Kaleidocast

Here producer and Season 2 story runner, Sam Schreiber, chooses one of his favorite episodes that you may have missed and gives you the backstory behind the episode. Stories, and context, and quotes, oh my! Featuring commentary from Wilson Fowlie.

"Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology" A group of academics initiate a project to "imagine" a fictional country, only to find that their collective imaginings have coalesced into a very real country with very real history, culture, and geopolitical significance. The story takes the form of one of the academics' writings, which take a harrowing and intimately personal turn. The Author: Theodora Goss is the World Fantasy and Locus Award-winning author of the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology coedited with Delia Sherman; Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems; The Thorn and the Blossom (2012), a novella in a two-sided accordion format; the poetry collection Songs for Ophelia (2014); debut novel The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (2017), and sequel European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (2018). She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Seiun, and Mythopoeic Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Her work has been translated into twelve languages. She teaches literature and writing at Boston University and in the Stonecoast MFA Program. Visit her at theodoragoss.com. The Actor: Wilson Fowlie has been reading stories out loud since the age of 4, and credits any talent he has in this area to his parents, who are both excellent at reading aloud. He started narrating stories for more than just his own family in late 2008, when he answered a call for readers on the PodCastle forum. Since then, he has gone on to become PodCastle’s most prolific narrator, reading or appearing in over 30 episodes. He’s also narrated for many other podcasts, including all of the other Escape Artists ’casts, StarShipSofa and other District of Wonder podcasts, Beam Me Up, Cast Macabre, Dunesteef Audio Fiction magazine and the Journey Into… podcast. He fits in all this narrating between his day job as a web developer in Vancouver, Canada, acting in local theatre productions and looking for voice acting jobs.

The Right to Bear Arms A near future, near-dystopia: the narrator is an army ve| with a government issued prosthetic arm. When it starts to malfunction, he goes to a specialist who builds him and two other disfigured vets a new state of the art arm for free. The Author & Narrator Zak Zyz is a SF fantasy writer who lives in Brooklyn and fixes things for a living. When he's not writing, he hosts the Surreal Symphony, a live internet talk show with today's best and brightest speculative fiction authors where they talk about politics, genre, and all manner of riveting topics. He also hosts a late night call-in pirate radio show, and runs Strategically Correct, an awesome board game club. Zak is the author of many short stories and novels including Survival Mode, Zan & Ink, and the Master Arcanist. If you liked this story, you can support his work on Patreon or buy his books on Amazon.

The Right to Bear Arms A near future, near-dystopia: the narrator is an army ve| with a government issued prosthetic arm. When it starts to malfunction, he goes to a specialist who builds him and two other disfigured vets a new state of the art arm for free. The Author & Narrator Zak Zyz is a SF fantasy writer who lives in Brooklyn and fixes things for a living. When he's not writing, he hosts the Surreal Symphony, a live internet talk show with today's best and brightest speculative fiction authors where they talk about politics, genre, and all manner of riveting topics. He also hosts a late night call-in pirate radio show, and runs Strategically Correct, an awesome board game club. Zak is the author of many short stories and novels including Survival Mode, Zan & Ink, and the Master Arcanist. If you liked this story, you can support his work on Patreon or buy his books on Amazon.

