PodCastle is the world’s first audio fantasy magazine. Weekly, we broadcast the best in fantasy short stories, running the gammut from heart-pounding sword and sorcery, to strange surrealist tales, to gritty urban fantasy, to the psychological depth of magical realism. Our podcast features authors including N.K. Jemisin, Peter S. Beagle, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Jim C. Hines, and Cat Rambo, among others. Terry Pratchett once wrote, “Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.” Tune in to PodCastle each Tuesday for our weekly tale, and spend the length of a morning commute giving your imagination a work out.
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PodCastle 461, ARTEMIS RISING: Fated Ink
by Siobhan Gallegher
read by Setsu Uzume
hosted by Isabel Yap
A PodCastle Original!
Rated PG.
The front door goes ding-a-ling and in walks a young woman, with bouncing blonde curls, bright blue eyes, blemish-free skin. The picture of perfection, some would say.
But I know better. I’ve seen girls like her, and I’ll see a million more, all optimistic hope-filled bags of flesh. Then they come to me and that changes everything.
The young woman points to the sign in the window, says something about wanting a tattoo above the crack of her little ass. Charming.
Siobhan Gallagher is a wannabe zombie slayer, currently residing in the Forever City. Her fiction has appeared in over thirty publications, including AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review, On Spec, Abyss & Apex, Unidentified Funny Objects anthology, and Grimdark Magazine.
Setsu Uzume spent her formative years in and out of dojos. She also trained in a monastery in rural China, studying Daoism and swordplay. She is a member of Codex and SFWA. While she has dabbled in many arts, only writing and martial arts seem to have stuck. Find her on Twitter @KatanaPen.