GlitterShip - Podcast Details

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Narrated 222: Audio Short FictionThis week we discussed audio short fiction including where to find it and some of our recent listens. Escape Artists Podcasts: [Escape Pod] / [PodCastle] / [PseudoPod] / [Cast of Wonders] / [CatsCast] Uncanny Magazine Podcast Levar Burton Reads The Clarkesworld Podcast Lightspeed Podcast Beneath Ceaseless Skies khōréō Magazine Fantasy Magazine Kaleidocast Nightlight The Drabblecast ...

2023-09-1937 min

Narrated 214: Discussions from Readercon 32 - Part ISharing our discussions with authors at Readercon 32. Readercon Vajra Chandrasekere: [Website] The Saint of Bright Doors [Libro.fm] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Audible] Short Stories: [Clarkesworld ] /["Ulde" - Glittership] Strange Horizons Podcast Nightmare Magazine Glittership Cameron Roberson (Rob Cameron): [Website] / [Tor.com] / [The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction] / [Foreign Policy Magazine] Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers Daydreamer...

2023-07-2547 min

Be The Serpent Episode 64: The Art of WarOn this week's episode, we're looking at a selection of small scenes from several different pieces of media: The Expanse, Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon, an Alexander the Great documentary, K. J. Parker’s Devices and Desires, and Bujold’s The Warrior’s Apprentice. What We’re Into Lately Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells Network Effect by Martha Wells Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri The Ac...

2020-07-011h 05

GlitterShip Episode 77: "The Quiet Realm of the Dark Queen" by Jenny BlackfordAnd here’s the RSS feed: http://glittership.podbean.com/feed/ Episode 77 is part of the Autumn 2018 issue! Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ The Quiet Realm of the Dark Queen by Jenny Blackford Dumuzi—my beautiful brother Dumuzi, lovelier than the first green shoots of barley rising from the dark mud of an irrigated field—Dumuzi was dead. Father had not spoken for six days. Not long ago, he’d been a great king in the fullness o...

2020-04-0151 min

Be The Serpent Episode 50: Extravaganza (Agony Aunt Special)On this week's episode, we're playing Agony Aunt to fictional characters! What sort of problems have we been presented with this week, and how many times can we suggest "threesomes" as an answer? What We’re Into Lately Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes The Descent of Monsters by J.Y. Yang The Untamed “i blinked (and there you were)” by Della19 Waves by IncompleteSentanc the lone traveller, standing strong by bubblewrapstargirl before you by theformerone Docile by K.M. Szpara

2019-12-1857 min

Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast The Business of Publishing: Genre WritingAre you interested in getting your genre writing published? Do you want tips and tricks on how to become a published author or how to self-publish? Have you considered marketing strategies to become a successful writer? Then join us for a panel discussion and Q&A featuring local authors and editors.Panelists include:Sarah Pinsker, author of the novelette "Our Lady of the Open Road," winner of the Nebula Award, and over fifty other stories. Her first collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea: Stories was published by Small Beer Press in March 2019, an...

2019-11-211h 49

GlitterShip Episode #76: "Of Clockwork Hearts and Metal Iguanodons" by Jennifer Lee RossmanOf Clockwork Hearts and Metal Iguanodons By Jennifer Lee Rossman They weren't real, but they still took my breath away. The model dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasties lived on and swam in the waters around three islands in Hyde Park. Enormous things, so big that I'd heard their designer had hosted a dinner party inside one, and so lifelike! If I stared long enough, I was sure I'd see one blink. I turned to Samira and found her twirling her parasol, an act purposely designed to bely the rage b...

2019-06-2429 min

GlitterShip GlitterShip Episode #75: "The Chamber of Souls" by Zora Mai QuýnhThe Chamber of Souls by Zora Mai Quỳnh Today it is announced that our quarantine is over and our refugee camp sufficiently detoxified to enter the Waterlands of Lạc, the home of our rescuers. Cheers and song rise in the air as the airship descends from the sky. A magnificently carved rồng on the bow of the vessel glistens of lacquered red, orange and gold scales, as its body, decorated by gems, wraps under the hull to reappear in a long curved tail on the other side of the vesse...

2019-06-2039 min

GlitterShip Episode 74: "Best for Baby" by Rivqa RafaelBest for Baby by Rivqa Rafael When I jack in, I shove the plug into its socket harder than I should. The disconnect–reconnect tone combination sounds; the terminal is as grumpy as I am. Who wouldn’t be? I’ve been kept back late in the lab to finish a job. Which was stolen from me. By the person who asked me to do this, as a “favor.” Who also happens to be my supervisor, so I can’t say no. I load up the interface, drilling straight down to the zygote’s chromosomal...

2019-06-1726 min

GlitterShip Episode #73: Désiré by Megan ArkenbergDésiré by Megan Arkenberg From Albert Magazine's interview with Egon Rowley: April 2943 Egon Rowley: It was the War that changed him. I remember the day we knew it. [A pause.] We all knew it, that morning. He came to our table in the coffee shop with a copy of Raum – do you remember that newspaper? The reviewers were deaf as blue-eyed cats, the only people in Südlichesburg who preferred Anton Fulke's operas to Désiré's – but Désiré, he had a copy of it. This was two days after Ulmerfeld, you understand. None of us...

2019-06-1345 min

GlitterShip Episode #72: "Raders" by Nelson StanleyRaders by Nelson Stanley They called themselves the Raders, and if you didn’t know, you’d swear that they were waiting for something: a bunch of boyed-up cookers, second-string hot hatches and shopping trollies adorned with bazzing body-kits parked down at the overcliff again, throttles blipping in time to the breakbeats. Throaty roar from aftermarket back-boxes you could shove your fist up, throb of the bass counter-pointed by an occasional crack as a cheap six-by-nine gave up the ghost. Occasionally a sub overheated, leaving nothing but ear-splitting midrange and treble howling into the g...

