The Overcast

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Overcast 118: Eternity Plus Package, 89.99/Month by Michael Milne Dec 06, 2019

Show notes

Eternity Plus Package, 89.99/Month by Michael Milne. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Michael Milne. #Sci-fi #digital #afterlife #fiction

Grace consulted a scanned photograph of herself, one from years before her death, adjusting her visual settings like a painter taking in a foggy landscape. Once, she had spent hours giggling and manipulating the facial sliders like discs on an abacus, blowing her nose and her eyes and her ears to absurd proportions. For a week she had proudly roamed the grounds of Elysium Estates with a two-foot narwhal tooth breaching from the creaseless sea of her forehead.

But she knew what her daughter wanted, and this show was for her.

Michael Milne is a writer and teacher originally from Canada. He sits in coffee shops all around the world, trying the patience of baristas and writing about spaceship ghosts. Find him online at: www.michaelmilne.ca or on Twitter @ironcardigan.

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Overcast 117: Live at Orycon with Fonda Lee & Tina Connolly! Nov 23, 2019

Show notes

A special live Overcast featuring a multi-cast performance of Silence by Tina Connolly and Universal Print by Fonda Lee! Featuring the wonderful narration talents of the authors themselves. Recorded live at Orycon 2019.

OUR CAST:

FONDA LEE

Fonda Lee is the 2019 Author Guest of Honor at OryCon. She is the author of the epic urban fantasy Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City, which won the 2018 World Fantasy Award, and continuing in the recently-released Jade War. She is also the author of the acclaimed young adult science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo and Cross Fire. Fonda's work has been nominated multiple times for the Nebula and Locus Awards, and she is a three-time winner of the Aurora Award, Canada's national science fiction and fantasy award. Fonda is a recovering corporate strategist, black belt martial artist, and action movie aficionado residing in Portland, Oregon. You can find Fonda online at www.fondalee.com and on Twitter @fondajlee.

MATT HAYNES

Matt Haynes is an internationally acclaimed audiobook narrator with over 50 titles to his credit. He has narrated books in a wide variety of genres including: Romance -Science Fiction -Fantasy -Memoirs -Self Help -Business -Horror -Biographies -Comedy

He lives in Portland Oregon and specializes in educating authors and rights holders in the audiobook production process.

TINA CONNOLLY

Tina Connolly's books include the Ironskin and Seriously Wicked series, and the collection On the Eyeball Floor. She has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Norton, and World Fantasy awards. She co-hosts Escape Pod, runs Toasted Cake, and is at tinaconnolly.com.

And of course our host, J.S. ARQUIN.

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Overcast 116: The Collective Unconscious and How to Get Out by Hamilton Perez Nov 02, 2019

Show notes

The Collective Unconscious and How to Get Out by Hamilton Perez. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Hamilton Perez. #fantasy #tropes #archetype #humor #comedy #fiction

The last thing the Archetypal Hero recalled, he was traveling home through the Bewildering Worrying Woods after defeating the Demon Disciple's demigod and consequently conquering the Crystal Kingdom of Carn.

It seemed like a lot to remember.

Hamilton Perez is not a swarm of bees in a carefully stitched together human suit. He is a writer and freelance editor living in Sacramento, California, along with many other normal, non-bee people. His stories have appeared in Andromeda Spaceways, Metaphorosis, and The Dark, and he is also an associate editor for Podcastle. He doesn't even like bees. Find him online at hamiltonperez.wordpress.com or on Twitter @TheWritingHam.

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Overcast 115: Swallowed by the Digit Sky by A. Katherine Black Oct 18, 2019

Show notes

Swallowed by the Digit Sky by A. Katherine Black. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by A. Katherine Black. #sci-fi #digital #VR #virtual reality #fiction #podcast

Customers within the shop, who only moments ago donned drab earth tones, were now spectacularly adorned. Flowering gowns, towering headdresses. Few retained their human facial features in the digit. Some had pincers or claws, others rabbit ears or gills.

A. Katherine Black is an audiologist and a writer. She adores multicolored pens, stories featuring friendly spiders, and almost anything at 2am. She lives in Maryland, surrounded by very tall and occasionally judgmental trees, along with her family, cats, and her overused coffee machines. Find her at flywithpigs.com or on twitter @akatherineblack.

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Overcast 114: Being Kitty by A.J. Lee Oct 04, 2019

Show notes

Being Kitty by A.J. Lee. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by A.J. Lee. #Scifi #Technology #gigeconomy #chatbot #fiction #podcast

"How do I delete photos of me that someone else posted on Whisp?"

"It depends on whether or not you own the copyright," I answered in my best Kitty voice.

"What if it's a nude?"

That's when I recognized the account name. It was Maryam, the Maryam with the cheating boyfriend. My heart went out to her, but Kitty didn't have a heart.

A.J. Lee is a Canadian writer without a long and interesting list of careers, a website or a Twitter account. Her fiction has appeared in Nature: Futures and Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers.