Not That Kind of Dream Girl A man at the crossroads of good and evil is perfect prey for the City. The Author: Evan Berkow is a writer of speculative fiction in the hours when he's not lawyering. His fiction has appeared in a bunch of places, such as Strange Horizons, Escape Pod and Crossed Genres Magazine. He's a member of SFWA, Codex, and the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers critique group. He lives in Pleasantville, NY, with his wife, kids, and a small menagerie consisting of two enormous gray cats and one adorable rescue dog. You can find him on Twitter @Evan_Berkow or email him at eberkow (at) gmail (dot) com. The Actor: Lora Nicolas is an actor and singer based in New York City. Originally from Manila, Philippines, she moved to NYC when she received a scholarship to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for musical theatre. She eventually went to play her dream role since she was five years old--Kim in Miss Saigon--at the beautiful Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ, and again in Midtown Arts Center in Fort Collins, CO, for which she won a BroadwayWorld Denver Award for Best Actress. Her other favorite roles include Anita in West Side Story, Joanne in Rent, Lucy in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Janet Van de Graaff in The Drowsy Chaperone, Christmas Eve in Avenue Q, and Meg in Little Women. She also originated the role of Hannah in Vital Theater's StinkyKids--Off Broadway Alliance Award Winner for Best Family Musical. She has worked and toured all over the U.S., and has recently performed in three concerts in Tochigi and Tokyo, Japan and will be returning in the summer. She is a huge geek for the sci-fi and fantasy genres, and "casually cosplays" for fun. (Follow her Instagram @dailycasualcosplays). She is very passionate about diversity in art and media, and her ultimate dream is to do a project that could get her at a Comiccon panel in front of a room full of her "peeps".​ --------------------------------------------- The Story Our detective goes South of the Rio Grande to solve a mysterious murder that's fishier than...well...fish. The Author: One sunny day in January, Art Center College of Design handed Fred Stesney a BFA in illustration. That led to a long career as an advertising copywriter, a short one as a radio producer and audio engineer, and a new beginning as a writer, artist and illustrator. He – and please pardon him for writing about himself in the third person – lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and son. https://fredstesney.wordpress.com/about-2/ Twitterer @fredstesney

Touch That Dial: THEY are coming for you and there's nothing you can do. Or is there? Author: Michael Philip Wells grew up in Michigan and lives in Brooklyn, New York. His story "A Chinatown Ghost Story" will be published in the upcoming fiction issue of Nang, a new and beautifully eccentric print magazine devoted to Asian cinema. He has been working on a large-scale fantasy novel since well before the invention of the podcast, and writes extremely intermittently about film at EveryoneLikesMovies.blogspot.com. The Actors: We have an ensemble cast of actors and producers. Kim Rogers (http://podcastle.org/people/kim-rogers/), Sam Schreiber, Bradley Robert Parks, Jessica Plumbley, Zin E. Rocklyn (https://twitter.com/intelligentwat), Ted Rabinowitz (http://www.thewrongsword.com/), Rob Cameron, Marcy Arlin, Tatiana Grey (http://www.tatianagrey.com), and introducing Tony Perry (Tonyperry.com). ------------------------------------- Classified Ads: A whimsical series of classified ads set in a world rich with classical high fantasy tropes. The Author: Elliotte Rusty Harold is originally from New Orleans to which he returns periodically in search of a decent bowl of gumbo. However, he currently resides in a secret mountaintop laboratory on a large island off the East Coast of the United States. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Crossed Genres, Daily Science Fiction, and numerous anthologies. He has also written over twenty nonfiction books, most recently The JavaMail API and Java Network Programming, 4th edition, both from O’Reilly. He is a member of SFWA, the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, and the Brooklyn Bird Club. The Actor: Paul Karle is an actor living and working in New York City. He loves cats and Star Trek. Find him at www.paulkarle.com

Sabbath Wine A poignant story taking place in the radical Brooklyn twenties of a friendship between a Jewish girl and an African-American boy, centered around a Sabbath dinner. Their parents find common cause in their experiences and losses from prejudices and bigotries. The Author: Barbara Krasnoff has had short stories appear in over 30 print and online publications, including “Sabbath Wine,” which was published in Clockwork Phoenix 5 and was a finalist for the 2016 Nebula Award for short stories. Other publications where you can find her work include Mythic Delirium, Abyss & Apex, Space and Time, and Apex, among others . ​When not producing weird fiction, she earns her living as a freelance tech writer. And just for fun, she investigates what the animals and objects in our world are really thinking in her daily Backstories series on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (#theirbackstories). She is a member of the Tabula Rasa writers group and can be found at BrooklynWriter.com or on Twitter as @BarbK. The Actor: Kim Rogers is an EMC actress that currently resides in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. During the day, she can be found at Samuel French, INC where she has the pleasure of assisting Professional Theatres around the world with all of their theatrical needs. At night, she can be found flitting about the theatre district or anywhere in the West Village that will let her belt out a showtune.