2019-06-1033 min

GlitterShip Episode #71: "Barbara in the Frame" by Emmalia HarringtonBarbara in the Frame by Emmalia Harrington Bab’s stomach growled for the third time in five minutes. “You were right,” she said, pushing away from her desk, “It’s time for a break.” Summer classes meant papers and tests smashed close together. There was hardly time to get enough sleep, let alone shop on a regular basis. The only food in her dorm room was an orange. Bab picked it up and walked to her dresser, where the portrait of Barbara, her grandfather’s great-aunt, sat. Fu...

2019-04-1834 min

GlitterShip Episode #70: "The Girl With All The Ghosts" by Alex YuschikThe Girl With All the Ghosts by Alex Yuschik It’s her second-to-last Friday night at Six Resplendent Suns Funeral Palace and House of the Dead, and Go-Eun is getting terrible reception on her cell. Part of it’s because everyone’s on the network, but mostly it’s the ghosts, garden variety specters who unfold themselves into nine-story menaces, shadow-thin and barbed with carcinogens. Go-Eun would not have thought they could bring this many cell phone towers down running from fox mechs, but then again, she never thought she’d end up work...

2019-04-1236 min

GlitterShip Episode #69: "Ratcatcher" by Amy Griswold Ratcatcher by Amy Griswold 1918, over Portsmouth The souls in the trap writhed and keened their displeasure as Xavier picked up the shattergun. “Don’t fuss,” he scolded them as he turned on the weapon and adjusted his goggles, shifting the earpieces so that the souls’ racket penetrated less piercingly through the bones behind his ears. “It’s nothing to do with you.” The two airships were docked already, a woman airman unfastening safety ropes from the gangplank propped between them to allow Xavier to cross. The trap rocked w...

2019-04-0536 min

GlitterShip Episode #68: "These Are the Attributes By Which You Shall Know God" by Rose LembergThese Are the Attributes By Which You Shall Know God by Rose Lemberg Father is trying to help me get into NASH. He thinks that seeing a real architect at work will help me with entrance exams. So father paid money, to design a house he does not want, just to get me close to Zepechiar. He is a professor at NASH and a human-Ruvan contact. Reason and matter—these are the cornerstones of Spinoza’s philosophy that the Ruvans admire so much. Reason and matter: an architect’s mind and building...

2019-03-1819 min

GlitterShip Episode #67: "Instar" by Carrow NarbyInstar by Carrow Narby They just broke ground this week on a new high rise. When they cracked into the earth it flooded the neighborhood with the stench of sulfur. There’s a layer of ancient rot beneath the pavement. Centuries worth of life, ground into filth. Or so I imagine. I had to look up the source of the smell and some local news site attributed it to “organic materials” in the soil. I was worried that it might be a gas leak. For the past...

2019-03-0813 min

GlitterShip Episode #66: "Tell the Phoenix Fox, Tell the Tortoise Fruit" by Cynthia SoTell the Phoenix Fox, Tell the Tortoise Fruit by Cynthia So On the day Sunae turned nine years old, there was no joyful feast. A monster burst from the sea that night and ate five people. The Mirayans gathered upon the shore to watch this, as they did every Appeasement. Sunae’s mother covered Sunae’s eyes, but Sunae still heard the screams. The crunch of brittle bone between teeth. The wet gulp of gluttonous throats. Sunae prayed to the Goddess that the warrior Yomue might rise from the dead and defea...

2019-03-0643 min

GlitterShip Episode #65: "A Memory of Wind" by Susan Jane BigelowEpisode 65 is part of the Spring 2018 issue! Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ A Memory of Wind Susan Jane Bigelow Yeni looked up at the right time, just for a single moment, and she saw a girl fly past far overhead. No one else in the wide dome of Center Garden, the bustling, cavernous heart of the greatship, noticed. Yeni had to run to catch up with her mother, who walked a few steps ahead. “Did you s...

2019-01-0139 min

GlitterShip Episode #64: "Sabuyashi Flies" by Sebastian Strange Episode 64 is a GLITTERSHIP ORIGINAL and is part of the Spring 2018 issue! Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ Sabuyashi Flies by Sebastian Strange Sofie Faucher advertised her solution to the age-old magic problem well. I can still remember the first night I stepped out of Ellen’s dorm building, late, and looked up to see one of Faucher’s billboards; a crisp square of white and silver against the darkest, featuring Faucher’s trim torso and winning smile. Her large dark eyes were fixed on the futur...

2019-01-0136 min

GlitterShip Episode #63: "Gravedigging" by Sarah GoldmanGRAVEDIGGING by Sarah Goldman When I woke up, I noticed first that Clarissa was there, because she was always the first thing I noticed. I noticed three things immediately after that: it was dark, I could feel dirt under my fingers, and my mouth tasted disgusting, like charcoal and rubbing alcohol and cotton. "What the fuck?" is what I tried to say, except I don't think the words came out quite right. I started coughing and I couldn't stop. "Just give it a second," Clarissa said, rubbing m...

2019-01-0140 min

GlitterShip Episode #62: "Stories My Body Can Tell" by Alina SichevayaStories My Body Can Tell by Alina Sichevaya My mama used to tell me I was born screaming, sticky, and uglier than every sin she’d ever known, which was all of them. I still like to remember that. Gives me a warm feeling in my stomach. Especially when it looks like I’m about to die the same way. I’m remembering it now. My throat feels skinned, but on the inside, and my lips stick to each other, the blood from my nose drying over them. It’s definitely broken, a...

