Pseudopod 514: The Show

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 514: The Show

by Priya Sharma.

Originally published in BOX OF DELIGHTS, you can read “The Show” online at NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE.

PRIYA SHARMA’s fiction has appeared in Interzone, Black Static, Albedo One and on Tor.com. She’s been anthologized in several of Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year series, Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror series, Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014, Steve Haynes’ Best British Fantasy 2014 and Johnny Main’s Best British Horror 2015. She’s also been on previous Locus’ Recommended Reading Lists (2010, 2012, 2013 & 2015). She is a Shirley Jackson Award Nominee and British Fantasy Award nominee for her story “Fabulous Beasts”, which appeared on Tor.com in 2015. Find her online at Priya Sharma Fiction.

This story was also reprinted this month as part of Nightmare’s special issue People of Colo(u)r DESTROY Horror! Read along with the story over at their site. Listen to two more stories from this issue over on the Nightmare podcast feed, and add it to your podcatcher while you’re at it!

Your narrator – Andrea Richardson – came through at the last minute for us! Check her out at Andrea Richardson!


Pseudopod has launched our TEN YEAR Kickstarter! CHECK IT OUT!




The CAST OF WONDERS Flash Fiction Contest info can be accessed at the link.


Info on Anders Manga’s album (they do our theme music!) can be found here.


The camera crew struggled with the twisting, narrow stairs. Their kit was portable, Steadicams being all the rage. They were lucky that the nature of their work did not require more light. Shadows added atmosphere. Dark corners added depth. It was cold down in the cellar. It turned their breath to mist, which gathered in the stark white pools shed by the bare bulbs overhead.
Martha smiled. It was sublime. Television gold.



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[ElectricPaladin]

This one started off slow for me, but when the lights went out and the shit hit the fan, I was completely enthralled. I'm glad I stuck with it. Sometimes horror is slow and weird and creepy, and sometimes it's a knife in the dark, and sometimes it's both. This was a very entertaining wicked little tale.

Also, Alasdair, you'll be entertained to know that not only did I order Ghostwatch, I also ordered The Stone Tapes (they came in a bundle) and both DVDs will arrive on Halloween... how's that? 

[Sgarre1]

BOTH are excellent!

[Metalsludge]

This one certainly felt like radio and TV productions of old, right down to the melodramatic infighting among staff common to stuff like The Stone Tapes. Had everything except hints of a love triangulate to fight over. The medium from a family of clairvoyants who fakes it, only to later discover she really does have The Gift, is pretty familiar stuff as well.   

It was entertaining, but I was left feeling like there were some lost opportunities to expand on its themes here and there, from historical stuff to the family history of the medium.

[Unblinking]

Ooh, this one was really good.  Agreed that it was a little slow to start but that setup served the story well so I can't really complain about it.  I feel like I've seen a lot of horror stories based in the Ghost Hunters kind of setup, but this one went an interesting direction for it.  I particularly liked the bit where the person who is seeing these things is torn between their expected role and what they're actually experiencing and everyone around them is trying to pretend very hard that they still fit their roles even though things are getting very real in a way that they never expected.