Nil Desperandum

Adam returns for the third installment in The Bookshelf, wherein he discusses Tarantula, by Thierry Jonquet.

Adam returns with another selection from The Bookshelf. This time he discusses The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Some Things Never Change, by M.R. Jordan. Music for this episode is Sedona Sky, by 2012. Jim Gable cradled a cheap plastic grocery bag between his arm and ribcage because the handles had broken. In the other hand he thumbed his retro iPhone X, flipping through songs. He walked with his head down, on autopilot. [...]

Nil Desperandum presents The Bookshelves. Adam discusses The Beetle, by Richard Marsh.

Memories of Childhood, by D. Thomas Minton. Narrated by Riki Robinson. Music is Rolling Memories, by Alexandre Falcao. “All right, all right,” said Margie, waving her hands for silence. “Enough war-on-terror talk.” The four of us had finished several bottles of wine, and her face glowed flush in the soft lamplight. I felt a little [...]

Legs, by Tara Barnett. Narrated by Lorna Boyle. Music is The Body, by Android Lust. I love my legs. I chose the custom red striping on the sides when I was twelve, with vintage ball joint knees and toes, patterned with scrolls; a more expensive model than my parents wanted. We customized the calves with [...]

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Jim interviews Miss Shelly Li, author of he Architect of Apathy.

The Architect of Apathy, by Shelly Li. Narrated by John Robinson, host of The Dark Forest Podcast. It is said that if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. So let me tell you a story about apathy, and how it came into this world. Now, some people think [...]

Corseting, by Brandon Blackburn. Narrated by Ken Stoeffler. Around midnight, pedestrians cutting through Olmstead Park in north Boston would sometimes look up to the west façade of the Feniston Building where a few lights in a few lonely offices on the eleventh floor were still burning, their luminescence quickly swallowed by the cloying night. In [...]

Jim is joined by DeAnna Knippling, author of Miracle, Texas. We discuss her story, why Westerns should always end badly, and zombies.

Miracle, Texas by DeAnna Knippling. If he’d meant to leave his wife for her, he shouldn’t have shot her horse. Justine waved to the banditos and hefted her saddlebags. She’d sold the banditos her saddle and tack in payment for the ride from El Paso to Miracle, Texas. They’d heard of Marguerite’s Amazons and therefore [...]

Smoke Signals, by Cody Quinn. Regret pulled a cigarette from her pack of Camels. Rolling it between her rough fingers she examined it closely, her deep brown eyes dissecting its details, admiring its simple perfection and soothing promise. “Got a smoke?” Coy asked. She looked up at him from her position on a low window [...]

Nil Desperandum presents our first collection of flash fiction: Regarding Emma, by Elizabeth Barton. Narrated by Julie Sigwart. Casey’s Hope by Alexandra Seidel. Narrated by Erin McFall. Counterculture by Elizabeth Creith. Narrated by Charlene Huang-Roberts. A Drink, the Devil, and My Mother, by Lisa Gurney. Narrated by Jim Phillips.

An Even Temper, by Michael Saad Narrated by John Roberts, co-host of GAG The Manager. The shopping cart slammed into the doorframe, causing a crash that pierced the silence of our apartment hallway. Crouched in the front basket, I held up my forearm to prevent my body from barreling through our front door. “Monty, you [...]

Dioscuri, by Edward R. Morris. Part two of two. Mr. Morris can be found online at http://edwardrmorrisjr.blogspot.com/. Public bathrooms are supposed to be safe, to a child. What could ever happen there? Public bathrooms occupy their own corner of Spacetime, their own cosm that gets examined as little as possible by anyone. When you’re four [...]

Dioscuri, by Edward R. Morris. Part one of two. Mr. Morris can be found online at http://edwardrmorrisjr.blogspot.com/. Special thanks to Steve Cox (http://fromtheedge.com) and Erin McFall (http://erinsaves.ning.com/) for their narration assistance. If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, continue the experiment. If it continues to run away, terminate it [...]

Uncle Rick, by M. Shaw – who can be found online at http://mshaw.wordpress.com/. Narrated by Ken Stoeffler, of the Flatus Show. http://theflatusshow.com/. Geoffry’s dad tells him that his Uncle Rick will be coming for a visit tomorrow. Geoffry has never been this cold before. Earlier, his mom told him that his pre-school is closed today [...]

The Algorithms for Love, by Ken Liu. Ken can be found online at http://kenliu.name/. Narrated by the lovely Lorna Boyle. Lorna can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/lornawynn217. So long as the nurse is in the room to keep an eye on me, I am allowed to dress myself and get ready for Brad. I [...]

The first Nil Desperandum metacast. No story here, just some information about the podcast and how you (yes YOU!) can help.