Posted in: Season 2
Photograph of Waterloo Station clock by Martin Nathan

Jacqueline by Tatum Anderson

A young woman leaves Jamaica for the UK, hoping to emulate her cousin Jacqueline by working as a nurse. When she arrives, nothing is quite as she expected it to be.

Jacqueline was written by Tatum Anderson. She is a journalist and writer from London. She received an MA In Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London and is now working on a PhD there in the autumn.

She has recently completed her first novel about Jamaican soldiers in the First World War which was Highly Commended in the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2020. She is now working on a second novel.

The reader is Juliet Jordon. She is a recent Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance graduate. She is doing an MFA (Master in Fine Arts) in directing. She studied Acting at Morley College London on the Performing Arts HND course.

This story was directed and produced by Martin Nathan. Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician, and a railway engineer. His short fiction has been published by Tangent Press, HCE and Grist and his poetry has appeared in Finished Creatures, Erbacce and Aesthetica. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing.

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Website: http://www.martinnathan.co.uk

The music and image used in this episode are both reproduced with the permission of Martin Nathan.

Posted in: Season 2
Greyhound Bus

Ride the Peter Pan by Allison Whittenberg

A young woman travels from her old life to her new, from the North to the South, on a Greyhound bus.

Content warning: this story mentions rape.

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A Whittenberg is a Philadelphia native who has a global perspective. If she wasn’t an author she’d be a private detective or a jazz singer. She loves reading about history and true crime. Her novels include Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine, Life is Fine, Tutored and The Sane Asylum.

This short story was read by Antonia White.

The producer was Tabitha Potts.

The cover photograph was taken by R Miller on Flickr and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. It has been cropped.

Posted in: Podcast Season 2

Left Watching by R D Mouton

Four men, friends since childhood, walk into a wood, where they find a pile of bones. This strange discovery will change their lives forever.

RD Mouton is an American Writer and Freelancer. He is currently pursuing a career in writing and completing his current projects, a short story collection and a young adult novel. He can be found on Twitter as @RDMakes.

Photo by Koan courtesy of Morguefile.com

Sound effect used are adapted from woodsbirds.wav by Sparrer on Freesound.org under the Attribution License

The producer is Tabitha Potts

Posted in: Podcast

The Death of Brutus

The narrator is a health care aide who cares for a disabled woman (Betty) as best as possible and tends to her many hamsters, including Brutus, with the ultimate compassion.

It seems that Betty’s real confidant and friend is not the hamster she obsesses over in the story, but the young man who cleans out the hamster cages, cooks her meals, and buries her once-beloved rodents in the backyard.

This story originally appeared in Fleas on the Dog Online in 2020. 

Mark Tulin is a poet, short story writer, and author residing in Ventura. He also has time to take pictures of the quirky people and strange objects he finds on Southern California’s beaches.

Gordon Lawrie (author and editor of Friday Flash Fiction) writes, “Tulin’s skill lies in raising his central characters above everything that surrounds them.”

Mark had appeared in Fiction on the Web, smokebox, Vita Brevis Press, The Literary Hatchet, Amethyst Review, Friday Flash Fiction, The Daily Drunk, and podcasts and anthologies. His books include Magical Yogis, Awkward Grace, and The Asthmatic Kid and Other Stories.

Keep up to date on all of Mark Tulin’s stories, poetry, and books at:

www.crowonthewire.com

Photo © Mark Tulin

Music (faded in and out) from Comming Back by Loco Lobo under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Posted in: Podcast
Photo of Dia de los Muertos Greg Willis

St Esteban of the Children by E E King

Esteban, finder of lost things, awakes in his grave on November second to return home to his family for Dia De Los Muertos. But he overstays his allotted night and cannot find his way back. Time is running out, for if he stays out too long, he will be forgotten and fade away into nothingness. 

This story originally appeared in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores in 2018.

E.E. King is a painter, performer, writer, and biologist – She’ll do anything that won’t pay the bills, especially if it involves animals.

Ray Bradbury called her stories, “marvelously inventive, wildly funny, and deeply thought-provoking. I cannot recommend them highly enough.” 

King has won numerous various awards and fellowships for art, writing, and environmental research.

She’s been published widely, most recently in Clarkesworld, Flame Tree, Cosmic Roots, and Eldritch shores and On Spec. One of her tales is on Tangent’s recommended reading 2019. 

Her books include Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife, Pandora’s Card Game, The Truth of Fiction, and The Adventures of Emily Finfeather.

Check out paintings, writing, musings, and books at:

 www.elizabetheveking.com

www.elizabetheveking.com

https://twitter.com/ElizabethEvKing

amazon.com/author/eeking

Story copyright of the author E E King (all rights reserved).

Image copyright Greg Willis adapted with his permission. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Music used in this podcast is adapted (extracts used and fades applied) from:

La llorona by Trío La Aurora licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

Posted in: Podcast

BFFs by Marianne Rogoff

In ‘BFFs’ by Marianne Rogoff, a woman in mid-life contemplates whether or not she’s ready for any new relationships while on a road trip.

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MARIANNE ROGOFF is the author of the Pushcart-nominated story collection Love Is Blind in One Eye, the memoir Silvie’s Life, and numerous travel stories, short fictions, essays, and book reviews. BFFs was a Finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Flash Fiction Prize 2018 and “Featured Fiction” in Fiction Southeast on 02/05/2020.

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BFFs short story and illustrative photo © Mariane Rogoff all rights reserved

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Sounds under CC-BY 3.0:

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ocean-LaJolla.wav by xserra

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