my cover illustration for the Drabblecast story Personal Best! You can read/listen here

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my cover illustration for the Drabblecast story Personal Best! You can read/listen here
Weird things are afoot in the west this week on the Drabblecast! Enjoy an original, previously unpublished story about snails of the plains gone awry by Joshua Bush called “The Witchita Drive.” Yeehaw!
They were down in a gully watering the cattle when Billy came thundering down the ridgeline on his sorrel mare, waving his hat and hollering like he just seen the whole Comanche nation bearing down on them.
“Mr. Lee!” he cried. “Mr. Lee!”
Harry Lee — the top hand on the drive — trotted up to meet him, keeping his palomino well in hand so as not to disturb the herd any further. The younger cowboy was good in the saddle, but he was greener than spring horse pucky, and had half as much sense…
Silosibyn Sandalhemp (Cryptkeeper Norm) returns to host the Drabblecast Hallowellness Special, and the Drabblecast presents a production of
“You know, when I was your age there was this picture book, when they still printed books. Can’t remember the name, but it was about bugs in the forest, starting out as little eggs in the dirt. And, at the start of the book, some of the baby bugs, especially the ones born closer to the top, got eaten by bigger things, scavengers, hounds, stuff like that. And the baby bugs deeper down, they just kept growing, and they eventually went on to have adventures when they were big enough. I keep thinking about that book, for some reason,” She rubbed her temples and ignored the sounds from the other room. “How, where the eggs were laid, what happened or didn’t happen, was just luck. No one’s fault.”
We should go cosmic bowling
Drabblecast 484 - Cosmic Bowling — The Drabblecast Audio Fiction Podcast — Overcast
Warning: some explicit language.
Join us this week for a little Camp Dystopia! The Drabblecast brings you a story about growing up the hard way by Sofia Samatar, called “How to Get Back to the Forest.” Enjoy!
“You have to puke it up,” said Cee. “You have to get down there and puke it up. I mean down past where you can feel it, you know?”
The Drabblecast kicks off H.P. Lovecraft Month with the grandfather of Weird Fiction’s cautionary dark fantasy, “The Doom That Came to Sarnath.”
There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no more.
It is told that in the immemorial years when the world was young, before ever the men of Sarnath came to the land of Mnar, another city stood beside the lake; the grey stone city of Ib, which was old as the lake itself, and peopled with beings not pleasing to behold…
Norm closes out the year and existence as we know it, due to the phenomena known as “The Continuation,” with the Drabblecast annual holiday Tim Pratt story, an original commission called “How Lovely Are Your Branches.” Enjoy!
Somebody was murdering people, but the killer’s name wasn’t showing up on my naughty list. That got me curious, so I poked around. There was nothing left at the crime scenes but dollops of sap and scattered pine needles, which felt less like sloppiness and more like a signature. I was in New York trying to track down the killer, but first, I needed a drink.
The Drabblecast is molting!
Norm shares some exciting news in the intro this week, Drabblecast has launched a Patreon, and a new quarterly magazine, “The Tentaculum.” Also, welcome new Managing Editor Cameron Howard!
Finally, we close out HP Lovecraft “Month” with an original story by Aliya Whitely called, “Plans for Expansion.”
Stones contain stories. The deep and worn stones of this castle have tales within them of such strange and horrible occurrences, events too awful to be spoken of, but I will try, this very night, to tell you, to warn you, of what they have witnessed. Beware what awaits you within. Prepare yourself: your sanity is at risk.