynolds (Kaytee) 35:43 - All That is Mine I Carry With Me by William Landay  (Meredith)  37:44 - Defending Jacob by William Landay 39:19 - The Local by Joey Hartstone 39:32 - Elizabeth Robinson Barnhill Meredith's co-host for All Things Murderful (patron content) 40:10 - Deep Dive: Boss My TBR #1   40:18 - S3E6 Are You Book Bossy? We Are! 41:35 - Kiara's Books: 41:46 - The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 41:54 - Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 41:57 - Light from Uncommon Stars by Rya Aoki 42:01 - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 42:04 - The Change by Kirsten Miller 44:17 - The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb 47:32 - Shawnna's Books: 47:40 - 11/22/63 by Steven King 47:42 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 47:44 - Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler 47:46 - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 47:49 - The House of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer 50:31 - Meet Us At The Fountain 50:39 - I wish everyone would follow goodreads_reviews on IG (Kaytee) 51:04 - Anne of Green Gables by LMM Montgomery 51:10 - All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox 51:29 - Lobinzona by Romina Garber 51:56 -  I wish The Treehouse Series starting with The 13 Story Treehouse by Andy Griffith for MG would be more widely read (Meredith) Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram Roxanna is @roxannatheplanner on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast and www.zazzle.com/store/currentlyreading

A new book is always a lovely sight around here, and that goes double for starting a new book from a favorite author of mine. H.G. Wells is solidly a member of the english canon for a reason, sure, but he's also just plain and simple a nostalgic author for me to read. Sure, I really only zoned in on a few books of his, but that just leaves us plenty of room to find new tales of his here! Also, please tell me I'm not the only one who's getting wires crossed about H.G. the actual author, and H.G. the character from Warehouse 13! Dunno what's made that particular piece of alternate history fiction stick in my brain, (I do, it's that the show's so good) but good golly has it been a persistent stumbling of mine. Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1013 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

The Cavorite is working its lovely gravity defying magic, and so Idina Menzel isn't the only one soaring to new heights around here! The moon is a most peculiar place, with odd blue lights, odder little mushroom lads that would do NUMBERS on tumblr today, and outright strange folk tending weird little cattle. If only we could bottle the solid air they're finding on the moon, I'd love to have a little novelty bottle of "fresh lunar air" to open up when I'm needing a little pick-me-up! Actually, come to think, there's sort of a product like that with those concentrated little oxygen bottles you can buy, huh? Glad those don't have some kind of aerosolized energy drink in them, or you KNOW someone would unknowingly overindulge, and that wouldn't end well! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1013 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Lindenwood hockey coach Rick Zombo tells us fantastic stories about hanging out with the Bad Boy Pistons

Please join me for the horror tale from long ago by edger Allen Poe Close the lights, light a candle and try not to be too frightened. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

I will be looking back to one of my childhood books the enchanted world of wizards and witches. So come and join me for this beautiful story. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Come join me as I read to you the story of our next segment the vengeance of skeletor. Thanks for listening and hope you all enjoy. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Please join me if you love story telling, this is the masters of the universe battle in the clouds. Let's have some fun and enjoy. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Join us with our two favorites scary Guest Nick Espinosa and Trina L Martin, as they will be sharing information that will outright scare you. Do you believe in conspiracies Mike will explain why some people do? This episode is not for the faint of heart as we talk about all the technology scary items we can in both hours. "Welcome to TechTime Radio with Nathan Mumm, the show that makes you go "Hummmm" Technology news of the week for October 30th - November 5th, 2021.Episode 72: Hour 1--- [Now on Today's Show]: Starts at 6:05--- [Top Stories in 5 Minutes]: Starts at 8:47Chinese payment-terminal company searched by FBI - https://tinyurl.com/p7drnfnr Pikmin Bloom: Why Pokémon Go creators are working with Nintendo again - https://tinyurl.com/6abbk382 We have news that the NRA has been hacked - https://tinyurl.com/pv62ctpc Mastodon has sent former President Donald Trump's company a formal notification that it's breaking the rules by using Mastodon's open-source code to build its social network, named Truth. - https://tinyurl.com/yc33z624 --- [Pick of the Day - Whiskey Tasting Review]: Starts at 17:41Mike - Screwball Peanut Butter Whiskey | 70 Proof | $27.00 Mike - Kentucky Bourbon Straight Whiskey | 80 Proof | $15.00--- [Ask the Expert]: Starts at 22:05Guest Trina Martin the Host of Trina Talk explains malware software that is being loaded on Google play store regarding the new TV show Squid Games. Beware of your phone being hacked with applications that are not trusted and new to the market.--- [Protect Yourself Today]: Starts at 36:37  Ransomware gangs use SEO poisoning to infect visitors - https://tinyurl.com/uupm8s2u Europol announced that twelve individuals were arrested for their links to over 1,800 ransomware attacks in 71 countries.The Grief gang removed their NRA information from their data leak siteGerman investigators identify REvil ransomware gang core member - https://tinyurl.com/3wc8j46a  --- [Mike's Mesmerizing Moment brought to us by StoriCoffee®]: Starts at 51:43--- [Pick of the Day]: Starts at 54:35  Mike - Screwball Peanut Butter Whiskey | 70 Proof | $27.00 Mike: Thumbs UpNathan - Kentucky Bourbon Straight Whiskey | 80 Proof | $15.00 Nathan: Thumbs DownEpisode 71: Hour 2 --- [Now on Today's Show]: Starts at 1:02:55 --- Steals and Deals]: Starts at 1:06:35  Mike and Nathan share this week's informative technology best prices on items for the week. --- [Technology Insider]: Starts at 1:17:42  Nick Espinosa is sharing information that will outright scare you regarding Pegasus, Ashley Madison, North Korea robbing banks online, WannaCry and the first legal issue with patients at a hospital not being able to recover because of ransomware hitting the hospital. --- [This Week in Technology]: Starts at 1:50:03First Major ARPANET Outage

E. Stephen Burnetthttps://lorehaven.com/FacebookInstagramYouTubePodcastBook:The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for ChristAll of our podcasts are available on our website at:https://www.entrustingthefaith.com/podcastSign up to receive our weekly emails with all of our podcast information here.Buy my book Leading Well at Home: How Husbands and Fathers Can Biblically Lead Their Families  here or get a free excerpt here.You can find Entrusting the Faith at the following locations:https://www.entrustingthefaith.com/InstagramFacebookYouTube 

Christian-made stories should not preach from on high at readers beyond the "fourth wall," but should help disciple our imaginations in Christ.

