Pseudopod 385: FLASH ON THE BORDERLANDS XX: CommunityHell is other people…
“Penance” by
Liz Colter.“Penance” is a previously unpublished story. “This story began, as some of my stories do, with a quick, visual flash of something odd and unexpected just before sleep. I began the story as a humorous tale, but it quickly let me know that it wanted to be a horror tale instead.”
LIZ COLTER offsets working in the mundane world by writing speculative worlds of her own. She is a winner of the
Writers of the Future competition (V30, released April 2014) and her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in
Emerald Sky, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Enchanted Conversation, and the World Weaver Press
Fae anthology, among others. Her website is
THE SPECULATIVE WORLDS OF LIZ COLTER.
Your reader this week –
Ant Bacon – was heard here last week as well and says “I’m an actor and coroners officer from Manchester, England so I love a bit of death and a bit of story telling. What else is there to know?! If anyone wants to say hello though I’m on twitter and always looking to up my followers:
Antbacon.
“‘Wake,’ my ghosts said. ‘Come.’
They spoke asynchronously, like a flock of noisy birds. Their voices pulled me from sleep and I opened my eyes to the throng of them at my bedside.
‘Why?’ I asked. The long, morose faces stared back at me, gray and insubstantial, and mute once again.”
“Mallecho” by
Stephen Willcott.“Mallecho” was previously published in the print and e-book anthology,
ARCANE, by Cold Fusion Media, edited by Nathan Shumate.
STEPHEN WILLCOTT‘s work has appeared in
Arcane Anthologies and
Silver Blade Magazine. He is interested in Old English and has been attempting to translate
Beowulf.
Your reader –
John Trevallian – is an English novelist, poet, shaman and award-winning author of three dystopian sci-fi novels (
The A-Men, The A-Men Return and
Forever A-Men), plus writer of many other short stories, poetry collections and travel journals. He is also creator of the
Talliston House & Gardens project, which could use your help – please see:
Trevillian.com &
Talliston.com.
“‘Mallecho wood? Is that safe?’ My wife asks. She reminds me of my mother.
‘I told them to stay clear,’ I say. ‘They’re just going for a bit, Jan.’ She worries like that. But then her family is not from here. I smile at her and go into the garden. The sun is strong and overhead. The children have left their ball games and toys on the lawn. I go to the rose tree and watch the insects: the flies, the bees, and the ants. Behind the tree is a brown fence and behind that is the embankment. Thick bramble covers its side. It is tall, almost as high as the house. At the top is an abandoned railway line. This was my father’s house, but he never saw the line in use. This house will pass to my children one day, I hope.
The land around here is old. Old in human terms. Some of the boundaries and copses are mentioned in the doomsday book, but there are sites of pre-history too. Standing stones, earth works, barrows and the like. Sacred groves, probably. You can feel it at night. If you walk on the embankment and look at the stars, at the landscape. The weight of generations, the renewal of the seasons. Forgotten things were done here.”
“Jack” by
Mohammad Naim Kabir.
“Jack” appears here as an original, says Jack’s editorial fore-brain.
MOHAMMAD NAIM KABIR is a full-time student at the University of Pennsylvania, looking to chase down dreams of either A.) Becoming an astronaut or B.) Becoming a career storyteller. He has a manuscript in the works, and it should be something to look forward to. His FACEBOOK page is:
Kabir Creates and he can be found on Twitter
@KabirCreates.
Your reader –
John Bell – writes, voices, and produces audio of any kind. Most recently, he has been recording audio books, including two thrillers by Michaelbrent Collings,
THE LOON and
APPARITION, both available at
Audible.com[/b]]Audible.com. Buy many copies… he gets royalties. He has also narrated many of
Oceanhouse Media‘s Dr. Seuss books, available as apps for the kiddos. Buy them if you want, he gets no royalties. Bummer. John Bell is the creator of “
Bell’s in the Batfry“, a family-safe comedy podcast that can be found on iTunes and at
Bell’s in the Batfry. Go listen… he gets ZIP for this from start to finish! If you have something you need written, voiced, and/or produced, feel free to contact John Bell at jbellvoice @ gmail.com!
“I am Jack’s inferior parietal cortex, and I know what you’re thinking. Probably that this is some lame rip-off of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.
I loved that story! It sometimes had soliloquies from the point of view of _organs_! Genius. I am Jack’s makeshift temporal lobe, and I know what it is to read a good book. Now it’s mostly just road signs and maps, but you take what you can get. There’s some smooth poetry in 3 Miles to Berkley or Welcome to Alameda, you know.”
Larime Taylor’s “A Voice In The Dark” can be purchased here!
Listen to this week's Pseudopod.