Tag Archives: Speculative Fiction

High Praise from Library Journal for Writers of the Future, Vol. 42

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So happy to share that L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. 42 just received a lovely review from Library Journal! This delightful news means all the more — not just because of the dragons (though… the dragons! 😉) — but because of the generosity, kindness and talent of everyone who came together to make Volume 42 so special.

Here’s what they had to say:

“A cast of nine narrators vividly brings this collection of 15 short stories to life, offering an auditory treat for fans of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. Joseph Sidari’s ‘A Girl and Her Dragon,’ narrated by Susan Hanfield, is divided into four parts, while the remaining stories are designed to be heard in one sitting, including Orson Scott Card’s ‘Skinny-Shins,’ read by a baritone-voiced Stefan Rudnicki, which interrogates the tropes of fantasy art. S. J. Stevenson’s intriguing take on time-travel, ‘The Triceratops Effect,’ narrated with gravitas by the decorated John Lee, is told from a supervisor’s point of view on the night before the Cretaceous Period’s end. ‘Thickly’ by Dorothy de Kok, expressively narrated by Janina Edwards, makes a compelling case against idealized portraits of femininity, while Mike Strickland’s ‘As Long As You Both Shall Live,’ read by the ever-engaging Kirby Heyborne, plays up love in the virtual realm. Listeners will find everything from a most unusual noir mystery to a story of AI gone wrong to a tale about neighborhood-watch participants.”

VERDICT: “An impressive sci-fi/fantasy collection that offers aspiring writers and enthusiastic fans of these genres a meaningful journey through the works of the Writers of the Future contest winners, with accompanying illustrations available via PDF.”
— Reviewed by Sharon Sherman, Library Journal, Sept 2026

Thank you, Library Journal, for this lovely review! Congratulations to Galaxy Press, Skyboat Media, our talented writers, and our incredible cast — thrilled to be among you!

Available now wherever you get your audiobooks. 🎧📚

 

Slide 2 Alt Text: A graphic styled like a vintage library card showing headshots of the full narrator cast and the Library Journal verdict review quote.

A Night of Magic at the 42nd Writers & Illustrators of the Future Awards Gala

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My heart is still so full from attending the 42nd Annual Writers & Illustrators of the Future Awards Gala last Thursday evening. To be in a room surrounded by so much love, joy and kindness, celebrating this year’s award-winning writers and illustrators from all over the world, was truly special.

As one of the audiobook narrators for Writers of the Future, Volume 42, published by Galaxy Press (releases April 28, 2026), I was so honored to be included in this magical night. A highlight of the evening was meeting the writers whose stories I had the joy of bringing to life: Canary by Brenda Posey and illustrated by Roddy Taylor; and A Girl and Her Dragon: A Life in Four Parts by Joseph Sidari and illustrated by Josie Moore, which I co-narrated with Stefan Rudniki. Reconnecting with dear audiobook colleagues and celebrating with friends both old and new made the evening even more meaningful.

Here’s a glimpse into this unforgettable night!

Thank you to the amazing team at Author Services, Inc. and to L. Ron Hubbard for founding these life-changing contests. Here’s to dragons, distant worlds, and the power of imagination! ✨

The Shadow Prison Experiment – goes LIGHTSPEED!

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Landing this month in Lightspeed Magazine’s August 2020 issue is a new reprint of The Shadow Prison Experiment, written by Caroline M. Yoachim and appearing with a podcast, narrated by yours truly. I really love Yoachim’s writing and had so much fun narrating this exciting work of dystopian fiction.

The Shadow Prison Experiment explores the concept of a society where people wear skin overlays of generic default… which is kind of like a cross between a nondescript human and a silver android! The people here are either citizens, shadowkeepers or shadow prisoners. A shadow prisoner is someone who has undermined the system in some way and is therefore cast into Shade. Shades don’t go to an actual prison for their supposed crimes, instead a shadow prisoner just gets filtered out…even from themselves. They can no longer see their own skin – their body now only appears before them as a featureless, smoky image. If that isn’t frightening enough, everyone and everything else has also been filtered out, even sound. The only people that the Shade can now see and hear, are the Shadowkeepers, who keep them in line.

The Shadow Prison Experiment,  follows Vivian, a mom to sixteen year old Cass.  When Cass is at risk of being arrested for attending a protest, Vivian steps in to protect Cass, and is instead, herself cast in to Shade.  Faced with a choice to accept her new reality or find a way to fight against it, Vivian plunges deep into Shade to find a way to end the Shadow Prison Experiment once and for all.

This story is part of a novelette called Shadow Prisons. The Shadow Prison Experiment was originally published on June 30, 2020 in The Dystopia Triptych, Vol. 1: Ignorance is Strength, edited by John Joseph Adams, Christie Yant, and Hugh Howey, and is now available on Audible and at Amazon. Do check it out! This is a really cool three part anthology. Dystopia Triptych, as well as the podcast at Lightspeed Magazine, are produced by the Grammy and Audie award winning team at Skyboat Media.

 

 

Stay safe and buckle up – MELTING LIKE METAL – goes LIGHTSPEED!

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Landing today is a really cool Sci-fi story that I had so much fun narrating.  Melting Like Metal  is written by the talented Ada Hoffman, and sweeps us into the world where her novel, The Outside, takes place.

In Melting Like Metal, however, we are now in the POV of cyborg, Enga.  As an angel of the God called Nemesis, Enga is no longer human. That’s not to say, she still doesn’t have her own share of struggles. She most definitely does.  One of which, is she is not able to speak. For me as an narrator, this was an exciting challenge to play around with. Enga’s only way of communicating now, is by sending text messages from her heavily modified, technological brain.

This story takes off at warp speed and was truly awesome to work on.  If you’d like to check out the podcast, just head on over to Lightspeed Magazine. This podcast was produced by the amazing team at Skyboat Media, and was edited by John Joseph Adams and hosted by Jim Freud.

So…are you ready? Let’s go LIGHTSPEED 🚀