Tag Archives: FIction

Inks, Scrolls, and Secrets – A Week at the Raven Feather Salon – Now on Lightspeed 🪶

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Featured this week on Lightspeed Magazine is A Week at the Raven Feather Salon by Carrie Vaughn — a beautiful new fantasy story that I had the joy of narrating. 💫

At the Raven Feather Salon life slows down. Tea brews, buns bake, poetry is read, scrolls of protection are inked, and the soft melody of a lute drifts through the air.  ✨

But life wasn’t always like this for Sparrow. Not long ago, she was on the battlefield, inking protective scrolls for the army. She’d had enough of blood and war — and walked away at the height of her powers.

Until now.

When her old friend Major Kin rushes into the salon, everything changes. A spy has infiltrated his ranks, and Sparrow may be the only one who can uncover the truth. But doing so means risking everything she’s built… and the people she’s come to care for.

To listen or read A Week at the Raven Feather Salon head over to Lightspeed Magazine’s June 2025 Issue 181.  Big thanks to the wonderful team at Skyboat Media for sending this gem my way. 💜🪶

The Faerie King Goes Lightspeed! 🧚👑

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Dropping this week on Lightspeed Magazine is a new story podcast that I had so much fun narrating – When The Faerie King Toured the Human Realm by Vanessa Fogg.

Question:  Have you ever been transfixed by someone in the public eye? 📸
You don’t know why, but you follow their every move. What they’re wearing. Where they’ve been spotted. You need to know what happens next..

Now imagine that someone is a Faerie King. 🧚👑

He’s beautiful. He’s captivating.  He’s come to earth in search of his long-lost queen. 💗  And the internet is following his every step.

Told through fandom posts and one woman’s personal obsession, this story blurs the line between myth, memory, and what it means to belong. 🧚

I absolutely loved narrating this beautifully unique, modern take on a fairytale. Big thanks to Skyboat Media for sending this wonderful story my way! 💜

To listen to or read When the Faerie King Toured the Human Realm, head on over to Lightspeed Magazine.com or click the link here. 🧚

 

The Matchmaker is back … A WAGER WITH THE MATCHMAKER is here! 💘

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Book 3 is now out!  I absolutely loved narrating A Wager with the Matchmaker — the third installment in A Shanahan Match Series, written by the always incredible Jody Hedlund.  

One of the things I admire so much about the way Jody writes is how layered, vibrant, and full of life her characters are. There’s always humor, heart, and emotional depth. This story has it all: danger, suspense, impossible odds, romance, and those moments that just make you smile … or hold your breath.

Alannah Darragh is on the run, hiding from a ruthless gang leader who wants her as payment for her brother’s debt.  Kiernan Shanahan, her brother’s employer — and St. Louis’s most eligible bachelor — steps in to protect her.  As danger closes in and their connection deepens, the two must confront their undeniable chemistry and the bond growing between them  … even though their worlds couldn’t be more different.   

Enter the matchmaker.  Bellamy McKenna doesn’t play by the rules — and when he makes a wager, all bets are off.  💘

🎧 A Wager with the Matchmaker, published by Tantor Audio, is now available wherever you get your Audiobooks! 

It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand – PART TWO – goes Lightspeed! ⚡🪐

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🚀 The story continues …

Part Two is out! Dropping this week on Lightspeed Magazine is the next installment of It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand by Lowry Poletti, a really unique sci-fi story podcast I so enjoyed narrating. If you’ve been following along, you know things are getting interesting …

To find out what happens next, head on over to LightspeedMagazine.com, where you can listen to or read Part Two now.

 Click here if you missed my post about PART ONE.

Transmission complete. 😉🎧🪐

Hugo Award Finalist: The Sound of Children Screaming

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The Sound of Children ScreamingAbsolutely thrilled and overjoyed for Rachael K. Jones and her well-deserved 2024 Hugo Award nomination for Best Short Story with The Sound of Children Screaming. Narrating this powerful piece for Nightmare Magazine (October 2023) was an honor I won’t soon forget. 🎙️✨

As an audiobook narrator, some stories truly leave a lasting mark, and this is one of them. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 is a chilling, important tale that resonates deeply in today’s world. Inside Thurman Elementary, a mysterious portal traps a teacher and her students in a world suspended in time, with The Gun just beyond the classroom door…

The Hugo Awards take place this Sunday, August 11th, in Glasgow, Scotland at the 82nd Worldcon.  So wish I could be there!  Sending out big congratulations and lots of #HugoAward love ❤️ to all the nominees.