Geoff Whiting *Legendary London Stand Up Comedian,*Actor, Musician, Comedy Manager & Casting Director. Part 1 Geoff is delightful and hilarious while reminiscing about his days coming up as a stand comic and musician with song Summer Time. Listen to his story from office business worker whose job abruptly ended but things turned when Geoff saw an ad in the news paper asking "Are You Funny?" Geoff thought what the heck he has nothing to loose, entered the comedy competition and the rest is his incredible story of jobless to Famous!! Geoff manages over 80 comedy clubs in London and went to class with top of the comedy Star ladder: Stephen Merchan Co-writer of "The Office", Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook and Michael Ashley Ball. Geoff is enjoyably witty while retelling the days of his comedy endeavors and his comedian buddies who popped LARGE! Production company: Mirth Control Comedy Thank you for listening & supporting the podcast :) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sneakies https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/anonymouscontent *Royal Girl* Funds will go to sound and editing. Paypal (friends & family) petcarebuddies@gmail.com https://www.patreon.com/sneakies Instagram @marylinartist LinkedIn: Marylin Hebert Please Subscribe to our YouTube:) https://www.youtube.com/user/Fellinijr/videos Zombie Diaries: https://youtu.be/tBmgi3k6r9A Our books :) Young Adult wizard book series: "Margaret Merlin's Journal" by A. A. Banks at Amazon! :) https://www.instagram.com/margaretmerlinsjournal/ MMJ Book I The Battle of the Black Witch https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Battle-Black-ebook/dp/B01634G3CK MMJ Book II Unleashing the Dark One Science fiction action adventure https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Unleashing-Dark-ebook/dp/B01J78YH6I MMJ Book III The Mask of the Parallel World An Adventure in Italy https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Parallel-World-ebook/dp/B01KUGIZ8W/ MMJ Book IV The Quest for the Golden Key https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Quest-Golden-ebook/dp/B076FTTDQN Top kids podcast: Enchanting Book Readings https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enchanting-book-readings-reviews/id1498296670 Other awesome podcasts: Thrilling Stories, Enchanting Book Readings, Girl's Guide To Investing, Legitimately Mallie & The Haunting Dairies of Emily Jane. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/girlmogul/support Thank you for listening. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/filmaddicts/support

Geoff Whiting *Legendary London Stand Up Comedian,*Actor, Musician, Comedy Manager & Casting Director. Part 1 Geoff is delightful and hilarious while reminiscing about his days coming up as a stand comic and musician with song Summer Time. Listen to his story from office business worker whose job abruptly ended but things turned when Geoff saw an ad in the news paper asking "Are You Funny?" Geoff thought what the heck he has nothing to loose, entered the comedy competition and the rest is his incredible story of jobless to Famous!! Geoff manages over 80 comedy clubs in London and went to class with top of the comedy Star ladder: Stephen Merchan Co-writer of "The Office", Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook and Michael Ashley Ball. Geoff is enjoyably witty while retelling the days of his comedy endeavors and his comedian buddies who popped LARGE! Production company: Mirth Control Comedy Thank you for listening & supporting the podcast :) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sneakies https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/anonymouscontent *Royal Girl* Funds will go to sound and editing. Paypal (friends & family) petcarebuddies@gmail.com https://www.patreon.com/sneakies Instagram @marylinartist LinkedIn: Marylin Hebert Please Subscribe to our YouTube:) https://www.youtube.com/user/Fellinijr/videos Zombie Diaries: https://youtu.be/tBmgi3k6r9A Our books :) Young Adult wizard book series: "Margaret Merlin's Journal" by A. A. Banks at Amazon! :) https://www.instagram.com/margaretmerlinsjournal/ MMJ Book I The Battle of the Black Witch https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Battle-Black-ebook/dp/B01634G3CK MMJ Book II Unleashing the Dark One Science fiction action adventure https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Unleashing-Dark-ebook/dp/B01J78YH6I MMJ Book III The Mask of the Parallel World An Adventure in Italy https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Parallel-World-ebook/dp/B01KUGIZ8W/ MMJ Book IV The Quest for the Golden Key https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Quest-Golden-ebook/dp/B076FTTDQN Top kids podcast: Enchanting Book Readings https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enchanting-book-readings-reviews/id1498296670 Other awesome podcasts: Thrilling Stories, Enchanting Book Readings, Girl's Guide To Investing, Legitimately Mallie & The Haunting Dairies of Emily Jane. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/girlmogul/support Thank you for listening. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/filmaddicts/support

The Discussion Question starts at 1:39, as we contemplate a brand-sponsored CureSona and what they might look like. At 7:50 we explain our inside joke regarding Erika and Tsubomi, may they live on forever in our hearts. This also unveils our unofficial mascot: gremlin Erika holding up a giant dorito chip, a representation of her decadence  Next, at 12:10, Joel and Kat give updates on their curesonas, including information about their fairies and potential catchphrases. The discussion of the main episode starts at 20:16. We meet Minori Ichinose and see her journey to becoming Cure Payapa, and talk about her character, the design, what works about her and what didn't work so well.  We also bring up the subject of subtext in PreCure, and extend the conversation to media as a hole, especially with relationships that could be perceived as homosexual. We briefly ponder a Magical Girl show written by Studio Trigger and continue with our watch of Futari Wa PreCure where Joel highlights where the series falls flat, but then we discuss what's great about that first season. And of course we finish with predictions of how Cure Flamingo might appear in the next episode, and how her story might evolve. Also, for your viewing pleasure, we mentioned Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure But Really Fast and we hope you enjoy it.

This week I'm reading a short story about a boy on an adventure of epic, and mythic, proportions as he explores the edge of the world and the wonders it contains. Originally published in a magazine called Fantastic Stories of Imagination in May 1962. Written by Karen Anderson Faded Words is an Adventures in Creativity Production featuring David Szweduik as your narrator, host, and producer. Listen anytime on the Official Website of Faded Words, or in the podcast player of your choice by searching for “Faded Words | Adventures in Creativity”! You can also find me on social media everywhere @fadedwordspod, but I'm most active on Twitter so feel free to reach out and chat! Theme Music:Anoitecer (Nightfall) by Guifrog Additional Music by Marco Trovatello Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com and https://freesound.org --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fadedwordspod/message

Interview de Loïc Costeur, conservateur au musée d’histoire naturelle de Bâle.

Our political beliefs and fears are not always based on facts. Experiences and hidden pictures shape how we debate and vote.

