Cast of Wonders

Read by Graeme Dunlop. Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present The Morandini Genie by Michael Haynes. Michael lives in the United States with his wife and children. Besides his interest in fiction he enjoys movies, watching hockey games, and cooking. You can find out more about Michael on his blog at http://michaelhaynes.info/. Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Marguerite Kenner. Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Living Clay by Lucy Oliver. Lucy has had short stories published in Take a Break, Fiction Feast, and Stories for Children magazines. She also has work in numerous anthologies and won the Stylist magazine Microfiction competition. Currently working on an historical novel, she lives with her husband and young children who provide inspiration for her work. You can read a short interview with Lucy — from just a few days ago — at LouTreleaven.wordpress.com. Your narrator is the ever-stupendous Marguerite Kenner. 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 Today we present Part 2 of In The Cemetery of Frozen Ships by Suzanne van Rooyen. If you missed Part 1, it’s Episode 37 — please go back and listen to that first. We gave Suzanne’s bio last episode so check the shownotes for Episode 37 if you want to know more. Or, you can find out more about Suzanne at http://suzannevanrooyen.com/. 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 Today we present In The Cemetery of Frozen Ships by Suzanne van Rooyen. Suzanne is a freelance writer and author from South Africa, currently living in Finland. She is the author of the cyberpunk novel Dragon’s Teeth, and has had several short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine, Earthbound Fiction and others. Her non-fiction articles on travel, music and other topics can be found scattered throughout the Internet. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers writings strange tales of the SpecFic persuasion and playing in the snow with her shiba inu. You can find out more about Suzanne at suzannevanrooyen.com. 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 Today we present The Next Joe Jones by Russ Colson. He lives with his wife, Mary, on a farmstead in northern Minnesota, far enough from city lights to see the Milky Way and the aurora borealis. He teaches planetary science, meteorology, and geology at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He writes a variety of speculative fiction and non-fiction pieces that have appeared in in Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine, NewMyths.com and others. You can find out more in a NewMyths.com interview done with Russ. The picture is by hotsoup25 on Flickr, who kindly gave us permission to use it. 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 Today we present Part 2 of The Most Precious of Treasures by Desmond Warzel. If you missed Part 1, it’s Episode 34 — please go back and listen to that first. We gave Desmond’s bio last episode so check the shownotes for Episode 34 if you want to know more. Or, you can find out more about Desmond at http://dwarzel.livejournal.com/ We asked Desmond if there was anything he’d like to say about this story and he said; he’s in the process of writing a novel based on it. I would certainly welcome this as I want to know what happens to Sirris!! And Melorin and Cardia, of course! What about you? Come tell us your thoughts in the forums at castofwonders.org/forums. 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 Today we present The Most Precious Of Treasures by Desmond Warzel. You may remember Desmond from Episode 15‘s Same-Day Delivery. The Most Precious Of Treasures first appeared in issue #5 of Shelter Of Daylight. Desmond lives in northwestern Pennsylvania and has had stories published in Daily Science Fiction, the anthology Candle in the Attic Window from Innsmouth Free Press, and at Tor.com. 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 Today we present A Clean Sweep Of It by Thomas Canfield. Canfield’s phobias run to lawyers, politicians and oil company executives. He likes dogs and beer. 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 Today we present a series of flash fiction stories by Rose Blackthorn. Rose lives in the high mountain desert of Eastern Utah with her boyfriend. She also has a two-year old Australian Shepherd nicknamed Boo, and a Yorkie puppy fittingly named Shadow. She spends her time writing, reading, photographing the surrounding wilderness, and doting on the aforementioned fur-kids. She is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association and has been published in several magazines both print and online. She contributed to the zombie anthology New Dawn Fades released in Nov 2011 and the Necon E-Books flash anthology released in Mar 2012. She suffers from an overactive imagination, but rather than complaining… she just goes with it. You can find out more about Rose at roseblackthorn.wordpress.com/ or on Facebook. Of these stories Rose says, “I’ve always been fascinated with fairies and sprites, and more than once have caught a flash from the corner of my eye that would later make me wonder what might be there but unseen. These stories are my way of closing my eyes, and imagining the many possibilities.” Read along Click here to read the text […]