If you haven’t yet, you can read or listen to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 in Issue 133 of Nightmare Magazine by going to Nightmare-Magazine.com or hitting the link here!

Special thanks to Stefan Rudnicki and Skyboat Media for entrusting me with this unforgettable story. ✨

Thanks AudioFile Magazine – New Review of Love Driven Out of the Linear!

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So delighted to see this lovely review in AudioFile Magazine for Love Driven Out of the Linear, written by Albert Barron and produced by Punch Audio! 🎧 I loved every minute of diving into this passionate world of love, betrayal and alternate universes with my fabulous co-narrator, Lief Livingston. 💫📚

If you’d like to check out our review in AudioFile Magazine you can do so here.  In the meantime, Book 2 is coming soon, so stay tuned! 

Thanks AudioFile Magazine for this wonderful review ❤️ and thanks to Punch Audio, Albert Barron & Love Driven Book Series for inviting me along on this unforgettable journey! 💕💋

Love Driven Out of the Linear  is available on Audible, Amazon and wherever you get your audiobooks!

New Story Podcast “We’ll Never Die in the Woods” goes Lightspeed! 🚀

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Dec IssueDropping this week in the December Issue of Lightspeed Magazine is We’ll Never Die in the Woods, by Carlie St. George – a new fantasy story podcast that I had so much fun narrating! 

In the mystical realm of Hook Tree Woods, two sisters, torn apart by fate, find themselves entangled in a tale spun with curses and whispered secrets.

🐸 The elder sister, thought by villagers to be an unkind witch, bore a curse from a vengeful fairy. Now, her words summon only toads and snakes. Blame not her heart, for it was her wicked mother’s influence that shaped her path.

🌸 The younger sister, once a princess of kindness and grace, now a runaway princess, is pursued by a deceitful prince. Her words birth jewels and flowers, a gift from a benevolent fairy. Yet, her heart carries the weight of betrayal and a tower’s shadow.

👭 Sisters turned strangers, they traverse Hook Tree Woods, once bound by love, now haunted by a past of parental manipulation. As they flee for their lives, their destinies collide in a forest echoing with whispers.

🌳 Into the heart of Hook Tree Woods we venture, where the threads of sibling love unravel. Will the bonds of childhood withstand the trials, or will the shadows of betrayal consume them? The answer lies in the echoes of a love lost, as these sisters face a choice that could save or doom them.

📖 The entrance to this enchanting tale can be found in Issue 163 at Lightspeed Magazine where you can listen to, or read We’ll Never Die in the Woods at no cost.  This podcast was produced by the dream team at Skyboat Media. 💫

Broodmare – New Story Podcast Drops in the January Issue of Fantasy Magazine!

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fantasy use this promoHello 2023!  I can’t think of a better way to start the year, than with the release of a new story podcast!  Dropping this week over at Fantasy Magazine in the January Issue is an incredibly poignant and impactful story podcast that I had the immense honor and pleasure of narrating called Broodmare – written by Flossie Arend and produced by Skyboat Media.   

This stirring fiction moves back and forth between two different timelines, all from the point of view of Marge.  As a child, Marge discovers that she has a unique and powerful gift that not only can help save the life of the beautiful roan she is caring for, but can also be used years later to help countless women. 

Broodmare begins on a lone country road in the middle of nowhere, in a car with two passengers who are embarking on an important mission.  A mission that propels them straight for the border.  This particular border, however, can seal their fate quicker than the blink of an eye, if even the slightest mistake is made.  The tension is palpable.  The road is vast.  The people in need are many. 

Throughout the 58 minutes or so of this story,  we come to know and care for the rich characters that author Flossie Arend has so artfully crafted.   From our main characters, Marge and Trace, to the woman in the grocery store, to Delores – who is always at the ready with a much needed hug, to the frightened women that Marge aids, to the beautiful roan that this moving story continues to shift back to, to Bill at the border, who thinks his mind is open and fair, yet he is unable to see Trace for who they really are, and finally – to the many people in Marge’s commune who work together tirelessly in a desperate effort to bring about change.  By the time we reach the end of Broodmare,  the journey has been felt,  the road has been traveled, and hopefully, our minds have been opened … just a little bit more.  I know mine has. 

