Cast of Wonders

Read by Marguerite Kenner and Graeme Dunlop Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Scott C. Mikula’s story, Master Madrigal’s Mechanical Man. Scott is a husband, father, software developer, board gamer, swing dancer, and has been told he makes a mean chocolate chip cookie. On his better days he is also a writer. His fiction has appeared in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Nature, and Cricket magazine. He lives in Washington State. Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com. Read along Click here to read the text of the story

Read by Tina Connolly Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Elizabeth Shack’s story, Pictures in Crayon. Elizabeth lives in central Illinois and has worked as a software copywriter, a newspaper reporter, and a tour guide at a NASA visitor center. Her work has been published in Daily Science Fiction and other magazines. She is a member of SFWA and attended the Science Fiction & Fantasy Novel Writers Workshop at the University of Kansas. When not writing, she wages war on the squirrels who steal her tomatoes. You can learn more at her website, http://elizabethshack.com Your narrator is the fantastic Tina Connolly. Tina lives with her family in Portland, Oregon. Her stories have appeared in Lightspeed, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Her first fantasy novel, IRONSKIN (Tor 2012), was nominated for a Nebula, and the sequel COPPERHEAD is now out. She narrates for Podcastle and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, runs the Parsec-winning flash fiction podcast Toasted Cake, and her website is tinaconnolly.com. Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com. Read along Click here to read the text of the story

Read by Graeme Dunlop Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Vajra Chandrasekera’s story, Perihelion. Vajra hails from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Clarkesworld, Apex and Lightspeed, among others. You can find more stories via his website, vajra.me. You may know that we usually pay our authors using PayPal. We were amazed to discover that it is not possible to receive PayPal payments in Sri Lanka! There are many individuals and small businesses that provide online services like web development, graphic designing and more in Sri Lanka. But Sri Lanka not supporting PayPal has become a barrier for them to continue and progress in their careers. If you’d like more information about this and to help support creative people like this week’s author, please go to https://sites.google.com/site/ppforsrilanka/enable-receiving-money-to-sri-lanka-through-paypal. Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com. Read along Click here to read the text of the story

Listen above or download here. Hello everyone! This is your editor, Marguerite Kenner. Every year, one of my favorite game companies publishes a Stakeholders Report. As Steve puts it, while the company only has one shareholder, lots of people have a stake in its success and so he writes them an annual report about how well the company has done, what projects it tackled, and its plans for the future. But we’re a podcast. Rather than writing you a long blog post, I’m taking a tradition from my American homeland. Welcome to Cast of Wonder’s first State of the Union address for 2013. Please listen to the Meta Cast for the 2013 State of the Union. New Staff! Allen Sale, our new sound producer. You can find out more about Allen at www.astralaudio.net/ Also joining us are Sarah, Olivia and Jeff, our new slush-wranglers. Jeff Hite has been helping out with the many, many little projects that have been accumulating over the last 18 months. Jeff has a wide range of skills, from IP professional to author to sound producer to running a sheep breeding program. You can find out more about him at his website “Barely Controlled Chaos” www.jeffreyhite.com […]

Read by Graeme Dunlop Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present James Aquilone’s story, Bad Poet’s Society. James is a writer and editor from Staten Island, New York. He has short stories coming out soon in Weird Tales Magazine and Third Flatiron’s Spring 2014 anthology. He is a regular contributor at SF Signal and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. You can find him online at JamesAquilone.com. Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Margurite Kenner Listen above or download here. Show Notes Over the month of January 2014 we present our Staff Picks. These are Marguerite, Barry and Graeme’s favourite stories from the whole of our back catalogue. Today we present our 2013 Parsec Award winner, Now Cydonia by Rick Kennett. Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Graeme Dunlop Listen above or download here. Show Notes Over the month of January 2014 we present our Staff Picks. These are Marguerite, Barry and Graeme’s favourite stories from the whole of our back catalogue. Today we present Graeme’s favourite, The Malthus Alternative by Jamie Mason. Listen to the ep to find out why he likes it so much! Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Hans Fenstermacher Listen above or download here. Show Notes Over the month of January 2014, we present our Staff Picks. These are Marguerite, Barry and Graeme’s favourite stories from the whole of our back catalogue. Today we present Barry’s favourite, Kulturkampf by Anatoly Belilovsky, read for you by Hans Fenstermacher. Listen to the ep to find out why Barry likes it! Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by M K Hobson Listen above or download here. Show Notes Over the month of January 2014 we present our Staff Picks. These are Marguerite, Barry and Graeme’s favourite stories from the whole of our back catalogue. Today we present Marguerite’s favourite, The Giant Who Dreamed of Summer by Jess Hyslop, read for you by M K Hobson. Listen to the ep to find out why it means so much to her! Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Listen above or download here. Show Notes Happy New Year, campers! And welcome to the final chapter of Phoenix Watching, Chapter 15! What’s happened to Felix? Are Argee and Moxie okay? What happened to the phoenix that prompted it to attack, and how are it’s inferno feathers intact? Pay close attention campers, our tale is almost over! Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching is a Cast of Wonders production brought to you by Wolfsbane Publishing. It features the voice talents of Kate Baker, Adam Black, Tina Connolly, Graeme Dunlop, Christiana Ellis, Marguerite Kenner, Alethea Kontis, Alasdair Stuart, Ian Stuart, and Barry J. Northern. You can learn more about the world of Camp Myth at our website, castofwonders.org. The Camp Myth theme music, “August”, is by Cast of Wonders’ favorite musical artist Alexye Nov, at MusicAlley.com. Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Danie Ware Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Nathaniel Lee’s story, The Alchemist’s Children. Nathaniel has been here several times before — welcome back! Nathaniel Lee’s writing can be found in various places around the Internet, including Daily Science Fiction, Ideomancer, and Intergalactic Medicine Show. You can follow his writing blog at www.mirrorshards.org, where you can also find a complete bibliography with links. He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife, son, obligatory cat, and a roomful of board games. He has a story coming out in Beneath Ceaseless Skies soon, as well as a return visit to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show and a break-in piece at Cemetery Dance. Your narrator is Danie Ware. Danie grew up in Sussex, England. All very ordinary until, at 13 years old, she was one of the first girls at an all-boys’ boarding school. Surviving these interesting times, she went on to study old school English Lit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. While at UEA, she met the local Dark Age re-enactment group and began over a decade of running around in old castles, armed with an interesting assortment of cutlery. […]