Read by Danielle Daly. Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Inksucker by Aidan Doyle. Aidan is an Australian writer and computer programmer who loves travelling and has visited more than 70 countries. His experiences include teaching English in Japan, interviewing ninjas in Bolivia and going ten-pin bowling in North Korea. The majority of Inksucker was written during a 51-hour ferry ride from Osaka to Shanghai; it was originally published in the Worlds Next Door anthology and was shortlisted for the prestigious Aurealis Award. Aidan is currently working on a zombie novel set in Japan. You can find out more about him at aidandoyle.net/. Your narrator is Danielle Daly, who last read for us in Episode 27, My Boogie Man. Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Barry J Northern, Rish Outfield, Mae Zarris-Heaney. Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today we present Eggs Under Moon by Elizabeth Barette. Elizabeth lives in Illinois with her partner, Doug. An avid wordsmith, she works as a writer and editor, doing poetry, articles, essays, reviews, interviews, short stories, and more. Her main fields include speculative fiction, gender studies, environmental/social issues, and alternative spirituality. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Rhetoric with a Women’s Studies minor from the English Department at the University of Illinois. She has published hundreds of poems, dozens of articles, and dozens of short stories. Her writing has appeared in periodicals such as Apex, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Horror Writers Association Newsletter, the Llewellyn annuals, The Lorelei Signal, Mytholog, Nature’s Song, Noneuclidean Café and many, many more. You can see just how many places she’s been published at http://penultimateproductions.weebly.com/. Of Eggs Under Moon she says “This poem came out of the March 1, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl, a live poetry activity that I hold monthly in The Wordsmith’s Forge. It was inspired by a prompt from Mary-Grace Ellington.” We have three recitations of the poem and so three narrators: Cast of Wonders editor Barry J Northern, […]

Read by Graeme Dunlop. Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today, we present Jack In The Box by R B Harkess. Born in Bristol, he now lives just outside London. He studied a mad mixture of subjects at the Open University which had nothing to do with his career in I.T. Having only “started writing seriously again” in 2009, he likes to look at ways of getting his stories out in as many media as he can besides the conventional ‘dead tree’ method. Of this story he says, “I wrote Jack in the Box without even realising it was young adult. A little while later I was trying to plot out a SF story, and couldn’t get it to work. A friend mentioned Jack in the Box in the same breath with Young Adult, and the next thing I know I’m writing Aphrodite’s Dawn – and that ended up as my first ever novel, a science fiction story published earlier this year by Proxima. Now I love writing YA. I have another book just about finished, and a third in production. There is something clean about YA, more focused on the moment, more focused on the characters. I hope […]

Read by Danielle Daly. Listen above or download here. Show Notes Today, we present My Boogie Man by Harley May. You can find our more about Harley at harleymay.com/about/ where she says, “[I am a] writer and reader of many things. I blog about everything: writing, books, movies, music, my husband, three children, and other random things that make me laugh. My parents are from Alabama, but I grew up in South Korea. Essentially, I am a foreigner with an American passport. I love my life. I am a regular contributor for An Army of Ermas. I have a few things up at Fictionaut.” Of My Boogie Man, Harley told us it came from realizing that sometimes what makes us feel loved or brings us a sense of happiness might not always be the best things for us. Making a welcome return to Cast of Wonders is your narrator, Danielle Daly. Dani is a forecast analyst who works for a pharmaceutical company on Long Island NY, happily married to the love of her life. Their children are hypoallergenic Siberian cats that think they’re puppies. (I wonder how’d they’d get along with my dog, Jake?) Dani loves to read, garden, listen […]

Read by Marguerite Kenner. Listen above or download the MP3 Show Notes Today we present Part 2 of Fearing The Invasion by Eric Del Carlo. If you missed Part 1, it’s Episode 25 — please go back and listen to that one first. We gave Eric’s bio last episode so check the shownotes for Episode 25 if you want to know more. Or, you can find out more about Eric at http://www.ericdelcarlo.com/. We asked Eric if there was anything he’d like to say about this story. He said that that if it’s received well, he’d certainly consider expanding it into a novel. Something to think about! Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums

Read by Marguerite Kenner. Listen above or download the MP3 Show Notes Today we present Fearing The Invasion by Eric Del Carlo. Eric, who lives in California, has been writing since his early twenties. He knew the late Robert Aspirin well and collaborated with him on two novels. His work has appeared in Asimov’s, Sybil’s Garage, Necrotic Tissue and Everyday Fiction, amongst many, many others. You can find several of his books on Amazon and you can find out more about Eric himself at ericdelcarlo.com/. Your narrator is Marguerite Kenner, the crime-fightin’, rock-climbin’, cymbal-bangin’ “Girl Friday Extraordinaire”! Read along Click here to read the text of the story Discuss Click here to discuss in the forums