2018-11-2624 min

GlitterShip GlitterShip Episode #61: "To Touch the Sun Before it Fades" by Aimee OgdenTo Touch the Sun Before it Fades by Aimee Ogden Mariam watches a week of night roll toward her. On Pluto, the Sun is only a spectacularly bright star. It’s easy to pick out, hanging low in the sky—only just visible in the domed window in the hub of Sagacity Station. If Mariam could reach up and hold back the Sun, if she could slow its progress down the sky, she would. She can’t, of course. Just another bead to add to the strand of impossibilities hung around her neck.

2018-11-1319 min

GlitterShip Episode #60: "Unstrap Your Feet" by Emma OsborneUnstrap Your Feet by Emma Osborne The mud on your legs covers you from knees to toes so I can’t quite tell where the soft leather of your boots meets your flesh until blood blooms from your ankles. I offer you wine. You take a long sip and hand me back the glass as you unstrap your feet. Your hooves shine as you toss your humanity into a pile by the door. You sniff the air. You take in the saffron, the lemon, the scorch of sage...

2018-11-0921 min

GlitterShip Episode #59: "Never Alone, Never Unarmed" by Bobby SunNever Alone, Never Unarmed by Bobby Sun The fighting spider sat heavily in Kian Boon’s left palm, where he’d knocked it from its leafy abode. It was maybe a centimeter and a half from the tip of its pedipalps to the silky spinnerets of its abdomen, black and silver like one of the sleek Chinese centipedals that increasingly frequented the roads below his building. He could feel the weight of the thing as he cupped his hand around it and it jumped, smacking against the roof of his fingers. ...

2018-10-3032 min

GlitterShip Episode #58: "The City of Kites and Crows" by Megan ArkenbergIn the City of Kites and Crows By Megan Arkenberg 1. When you breathe deeply, really push the air from your lungs and let the cold valley wind fill you again, you can smell the city’s ghosts. They smell like burning. Not like fire but like everything that comes with it: smoke, scorched hair, wet carbon, ash. This is a city that burns spasmodically, a city of gas lines and rail cars, coal dust and arson, a city with wooden roofs and narrow alleys. A city that is always shivering. F...

2018-09-0426 min

GlitterShip Episode #57: "You Inside Me" by Tori CurtisYou Inside Me by Tori Curtis It'll be fun, he'd said. Everyone's doing it. You don't have to be looking for romance, it's just a good way to meet people. "I don't think it's about romance at all," Sabella said. She wove her flower crown into her braids so that the wire skeleton was hidden beneath strands of hair. "I think if you caught a congressman doing this, he'd have to resign." "That's 'cause we've never had a vampire congressman," Dedrick said. He rearranged her so that her shoulders f...

2018-07-0441 min

GlitterShip Episode #56: Njàbò by Claude LalumièreNjàbò by Claude Lalumière Njàbò, my only child, my daughter, walks with me. She is as old as the forest, while I was born but three and a half decades ago. Our ears prick up at the sound of drums. We scan the sky and spot a column of smoke to the northwest. We run toward it. The ground trembles under our feet. The settlement is ringed by rotting carcasses. Their faces are mutilated, but the meat is left uneaten. These are the bodies of our people. I we...

2018-06-0639 min

GlitterShip Episode #55: "The Huntsman's Sequence" by Octavia Cade Episode 55 is part of the Autumn 2017/Winter 2018 issue! "The Huntsman's Sequence" is a GlitterShip original. Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ The Huntsman's Sequence by Octavia Cade 01011011101111.... m-configuration: Knife The war is blank. Not in its individual parts, but as a whole. It covers everything, smothers everything. It blows continents open with opportunity. Much of that opportunity is for death, for carcasses hung up and split open in massi...

2018-05-1226 min

GlitterShip Episode #54: "Oh, Give Me A Home" by Nicole Kimberling Episode 54 is part of the Autumn 2017/Winter 2018 issue! (Yes! It's actually out now!) Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ Oh, Give Me A Home By Nicole Kimberling Up along the edge of the ridge, Gordon could see them gathering. The mass of bugs formed a ragged silhouette against the hazy lavender sky. Each critter stood only ankle-high—about as big as a yappy dog—six-legged, like ants, with azure exoskeletons hard as crash helmets. Individually they posed little threat...

2018-04-1445 min

GlitterShip Episode #53: The Questing Beast by Amy Griswold Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode #53 for March 29, 2018. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing these stories with you. Today we have three GlitterShip originals for you: a poem, a piece of flash fiction, and a short story for you. The poem is "Cucumber" by Penny Stirling. Penny Stirling edits and embroiders in Western Australia. Their speculative fiction and poetry can be found in Lackington's, Interfictions, Strange Horizons, Heiresses of Russ, Transcendent and other venues. For aroace discussion and bird photography, follow them at www.pennystirling.com or on...

2018-03-2921 min

GlitterShip Episode #52: Three Short ReprintsDo-Overs by Jennifer Lee Rossman I have ridden dinosaurs. Big, bitey ones. I've traveled on the Hindenburg, fought alongside Joan of Arc, punched Jack the Ripper right in the face. The point I'm trying to make is being a time traveler puts you in some scary situations, but this is easily the most terrifying. Asking out a pretty girl. (Insert shriek of terror here.) I've been putting it off, shoving it to that dusty place in the back of my mind where I ke...