If you would like to find out more about Broodmare, it’s easy to do and won’t cost you a dime.  Here’s how: 

Just head on over to Fantasy Magazine in the Jan 2023 issue, where you can either read or listen to Broodmare.  Here’s the link.  

    

The McQuaid family saga continues as FALLING FOR THE COWGIRL releases on audio!

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cowboy4-WPFeature-300x224Colorado Territory.  June 1869.  A young woman disguised as a man.  A bounty hunter hiding his identity.  A dangerous war criminal pretending to be one of South Park’s own.  A love that will no longer be denied.  This ain’t no ordinary rodeo, folks – this is Colorado Cowboys, Book Four.  So excited to celebrate the audiobook release of Falling For The Cowgirl written by Jody Hedlund and published by Tantor Audio!

This fourth installment in the McQuaid family saga was so much fun to narrate!  I have adored the character of Ivy McQuaid since we first met her in book one,  and Falling For The Cowgirl centers squarely on the romance between Ivy McQuaid and Jericho Bliss, a romance that has been steadily gaining speed until it can no longer be contained.

Ivy McQuaid is no ordinary heroine … she’s a tomboy through and through, peppered with a whole lot of sass, and known as foolish, and impulsive and wild.  Paired with handsome, no-nonsense Jericho Bliss, a cowhand turned bounty hunter, sparks fly whenever these two get around each other.

Book four opens with Ivy, now almost nineteen, disguised as a man, in the middle of a cowhand competition – or what would be known today, as a rodeo. The problem is, it’s 1869 and women are not allowed to participate in this type of competition.  Never one to let a little detail like this stop her, Ivy disguises herself as a young school teacher, under the alias of Buster Bliss.  So far so good. This plan is working great.  That is … it was – until she spots her childhood infatuation, Jericho Bliss, at the competition.  Holy Saint Peter.  Ivy hasn’t seen Jericho for almost two years, not since he left town and took her heart with him … again.

Meanwhile, Jericho is also pretending to be someone he’s not.  Currently undercover as a bounty hunter, he’s tracking a dangerous war criminal, whom he suspects is hiding in South Park.  Things heat up a might when Jericho and Ivy’s eyes meet after she almost plunges to her death in a Roman-style riding competition!  Realizing he’s recognized her, and unable to take the risk of Jericho blowing her cover, Ivy quickly exits stage left, grabs her horse and hightails it out of there, hoping to escape a meeting with Jericho.  There is never any escaping, where Jericho is concerned, however … probably why he’s such a great bounty hunter!  He’s fuming at what almost happened to Ivy and chases after her with the intent of giving her a piece of his mind for putting herself in such danger.  But that’s the funny thing about the mind … it can quickly be overtaken by the heart.  And this love – a love that has been vehemently denied by both parties for years – well … it might finally, and ultimately, have its way …

Falling For The Cowgirl is now available on audio at Audible and Amazon.

Slow Communication – New Fiction Story Podcast Releases on Fantasy Magazine

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slow communication

Releasing today on Fantasy Magazine’s story podcast is Dominique Dickey’s unique and prolific short fiction, Slow Communication.  I so enjoyed narrating this captivating story that travels from generation to generation. It’s a story shared amongst a long line of women, women who have come into contact at one moment in their lifetime, with an otherworldly being. Women who are given one chance to ask the question of a lifetime.  

Slow Communication follows the life of 17 year old Darla Revere.  Darla is a part of this conversation, this continuum, so to speak.  Each of the Revere women, have in their lifetime, been visited by this alien – this leviathan.  As a child, Darla had heard over and over again, that one day the leviathan would come for her, and that it would come for her when she least expected it.  The leviathan’s contact would evoke immense joy and pain, simultaneously.  All words, all ideas – would be knocked out of your mind by the sheer intensity of the contact, so you had better have your question ready; you needed to have it down pat. You had to know it better than you knew anything else in your life.  And if you changed yourself too much, if you did not bear a resemblance to the women in your family line, the leviathan may not be able to find you when it was your time.  Generation upon generation, questions from the Revere line, along with the leviathan’s answers, were documented, recorded, and passed down to the eldest Revere daughter in the family.  Each daughter waited for this moment.  Their moment.  And thus far, only one daughter had lived to hear the answer to her question.  Darla wanted to change all that. 

One question.

One question to last a lifetime. 

What would your question be?

To listen to Slow Communication, come on over to Fantasy Magazine, Issue 76 of the February offering, where you can listen free of charge here.  This podcast was produced by Skyboat Media.