Taking the Dream Spinner
“Taking the Dream Spinner” – A Novel Excerpt
“Dirt” by Kristopher Kaylala
Welcome back Fiction Cafe Listeners! This week we’re covering “Dirt” by Kristopher Kaylala. A strange letter. An impossible sender. Secrets hidden in the ground. From STUDIO5705, a scripted fiction podcast set in present-day Washington State about a man’s journey to unlock a family mystery—and find things long ago buried. This lunch has taken a weird turn. Dirt – An Audio Drama is a production of STUDIO5705 and is written, directed, and produced by Kristopher Kaiyala. Ch. 1 features Genie Leslie as Kim, Sho Ito as Kenji, Price and Parker Brooking as Kim and Kenji’s kids, and Kristopher Kaiyala as Joseph. An early Halloween gift…you must be joking. Dirt – An Audio Drama is a production of STUDIO5705 and is written, directed, and produced by Kristopher Kaiyala. Ch. 2 features Ila Das as Ila, Cindy Siler…
Martha Clarkson Brings Urban Photography to FC
Artist’s Statement: I photograph in order to apprehend the world in a different way, create a story that has not been told before. It could be any number of things that compel me to take the photo, but I am driven to find the neglected vantage that will facilitate an unexpected story for the beholder, each one a little different. *** Martha Clarkson’s writing and photography can be found in F-Stop, Seattle Review, Portland Review, Black Box Gallery, Tulane Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, The Seattle Times, Feminine Rising, Nimrod, Tipton Poetry Journal, Rattle and many more. “Her Voices, Her Room” won the short story prize from Open City/Anderbo. She has two notable short stories in Best American Short Stories. Martha attended University of Oregon’s Creative Writing Program, and was a past poetry editor for Word Riot….
African Safari Campfire Stories by Lesley Mukwacha
“17 guides and a lioness” Being the head ranger at a fast-growing game reserve in Zimbabwe, I was assigned the duty to take seventeen young aspiring newly recruited guides and game scouts for a seven-day intense training program in the Victoria falls national park, something I enjoyed and was very good at. Something I was passionate about. I was excited beyond measure. The seventeen young men were also just as excited as this would be their first such experience and would certainly shape them into remarkable safari guides, tour leaders, game rangers, and anti-poaching scouts. We were all ready to get the show on the road. The company had given us two vehicles for the trip into the heart of the park, a 4×4 22-seater overland truck for the seventeen boys and a 4×4 Land…
“Blue Ridge Autumn,” A Poem by Reed Venrick
“Blue Ridge Autumn” ONE On a cold but sunny afternoon, late autumn, Wendy hurries up a chilly, pine-shaded sidewalk. And as she hurries, she memorizes her favorite poem from that semester’s study and strife; she, sounding out dee-dum, the stresses of iambic rhythm, while inhaling the rich aroma of pine boughs hanging over her ascending walk. After another week of classes, just a few weeks more, at the university across the ridge, but now Wendy hurries on up to her waitressing job at the restaurant and hotel called “The Grove Park Inn,” where Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda dined, where Thomas Wolfe rushed to write—gazing out to Mount Pisgah. Hopkin’s “Spring and Fall,” the sounds stepping inside Wendy’s fresh-air brain, as she recites the lines on an autumn day cold enough to need a woolen sweater,…
Metropolis: A New Novel by Monte Schulz
Metropolis, the sixth prose fiction novel by Monte Schulz, is a dystopian narrative of love in a time of war and moral disintegration.
“Perfect Retreat” By Fiona Thraille
Happy August, presenting “Perfect Retreat” by Fiona Thraille! Dashing Onions Audio creates original audio drama miniseries and one-off plays, focusing on stories with elements of oddness, mythology and the supernatural. PERFECT RETREAT, Episode 1 – Not Here” is written and produced by Fiona ThraillePleas click here for the transcript and further credits.TRIGGER WARNING: Brief mentions of death/grief, depictions of social anxiety and a panic attackCAST In order of appearance Voiceover – Angela Ness The Operator – David AultSam – Erika SandersonSally, the journalist – Wendy LapLavender Bee – Fiona ThrailleCraig – RJ BayleyMaja – Karin HeimdahlJohn – Matthew MacLeanAndy – Robert CudmoreClaire – Wendy Lap. “PERFECT RETREAT, Episode 2 – Not There” is written and produced by Fiona ThraillePlease click here for the transcript and further credits.TRIGGER WARNING: A panic attackCAST In order of appearanceShel – Nathan BladesSam…
“The Calico Café Cat,” by Craig Loomis
The Calico Café Cat
“The Guacamole Incident,” by William Torphy
Horace reaches for the party-sized plastic tub, hits it with his thumb and pushes it off the coffee table. The tub falls face-down, sending gobs of guacamole exploding across the new cream-colored Berber carpeting, instantly transforming its surface into an abstract painting of green clods and speckling red. He slides off his lounge chair and kneels next to the goopy mess. Silvia will be home soon from her therapy appointment. There’s going to be hell to pay and he needs to think quickly. Grab something to sop up the carnage— a rag, a towel, a sponge. Maybe something like a trowel to first scoop up the worst of it. Armed with a spatula, he attempts to spoon up the chunky clumps but he only manages to spread the catastrophe further. He tosses the guac-covered spatula…
“Abigail Branagan Takes the Case”
Happy August Fictional Cafe! In light of school starting soon for some listeners, I thought you’d enjoy a story from someone else in school. Presenting Abigail Branagan Takes the Case, read by Clarissa Dernederlanden. Your favorite middle-school private detective returns with an all-new adventure. A Private Eye has to take the cases she can get, and sometimes that means your clients are just the worst. Or even worse than that, your older brother. Chapter 1, in which old friends come calling and noses are lightly rearranged Chapter 2, in which awkward introductions are made awkwardly. Chapter 3, in which our hero restores her lair to its former grandeur. We hope you enjoyed Abigail Branagan. If you wish to listen to the rest of the story, you can find it on Audible, or Amazon. And of…