2018-03-1029 min

GlitterShip Episode #51: "Graveyard Girls on Paper Phoenix Wings" by Andrea TangGraveyard Girls on Paper Phoenix Wings by Andrea Tang The flyboy crash-landed into Magdalisa’s life on a Wednesday, just before mid-afternoon prayers. More specifically, he crash-landed into the spindly stone watchtower over Dalaga Cemetery, and really, that amounted to the same thing. Magdalisa, for her part, probably wouldn’t have noticed if the flyboy’s spectacular nose-dive hadn’t so thoroughly disturbed the ghosts. Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip Episode 51 for March 3, 2018. This is your host, Keffy, and I’m super excited to be sharing this story with...

2018-03-0500 min

GlitterShip Episode #50: "Smooth Stones and Empty Bones" by Bennett NorthSmooth Stones and Empty Bones by Bennett North There’s a skeleton in the chicken coop. It’s some bare collection of abandoned bones, maybe a former fox, and it’s slishing through the pine needles and bumping liplessly against the gate. The chickens, for their part, don’t look concerned. Mom is still in the house, folding laundry. I take a watering can from where it’s sitting next to the potted mums and haul it out to the coop. When I dump it on the skeleton, it...

2018-02-2531 min

GlitterShip Episode #49: "Granny Death and the Drag King of London" by A.J. FitzwaterEpisode 49 is part of the Autumn 2017 / Winter 2018 double issue! "Granny Death and the Drag King of London" is a GLITTERSHIP ORIGINAL. Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ Granny Death and the Drag King of London By A.J. Fitzwater Monday, November 25, 1991. Lacey James had been working for Redpath Catering for three months when Freddie Mercury died. "Fuck," she mouthed around her fist and bit harder into her numb flesh. The news was ho...

2018-02-1342 min

GlitterShip Episode #48: "Circus Boy Without A Safety Net" by Craig Laurance Gidney Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip Episode 48 for September 26, 2017. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. Our story for today is a reprint of "Circus Boy Without A Safety Net" by Craig Laurance Gidney. Potential background dog noises are unintended, but provided by Rey, Finn, and Heidi. Content warning for slurs, homophobic bullying, and descriptions of porn. Craig Laurance Gidney is the author of the collections Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2008), Skin Deep Magic (Rebel Satori Press, 2014), the Young Adult novel...

2017-10-1027 min

GlitterShip Episode #47: "The Last Spell of the Raven" by Morris Tanafon Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 47 for September 23, 2017. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to share this story with you. Today we have a poem by Jes Rausch, "Defining the Shapes of our Selves," and a GlitterShip original, "The Last Spell of the Raven" by Morris Tanafon. This is the last original story from GlitterShip Summer 2017, which you can pick up at glittership.com/buy if you would like to have your own copy. More importantly, however, this means that the Autumn 2017 issue is coming out soon! Jes Rausch lives and writes in Wis...

2017-10-0532 min

GlitterShip Episode #46 -- "Nostalgia" by Bonnie Jo StufflebeamHello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 46 for September 21, 2017. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. Our story for today is a reprint by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, "Nostalgia." Content warning for the good, the bad, and the ugly: sex, drug addiction, and references to stalking. Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's fiction and poetry has appeared in over 40 magazines such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She has been a finalist for the Nebula Award and Selected Shorts' Stella Kupferberg Memorial Prize. Her audio fiction-jazz collaborative album Strange Monste...

2017-09-2935 min

GlitterShip Episode #45: "The Pond" by Amy OgdenHello! This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. Today we have another GlitterShip original and a poem. Our poem today is "A Seduction by a Sister of the Oneiroi" by Hester J. Rook, and our original story is "The Pond" by Aimee Ogden. If you enjoy this story and would like to read ahead in the Summer 2017 issue, you can pick that up at glittership.com/buy for $2.99 and get your very own copies of the winter and spring 2017 issues as well. Finally, the GlitterShip Year...

2017-09-2420 min

GlitterShip Episode #44: "The Need for Overwhelming Sensation" by Bogi TakácsThe Need for Overwhelming Sensation by Bogi Takács I am staring at the face from a thousand newscasts—the gentle curve of jaw, the almost apologetic smile. Miran Anyuwe is not explaining policy. Miran Anyuwe is bleeding from a head wound, drops falling tap-tap-tap on the boarding ramp of our ship, the sound oddly amplified by the geometry of the cramped docking bay bulkheads. “I’m looking for a ride out,” they say. They are not supposed to be on Idhir Station. They are supposed to be three jump points away, head...

2017-09-0536 min

GlitterShip Episode 43: "In Search of Stars" by Matthew BrightHello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 43 for August 20, 2017. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. It's a little bit late (oops!) but we finally have the Summer 2017 issue of GlitterShip available for you to read and enjoy! As before, all of the stories will be podcast and posted on the website over the next couple of months. However, if you'd like to get a head start reading the stories and support GlitterShip, you can purchase copies of the Summer 2017 issue on Amazon, Nook, or right here at GlitterShip.com.

2017-08-2140 min

GlitterShip Episode #42: "The Passing Bell" by Amy GriswoldEpisode 42 is part of the Spring 2017 issue! Support GlitterShip by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ The Passing Bell by Amy Griswold My hired horse threw a shoe between Bristol and Bath, and by the time the wearying business of getting another nailed on was complete the shadows were growing long and the wind was sharpening its knives. “It’s kind of you to put me up,” I said, jingling pennies in my pocket to encourage such generosity. In a town so small it...

2017-07-1222 min

GlitterShip Episode #41: "A Spell to Signal Home" by A.C. BuchananEpisode 41 is part of the Spring 2017 issue! Read ahead by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ A Spell to Signal Home by A.C. Buchanan “Ash.” The voice is at once close beside me and yet muted, as if the sound is being filtered through a dream or a long stretch of time, a universe drawn out like an endless vibration of music. I can taste the sweetness of blood in my mouth, but no syllables emerge and my bo...

