Sunday, August 2nd, Auditory Anthology is going three episodes a week, every week, with something a little different happening in each one.
Here’s what the schedule looks like:
- Sunday – Serialized Audiobook for premium subscribers & companion short story for free listeners
- Tuesday – Author Collaborations
- Thursday – Classic Sci-Fi
We’ll have the classic sci-fi stories Darren and I loved enough to start the series, we’ll hopefully become a place where writers can share their work and our paid subscribers will get a little something special.
Sunday: Maiden Voyage
For Sunday we’re launching a serialized audiobook, released chapter by chapter, exclusively for the people who make this show possible. Plus, a companion short story for free listeners.
Our first series is called Maiden Voyage.
On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.
Each Sunday episode includes a chapter of Maiden Voyage for paid subscribers, plus a companion in-universe short story set in the same world to hopefully get you psyched to hear the whole story.
Tuesday: Author Collaborations
The Tuesday slot is where we work with contemporary writers, and we’re kicking off August with four stories that cover a lot of ground. There are domed cities and dying atmospheres, interspecies romance and interplanetary real estate.
Author Collaborations for August:
On the Edge of Air by Ciro Capao – When a devastating bombing targets the automated systems of a dome-domineering City, security officer Jonathan traces the trail to a radical insurgent outside the toxic perimeter, only to discover a thriving hidden civilization and a shocking truth about the world he serves.
I’ve Heard That Pluto is Nice This Time of Year by Lyle Talbot – As Earth’s breathable atmosphere rapidly vanishes and ticket options dwindle, a procrastinating craftsman and his wife face an impossible, heartbreaking choice in a desperate race to secure passage off a dying world.
Coffee Grinder Love by Siobhan Gallagher – After a disastrous divorce sparked by her fatally toxic coffee, a desperate woman navigates interspecies dating and Martian travel to prove her domestic worth — and finally stumbles upon an insectoid suitor who appreciates a decent cup of tea.
The Luddite Contingency by J.T. Shannon – When a minor machine failure in a fully automated, lifeless factory triggers a cascade of automated supply shortages, the planetary mega-machine’s ancient programming diagnoses the disruption as sabotage and launches the ultimate self-destruct sequence.
Four very different tones, four very different worlds. That’s exactly what we want Tuesday to be.
Thursday: Classic Sci-Fi
Thursday will still be what it’s always been: a trip into the pulp sci-fi archives. We’re going back to Golden Age science fiction, Twilight Zone-adjacent horror, the stories your dad might have read to you by flashlight in a tent in the backyard (Or maybe that was just my dad).
Our classic sci-fi stories for August:
I’ll Kill You Tomorrow by Helen Huber – When a nurse and her resident boyfriend discover that a room full of newborns has been possessed by parasitic entities from another dimension, they must orchestrate a desperate, high-stakes gamble to save humanity before the infants grow up.
Pink Grass Planet by Sam Merwin Jr. – When a space veteran returns to Earth after five years on an idyllic alien world, he is horrified to discover that his home planet has embraced alien customs and is rapidly transforming into a pink, candy-coated replica of the world he just left.
The Outsider by H.P. Lovecraft – When a lonely, lifelong resident of a dark, decrepit castle finally scales its highest tower in search of light, he steps through a hidden door into a brightly lit world — only to discover a terrifying, soul-shattering truth about his own grotesque existence.
Welcome to Paradise by Allyn Donnelson – When a spot welder accidentally teleports himself to a secret lunar satellite via an experimental matter-transmission machine, he stumbles upon a miraculous alien health resort that the military is desperately trying to keep under wraps.
We Want Your Stories
This brings us to the part of this announcement we’re most serious about.
The Tuesday author collaboration slot exists because we believe the best speculative fiction being written right now isn’t only in the archives. It’s being written by people who haven’t had the platform yet. We’re looking for people with a story that fits the campfire aesthetic, or the Twilight Zone sensibility.
If that’s you, we want to hear from you.
We’re looking for short fiction in the tradition of what we do on this show: science fiction, horror, supernatural, speculative, strange. Finished stories, clean drafts, the kind of thing you’d want read aloud in the dark to people who are paying close attention.
Submit your stories at submissions.soundconceptmedia.com
We read everything. We respond. And if your story is right for the show, it goes into the Tuesday rotation alongside the writers in the lineup above.
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