In Episode 1 the host of Tennessee Hoop Talk Podcast, Matt Kizer, has his first guest on to reminisce about the glory days at Beech High School and Franklin High School. Coach Darrin Joines - shares fantastic stories about former players, games and much more!Coach Joines was a successful coach in Middle TN for 19 years. He shares stories from his days in 9-AAA at Beech and 11-AAA at Franklin, including some of his toughest opponents and favorite players. He also talks of his love of the 1-3-1 zone, and how it became his programs’ identity.If you like what you hear we ask that you subscribe - HERE - and tell your friends. Also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

This week I’m reading a short story about a boy on an adventure of epic, and mythic, proportions as he explores the edge of the world and the wonders it contains.  ----more---- Originally published in a magazine called Fantastic Stories of Imagination in May 1962.    Written by Karen Anderson       Faded Words is an Adventures in Creativity Production featuring David Szweduik as your narrator, host, and producer.   Listen anytime on the Official Website of Faded Words, or in the podcast player of your choice by searching for “Faded Words | Adventures in Creativity”!   You can also find me on social media everywhere @fadedwordspod, but I’m most active on Twitter so feel free to reach out and chat!   Theme Music:Anoitecer (Nightfall) by Guifrog   Additional Music by Marco Trovatello   Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com and https://freesound.org

We welcome our Special Guest--Mark Littell, former MLB pitcher, Coach, the inventor of the Nutty Buddy, and Author of two books joins Campy and Lenny for a rip-roaring show of great stories and laughs. What a blast! Hear some of his minor league stories, big-league accomplishments, and the invention that has saved many a baseball player's most precious jewels. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jim-campanis-jr/support

A WACKY AND WONDERFULLY SILLY ADVENTURE! This delightfully humorous fantasy from the legendary 1950s Fantastic Stories pulp magazine begins with an ordinary Chicago librarian courting his beautiful (but insipid) fiancée. Shortly afterwards, she and her family are zapped into a parallel world by two real estate gangsters. Albert turns the table on the gangsters, but then finds that his own time has become warped. He meets two creatures from an alternate world and in short order crosses with them over into a horizon-less, magical realm. When he enters the forest of Drendon, and his girlfriend turns into a woodnymph, and her brother becomes a fawn, and the dreadful parrot-beaked, cannibalistic Kwistian birds come to feast, he doesn't waste precious time asking what's going on? It's Magic, You Dope! Our intrepid hero finds himself menaced by hotsies, Kwistians, sarks, and wumbles. Help arrives from Maggot the witch, but Maggot is a busy witch and doesn't have time to explain how to use the bag of spells she gave him, so he must figure them out by himself…. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Will the idea of stories and books last into the eternity ruled by King Jesus—and what about the stories we love now?

In the new episode „Windy Sugar & Fantastic Shifter Stories“ of our new Engineered Unicorns Podcast SandyJ gives book and magazine recommendations. Maddening and downright rassist real world industry practices are revealed in „The case against sugar“ by Gary Taubes (available in the American Library Karlsruhe). A break from the real world provide the books of Forthright „Tsumiko and the enslaved fox“ and even more so „Kimiko and the accidental proposal“. Veritable comfort reads finds SandyJ. For some insightful and aestetically pleasing reads the Katapult Magazine is recommended (Only in German). Listen to the new episode on sunday, April 5, at 7 p.m. on Campusradio Karlsruhe. Musik: Erwin Schmidt

Hi there! Welcome to Episode 112 of the Collage Creative Podcast. Today I am thrilled to have Yasmenda McCoy on the show. She is the crochet jewelry designer behind Designs by Yasmen. I’m so excited for you to hear Yasmenda’s stories – she tells amazing stories! And how she gets through rough months is priceless advice for all of us....well for all of us who cope with tough times....which I think is everyone! I'm excited for you to hear from her. Let's dive in!

The writer/director of the popular Amazon TV docu-series, Hellier, Karl Pfeiffer joins Society co-hosts, Max Timm and Scott Markus to talk all things fantastic. Karl's documentary, Hellier, launched on Amazon in 2019 and there is a second season coming out on Amazon Prime before the end of 2019. The series documents the accounts of small, goblin-like creatures that supposedly invaded a small Kentucky mountain town. It's absolutely worth your time to watch the 5-episode first season, especially since the next set of episodes are expected to drop soon! You can find out more at Hellier.TV. On top of his accounts of these little goblin creatures, Karl's unique story at the end of this podcast episode about his most amazing experience while ghosthunting at the famous Stanley Hotel is enough to keep you on edge (to say the least). Passionate about the supernatural since as far back as he can remember, Karl began amateur experiential investigation during his sophomore year of college. Shortly after, he was cast on and later won the Syfy Channel's reality competition series, Ghost Hunters Academy. He went on briefly to work with the Ghost Hunters International team on the same network. From there, he began work at the famous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado as one of the resident paranormal investigators on the Stanley's SPI team, leading weekend public investigations. He worked there for five and a half years, conducting almost 250 investigations on the grounds. He lectures across the country about approaches to investigation, the philosophy of science and the paranormal, as well as paranormal photography. Find us on Twitter @FantasticGhosty and share your own Fantastic Stories with us!

In our first official episode of The Fantastic Story Society, Max Timm and Scott Markus break out the big guns with their own personal weird, wild, and of course fantastic stories AND they bring on their friend and long-time paranormal researcher, Jeff Belanger. For more than 20 years, Jeff has been exploring ghosts, monsters, history, and legends. He’s the author of more than a dozen books that have been published in six languages, and he’s appeared on PBS, the Travel Channel, History Channel, CBS, Bio, and Amazon Prime, as well as radio programs such as Coast to Coast AM and NPR’s Talk of the Nation. His PBS series New England Legends has been nominated for two Emmy awards, while his podcast of the same name has been downloaded over one million times. To top it all off, he’s been the writer and researcher for the popular Travel Channel ghost investigation show, Ghost Adventures, since episode 1 (which is saying something since they're on season 18)! As our very first official member of The Fantastic Story Society, we welcome Jeff Belanger...and yes, he has a story about a man-eating tree. Find us on Twitter @FantasticGhosty and share your own Fantastic Stories with us!

Ratcatcher by Amy Griswold       1918, over Portsmouth The souls in the trap writhed and keened their displeasure as Xavier picked up the shattergun. “Don’t fuss,” he scolded them as he turned on the weapon and adjusted his goggles, shifting the earpieces so that the souls’ racket penetrated less piercingly through the bones behind his ears. “It’s nothing to do with you.” The two airships were docked already, a woman airman unfastening safety ropes from the gangplank propped between them to allow Xavier to cross. The trap rocked with a vibration that owed nothing to the swaying airships, and Xavier lifted it and tucked it firmly under his arm. He felt the soul imprisoned in his own chest stir, a straining reaction that made him stop for a moment to catch his breath.     Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 69 for April 4th, 2019. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to share this story with you. Our story today is "Ratcatcher" by Amy Griswold.  Before we get to the story, GlitterShip has recently had some exciting news. Our second anthology, GlitterShip Year Two was listed as a Tiptree Award Honor Book for 2018. We're very happy that the Tiptree jury enjoyed the book, and owe a great debt to all the authors who have allowed us to publish their work. You can find out more about the Tiptree Award and check out the winner Gabriela Damian Miravete's story, "They Will Dream in the Garden" at tiptree.org. You can also pick up copies of the GlitterShip Year One and Year Two anthologies on gumroad at gumroad.com/keffy for $5 each. Just use the coupon code "tiptree," that's t-i-p-t-r-e-e. Amy Griswold is the author of the interactive novels The Eagle’s Heir and Stronghold (with Jo Graham), published by Choice of Games, as well as the gay fantasy/mystery novels Death by Silver and A Death at the Dionysus Club (with Melissa Scott). Her short fiction has been published in markets including F&SF and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Robin G has been an entertainment manager, entertainer/vocalist, theatrical producer and writer of several pantomimes including a UV version of Pinocchio that toured 20 theaters in the UK. He was first alerted to the supernatural in a strange dream sequence while in the Royal Air Force that placed him at a future event. The knowledge that a part of our brain exists in another reality has shown him many unusual incidents of the sixth sense. He writes both fiction and non-fiction which includes Jim Long — space agent, a series of stand-alone stories in 7 books, including one as a radio episodic creation, and the non-fiction book Magical theory of life—discusses our life, history, and its aftermath in non-religious spiritual terms.     Ratcatcher by Amy Griswold       1918, over Portsmouth The souls in the trap writhed and keened their displeasure as Xavier picked up the shattergun. “Don’t fuss,” he scolded them as he turned on the weapon and adjusted his goggles, shifting the earpieces so that the souls’ racket penetrated less piercingly through the bones behind his ears. “It’s nothing to do with you.” The two airships were docked already, a woman airman unfastening safety ropes from the gangplank propped between them to allow Xavier to cross. The trap rocked with a vibration that owed nothing to the swaying airships, and Xavier lifted it and tucked it firmly under his arm. He felt the soul imprisoned in his own chest stir, a straining reaction that made him stop for a moment to catch his breath. “If you’re ready, sir,” the airman said, and Xavier forced himself into motion. He nodded crisply and strode out onto the gangplank with the ease of long years spent aboard ships, his gloved hand just brushing the rail. He scrambled down from the other end and got out of the way of airmen rushing to disengage the gangplank and close the hatch before the two ships could batter at each other too dangerously in the rising wind. The Coriolanus’s captain strode toward him, and Xavier winced as he recognized a familiar face. He set the trap down, both to get it farther away from the casing that housed the soul in his chest, and to give himself a moment to banish all envy from his expression. He straightened with a smile. “Hedrick. I see you landed on your feet after that muddle over Calais.” “I’ve got a knee that tells me the weather now,” Hedrick said, scrubbing at his not-entirely-regulation stubble of ginger beard. “They told me you’d been grounded.” “I’m still attached to the extraction service,” Xavier said. “As a civilian now.” Hedrick’s eyes flickered to the odd lines of Xavier’s coat front, and then back up to his face without a change of expression. He’d always been good at keeping a straight face at cards. “We could use the help. We had a knock-down drag-out with the Huns a few weeks back—just shy of six weeks, I make it. Heavy casualties on both sides, and some of them damned reluctant to move on.” “Only six weeks? You hardly need me. Chances are they’ll still depart on their own.” “You haven’t seen the latest orders that came down, then. We’re supposed to call in the ratcatchers at the first sight of ghosts. Not acceptable on a well-run ship, don’t you know.” “You’re also meant to shave,” Xavier said. “It’s not like you to comply with every absurd directive that comes down the pike.” He couldn’t help reveling in the freedom to talk that way, one of the few rewards of his enforced change in career. “These are Colonel Morrow’s orders.” “Mmm.” That put a different face on it, or might. Morrow supervised the ratcatchers, civilian and military, and his technical brilliance had saved Xavier’s life when he lost his soul. That said, it was entirely in character for Morrow to go on a tear about efficiency without regard for how much work it made for anyone else. “Besides, there’s more to it,” Hedrick said as the Coriolanus drifted free of the Exeter. “We’ve been having damned bad luck of late. Pins slipping out of a gangplank just as one of the lads stepped on it—he just missed ending up a smear on the landscape. More engine malfunctions than you can name, and some of them dangerous. If the Coriolanus weren’t in such good repair to start with, she’d have burned twice over in the last month.” “You suspect sabotage.” “Some of the Jerries had their boots on our deck when they bit it. We tossed the bodies over the side, but still I’m not entirely easy in my mind.” “Next time, don’t,” Xavier said. “The soul’s more likely to stay in the corpse if it’s well treated. Ill handling breaks the ties faster.” He directed his gaze out the porthole window of the gondola rather than at Hedrick’s face. “You weren’t using shatterguns?” “We haven’t got them mounted. No budget for them in our grade, I hear. And just as well if you ask me. They give me the cold chills.” Hedrick glanced at the shattergun under Xavier’s arm. “A necessity in my profession,” he said. “Better you than me.” It was a backhanded enough kind of sympathy that Xavier didn’t cringe away from it. “Any particular area of the ship most affected?” “The crew quarters, I think—I’ve had men stirring up their whole deck with screaming nightmares, and not the usual nervous cases.” “At least it’s a place to start.” He followed Hedrick through the narrow corridors of the airship’s gondola to the cramped berthing area that housed the enlisted men. Only the night watch was there and sleeping, young men squeezed into claustrophobically low bunks, some with their knees tucked up to keep their feet from dangling off the end. A panel of canvas made a half-hearted divider screening the row of women’s bunks from the men’s view. Xavier set down his gear and stretched out on the nearest unoccupied bunk. “Leave me alone, now, and let me work.” “Funny kind of work,” Hedrick said, raising an eyebrow at his recumbent form. “‘They also serve who only stand and wait,’” Xavier said, and tried not to sound bitter. “Now get out.” He closed his eyes at the sound of Hedrick’s retreating footsteps and schooled his breathing into the steady rhythm that would send him swiftly into a doze. The soul in his chest shifted once, making him break his rhythmic breathing with a gasping cough, but he spread an entreating hand across its cage and it quieted. He knew he was dreaming when he saw Thomas walk into the room and sit down on the foot of the bed. For a moment the more rational part of his mind protested that it was impossible to sit down on the foot of an airship bunk, but his dreaming mind obligingly replaced the scene with a four-poster bed lit by streaming sunshine. Thomas’s hair was limned with gold, his eyes bright and laughing. “Haven’t you got work to do?” He was dressed in the uniform he died in, but as Xavier took his hand, it faded like smoke to reveal freckled skin. “I do,” Xavier said. “I’m most remiss.” He raised his chin unrepentantly, and Thomas grappled for him like a wrestler. He was aware of reality as soon as they touched, the sensation of Thomas’s soul writhing through Xavier’s body painfully erotic but nothing remotely like physical sex. He heard himself gasp, unsure whether he’d actually made a sound the sleeping airmen could hear, and realized how genuinely unwise this was. He pushed Thomas away, and the other man’s soul retreated, dissolving into curling smoke, and then retreated too far, tugging away in unstoppable reflex. It felt like someone was pulling a rib out of his chest. “Thomas—” The smoke resolved itself for a moment into the golden-haired man, his face contorted. “I’m trying to stop,” he said. His shape exploded into smoke again, and twisted almost free of Xavier’s chest, leaving Xavier unable to draw a breath for long enough that his vision darkened. Then Thomas was back, sprawled against Xavier’s side as if in the exhausted aftermath of love. “Christ, that hurt,” Thomas said. “Like trying to hold onto a hot iron.” “You know it will only get worse.” “And so what’s the point in talking about it?” The image of Thomas appeared to stand, now pressed and correct in his airman’s uniform, looking around the dim barracks-room. His soul lay quiet in Xavier’s chest, a weight that eased its lingering ache. “We still have a job to do.” “So we do.” “There have been ghosts here,” Thomas said. “Two, I think. I’d look in the engine room if I were you.” He turned, frowning. “And don’t lay aside your gun. At least one of them is in a dangerous mood.”   In the engine room, the thumping of the steam engines pulsed through Xavier’s bones, and the heat coming off every surface beat against his skin. Through his goggles he could see wisps of what looked like steam but were really the lingering traces of the dead, men and women who had died in the recent battle. Not ghosts but something more like bloodstains. He turned a circle, looking for a more solid form, and settled the goggles’ earpieces more firmly against the bones behind his ears. A hundred sounds were familiar, the cacophony of airship travel he’d long ago learned to drown out. Under them was the faintest of animal noises, a tuneless moaning. He took a step toward it, and then another. A rattling on the other side of the engine room distracted him, and he turned. A connecting rod was flailing free, its pin out and the mechanism it served shuddering with the interrupted rhythm. He crossed the deck swiftly, keeping his head lifted as if watching the loose rod, but his eyes fixed on the deck. He caught the movement and stopped short as a hatch swung open in front of him, steam rising from the gaping space he had been intended to step into. “A creditable try,” he said. “Pity I’ve seen these tricks before.” He raised his shattergun, keeping his expression calm despite his awareness of his danger. A ghost could only move small objects, but here there might be a hundred small objects that could release steam or poison fumes or heavy weights if moved. “Why don’t you go in the trap like a good lad?” he said, putting the trap down on a section of deck that he made sure was solid. “This is the end of the road, you know.” Silence greeted him. He turned a slow circle, raising the shattergun. “You’re dead,” he said. “Stone cold dead. Your corpse is sinking to the bottom of the Channel or spattered across some unfortunate farmer’s hayfield. All that remains for you is to let go your precarious grip on this plane of existence and go to whatever awaits you.” There was no answer. “Or I can shoot you with this shattergun and destroy your soul. Would you like that better?” He heard the moaning again, rising to a ragged wail like a child’s crying. He took cautious steps toward it, aware of every rattle in the machinery around him. A wisp of smoke was curled up in a niche between the steel curves of two large engines, wailing forlornly. He raised the shattergun, and the smoke solidified into a dark-haired shape in an English airman’s uniform. It was a woman, and when she raised her head, he could see from the jagged ruin of one side of her skull that she’d met her end in an abrupt collision with some blunt object. “Don’t shoot me!” He lowered the shattergun cautiously. “I would far rather not.” “I don’t want to be dead,” she said. “I’m still here, I’m still here—” “You died weeks ago,” Xavier said. Six weeks ago, assuming she was a casualty of the most recent skirmish. “Your body is miles away and decomposing. You are dead, and the sooner you grasp that, the sooner you can move on.” “I won’t go in that thing.” “You will,” Xavier said briskly, knowing gentleness would be no mercy now. “The trap will confine you painlessly while I remove you from the site of your death.” He hefted the shattergun, but left the safety on. “Or I destroy your soul. That, I promise you, will hurt.” “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, lifting a stubborn chin. It took stubbornness to be a woman in the service. “There’s been sabotage.” “It wasn’t me.” “No, I don’t think it was,” he said. He was watching her face, and he saw her eyes move past him, fixing on something behind his shoulder. She cried out, but he was already moving, and threw himself to the deck as a blast of superheated steam singed the back of his neck. Steam swam in front of his eyes, and something darker within it: a second ghost, and one that was up to no good. He pushed himself up to one elbow and reached out with his gloved hand, thrusting its mesh of wiring into the yielding substance of the new ghost and then clenching his fist. The ghost was a chill weight as he began drawing his hand back toward the trap. He had expected it to be too clever to be caught so easily. There was no resistance. He understood why a moment too late as the ghost rushed toward him, and then into him, reaching for Xavier’s heart. Clever after all, he had time to think, before the sensation of being hollowed out from the inside sent him plunging into shellshock-vivid memory, a predictable and yet unavoidable descent—   —Xavier ducked under the web of grappling lines that bound the two ships together and fired between them, flattening himself against the remains of the breached gondola wall to reload. Through his goggles, he could see souls curling up out of the bodies that littered the deck, drifting free or swirling in snakelike muddled circles as if seeking a way back in. The wind screamed. He reached down with his gloved hand to yank the nearest circling soul firmly free from its body, and held it flailing in his fist. He found his trap with the other hand, or what remained of it, shattered fragments. He shoved the soul at them anyway, but it wouldn’t go in. “Never mind the sodding dead!” someone shouted, firing from beside him, but the only certainty he had in a world full of flying debris and blood was that the souls needed to come out of the corpses, extracted like rotten teeth. He raised his head, and saw the shattergun pointed at him from across the narrow gap between the ships. He flung himself to one side, and the blast caught him on the side of the chest rather than between the eyes. I’m still here, he thought, I’m still here, and then saw the curling smoke trailing away from his chest like a ragged cloud torn apart by the wind. His breath caught in his chest, and then stopped, like something he’d forgotten how to do a long time ago. He didn’t breathe, but he still moved, crushing the soul in his fist against his chest, reaching out mechanically for the remains of the trap, pressing it to his chest, then pressing harder. Harder, until the glass cut through skin and flesh, trapping the soul coiled half in, half out of his chest. Harder, until he bled, and breathed—   —He gasped for breath, and he was in the hospital ward, with Morrow sitting in a straight-backed chair at the foot of the bed, a look of interest on his stubbled face. “You know, it never occurred to me to try what you did. Not that it would have worked for long.” Xavier looked down, and saw an alien construction of glass and metal wrapped around his chest, smoke swirling in its depths and an electric buzz humming against his skin. He breathed, trying not to gasp like a drowning swimmer. Each breath came more predictably than the last, but not more easily. “I built you a more stable housing for your passenger,” Morrow said. “Tell me, what is it like? Having someone else’s soul animating your body?” He leaned forward eagerly, chin rested on his fist. “Who is he?” “Corporal Thomas Carlisle. Now unfortunately deceased. His service record is brief and unenlightening. You haven’t answered my question.” “I’m alive,” Xavier said, but he had seen his soul shattered. Had felt himself dying. He reached up with one shaky hand and spread his fingers across the warm metal. Someone else was there as well, holding on to the inside of his chest as if wrapping desperate fingers around his ribs, determined not to let go—   His head snapped back and he tasted blood as Thomas’s shadowy form erupted from his chest, thrusting the invading ghost out with him and holding it at arm’s length. “Possessive, are you?” Xavier managed, reaching blindly for the trap and finding it thankfully intact. He maneuvered it closer to where the ghost was writhing in Thomas’s grip, trying to ignore the warning ache in his chest. “You know it.” The German ghost was solid enough now for Xavier to see his uniform and the grim set of his jaw as he fought Thomas’s grasp. Xavier’s thumb slipped clumsily off the trap’s trigger the first time he tried it, and then slipped again. The increasing pain was becoming a problem. Finally he hit it solidly, and watched in satisfaction as the ghost became a rushing fog that swirled into the trap and disappeared. His vision blurred, and he realized he hadn’t breathed in some time. He spread one hand in warning, and felt the soul rush back into his chest, its grip tightening, but still not as firm as it had been even a few hours before. Xavier spread his hand across the soul cage, a habitual gesture that still brought irrational comfort. Not much time. But enough to finish the business at hand. “Your turn, now,” he said to the English airman’s ghost, as lightly as he could manage. “Don’t dawdle, we haven’t got all day.” She slipped down from her perch and approached the trap, hanging back a healthy distance from its electric hum. “What happens after this?” “There’s an air base in Manchester where we’ll empty the traps. It’s far enough from where you died that you’ll have no trouble moving on.” And considerable trouble doing anything else, with no death energies to give her a grip on the world of the living. “I mean...what happens after that? Where do we go?” “I’m not going to find out,” he said. She met his eyes, something like sympathy kindling in her expression, bearable from someone already dead. “I am sorry,” she said, and then bolted away from the trap. He already had his gloved hand out to catch her. “So am I,” he said, and crammed her ghost into the mouth of the trap, thumbing the switch to suck the swirl of angry fog inside. Footsteps clattered on the metal decking, and an engineer stuck his head in, probably in answer to alarms from whatever essential piece of machinery the German ghost had employed in his attempt to kill Xavier. “What’s all this?” “Tell the captain I’ve taken care of his pest problem,” Xavier said. “And that he can drop me in Manchester. I’m going to sleep until then.”   The moment he closed his eyes he could feel Thomas lying beside him, as if they were ordinary lovers indulging in a late morning lie-in. “You could be wrong,” Thomas said. “I think my clock keeps good time.” Even in the dream, he could feel the ache in his chest, his hands and feet cold. “I hear Gottlieb thinks that the shattergun doesn’t really destroy the soul, just keeps it from being able to manifest as a ghost.” “Gottlieb is a German.” “Does that make him wrong?” “Morrow thinks his work is fundamentally unsound.” “For Christ’s sake.” “Morrow has occasionally been wrong,” Xavier said, but he couldn’t believe the world was fundamentally merciful enough for any part of him to survive when the link between Thomas’s soul and his body rotted away. They would put him in the ground, and that would be the end. “How long?” Thomas asked finally, his voice more even. “Your guess is as good as mine.” “You’re the ratcatcher. I was just an ordinary aviator. Blow those men down for king and country, yes, sir.” Thomas saluted jauntily, rolling away from Xavier in bed to do it. The ache in his chest worsened, and he ignored it. “A day or two, I should think. Time enough to report to Morrow and offload these poor sods.” “Maybe Morrow can do something.” “We’ve discussed the problem. He hasn’t been optimistic.” Morrow’s soul cage had lasted for months longer than Xavier’s own bloody improvisation would have, but it was still failing, the link between Thomas’s soul and its electric cage fraying faster every hour. “A day or two,” Thomas said. “Yes.” Xavier was certain it wouldn’t be two. He slept until Hedrick shook his bunk to wake him. “Manchester,” Hedrick said. “Come on, sleeping beauty.” “It’s a harder job than you’d think,” Xavier said, following Hedrick up to the observation deck to debark. “Or would you like me to put them back and you can have a go at rounding them up? You were right, by the way. One of them was a Jerry, and up to considerable mischief.” “I suppose that’s patriotic, by his lights,” Hedrick said. “But I’ll tell you this, if I die up here, I’ll go quiet as a little lamb. No more fighting for me. I’ve had my share and that’s a fact.” He clapped Xavier on the shoulder. “Next time I’m in Manchester I’ll stand you a drink.” “Have one for me,” Xavier said, and stepped onto the waiting gangplank.   The air base towered above Manchester, an iron tree twenty stories high with jutting piers and thrumming generators that made the floor gratings shudder under Xavier’s feet. Morrow met Xavier on the pier. “Good news,” he said, falling in beside Xavier as he walked. “I think I have a solution to your problem.” “You said it was insoluble.” Hope rose unbidden in his throat, a hard knot that he swallowed down ruthlessly. “I’ve worked out a technical solution. A side application, actually, of another process. Not that way,” he said, as Xavier turned toward the end of the pier, eager now to release the souls in his care and free himself to find out what Morrow had concocted. “Bring the trap down with you.” Xavier frowned, but followed Morrow to the lift cage. It clattered downward, descending through a hell of industrial machinery past levels that bustled with airmen and engineers down to the quieter cargo bays. The lift stopped on the ground floor, generally deserted except when shipments of raw materials were brought in by truck. Bare electric lights swayed overhead, casting harsh shadows. “You have no idea how much we all owe you,” Morrow said as Xavier followed him out of the lift. “What we’ve learned about how to maintain a ghost’s link to physical objects—it’s invaluable.” “You mean physical objects like my body,” Xavier said. His chest was aching again, Thomas’s soul stirring uneasily in its housing. He wished Morrow would get on with it and either offer up whatever fix might help him or stop holding out hope. “Incidentally. Not most importantly.” Morrow had been leading him through the shadowy bay toward the heavy bulks of vehicles, and stopped now with his hand caressing the hard lines of a tank. Its turret swiveled toward Xavier, and he froze in momentary alarm. “There’s no danger, its guns aren’t loaded.” “I didn’t think these things were radio-controlled.” “They’re not.” Morrow drew a bulky pistol from his coat pocket that Xavier realized after a moment’s examination was a shattergun, though a smaller model than any he’d seen before. “Can’t you see it?” Thomas’s soul was writhing in alarm, and Xavier squinted at the tank, adjusting his goggles. When he turned them up to maximum sensitivity he could see the curl of smoke at the tank’s heart, swirling in tight unhappy circles and then battering itself against the walls of an invisible cage before returning to its circling. “It’s haunted,” Xavier said. “Inhabited,” Morrow said. “By a ghost with the power to control it without risking any living men.” His eyes were alight. “The next step in modern warfare.” “Its occupant doesn’t seem very pleased.” “They never like being in a trap. Surely you’ve learned that as a ratcatcher. There’s a certain discomfort involved in being bound into something other than a living body.” By discomfort Morrow generally meant excruciating pain. “How long can you keep it there?” “Indefinitely. Which provides a solution to your own problem, by the way.” He extracted a glowing puzzle-box of glass and metal from his pocket, something like the central cage within the maze of glass and wiring on Xavier’s chest. “But this is the real promise of it. There won’t be any more need for our men to leave the service just because they’re dead. No more excuses for desertion.” “I wouldn’t call it desertion.” “Retreating from the field,” Morrow said. “Going to their rest. Well, no one’s resting until this war is over.” The glitter in his eyes suggested that it had been long since he slept himself. “As long as it’s voluntary.” “Of course it’s voluntary.” Morrow brandished the shattergun and bared his teeth. “So far they’ve all preferred it to the alternative.” “I see,” Xavier said. He was very aware of the weight of the trap under his arm, the souls within it only dimly aware, but moving restlessly in response to Thomas’s agitation. “One of these is a German,” he said. “Not good material for your purposes.” “There’s an easy cure for that,” Morrow said, thumbing the safety off the shattergun. “Of course.” He wondered how long it would take for the German high command to hear about this, and how fast the order would go out to destroy any English soul found haunting German battlefields. It couldn’t take much longer for Gottlieb or someone equally clever on the other side to replicate Morrow’s process and fill the battlefields with machines powered by the unquiet dead. His vision swam, and he gritted his teeth in mingled panic and frustration—not yet—before he realized that Thomas was pulling him down into a waking dream, appearing at his side overlaid on the shimmering forms of tanks. “The man in that tank was a gunnery sergeant,” Thomas said. “A good soldier. He’s in incredible pain, and Morrow threatens him with the shattergun whenever he makes a credible effort to tear himself free.” Xavier spread his hands in acknowledgement, but did not reply. Morrow was in no state to hear objections to his plan, and if he objected too strongly, Morrow had the life-saving soul cage to withhold from him. The hope Morrow had kindled beat in his throat, a desperate desire to live at any cost. All he had to do was accept. “We’re dead men anyway,” Thomas said. “So we are,” Xavier said, and opened the trap. The ghosts erupted out of the trap and streamed as one toward Morrow. Thomas followed them, striding forward, and Xavier staggered back, his chest burning. “Xavier,” Morrow said, disapproving but not afraid yet. “So clumsy of me,” Xavier said. He managed to take a breath, and then couldn’t remember how to take another one. Morrow pointed the shattergun at Thomas’s chest, and Xavier strained to move, but his limbs felt filled with lead. Morrow pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire. The safety was engaged again, and clearly stuck fast as Morrow struggled to disengage it. Xavier could make out some individual forms within the roiling mass of souls, the faces of dead men and women, all painfully young. The soul of the woman airman hung back, reaching into the tank with both hands, tugging the ghost inside free of its metal bulk. Other ghostly hands were on the shattergun, twisting it in Morrow’s hand, pressing its muzzle toward his temple. Morrow tugged at the gun, and then fought for it, still looking more annoyed than afraid. For a moment Xavier met Thomas’s eyes. He knew he should shake his head, forbid murder, but he took refuge in the weariness that made shaking his head a Herculean task. The ghosts were moaning, now, a rising wail of single-minded purpose. Even without goggles, Morrow looked as if he could hear them now, or perhaps he only felt their chill as they swarmed him, writhing against his skin. “You’re all dead men,” Morrow said. There was acceptance in their voices. Their grip on this world was loosening, the pull of whatever lay beyond growing stronger by the second. Now, he mouthed in choking silence, and he saw Thomas nod, his eyes smiling. It seemed all right then to let his eyes close. He heard, rather than saw, the safety catch on the shattergun give, and as if from a long way away he heard it fire.   Time passed, and went on passing. He could feel hands inside his chest, holding desperately tight to his ribs, familiar and yet strange. The metal grating of the floor was cold against his cheek. He lifted his head. Hurry, someone urged. Xavier tried to stand, and failed. He crawled instead, inching his way toward Morrow’s still form. Morrow’s chest was moving shallowly, but his stare was sightless. He felt across the grating until he found the soul cage that had fallen from Morrow’s hand. It felt warm even through his glove. He tore open Morrow’s collar and pressed it to Morrow’s skin. Wires sprouted from it, burrowing into bare flesh. He felt a surge of envy, and the presence within him writhed in denial and anger, holding on tighter. Morrow opened his eyes. “Maybe not such dead men,” he said, the voice Morrow’s but the tone teasing and familiar. “Morrow?” “I expect I had better be.” “If you’re in there ...” Xavier spread his hand across the soul cage on his chest. “Airman Anna Lambert,” the woman airman said, as close as if she were sitting on his lap, not a position he’d ever been in with a woman. He could feel her amusement at that thought. “You’d better get used to it, since I don’t want to die and neither do you.” “Pleased to meet you.” “Such pretty manners, yet. I think we’ll do all right.” She retreated back into the soul cage, settling in like a cat turning round before curling into its basket. Morrow sat up cautiously, fingering the soul cage where it pulsed against his skin. “We need to find another one of these to house your passenger in the long term,” he said, and then frowned. “Unless he made only one?” “Morrow never made only one of anything.” Xavier looked around at the empty trap and the motionless tank. Souls still roiled within the others, aching to be ripped free. But first things first. “What are we going to say happened here?” “I don’t know what you mean,” Morrow said, looking at him with Thomas’s most level gaze. “I admit I’m not feeling...entirely myself. A touch of shell shock, maybe. Requiring a holiday from my work while I figure out what in blazes Morrow was doing here and how to give the impression I understand it.” “His mind is gone?” “Gone wherever shattered souls go. Gottlieb might still be right.” “I’m not going to weep for Morrow either way,” Xavier said. “I’m Morrow. You’d better keep that straight.” “A touch of shell shock myself,” Xavier said. “I don’t know what I was saying.” “Think nothing of it, old chap,” Morrow said, and turned to regard the tanks. “Gruesome things, aren’t they? I think we’ll be writing this off as a failed experiment.” “You mean that you’ll be writing it off,” Xavier said. “If you can transplant Lambert here into more permanent housing without accident—I expect Morrow left good notes—” “I devoutly hope so.” “Then I’ve got work to do in the field. This war won’t stop making ghosts.” He felt a twinge of loss at the thought of making those bloody rounds without Thomas curled under his breastbone, and told himself angrily not to be a fool. “Kiss him, for Christ’s sake,” Lambert said. “I would.” Xavier coughed, and Morrow looked at him in alarm. “My passenger has an unfortunate sense of humor,” he said by way of explanation. “That ought to suit you,” Morrow said. He looked as if he felt a certain degree of loss himself. It would have been madness to make any such gesture in the air base, but Xavier reached out and caught his hand, and Morrow held it, his rough fingers unfamiliar in Xavier’s own. “I’m still here,” Xavier said, and went on breathing.   END   "Ratcatcher" was originally published in Mothership Zeta and is copyright Amy Griswold, 2016. This recording is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license which means you can share it with anyone you’d like, but please don’t change or sell it. Our theme is “Aurora Borealis” by Bird Creek, available through the Google Audio Library. You can support GlitterShip by checking out our Patreon at patreon.com/keffy, subscribing to our feed, leaving reviews on iTunes, or buying your own copy of the Summer 2018 issue at www.glittership.com/buy. You can also support us by picking up a free audiobook at  www.audibletrial.com/glittership. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back soon with a GlitterShip original, "The Girl With All the Ghosts" by Alex Yuschik.  

Not My First Choice by Alexandra Grunberg.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword written by Alexandra Grunberg.  #scifi #nanobots #fiction #podcast   "It's not as bad as being impaled by an icepick," she said. "Though, as someone who has never been impaled by an icepick, I could be wrong." "Ice picks have gotten a pretty bad reputation," said Kevin.  "But I hear they're nothing compared to medieval torture devices." Jessica nodded.  She knew a lot about medieval torture devices.  She had ranked most of them, both on a pain scale and a time scale.   Alexandra Grunberg is a Glasgow based author, screenwriter, and poet.  Her short stories have appeared in multiple magazines and anthologies, including SFWA certified publications such as Daily Science Fiction, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, and Flash Fiction Online.  You can learn more on her website, alexandragrunberg.weebly.com    Please help support The Overcast.  Become a Patron Today! Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode.  While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!  

When DeAngelo Hall first walked into the Redskins Talk podcast tent, the plan was for the interview to run at the start of a regular pod. But Hall was so willing to talk and so interesting that we just had to make the conversation its own episode. The 'Skins legend, who officially retired in Richmond, offers up all types of amazing stories, from a recap of some of his scoop-and-scores to the time he said he was going to be Pro Bowl MVP and then, well, became Pro Bowl MVP. He also gets serious and explains why he's choosing to retire now. If you like podcasts where one of the best players for the franchise from the past decade takes the mic and just goes on unfiltered, then this is the episode for you.

