PseudoPod 791: Flash on the Borderlands LIX: Down in the Park

[Bdoomed]

PseudoPod 791: Flash on the Borderlands LIX: Down in the Park

Authors: Eric J. Guignard, Can Wiggins, Hailey Piper, and Anthony Oliveira
Narrators: Victoria Winnick, Kitty Sarkozy, Brian Lieberman, and Dave Robison
Host: Scott Campbell
Audio Producer: Marty Perrett

“Feast for Small Pieces” was originally published in The Bronzeville Bee in 2019 and reprinted in the collection Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy.“MeeMee” first saw print in the anthology Georgia Gothic.“The Shimmer of Trees” was originally published in the anthology Campfire Macabre.“The Incident in Exeter” was originally published in Curtains 84 Concert Visions To Benefit #SaveOurStages edited by Brock Wilbur & Meghan Ball


“We are not lovers. We are not romantics. We are here to serve you.”

Never underestimate the seductive power of a woman who’s minding her own business.

“There’s just something about her,” they say. I see myself splashed across a pulp magazine cover, a distraught man in the background. The tagline reads, “He met a woman he Could. Not. Resist.” As if that’s my problem.

These writers don’t realize it’s me they’ve placed in their stories. I’d hoped to escape them when I left England, but their tide is unending. They scarce remember passing me on the street, only the fire I’ve lit in their minds, hearts, and other places. Later they sit with their notebooks or keyboards, tapping out the story of how a man’s peaceful life was shattered when he met me in some chance romance.

Sometimes I’m cast as a vampire. Other times I’m the half-human spawn of an elder god. I might be Eve. Never the same, but always me.


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[cwthree]

I loved "Feast for Small Pieces", specifically the theme of dealing with an annoying person not by simply obliterating them, but by turning them into something good. I especially liked the reference to taking the man's obnoxious persistence and transferring it to someone who desperately needs that strength and courage.