Read by Big Anklevich Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Alex Shvartsman‘s story, Nuclear Family. Alex has been here several times before — welcome back Alex! Thanks for gracing us with an inventive seasonal story. Alex Shvartsman is a writer, editor, and game designer from Brooklyn, NY. Over 50 of his short stories have appeared in such venues as Intergalactic Medicine Show, Nature, Daily Science Fiction and Galaxy’s Edge. He is the editor of the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series of humorous science fiction and fantasy. You can find him online at alexshvartsman.com or on Twitter as @AShvartsman. His latest anthology, Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic was released earlier this month. Check it out at ufopub.com. Your narrator is Big Anklevich. Big is co-host of the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. The show features genre stories brought to you as brilliant fullcast audio productions created by some of the most talented producers in the podisphere. After each story, Big and his co-host Rish treat you to scintillating, thought provoking, and often mind-numbing conversation…oh, sorry, I meant mind-opening…opening?…mind-expanding maybe…conversation related to the day’s story and other geek-centric topics. Check it out at dunesteef.com. You probably won’t […]

Listen above or download here. Show Notes Would you like to join us here at Camp Myth? Show us how you’re enjoying the story so far, and our favorite entry will entitle the winner to join Moxie, Argee and Felix, in a future Camp Myth story! Any type of entry is fine – drawings, stories, poems, photographs, maybe even a video of you singing Centaur Races! Submit them by December 31st to campmyth@castofwonders.org. Welcome back, campers! Ready for Chapter 13? Wait a minute… What could be big enough to capture a Thunder Bird in it’s jaws? What have Felix, Argee and Moxie gotten themselves into? Quick, where were we?? Ah yes… This week’s camper spotlight is Chip, the Blue-Blooded Beast. Felix says “Most Minotaurs spend their time in the labyrinth thinking up creative traps to spring on anyone foolish enough to explore the halls without a guide. Not Chip, though. He considers himself to be much more refined than the average Minotaur. In fact, if you discovered his secret lair, you’d be rewarded with the best cup of chai tea you’ve ever tasted. He says the secret is extra cinnamon.” Chip was invented by Jeremy Chippett. You can find the […]

Listen above or download here. Show Notes Would you like to join us here at Camp Myth? Show us how you’re enjoying the story so far, and our favorite entry will entitle the winner to join Moxie, Argee and Felix, in a future Camp Myth story! Any type of entry is fine – drawings, stories, poems, photographs, maybe even a video of you singing Centaur Races! Submit them by December 31st to campmyth@castofwonders.org. Welcome back, campers! Ready for Chapter 12? Last week our trio of campers dove into their Camp Myth training handbooks and concocted a plan to earn their first merit badge! The sun’s up, campers. Let’s see how they’re doing, shall we? Ah yes… This week’s camper spotlight is on Eris and Milly. Felix says “As far as Fae go, Eris is the toughest girl I’ve ever met. Everyone laughed when her best friend, Milly the Kitsune, said they had just caught a giant sea monster, but I should have known she wasn’t… Kraken jokes. (Humans love puns, right?)” Eris and Milly were invented by Gregory Bernal. You can find the picture of them on the Camp Myth webpage. Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching is a Cast of Wonders […]

Read by Dani Daly Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Kurt Newton‘s story, The Surfacing. Kurt is a horror and dark fantasy writer. This story is not only his first appearance with Cast of Wonders, after nearly two hundred short stories published over the past twenty years, it is his first published young adult short story! The first of many, we hope, Kurt. His supernatural horror novel, The Wishnik, was published in trade paperback in October of this year by Gallows Press. Your narrator today is Dani Daly, and today is… well, the eve of a big birthday for her. Happy Birthday Dani and welcome back — good to have you read for us again. Dani lives on Long Island with her husband and two 1/2 cats. She occasionally blogs at danireads.com. You can find audiobooks read by Dani at audible.com, iTunes or amazon.com; search for Danielle Daly. Theme music is “Appeal To Heavens” by Alexye Nov, available at MusicAlley.com. Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums