When I was in high school there were a couple podcasts I used to listen to, I think there were more than one. Today I can’t remember what they were, I guess I’d stopped listening to them and didn’t find them again once I had a computer of my own. The one I remember was a podcast of stories of various lengths. Some episodes had more than one story and there may have even been a few stories that spanned episodes. Remembering this I looked for podcasts of fiction and found The Drabblecast, an audio magazine of “Strange Stories, by Strange Authors, for Strange Listeners.”The most recent story, aired on Halloween, was “Bloodchild.” Interestingly enough “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler had been recommended for me by my Thesis Advisor as a story that was a very good example of world building. Nothing in the description of the episode on itunes mentioned the author, so I started listening and, when it was confirmed in the introduction to the story that it was by Octavia Butler, continued listening.
The host of The Drabblecast is Norm Sherman…
I’m going to have to interrupt this post—I am 99.9% sure I just found the podcast I listened to in high school. I was skimming through the about page for the spelling of The Drabblecast’s host’s name when I saw mention of another speculative fiction podcast, Escapepod, which Norm Sherman apparently also occasionally hosts.
… And we’re back to Norm Sherman as a host. Mr. Sherman has a voice that certainly lends itself to the erie and the strange. It has a spooky maybe also breathy quality, giving it the ability to transport the listener to strange places. It is very fitting, because the stories aired on the show are the weird and the strange, and have an unsettling element that is out of this world.
“Bloodchild” certainly is out of this world and a fitting story for Halloween. Rather than spend time discussing the story itself, I’m going to touch on the delivery. The story was told—or read might be the more appropriate word—by not just one person, but a cast that brought the characters and the place to life. When read well, as this was, listening to a story can add another layer to it. The voices further enhanced the characters, distinguishing their different species even further than reading off the page.
Along with a featured piece, an episode will contain a Twabble or a Drabble. A Twabble is a 100 character story and a Drabble is 100 words exactly. You can submit your own for a chance to have it paired with a feature piece and aired. In fact you could even try submitting a longer piece if you write the weird and the strange.
Listeners who enjoy Welcome to Night Vale or other strange stories would probably also enjoy The Drabblecast. Readers of Science Fiction, Horror, Mystery, and Fantasy will probably find something they like there too.
And as I mentioned, writers may be interested in getting a chance to have their stories read, may submit to The Drabblecast.
That’s all for now.
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