2017-07-1128 min

GlitterShip Episode #40: Fiction by Nicky Drayden and Pear Nuallak Episode 38 is part of the Spring 2017 issue! Read ahead by picking up your copy here: http://www.glittership.com/buy/ She Shines Like a Moon by Pear Nuallak It's cold in London but you glow with warmth. You travel limbless and limned from your core, throat crossed with black silk just as it was in your first days. Yes, you were naked then, washed clean in monsoons, dried by storm winds. When was the last time your sly hunt was wreathed in rice flowe...

2017-07-1133 min

GlitterShip Episode #39: "Mercy" by Susan Jane BigelowHello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 39. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. GlitterShip is still running a little bit behind, but we're almost caught up ... just in time for me to run off to Ohio for a week and a half to get surgery. Those who know me won't be surprised to hear this, but essentially after years of waiting, more crowdfunding (since insurance wouldn't deign to cover gender affirming surgery despite NY state laws, ugh), and more waiting... my top surgery is just around the corner. It's...

2017-05-2827 min

GlitterShip Episode #38: "Lessons From a Clockwork Queen" by Megan ArkenbergLessons From A Clockwork Queen by Megan Arkenberg I. It was Bethany's job to wind the queen. Every morning she woke in the blue-pink dawn before the birds sang, slipped out from under her quilt and took down the great silver winding key that hung over her bed. Then she wrapped herself in her dressing gown and padded up the long, cold tower stair to the room where the queen was kept. She pulled back the sheets and found the little hole in the queen's throat where the winding key fit like a...

2017-05-0837 min

GlitterShip Episode #37: "The Little Dream" by Robin M. EamesThe Little Dream by Robin M. Eames She feels the pain before she fully wakes up, stuck in that half-space between slumber and cold daylight. For a moment she doesn't understand. Pain. A bone-deep ache—no, deeper than her bones. Soul-deep. Her eyes crack open. Fuck, it's freezing. Sylvia closes her eyes again, opens them, glares balefully at the open window. She waves a hand, hoping for a little miracle, for everything to fall into place, but the window-frame barely twitches. Might have been telekinesis, might have been her vision blurring from the pa...

2017-05-0440 min

GlitterShip Episode #36: "How to Remember to Forget to Remember the Old War" by Rose LembergHello! Welcome to GlitterShip episode 36 for April 13, 2017. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story for you. Today we have a return of Rose Lemberg, whose story "Stalemate" was published in episode 7. This is the last story for the Winter 2017 issue, and Spring 2017 is right around the corner! We also have a guest reader, Rose Fox, for this episode. Rose Lemberg is a queer, bigender immigrant from Eastern Europe and Israel. Rose's work has appeared in Lightspeed's Queers Destroy Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Unlikely Story, Uncanny, and other v...

2017-04-1323 min

GlitterShip Episode #35: "Cooking with Closed Mouths" by Kerry TruongCooking with Closed Mouths by Kerry Truong A gumiho could run faster than shadows spread, but since Ha Neul doubted that Americans would take kindly to a nine-tailed fox streaking down Los Angeles’ busy streets, they opted to walk to the bus stop in the falling darkness after work. The cool night air was a relief after the hot confines of Mrs. Chang’s restaurant, where Ha Neul had spent the day carrying heavy dishes and enduring customers’ complaints. Mrs. Chang’s mediocre food attracted few customers, and her refusal to use air conditio...

2017-03-2328 min

GlitterShip Episode #34: "for she is the stars, and the sun revolves around her" by Agatha Tanfor she is the stars, and the sun revolves around her by Agatha Tan You watch from your corner booth as she settles down in the other corner booth, across the room. It’s not the first time you’ve seen her around here, but the girl still manages to capture your attention. She’s tall and lithe and god, but those arms (you live for the day she wears a tank top, because) and you think she’s probably a dancer or a gymnast, because she moves with a grace that proclaims she know...

2017-03-0319 min

GlitterShip Episode #33: Fiction by S. Qiouyi Lu and JY YangCuriosity Fruit Machine by S. Qiouyi Lu "What is it?" Alliq says. Jalzy runs eir hands over the object. It's a box of some sort, made from metal with organic paneling; a narrow lever sticks out from one side. Ey finds emself reaching out to the lever, eir fingers grasping the pockmarked knob at the end as if working from unearthed muscle memory. "I have no clue," Jalzy says. "But... I kinda wanna pull this and see what happens." CURIOSITY FRUIT MACHINE and THE SLOW ONES are b...

2017-02-1626 min

GlitterShip Episode #32: "The Subtler Art" by Cat RamboThe Subtler Art by Cat Rambo Anything can happen in Serendib, the city built of dimensions intersecting, and this is what happened there once. The noodle shop that lies on the border between the neighborhood of Yddle, which is really a forest, houses strapped to the wide trunks, and Eclect, an industrial quarter, is claimed by both, with equally little reason. The shop was its own Territory, with laws differing from either area, although the same can be said of many eating establishments in the City of a Thousand Parts. But t...

2017-01-2415 min

GlitterShip Episode #31: "Parts" by Paul LorelloParts by Paul Lorello I honestly don't think anyone on Earth was ever happier than Jake was when Bobo Schmuley's index finger arrived by Special Courier on Tuesday. I was the one who got stuck signing for it and paying the non-breakability reward while Jake stood right there in the sub-cooler, jumping up and down and slapping at his sides. I held the parcel out at him. He grabbed it hungrily and tore it open and he took out Bobo Schmuley's finger and held it up to the light and turned it around—th...

2017-01-1222 min

GlitterShip Episode #30: "City of Chimeras" by Richard BowesCity of Chimeras by Richard Bowes 1. Salome's hand is the hinge and John the Baptist's head is the hammer on the doorknocker at the Studio Caravaggio. I slam the brass head held by its brass hair on the door a few times before the spy slot on the iron door opens and closes. To mortal eyes here in the Middle World even a half-breed Fey like me can appear a bit translucent with his hands and hair trailing away like phosphorous. In my case most of that is the effect of P...

2016-11-2246 min

GlitterShip Episode #29: Learned People by Chelsea Eckert LEARNED PEOPLE is a GLITTERSHIP ORIGINAL Learned People by Chelsea Eckert She's on her bed, on her knees, leaning against the window so that her face is pressed against it. Her fingers are interlinked across her gut, and she's dead. Absolutely. Paleness clings to her like dust on a moth's wing. For a while I lean against the wall. The paint is a lumpy, intestine pink, which is/was Tess's favorite color. Hard whimpers push their way out of me. I am, for a moment, blind and deaf. A...

2016-11-0229 min

GlitterShip Episode #28: "Sarah's Child" by Susan Jane Bigelow Sarah’s Child Susan Jane Bigelow Once, I dreamed that I had a son named Sheldon, and my grief tore a hole in the fabric of the world. In my dream I walked through the halls of an elementary school, and I went into the office. Everything was gray and blocky, but somehow not oppressive. I was certain, then, that it was the elementary school in my old hometown, and that I was both myself and also not myself. Full transcript after the cut ----more---- ...

2016-05-2529 min

GlitterShip Episode #27: "Just a Little Spice Will Do" by Andrew Wilmot Just a Little Spice Will Do by Andrew Wilmot When Alex arrived home Sunday night with an overflowing grocery bag tucked under each arm, she saw her girlfriend doubled over at the waist, retching violently into the kitchen sink. “Lindy?” She dropped both bags and rushed over.Lindy gripped the edge of the counter and heaved again, spitting a viscous strand of amaranth red into the stainless steel sink; it came out of her in small globules strung together like Christmas lights. Alex put one hand on her back andthe other on her shoul...

2016-05-1031 min

GlitterShip Episode #26: Three Flash stories by Kat Howard, Nino Cipri, and Bogi Takács The Face of Heaven So Fine Kat Howard There is an entire history in the stars. Light takes time to travel, to get from wherever the star is to wherever we can see it, here, on Earth. So when you think about it, when we see the stars, we are looking back in time. Everything those stars actually shone on has already happened. But just because a story already happened, that doesn’t mean it’s finished. Full transcript after the cut. ----more---- Hello! Welcome to Gl...

2016-04-2223 min

GlitterShip Episode #25: "Straw and Gold" by Kate O'Connor Straw and Gold By Kate O’Connor Orin did not know the feel of gold. There was none to be found in his father’s mill. There were coins of tangy, sharp copper and rough iron fittings on the door, slick steel for the horses’ tack and clattering tin plates for the table. His sister had a silver ring that had belonged to their mother. It was smooth and cool as a night breeze on Jessa’s delicate finger when she held his hand, warm against his skin where it now sat. But none of those thi...

2016-04-0535 min

GlitterShip Episode #24: "Lamia Victoriana" by Tansy Rayner Roberts Lamia Victoriana by Tansy Rayner Roberts The poet’s sister has teeth as white as new lace. When she speaks, which is rarely, I feel a shiver down my skin. I am not here for this. I am here to persuade my own sister, Mary, that she has made a terrible mistake, that eloping as she has with this poet who cannot marry her, will not only be her own ruin, but that of our family. My tongue stumbles on the words, and every indignant speech I practiced on my way her...

2016-03-1525 min

GlitterShip Episode 23: "Je me souviens" by Su J. Sokol Je me souviens by Su J. Sokol There are nine police cars. I count them again just to be sure and because counting usually calms me. Arielle watches to see if I’m freaking out, asks if I want to leave. I tell her I’m OK but she's not reassured so I give her a sexy smile. If she would kiss me now, I’d have somewhere pleasant to channel my beating heart. She leans towards me and I see that she’s used her superpowers to read my mind again, but then ano...

2016-03-0145 min

GlitterShip Episode #22: "Into the Nth Dimension" by David D. LevineInto the Nth Dimension by David D. Levine The fence around Dr. Diabolus's lair is twenty feet tall, electrified and topped with razor wire. I'd expected no less. From one of the many pouches at my belt I pull a pair of acorns and toss them at the base of the fence. I exert my special power. Each acorn immediately sprouts, roots digging through asphalt as the leafy stem reaches skyward. Wood fibers KRACKLE as the stems extend, lengthen, thicken, green skin changing to grayish bark in a moment. Leaves SSHHH into existence; branche...

2016-02-2034 min

GlitterShip Episode 21: "Her Last Breath Before Waking" by A.C. WiseHer Last Breath Before Waking by A.C. Wise She is a city haunted by a ghost. When the architect dreams, her sinews are suspension bridges, her ribs vaulting arches, her bones steel I-beams, and her blood concrete. In her dreams, the city is pristine and perfect. She is perfect. The architect has a lover who is afraid to sleep. At night, the lover lays her head against the architect’s chest. Instead of breath and pulse, she hears the rumble of high-speed trains. Full transcript after the cut...

2016-02-0233 min

GlitterShip Episode #20: "Skeletons" by Bonnie Jo StufflebeamSkeletons by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam “Who’s gonna watch the skeletons?” I ask. We’re about to go camping. Cathryn’s undressing before the closet in her garage apartment. I’m trying not to watch, though she wants me to. Instead I peer into her glass terrarium where the skeletons live, three of them: a dwarf T-Rex and two dwarf stegosauruses. The T-Rex stands atop a lonely pile of rocks. “I was going to leave them extra food. You think that’s okay?” Cathryn rummages through the clothes pile on the floor, such beautiful chaos. I s...

2016-01-1919 min

GlitterShip Episode #19: "And the Blood of Dead Gods Will Mark the Score" by Gary KlosterAnd the Blood of Dead Gods Will Mark the Score By Gary Kloster I had a frat-boy stretched out on the table, a pink slab of drunken meat just itching for ink, when Huck blew back into my life and brought the blood trade with him. "Dead gods, Woody, this is the shit-hole you crawled into?" The shop was damn small, Huck was damn big, and the perfectly tailored black ass of his suit pants leaned against my desk before I'd even raised the humming needle from frat-boy's hide. "I'm busy, H...

2016-01-0534 min

GlitterShip Episode #18: "Eureka!" by Nick MamatasEureka! By Nick Mamatas Adam hadn't worn the crushed velvet blouse in his hands for a long time. It was from his goth phase, twenty pounds and twenty years prior. He shuddered at the thought of it distending around his spare tire these days, but he couldn't bring himself to put it in the box he'd set aside for Out of the Closet either. And not only because it would be embarrassing if anyone saw it. There were memories in the wrinkles of the velvet—well, not memories exactly. Half-memories, images and glimpses an...

2015-10-1433 min

GlitterShip Episode #17: "Minghun: Unlikely Patron Saints No. 5" by Amy SissonMinghun: Unlikely Patron Saints, No. 5 by Amy Sisson A whisper of excitement echoes through the cave, or what I think of as a cave. She is coming, the minghun broker is coming, I hear or perhaps feel, like soft butterfly wings brushing my face. I strain to catch a glimpse of one of the others I know to be around me, but it is difficult to see faces. A flash of sleeve, whether plain or fancy, or a pale hand laid briefly on my arm is more likely. When...

2015-10-0717 min

GlitterShip Episode #16: "They Jump Through Fires" by Gabriela Santiago They Jump Through Fires By Gabriela Santiago “They jump through fires, you know.” We were behind a glass window and at least ten feet off the ground, but Sam’s voice startled the rabbit that had been standing frozen on the asphalt, one large brown eye twitching as it stared up at me. Its ears jerked up and it twisted away, hopping into the underbrush. I kept looking out the window. “They what?” “Jump through fires. Instead of running away.”

2015-09-2231 min

GlitterShip Episode #15: "Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon" by Ken LiuSeventh Day of the Seventh Moon By Ken Liu “Tell me a story,” said Se. She had changed into her pajamas all by herself and snuggled under the blankets. Se’s big sister, Yuan, was just about to flip the switch next to the bedroom door. “How about you read a story by yourself? I have to … go see a friend.” “No, it’s not the same.” Se shook her head vigorously. “You have to tell me a story or I can’t sleep.” Yuan glanced at her phone. Every minute tonight was...

2015-09-1643 min

GlitterShip Episode #14: "All That Fairy Tale Crap" by Rachel SwirskyAll That Fairy Tale Crap by Rachel Swirsky I was supposed to go to the ball, but I spent the night licking out my stepsister instead. Bethesda moaned and rustled mulberry silk high up her thighs. “There, there, no, faster, come on, faster, please…” The friendly mice put out their eyes and ran out in trios to join a different fairy tale. Never marry a prince when you can eat a pussy. Never ride a pumpkin when you can steal cab fare. Never we...

2015-09-0929 min

GlitterShip Episode #13: "Sugar" by Cat RamboSugar by Cat Rambo They line up before Laurana, forty baked-clay heads atop forty bodies built of metal cylinders. Every year she casts and fires new heads to replace those lost to weather, the wild, or simple erosion. She rarely replaces the metal bodies. They are scuffed and battered, over a century old. Every morning, the island sun beating down on her pale scalp, she stands on the maison's porch with the golems before her. Motionless. Expressionless. She chants. The music and the words fly into the clay heads and keep them t...

2015-09-0129 min

GlitterShip Episode #12: "Swan-Brother" by Gabriel Murray Swan-Brother by Gabriel Murray The—woman—took snuff. "Good morning, Captain," she said, Capitaine in her accent. "This is a colder day than I imagined." She looked out over the swells, her mannish periwig bobbing as she tilted her head up to regard the horizon. "Do you know, I hardly expected to see it." Gregory Everett clasped his hands behind his back. "Your Captain did the correct thing," he said. He had. Galatea's American captain had struck colours almost as soon as the Indefatigable beat to quarters. If he hadn't Gregory would ha...

2015-07-1034 min

GlitterShip Episode #11: "Bonzaiships of Venus" by Kate HeartfieldBonzaiships of Venus by Kate Heartfield The work of aesthetics is the aesthetics of work. —Principles of Graphene Cultivation, by Johanne St-Pierre, Vol. II Makoto adjusted the angle of his scalpel’s electron beam, exhaled and made the cut. A fingernail-sized section of the airship’s graphene skin peeled away to join the miniature airship attached to its exterior like a soap bubble. This was neither Makoto’s only bonsaiship nor his first. But it was and would always be the most precious to him. He had made the f...