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Overcast 113: The Lesser of Two Evils by Shane Halbach Sep 27, 2019

Show notes

The Lesser of Two Evils by Shane Halbach. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Shane Halbach. #fantasy #humor #techsupport #corporateevil

"Effective immediately, you will relocate your desk to the IT room in the basement."

She slid an access card across the table.

"The server room?" asked Ian, brightening. So that's where Suresh was always hiding out. Nobody would ever be able to find Ian down there; this might not be so bad after all. Behind a special access door and everything.

"You'll be responsible for everything in that room," Beth continued, "which is really just one thing: a captive demon."

Shane Halbach is a writer and blogger living in Chicago with his wife and three kids, where he writes software by day and avoids writing stories by night. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, and The Year's Best YA Speculative Fiction, among others. He blogs regularly at shanehalbach.com, or can be found on Twitter @shanehalbach.

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Overcast 112: Well Enough Alone by Holly Schofield Sep 13, 2019

Show notes

Well Enough Alone by Holly Schofield. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Holly Schofield. #sci-fi #fiction #endoflife #deathwithdignity

Lindsay gripped the armrest as the car sped through the busy streets, centimeters from the other vehicles. The wrap-around front windshield increased visibility but made for a disconcerting ride. She double-checked her smartcane was resting against her leg and closed her eyes, wishing she knew where she was going and why.

Holly Schofield travels through time at a rate of one second per second, oscillating between the alternate realities of city and country life. She is the author of over seventy short stories, some of which are used in university curricula. Her works have appeared in Analog, Lightspeed, Tesseracts and many other publications throughout the world. You can find her at hollyschofield.wordpress.com

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Overcast 111: For Your Safety and Comfort, Please Keep Arms, Legs and Tentacles Inside the Car At All Times by Michelle Ann King Aug 18, 2019

Show notes

For You Safety and Comfort, Please Keep Arms, Legs and Tentacles Inside the Car At All Times by Michelle Ann King. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword written by Michelle Ann King. #god #humor #tentacles #Lovecraft #unicorns #fantasy

"I found God ... While I was doing that house clearance in Balham. ...remember my Great Aunt Doris, the one with all the tea cosies? Try to imagine a cross between her, that security guard who arrested us for shoplifting eyebrow pencils out of Superdrug when we were kids, and the Grand Canyon."

Kate dutifully tried to imagine this. She failed.

"And so it turns out that after creating our spacetime continuum, It went to have a bit of a lie down. Justifiably, I think; I always need a bit of a nap after any DIY myself..."

Michelle Ann King is a speculative fiction writer from Essex, England. Her work has appeared in over ninety different venues, including Interzone, Strange Horizons, and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. She has published two collections of short stories in ebook and paperback from Amazon and other online retailers, and is currently at work on her third. Visit www.transientcactus.co.uk for details. Follow her on Twitter @MichelleAnnKing.

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Overcast 110: The Freedom of Above by T.J. Berg Aug 01, 2019

Show notes

The Freedom of Above by T.J. Berg. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by T.J. Berg. #Scifi #3Dprinting #loss #grief #death #porn #space

Alex booted up his 3D printer. He'd booted it up almost every night for the past two weeks, thinking the same thing, but not quite daring. He knew it was common enough. Hell, people used to go to stores before they had the privacy of a 3Dp to download things like this to. And it wasn't as if he was going to use it for sex. Just the weight of it, some hair, something to have on the other side of the bed.

T.J. Berg is a molecular and cellular biologist working and writing in Sweden. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Her shot fiction had appeared in Talebones (for which it received an honorable mention in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror), Tales of the Unanticipated, Electric Velocipede, Daily Science Fiction, Caledonia Dreamin', Sensorama, Thirty Years of Rain, and Tales to Terrify and is upcoming in New Myths and Diabolical Plots. When not writing or doing science, she can be found traveling the world, cooking, or hiking. Find her on the web at www.infinity-press.com or on Twitter @TJBergWrites.

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Overcast 109: The Girl in the Shrine on Mount Osore Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

The Girl in the Shrine on Mount Osore by Jordan Taylor. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword written by Jordan Taylor.

At the hot springs, the monkey demon waits for her at the edge of the pool. She knows him instantly, a full head and shoulders taller than the others, inhuman intelligence hidden in his eyes.

She kneels in the deep snow.

"You came, Samurai's Daughter," he says. He cocks his head at her, horrifying.

"A good daughter obeys her father," she answers.

The monkey demon snorts air through his side nostrils, looking briefly like an old peasant from the rice paddies. "A good father is not so weak as to give up his only child without any resistance."

Jordan Taylor grew up in a small town in the American South, where she was raised on equal parts Jesus and fairy tales. She now lives in Seattle, where she keeps several bookshelves full of books and one cantankerous corgi. Her short fiction has recently appeared in On Spec and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. You can follow her online at JordanRTaylor.com, or on Twitter @JordanRTaylor13.

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