Judges Cave Author: Eric Rosenfield's fiction has been published in Kaleidotrope, LORE, Lakeside Circus and 365 Tomorrows. His non-fiction has been anthologized in The Modern Library Anthology of New York Diaries and published in io9, The New Haven Review, The Comics Journal, and LitKicks.com among other venues. He currently works as the CTO of the serialized fiction service Serial Box. Actor: Paul Karle is an actor living and working in New York City. He loves cats and Star Trek. Find him at www.paulkarle.com ------------------------------------------- The Owl of Anatolia Author: S. A. Chakraborty is a NY-based speculative fiction writer and history buff. Her debut, The City of Brass, is out now with Harper Voyager. Short-listed for the Locus, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards, The City of Brass is the first book in THE DAEVABAD TRILOGY, an epic fantasy set in the 18th century Middle East. She is an organizer with the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers’ Group, about which more information - including membership - can be found here. Originally (and proudly!) from New Jersey, S. A. currently resides in Queens with her husband and daughter. When not buried in books about Mughal miniatures and Abbasid political intrigue, she enjoys hiking, knitting, and recreating unnecessarily complicated, medieval meals for her family. You can find her online most frequently at Twitter (@SAChakrabooks) where she likes to ramble about history, politics, and Islamic art. She is represented by Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency. Actor: Lanna Joffrey is an actor, spoken word performer & writer who has worked throughout the US & UK. SELECT THEATRE: I Call My Brothers (The Gate), Muse of Fire (The Globe), The Profane (Playwrights Horizons), Timon of Athens (The Factory), Sonnet Walks (The Globe), Ironmistress (The Albany), Measure for Measure (The Factory), That Day (The Roundhouse), Rebecca Lenkiewicz's The Commune (CSSD), The Two Noble Kinsmen (Instant Classic Company). SELECT FILM: Druid Peak, Mad to Be Normal, Fishing Naked. AWARDS: IRNE Award, Ovation Award, New York Fringe Performance Award. TRAINING: Masters in Acting(Distinction), Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, BFA in Acting, Syracuse University, Company member of The Factory and Barefoot Theatre Company, lannajoffrey.com

Wallflowers: An upscale shop has usurped what used to be NYC's infamous Limelight nightclub. Now the ghosts of the nightclub, looking for the artistic vitality that once was, take their vengeance on a salesgirl to whom the current dictates of fashion and beauty are everything. The Author: Lilah Wild is a graduate of Clarion West and her dark fiction has appeared in venues such as Pseudopod, Dark Tales from Elder Regions: New York, Niteblade, and Morbid Curiosity. Her fascinations include belly-dance dabbling, eerie synths, horror movie interior decorating, and running away to the beach. She lives in Queens amid a clamor of doom metal noodling and two cats. Visit http://www.leopardmoon.com for more info. The Actor: Jennifer Carter is an actor from Va, Ca, and Fl living and working in NYC. When not lending her voice to speculative storyscapes she can be seen on stage with many NYC theatre companies. Most recently as Dogberry in an industry reading of Turn To Flesh's new work THE MERRY WIDOWS OF WINDSOR. She also loves fighting; stage combat, that is, and this past winter fight directed Queen's Shakespeare and What Dream's May Co.'s productions of HENRY VI parts 1-3. She also enjoys pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. Follow her on Instagram @femme_du_lac_ and her website, www.jenncarter.weebly.com. -------------- The Story: You don't understand, I loved her like nobody else in this world or the next. And she loved me. If she's missing, it's because Mr. Grooch has taken her. The Author & Actor: J.M. Plumbley writes fantasy, horror, and a blog about monsters. She's a graduate of the Odyssey Writers Workshop and has lived in several states and countries, but currently resides in Queens. Visit jmplumbley.com for more.

Seven Standpoints Charming short poem about cultural differences when dealing w/ an alien, centered around sandwich issues. The Author: D. T. Friedman lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Kimble. ---------------------------------------- The Emperor Mantis A story of vengeance and resistance on the isle of ants. Never underestimate the small for they are legion and unforgiving. The Author: Essowe Tchalim is a writer of speculative fiction short stories and novels. He graduated from Brooklyn College, where he studied concepts of the soul and rituals of power from the Ancient Mediterranean. He currently works at Droga5, where he assists in producing TV commercials. When he is not writing or working, he is reading manga or trying to convince his friends to watch his favorite television shows. This is his first publication. The Actor: Lauren Harris is an author, narrator, and podcaster from Raleigh, North Carolina. She's also an assistant editor at Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. To find out more about Lauren, visit www.laurenbharris.com.