2015-07-0214 min

GlitterShip Episode #10: "King Tide" by Alison WilgusKing Tide by Alison Wilgus Some particular trick of the moon, the weather, and the Earth's closeness to the sun had pulled the tide all the way to 5th Avenue, a good half-block further uphill than usual. The city had put out an alert, so Jordyn knew to clear out the basement ahead of time. Their landlord was smart enough to have the foundation sealed years ago—that would be fine—but there wasn't much to be done for cardboard boxes and old futons. Those had to be kept above the tide line, or they were...

2015-06-1116 min

GlitterShip Episode #9: "Sooner than Gold" by Cory SkerrySooner Than Gold By Cory Skerry I tug on clean underwear in case I get arrested, paint my makeup perfectly because there's nothing sadder than a grown man in badly applied eyeliner, and climb out my apartment window, onto the fire escape. I can't be late to this assignment, and if I go through the lobby, there's a strong chance the night doorman will have a thing or two to say about the video footage of our card game last night. I forgot there was a camera pointed at the lobby d...

2015-06-0942 min

GlitterShip Episode #8: "Love Over Glass, Skin Under Glass" by Penny StirlingLove Over Glass, Skin Under Glass by Penny Stirling The seasick lover becomes a saltwater cistern She built her first lover out of glass. "I was often disappointed," she said as she showed her creation around her gallery, "that the things I make with such skill cannot admire my handiwork. Now at last I have made something that can look on itself with wonder." But, she had to admit, she liked it even better when the lover looked upon her with wonder. Her lover's skin was gl...

2015-05-2831 min

GlitterShip Episode #7: "Stalemate" by Rose LembergStalemate by Rose Lemberg He wakes to warmth. The floor beneath his head. He stares at the spider-patterns etched into the ceiling, tiny and dense, gray against darker gray. No power runs through them. Inert now. Unneeded. He wants to make the patterns work again. —how could anyone survive a descent through Calamity storms? Above him, someone’s shiny dark shirt smells of static, a faraway storm passing. How are they still alive? Alive, forever, trapped inside this loneliness. A full transcript appears...

2015-05-2135 min

GlitterShip Episode #6: "And Out of the Strong Came Forth Sweetness" by Lisa Nohealani MortonAND OUT OF THE STRONG CAME FORTH SWEETNESS by Lisa Nohealani Morton After the Collapse and the Great Reboot, Lila moved into the city and opened a barbershop. Great things were happening in the city: spaceports and condominiums and public works projects outlined their soon-to-be-erected monuments to great men and women and superior city living in holographic glows. Angels patrolled the sky, resplendent with metal wings that sparkled in the sun when they banked for a turn. Everyone seemed to be full of exciting plans for the future, but Lila came...

2015-05-1631 min

GlitterShip Episode #5: "The End of the World in Five Dates" by Claire HumphreyTHE END OF THE WORLD IN FIVE DATES by Claire Humphrey I: May 21, 2011 (according to Harold Camping) Robin called it an apartment, but it was really part of an old carpet factory in the Junction: an echoing space where one of the looms used to be, furnished with a broken church pew, two wheelchairs, and the bench seat from a minivan. The smells of paint and dust were good, banishing the phantom smells of antiseptic and latex gloves from my nose. I leaned in the doorway of the breakroom and watched h...

2015-05-0825 min

GlitterShip Episode #4: "Ordinary Souls" by K. M. SzparaORDINARY SOULS by K. M. Szpara “This is a bad idea, Callum.” The sorceress rolled a colorful concoction of dried plants in a thin piece of cigarette paper and balanced it between her lips. “You know that, right?” The end smoldered on its own. “Probably.” If Ethan didn’t know, would he forgive me? I picked at a chunk of yellow foam exploding from my chair’s upholstery. She wouldn’t notice. Her whole apartment was crumbling slowly around her altar—chipped paint, smoke glazed walls, mysterious splatter on the floor. Serena was a ‘non-pr...

2015-04-2431 min

GlitterShip Episode #3: "This Shall Serve As a Demarcation" by Bogi TakácsTHIS SHALL SERVE AS A DEMARCATION by Bogi Takács I. Tiles flip over, land to sea to land. Enhyoron grimaces, rocks back in their chair, eyes still fixed on the ever-changing map. I can feel their moods on my skin and my skin burns, flares with frustration, chafes against my simple cotton garb. I sit up on the futon and pull up one sleeve to examine my arm—lighter-toned in branching lines like the bare, defoliated frames of trees in winter. I used to be cut along those pathways, gleaming meta...

2015-04-1723 min

GlitterShip Episode #2: Three Flash Stories by Sonya Taaffe, Vajra Chandrasekera, and Sarah PinskerTHE TRUE ALCHEMIST by Sonya Taaffe for Mat Joiner Whatever they left in the garden, Seth, I don’t think it wants to stay there. The man and the woman who came about the gas meter yesterday, or maybe it was the water bill? I had a deadline, I barely noticed them except for the noises they made, the crunch of shoes on stiff grass, scrapes and clangs as if they were wrestling the dustbins back against the garage door, a sudden snap of bracken that startled me until I re...

2015-04-1223 min

GlitterShip Episode #1: "How to Become A Robot in 12 Easy Steps" by A. Merc RustadHOW TO BECOME A ROBOT IN 12 EASY STEPS by A. Merc Rustad How to tell your boyfriend you are in love with a robot: Tell him, “I may possibly be in love with a robot,” because absolutes are difficult for biological brains to process. He won’t be jealous. Ask him what he thinks of a hypothetical situation in which you found someone who might not be human, but is still valuable and right for you. (Your so-called romantic relationship is as fake as you are.) Don’t tell him anything. It’s not that he’ll...

2015-04-0240 min