If you want to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh or they'll kill you, said George Bernard Shaw. Truth-telling is over-done, provocative, and downright boring. Storytelling just might be the only way to convey truth anymore.

Show Rundown: In this week’s episode, we review the latest installment in the Harry Potter universe, “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.” Did it cast a spell on us? Listen and find out. Then we talk about the legacy of Harry Potter. Is it a universe in search of a story? In our third segment, we’re going to send you off to Thanksgiving with a fun game you can play with your friends and family: Dorking Out Production Studios. We talk about the movies and TV shows we would greenlight if we were in charge so listen up, Hollywood! Plus our favorite headlines of the week. Topic 1: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is the latest entry in the Harry Potter franchise. It’s based on the 2001 book written by JK Rowling, under the name of fictitious author Newt Scamander. The book is 128 pages long, but it’s the jumping off point for five -- that’s right FIVE -- movies. I’m starting to think that Peter Jackson was showing restraint by making only three movies out of The Hobbit. Eddie Redmayne stars as Newt Scamander, who travels to 1920s New York City with a briefcase full of fantastic beasts. Of course, some of the creatures escape, and it’s up to Newt, a no-maj (also known as a muggle) named Jacob, a disgraced auror Tina and her oracle sister Queenie to find the creatures. Oh, and there’s a bunch of other stories, too, including an anti-magic crusade lead by Samantha Morton, Jon Voight as a newspaper baron with a son running for congress and Colin Farrell as a wizard investigator who is hunting a dangerous wizard … or is he? There’s a lot to discuss.  Topic 2: Legacy of Harry Potter - Is it a universe in search of a story?   Topic 3: Dorking Out Studios Chris and Sonia imagine the movies, TV shows, etc. we’d greenlight if we were studio heads.   Favorite Headlines: VP-Elect Mike Pence Not Offended By ‘Hamilton’ Statement   Find The Dorking Out Show here... Dorking Out Show Blog - Twitter - YouTube - Facebook - Patreon   Find Sonia here... Twitter - The Sonia Show Blog - The Sonia Show Facebook Page   Find Chris here... Twitter - The Jett Jergens Blog - The Jett Jergens Facebook Page

José Iriarte and I go way back, and it's been with great pleasure that I've watched his writing career start to take off over the past few years. He's had short stories appear in a number of publications, including Motherboard, Strange Horizons, and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, and what I particularly love about his stories is that how he uses genre and genre elements to put a new perspective on or provide a means of entry into more familiar emotions and experiences. José and I talked about a few of his recent stories for the show, and then for the second segment we talked about online communities and the function of public "shaming." Subscribe: iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | SoundCloud | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Leave a review Share: Tweet this episode | Share to Facebook Connect: Email | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr Show Notes: José Iriarte José Iriarte - Of Unions, Intersections, and Empty Sets José Iriarte - Spirit of Home José Iriarte - Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic José Iriarte - The Vampire’s Stepdaughter “You’ve got to sell your heart” (Letters of Note)

Kevin and Shelly have guest hosts The Matt and Ms. Desflurane tell wonderful stories about what they've heard about the wonderful world of anesthesia. Some background languange, feel free to listen closely.

Our fourth piece of audio fiction for July is “The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness” written by William Browning Spencer and read by Kate Baker.   First published in Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, 1998. Subscribe to our podcast.