Archive for Disability Pride & Magic

PodCastle 902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike

PodCastle 902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike is a PodCastle original.

Content warning for ableist attitudes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:55 — 55.3MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike

E.M. Faulds

 

I remember your mum telling me, after it all went down, that during the lockdowns you washed your hands so often your skin cracked and turned scaly and angry red, but you had to keep going just in case neglecting it killed her.

It echoed, not much later, when the worst of the pandemic was past, only it wasn’t just your hands. All your skin changed into islands of mottled gray or khaki, building up tire-rubber thick in patches, and turning numb where your body just up and decided to not work the same anymore. It was all part of what you were becoming, whether you liked it or not.

There were days, fewer and farther between, where she could still see a glimpse her son Michael, the gorgeous boy you used to be: a spill of curls that fell down one side of your brow, a diffident slant to shoulders on a gangly frame, eyes the clear amber of long-steeped tea, that knowing grin. She’d see a ghost of that smile and be transported back through the ages of you, all the way to when you first announced yourself with a wriggle-kick to her womb. Then your grin would slide away as the pain did its thing and the beautiful boy submerged so your new self could rise, wrathful. (Continue Reading…)

PodCastle 901: Moths in a Fluttering Heart

Previously published by Abyss & Apex

Content warnings for ableist slurs and attitudes, violence, and misogyny

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:06 — 76.2MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Moths in a Fluttering Heart

by Christine Lucas

 

When Maria returned to her village, she found it burned to the ground. Nothing was left of her kinspeople but blackened corpses littered across the village square. She searched around, with the moths in her gut a panicked swarm, stinging to be let out. Everyone else had been shot on the narrow cobblestone streets. On weak knees, with eyes burning from the lingering smoke, she turned towards the woods, her moths breathless with guilt and relief in equal parts. If Evdokia, the midwife, hadn’t sent her to the herbalist two towns over, she’d be dead too. At the edge of the village, Maria stumbled on Papa-Kostas, shot by the Virgin’s shrine, in a pool of blood.

Maria sniffled and he raised his head, his eyes unfocused.

“Maria? Is that you, girl?” Barely a whisper. (Continue Reading…)

PodCastle 900: Sour Fruit

PodCastle 900: Sour Fruit is a PodCastle original.

Content warnings for domestic abuse and the death of a parent

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:08 — 48.7MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Sour Fruit

By Gillian Knox

 

The large open field was encircled by forest. Its sandy soil was home to scrubby flowers and grasses whose spindly roots reached deep into the loose ground, teeming with ants for whom the medium was perfect. Not quite in the middle was an old apple tree, twisting up from the ground, this way and that. Short and stubby. The fruit it produced was the sour, small sort that puckered the mouth with every bite. The sort that farmers had been trying to breed out of existence for countless generations. Yet, it lived. Thrived, even, in the clearing in the middle of the woods.

Fish would run to it when the lake grew too loud. Snuggling herself inside its crooked roots, stretching her small hand upwards to poke into the hole that had rotted through the middle of the old tree, watching the sun as it came through her fingertips.

The tree was the one place on the peninsula where the lake would soften. (Continue Reading…)

The PodCastle logo (a serpentine dragon flying with a castle on its back) over a Disability Pride Flag (muted red, yellow, white, blue, and green stripes on a grey background). Text reads: PodCastle Disability Pride & Magic In the background, there is a fantastical scene of floating islands in the sky with buildings on them

PodCastle 899: Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart

Previously published by UNLOCKING THE MAGIC, edited by Vivian Caethe

Content warning for PTSD, suicidal ideation, and body horror

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:05 — 51.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG

Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart

by Cat Rambo

 

It was a lizard dropping on her face from the ceiling that woke Ambra in a panic. They ran back and forth all night, feasting on spiders and midges and the slower moths, but they were sticky-footed and rarely lost their grip. This one scampered away while she smacked herself in the face, much harder than she’d intended, so that she saw stars and bit her tongue, all at one.

