The Overcast

Latest Episodes:

Overcast 108: For the Last Time, It's Not a Ray Gun by Anaea Lay Jun 30, 2019

Show notes

For the Last Time, It's Not a Ray Gun by Anaea Lay. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Anaea Lay. #Fantasy #Seattle #PNW #Urbanfantasy #Dating #Englishmen #Tea

Connor was shy, introverted and a thousand other things that made sitting there, at the tiny coffee shop table, torturous. He didn't want to be tortured. He wanted to hear harp music and cherubs giggling and all the other noises that accompanied your first date with your soul mate. It had taken him weeks to screw up the courage to ask Kayla out for coffee. As far as he was concerned, glitter should ooze from the walls in a poltergeist-style reward...

Anaea Lay lives in Chicago, Illinois where she is engaged in a torrid love affair with the city. She's the fiction podcast editor for Strange Horizons, where you can hear her read a new short story nearly every week. She's the president of the Dream Foundry, an organization dedicated to bolstering and nurturing the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts.

Her fiction has appeared in a variety of venues including Lightspeed, Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Pod Castle. Her interactive novel, Gilded Rails, was released by Choice of Games in 2018. She lives online at anaealay.com where you can find a complete biography and her blog. Follow her on Twitter @anaealay.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. And please take a moment to leave a review!

Overcast 107: The Garbage Mandala by Dennis Mombauer Jun 15, 2019

Show notes

The Garbage Mandala by Dennis Mombauer. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Dennis Mombauer. #fantasy #experimental #podcast #fiction

Something stuck out of the garbage, and Vasto immediately recognized its strangeness. This week alone, he and his coworkers had cleaned out hundreds of bins, bags and containers, fed their contents to Devora and delivered it all to the Facility, but they had never come across a thing like this.

Dennis Mombauer currently lives in Colombo as a freelance researcher and writer of speculative fiction, textual experiments, and poetry. He is co-publisher of a German magazine for experimental fiction, "Die Novelle - Magazine for Experimentalism," and has published fiction and non-fiction in various magazines and anthologies. His first English novel "The Fertile Clay" will be published by Nightscape Press in late 2019/early 2020. Find him online at https://dennismombauer.com/ or on Twitter @DMombauer.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. And please don't forget to leave a review!

Overcast 106: What the Wind Blew in From Golconda by Emmett Schlenz Jun 02, 2019

Show notes

What the Wind Blew in From Golconda by Emmett Schlenz. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword by Emmett Schlenz. #fantasy #magicalrealism

Cora looked up from her notebook to watch the storm, and in the lingering of a lightning flash she saw something beyond the pomegranate trees, coming up over the bluff. A dark smudge she took to be a lost balloon, getting closer. As it neared, Cora noticed it was much too large to be a balloon. Much too long. And a balloon would have been shuddering under all that rain.

When she realized it was a person, floating above the orchard, surprise only weighed her down for a moment before she exploded out the backdoor.

Born and raised in Rhode Island, Emmett Schlenz studied English and History at Loyola Marymount University. Currently he is a proud member of the Burgerville Workers Union in Portland, Oregon, and attends the People's Colloquium writers' workshop. Everything he writes is a love letter to somebody.

Please help support the Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

Overcast 105: Zipper Boy and the Girl Made of Light May 22, 2019

Show notes

Zipper Boy and the Girl Made of Light by J.N. Powell. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by J.N. Powell.

The overhead light in his room flickered sickly. The carpet smelled moldy. Elliot sighed and looked out his window at the parking lot, which also merged into the pool deck and served as a courtyard picnic area, all overgrown and unkempt. He heard bubbles of laughter somewhere out there, but didn't see who it came from.

J.N. Powell is an English and Creative Writing instructor in Midland, Texas. She serves as Fiction Editor and Submissions Editor for Clockhouse literary journal. She learned most of what she knows from two places: writing workshops at the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU and her graduate creative writing program at Goddard College in Port Townsend, WA. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Future Fire, Typehouse, and Space Squid, as well as the Transcendent anthology from Transmundane Press. Find her online at jalynfiske.wixsite.com/jpowellwriter

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

Overcast 104: Dimensions by F.I. Goldhaber May 03, 2019

Show notes

Dimensions by F.I. Goldhaber. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by F.I. Goldhaber.

Lora sat on the deck, sipping her morning brew, and watched hikers wander through her living room. ... The hikers stopped in the kitchen to admire the view of Yaquina Head lighthouse. Lora could see their lips moving and wondered what words the panoramic view inspired. Sound didn't cross into her dimension.

F.I. Goldhaber's words capture people, places, and events with a photographers's eye and a poet's soul. As a reporter, editor, business writer, and marketing communications consultant, they produce news stories, feature articles, editorial columns and reviews for newspapers, corporations, governments, and non-profits in five states. Now paper, electronic and audio magazines, books, newspapers, calendars, and street signs display their poetry, fiction, and essays. Find out more at https://goldhaber.net

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget top leave a review!

Overcast 103: The Obscurists by M. Luke McDonell Apr 19, 2019

Show notes

The Obscurists by M. Luke McDonell. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by M. Luke McDonell.

Sierra stepped through, shifting latitude and longitude from San Diego, California to Wheeling, West Virginia. For her, the passage felt like expecting one more tread on a staircase, discovering it wasn't there, and stepping down too hard and abruptly. The scent of salt air and coconut sunscreen was replaced by stale sweat, burnt popcorn, and disinfectant.

M. Luke McDonell's five-minutes-into-the-future fiction explores the effects of emerging technology on individuals and society. Her work has appeared in publications including Shoreline of Infinity (winner if the British Fantasy Society Award 2018 for best magazine/periodical), The Overcast, The Arcanist, Perihelion, New Reader Magazine, and more. By day, she is a senior designer at a San Francisco software security company and by night she writes and helps run SomaFM. Follow her on Twitter @Mlukemc and learn more at https://mlukemcdonell.wordpress.com

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

Overcast 102 - FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY EPISODE - Welcome to the Legion of Six by Fonda Lee Apr 06, 2019

Show notes

OUR FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY EPISODE!

Welcome to the Legion of Six by Fonda Lee. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword by Fonda Lee. #superhero #fantasy #fiction #podcast #team

This young whippersnapper's name is Trevor Dutch. Dutch is tall, blond, and chiseled like one of those Greek statues of Hercules that you see in museums. He saunters into the conference room overlooking the Threat Chamber in the world headquarters of the Legion of Six (which is, for the moment, floating above Brooklyn on an anti-gravity field powered by the Continuum Stone) as if he's done it a hundred times before.

Fonda Lee is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of the Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City (Orbit). She is also the author of the acclaimed young adult science fiction novels Zeroboxer (Flux), Exo and Cross Fire (Scholastic). Fonda's work has been nominated for the Nebula, Andre Norton, and Locus Awards, and been named to Best of Year lists by NPR, Barnes & Noble, Powell's Books, and Syfy Wire. 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.

Please help support the Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

Overcast 101: It Befits Her by Ziggy Schutz Mar 14, 2019

Show notes

It Befits Her by Ziggy Schutz. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword recorded by Ziggy Schutz. #fantasy #apocalypse #knight #podcast

The whisper of armor over fabric is reverent, amplified by the hallowed hall that they've made their home since the end of the world. The Knight breathes deep, standing scarecrow-still as clever hands slide each piece of armor home. Repetition turns to tradition turns to ritual, giving each movement an elegance in its purpose.

Ziggy Schutz (she/her or he/him) is a queer writer from a tiny, rain-soaked coastal town in BC, Canada. Her stories are full of found families, magic, and hard-fought hope. When not writing, she spends most of her free time lurking around haunted houses, trying to befriend their ghosts. His writing has appeared in anthologies Behind The Mask (Meerkat Press), Into The Mystic: Volume Three (Ninestar Press), and online in Daily Science Fiction and Vulture Bones. He is also the creator and co-writer of Crossing Wires, a hopeful post-apocalyptic podcast. Find Ziggy online at http://ziggyschutz.wordpress.com/ and on Twitter @ziggytschutz.

Please help support The Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss and episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

Overcast 100: Soft Mary's Flood by Steven Pirie Mar 06, 2019

Show notes

Soft Mary's Flood by Steven Pirie. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword written by Steven Pirie. #fantasy #apocalypse #4horseman #death #fiction #podcast

The cord's wrapped round the baby's neck. Mary's known this for some time, now, but she can't tell anyone. Instead, Mary watches from the foot of the bed; impassively, she thinks, but she can feel Mr.Rogers' stare upon her.

"You want to save it, don't you?" whispers Mr. Rogers in Mary's ear. Mary hears the smirk in his voice.

Mary looks away. At one time, she'd have laughed at such a suggestion, but these days she's not so sure.

Steven Pirie lives in Liverpool, UK, and has done so for fifty-seven years. He's married and has a son and an old rescue dog named Taz. His short fiction has been published in many forms and venues all over the world. His first novel, Digging Up Donald, was published by Storm Constantine's Immanion Press in 2004, and again in 2007. A second novel, Burying Brian, was also published by Immanion in December 2010. You can find him online at http://www.stevenpirie.com.

Our new logo was designed by Hazel Glass: www.artbyhazelglass.com. Check out her amazing handcut paper art!

Please help support the Overcast. Become a Patron Today!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, please take a moment to leave a review!

Overcast 99: Sugar and Spice by Jennifer R. Donohue Feb 16, 2019

Show notes

Sugar and Spice by Jennifer R. Donohue. Narrated by J.S. Arquin. Featuring an afterword written by Jennifer R. Donohue. #Fantasy #Magic #Witches #Witchcraft

There was a brisk knock at the door and, deaf or no, Lucky was on her feet in an instant with a sharp bark. Helena sighed and set aside her knitting, the knock coming again before she could reach the door. The next door neighbor, Mr. Sharp, was on her porch, hatless and without his usual greatcoat.

Jennifer R. Donohue grew up at the Jersey Shore and now lives in central New York with her husband and her Doberman. Though she got a bachelor's degree in psychology, she has always wanted to write. She currently works at her local public library, where she also facilitates a writing workshop, and she is now a Codexian and an Associate member of the SFWA. Her work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Mythic Delirium, Syntax & Salt, Escape Pod, and elsewhere. She blogs at Authorized Musings, where she shares fiction and the tribulations of the writing life, and tweets @AuthorizedMusin.

Please help support The Overcast. Become A Patron Today!

Subscribe at iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode. While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected