Sci-Fi – The Drabblecast

Norm sits down with author Shaenon Garrity to talk ghosts, comedy, and angry dogs in the Director's Cut: Flying on My Hatred of My Neighbor's Dog.

The Drabblecast concludes Women and Aliens month with “SUN MOON CAT MAN” by Julia Reynolds. This is a story about #Language#. #Language# is a key. #Language# can open doors of emotion, of empathy, and of connection. It unites us, it bonds us. #Language# can also lock those doors and keep us together alone. Story Excerpt: […]

Women and Aliens month continues with “Down the Well” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. Alaya is the author of speculative and historical fiction and has written six novels. Her stories have been featured in Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Welcome to Bordertown. She is also a recipient of the Cybils and Nebula awards. Story Excerpt: […]

Women and Aliens Month slithers forward with this week’s story: “Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs” by Lauren Beukes. Lauren Beukes is an award-winning, best-selling novelist who also writes comics, screenplays, and TV shows. Her novels include The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters and Zoo City. Story Excerpt: Unathi was singing karaoke when the creature attacked Tokyo. Or […]

We kick off Women And Aliens Month with “The Four Generations of Chang E,” by Zen Cho. It’s a dystopian space story steeping in Eastern mythology and tradition. And rabbits. Moon rabbits. Story Excerpt: In the final days of Earth as we knew it, Chang E won the moon lottery. For Earthlings who were neither rich […]

A plate, a plate, another plate burst upon the kitchen tile. This one broke into three large pieces and assorted ceramic crumbs. Giraffe closed her long-lashed eyes and prayed to her many makers. Why in the world would the people make one hard thing that was so likely to smash into a second hard thing? […]

Anton drew his legs up underneath him. The car seat was huge and puffy, and the leather made a breathy creak when he moved. It sounded like it was sighing. ‘How much longer?’ he said. For a while, nobody answered. He thought maybe they hadn’t heard him, but then his mother said, ‘We’ll be there […]

Sato lay on the cement floor of the workshop in a pool of his own blood and tried desperately to get Kuro-4’s legs working again. The robot, in turn, tried to deal with the gaping wounds in Sato’s smashed leg and pelvis. Useful Objects by Erica L. Satifka   After he passes the age of […]

There are two things I love, and one is the tiny grey owl outside my window. He is not afraid of me. He hoots and hops to my windowsill so I can stroke his downy head and feed him worms I’ve saved in my pocket. It is hard to get the worms from my pocket, […]

Leah woke up, said the blessing upon waking, then turned on her overlay with a mental command. She hissed with displeasure — it was a _gevurah_ day, again. She was supposed to contemplate restriction, discipline, withdrawal. She was beginning to wonder if her teachers were doing this on purpose; the assignments were said to be […]

The last day of orientation at New Plymouth University, Work Placement called students up in pairs. Rhonda Morillo took the chair next to a big-boned blond girl–Deirdre, pretty sure–as their peer advisor announced their “exciting cultural opportunity”: stocking shelves at Kiriki Grocery.         Kiriki Grocery by Tory Hoke   The last day […]

Alone — but not lonely. Three days, we’ve been on this planet. Over a year, Earth-time. But we don’t talk about Earth-time anymore. It weakens morale, says Sir Overgeneral Halfish. My morale went out the window when I found out that I was sentenced to be transported off planet.           Alienated […]

“I will not leave this cavern,” the voice said as soon as I stepped into the cave mouth. A baritone decaying into vibrato, an old man’s voice, full of dignity and pride. I tried to pinpoint its source, but the air was thick with fog. The haze seemed to originate from inside the chamber, where […]

The shovel bit through the foamy snow on the top stair of my front porch, then stopped with a clang. I scraped away the snow to see what was beneath. Ice. Serve me right for not shoveling after the snow had fallen last night. It had thawed, then the temperature had dropped into the deep […]

A collection of stories from the Cat With Blue Fur Writing Contest.                       Meow Meow Bang Bang by Oliver Buckram She was the kind of dame you never forget. Lips as moist and pink as smoked salmon. Legs as long and well maintained as the […]

Call her Anlic. The first time she woke, she was in the ruins of an abandoned gravity mine. At first the Community had chased around the outer strata of the great gloomy structure. But at last, close to the core, they reached a cramped ring. Here the central black hole’s gravity was so strong that […]

My boss, Danny, liked to brag that El Corazon was the best Tex-Mex restaurant just off the Vegas Strip. “Because of you, Bescha,” he’d say to me. “You keep the customers happy. You keep me out of trouble.” I won’t say which part of my job was harder. I kept an eye on the help-wanted […]

Thank you, Inspector. I’m ready. Yes, I understand my rights as a resident extraterrestrial. No, that won’t be necessary. Of course. Ask me anything. I only wish to see justice done. It grieves me to say so, but I concur. There’s no doubt about who murdered Lord Ash.       Half a Conversation, Overheard […]

This happened about ten years ago, out at Tobin Farm. Back in the sixties, somebody bought Tobin Farm for the purposes of holding a renaissance fair there during the summers. Off seasons it became a kind of commune for the people involved in putting on the fair. They lived modestly in sheds and trailers scattered […]

You do not know me yet, my love, but I can hear you in my future. You are there from the beginning–at first just a few stray notes, but your presence quickly grows into a beautiful refrain. I wish you could hear time as I do, my love, but this song was never meant to […]

This week’s column is not about a restaurant, exactly, but about a memory. A distinct and painful memory, like a softened tooth you can’t help but poke at with your tongue to see if it still hurts. A memory of seafood. (That sounds like one of those divine collections, doesn’t it, like a flight of […]

It was 8:34 p.m. on a Tuesday, and it was almost the end of the world. Actually, the world was expected to end on Friday, at precisely 5 p.m., eastern daylight time. This was not a forecast, or a projection: it was more like an appointment. On Friday at 5 p.m. eastern, a thousand high-powered […]

On this day I want to tell you about, which will be about a thousand years from now, there were a boy, a girl, and a love story.           DAY MILLION by Frederik Pohl   On this day I want to tell you about, which will be about a thousand years […]

2249 A.D. All the young Kirks in Riverside Public High School are assigned to the same Homeroom class. They sit together in the back corner on the far side from the door. They speak only to each other. The young Kirk on the Moon goes to school with no one. Each of the colonists has […]

The squid is a solipsistic psychopathic God with a lust for submarine hull and a mandate from Ronald Reagan branded on its hunting tentacles. It sweeps east from Iceland in the cold under the thermocline, alone in the dark, solitary lord of a solitary place.         TESTIMONY BEFORE AN EMERGENCY SESSION OF […]