Dawn, seeping gray, outlined the window, showing the shutter slats as faint lines of light. She nursed her tongue, which felt awkward and painful in her mouth, and swallowed blood as she swung herself up and out of bed, abandoning thought of sleep. Once she’d had a soldier’s knack of being able to sleep anywhere, anytime, but nowadays that skill was long gone and she was lucky to pluck a few uneasy hours from a night. (Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle 898: This Mentor Lives

Previously published by Haven Spec

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:04 — 77.5MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG

This Mentor Lives

by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell

 

Abraham was rushing through his miracles. He drew out the rune-etched broadsword of young Haddad’s great-grandfather and laid it in the boy’s hands, along with the elegant sheath that lunar moths had woven from their own silk. Then came the maps that would send Haddad on the next leg of his journey: those that told how to navigate mountains by constellations of the sky, and those of the eight oceans that could only be read amid sea breeze.

Underneath that pile of iron and parchment and enchantment, the little Haddad wriggled. He was barely visible under the pile of destiny he held.

“Wait! What do I do with this one? Does it re-dead zombies?” (Continue Reading…)

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Disability Pride & Magic Month

The PodCastle logo (a serpentine dragon flying with a castle on its back) over a Disability Pride Flag (muted red, yellow, white, blue, and green stripes on a grey background). Text reads: PodCastle Disability Pride & Magic In the background, there is a fantastical scene of floating islands in the sky with buildings on them

This July 2025, PodCastle is very proud to join in celebrating Disability Pride Month with Disability Pride & Magic: a month of fantastic stories centering disabled characters and experiences.

We have five wonderful stories for you:

“This Mentor Lives” by J. R. Dawson & John Wiswell, narrated by John Bell

“Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart” by Cat Rambo, narrated by the author

“Sour Fruit” by Gillian Knox, narrated by Karen Menzel

“Moths in a Fluttering Heart” by Christine Lucas, narrated by Kat Kourbeti

“Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike” by E. M. Faulds, narrated by Eliza Chan

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Special Call: Disability Pride & Magic

PodCastle is delighted to announce a special call for stories for our upcoming event for Disability Pride Month, Disability Pride & Magic, guest edited by long-time Castle denizen and current Audio Producer, Devin Martin.

We want to celebrate disabled authors, characters, and themes for this event. We’re using a broad definition of disability here, including physical disabilities, neurodivergence, mental illness, sensory disabilities, chronic illness, and invisible and undiagnosed disabilities. While some people in some of these groups may not identify as disabled, society tends to marginalise us all in similar ways, and the choice to identify as disabled or not is complex, deeply personal, and not for us to gatekeep.

In fiction, disabled people — where we appear at all — tend to be left on the sidelines or treated as passive sources of inspiration (or worse: ridicule or disgust). In fantasy, we get our difficulties erased with superpowers or magical cures. We’re looking for stories that defy these trends. We want to see stories that show the dynamic nature of disability, that grapple with ableism (internal and external), and that, ultimately, see us as fully human — a depressingly low bar that is still failed all too often.

This call is open to everyone. While we believe disabled stories are best told by disabled voices, no one should have to disclose their status if they aren’t comfortable doing so. That said, this is an event centred around pride, visibility, and acceptance, on dismantling ableist notions of shame that silence and alienate disabled people. In that spirit, we strongly encourage authors to speak up about their disabilities, especially if their lived experience informs their story.

We’re a fantasy publication, so all stories must have a fantasy element that’s crucial to the tale, though it can be subtle. We are unable to consider science fiction or straight-up horror, though dark fantasy is more than welcome. We will consider both originals and reprints for this call, paying our standard rate of 8 cents per word for originals and $100 for reprints. We’re looking for stories between 2,000-6,000 words, though we will consider up to 7,000 words for reprints. These upper limits are strict: unfortunately we cannot consider reprints above 7,000 words or originals above 6,000 for this submissions call.

We’ll be open to Disability Pride & Magic submissions for an extended period, from 7th January to 31st of March 2025. Please submit through our Moksha portal. Our standard guidelines apply to anything we haven’t specified here.