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Submissions Open for the Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest

Throughout the month of June, PodCastle will be accepting entries for this year’s Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest! Every author may submit one original fantasy piece of 500 words or less for consideration, so get your story ready to submit!

The three winning stories will be purchased and run as an episode of PodCastle. Stories will be published on a members-only section of the forums, so first publication rights will not be expended by participating in the contest.

Head on over to our Flash Fiction Contest submittable portal to check out the contest entry rules and to submit your entries. All eligible stories will be posted on the forums in July, when voting will commence.

Best of luck!

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PC 472: The Chaos Village — Part 2

PC 472: The Chaos Village — Part 2 is a PodCastle original.

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The Chaos Village – Part 2

By M.K. Hutchins

Sarsa was cooking some kind of coarse flatbread — it appeared to be made of wild roots and ground wild seeds — on a griddle slanted up toward the storage pit. Her hut was mostly empty otherwise, packed up into neat baskets still sitting outside the door. When she flipped a flatbread, it fell slightly sideways, hitting the tilted griddle squarely. The smoke didn’t rise straight up, but at an angle away from the storage pit and out the narrow window. That explained the lack of soot stains on the ceiling.

She didn’t look up as Rob stepped off the ladder. “Are you ready to apologize, young lady?”

“I’m not a young lady.”

(Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle Miniature 98: Traveling Mercies

First published in Strange Horizons.

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Show Notes

Rated PG.

Traveling Mercies

by Rachael K Jones

In the old stories, strangers at the door could be disguised gods, so you had to invite them in. It was a sin to turn away a guest.

Atithi devo bhava. Sanskrit: the guest is God.

I am not God, though I am old.

(Continue Reading…)

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PC 471: The Chaos Village — Part 1

PC 471: The Chaos Village — Part 1 is a PodCastle original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (39.9MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG

The Chaos Village — Part 1

By M.K. Hutchins

The ground under Rob’s feet shifted from sand to jagged shale and back again. The mountains folded into valleys, then spiked into cliffs. The green clouds turned into triangles and tried to stab him in the back, but crumpled and fell off.

Rob turned another page in his notebook, skimming his research notes. Thanks to the natural Order present in all humans, his own body and the things he held didn’t randomly transform in the Chaos. But despite pages and pages of lovely charts and neatly-labeled columns, he couldn’t say much more about Chaos than that.

(Continue Reading…)

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Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest IV

The next wave of the fourth incarnation of the Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest is coming, and it’s PodCastle’s turn! The contest will be taking submissions beginning June 1st, 2017 and will be open for one month, closing on June 30th. Every author may submit one original story of 500 words or less for consideration, so take out your quill and dust off your tome and get your story ready to submit!

The three winning stories will be purchased and run as an episode of PodCastle. Stories will be published on a members-only section of the forums, so first publication rights will not be expended by participating in the contest. It’s easy to be become a member. In fact, you can head on over to the forums and do that right now! All the pertinent details and rules will be posted under “The Arcade” section of the forums.

Check back here in June for links to the contest forums and the Submittable portal where you can upload your contest entries. Best of luck to everyone participating!

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PodCastle 470: The Thirty-Seven Faces of Tokh-Bathon

PodCastle 470: The Thirty-Seven Faces of Tokh-Bathon is a PodCastle original.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:33 — 39.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG.

The Thirty-Seven Faces of Tokh-Bathon

by Effie Seiberg

I’ve counted eleven thousand, six hundred and fifty-two tiny soldiers carved in marble relief on the outer walls that ring the temple, though I’ve only named seventeen of them. Each one has a pointed headpiece, a carved cloth sampot, and at least one weapon. In preparation for the Reason Ritual I must polish them all, Baaun Oupom had said, and I cannot afford to anger him again.

(Continue Reading…)

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PC 469: Ravana’s Children

PC 469: Ravana’s Children is a PodCastle original.

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13.

Ravana’s Children

by Ian Muneshwar

It was the end of a summer that burned through Queens quick as a fever, and Jamie couldn’t sleep. He twisted in his sheets, kicking them to the bottom of the bed, and watched his box fan. The blades made ribbons of the streetlights and cast sharp-sided shadows that chased each other across the walls.

Outside, his parents were fighting.

(Continue Reading…)

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General Submissions Update

Many thanks to everyone who sent us their work so far in 2017—we’ve received a record number of submissions this year, and we’re truly impressed with the quality of the stories we’ve seen. In order to give proper attention to the stories in the queue, and to give the castle staff a much needed mid-year rest, we will be closing to submissions on June 1, 2017. So, waste no time in sending us your incredible fantasy fiction! We will reopen our submissions portal in July 2017.

All the Best,

Jen R. Albert and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali
PodCastle Co-Editors

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PC 468: Sigrid Under the Mountain

First published in the Sockdolager.

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Sigrid Under the Mountain

by Charlotte Ashley

After Esja produced sour milk three days in a row, Sigrid knew she had a problem. Leaving the pail of greenish milk next to her stool, she trudged off in the grey light of the early morning towards the barley field at the verge of the woods; the new field she had cleared only this spring. When your cow spoilt on the inside, she knew, that only meant one thing: mischief.

She found the door nestled in the mud between the last row of barley and the half-completed fence. Made of scavenged barrel-boards and twine, it could have been mistaken for a junk heap if not for the flotilla of little footprints surrounding it. Sigrid lifted the artless trapdoor a few inches just to be sure and was rewarded with the warm stench of burnt rabbit pellets. She dropped the door and staggered back. Kobolds.

(Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle 467: How I Became Coruscating Queen of All the Realms, Pierced the Obsidian Night, Destroyed a Legendary Sword, and Saved My Heart’s True Love

No Sh!t, There I Was: An Anthology of Improbable Tales

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Show Notes

Rated R for adult content

How I Became Coruscating Queen of All the Realms, Pierced the Obsidian Night, Destroyed a Legendary Sword, and Saved My Heart’s True Love

By Baker & Dovey

No shit, there I was, knee-deep in necromantic weasels in the lair of the mad wizard-king, when Korgar and Elutriel both decided it was time to win my affections once and for all.

Elutriel had summoned an aura of resistance, an iridescent bubble free of weasels. He struggled forwards, heaving against the weight of their wasted furry bodies.

“Push them into the flames!” I shouted, pointing with Hrrnngnngrrrndr, the Sword of a Hundred Thousand Agonies, at the fire-trap Korgar had triggered as we entered the room.

But Elutriel ignored me and waded toward Korgar instead. He used the aura to shove a wave of writhing, stinking flesh before him until it piled up and over the granite-slab shoulders of the Vhunken warrior.

Korgar burst out with a mountainous effort and grabbed a gnashing undead weasel with a hand like a boulder. His huge arms straining, he forced it through the aura and toward Elutriel. The weasel’s rotted body twisted and deformed under the pressure, but its teeth still gnashed as Korgar bent it toward the healer’s neck.

Typical.

(Continue Reading…)