Doctor Spencer's Fallen Star
Storyfeather
An astrobiologist gathers and assembles clues from across time to help solve a cosmic mystery that threatens to doom Earth. Genre: Science Fiction, Mythology Excerpt: From the depths of the cosmos they come…warping all around them as they go. Time. Matter. Energy. Will. Shifting between the unknowable and the knowable. Per our current understanding, the entity moves through the cosmos and through dimensions, through all levels of existence, differentiating like a cell, gaining specific characteristics, (maybe gaining awareness… What story or stories am I...
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The Lemonuclear Conductor
Storyfeather
A merchant vessel enters a system with rigid laws about visitors, and almost succeeds in making a lucrative delivery, when it encounters a potentially deadly obstacle. Genre: Science Fiction Excerpt: We had obtained the means of shielding certain sections of engineering and the crew quarters. Cargo, I was happy to be transparent about. But there were things aboard my ship that I needed to hide. And I couldn’t expect the crew to remove every questionable item. Our chief engineer would have disembarked if we didn’t fly with a sufficient supply of his favorite snack,...
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Ring Planet One
Storyfeather
An excited apprentice attempts to make a planet for the first time, having watched the making of hundreds. But watching is not the same as doing. Genre: Science Fiction, Science Fantasy Excerpt: Nebulous gases shimmered as they swirled past me. Particles crashed and fused. Vapors thickened into plasma and then into liquid. Specks became pebbles. Pebbles became rock. Rock collided with rock… The layers of the sphere began to close into one sphere, imbued with a strong enough measure of gravity to draw a fine cloak of dust around itself as it spun into place. What story or...
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The Last Voyage of the Echidna
Storyfeather
Following their queen and captain into exile, the crew of the Echidna build an experimental engine, to keep surviving and striving, and to one day establish a new colony. Genre: Science Fiction THIS IS EPISODE #400. I have put out 400 podcast episodes by my lil old self. Mwahaha! Tell me this means I cannot be stopped! Excerpt:“Queens growing old without growing wiser. That’s not what we need. That’s not what I seek to be.” Those were the last words that Captain Navaso spoke before she went into exile, breaking from the Unified Colonies, along with 899 loyal members...
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Two Tickets to Dream Sector Disigma
Storyfeather
Two siblings end up in a shared dream and explore it according to their priorities: eating food and making friends. Genre: Fairy Tale, Fantasy Excerpt: As Astra kept staring at the sign, the characters began to shift into ones she could read. She grinned and started reading aloud. “Dream Sector Alpha. Basic fantasies. Opening gifts. Eating rocky road brownies—wait, I don’t like rocky road brownies.” “I do!” Fen said. “Dream Sector Beta…Zeta…Theta. Hey, I know this. This is the Greek alphabet.” What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode?...
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The Garden of Perpetuation
Storyfeather
To preserve their endangered houses, Black Radish, Purple Carrot, and Green Garlic send envoys to reach a garden hidden beyond the natural world. Genre: Fable, Mythology Excerpt: Soil and sunlight, water and worm. These were still needed for the growing of plants in ancient times. But in those times, to truly live and to thrive as they were meant to, plants also required a nourishment that not many legends speak of. The spirit of an animated being, that is, the spirit of an animal. What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode? Each Season 8 episode is a standalone...
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Tomorrow's Train Today
Storyfeather
A young man boards a train to visit family, only to learn he is a day late for his visit, but just in time to suffer disaster. Genre: Mystery, Fantasy, Science Fiction Excerpt: A man laughed and said, “Just shuffle the cards.” My heart skipped a beat. I saw a bright flash of light. I heard an intense, painful screech. The train car lurched. People screamed, and then— What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode? Each Season 8 episode is a standalone story, but it’s connected to or inspired by a previous story through a character, a...
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The Magnificenting Glass
Storyfeather
A researcher comes across a magnifying glass, but it doesn't magnify, it makes magnificent. Genre: Mystery, Mythology, Science Fiction Excerpt: I looked through the glass, at my crinkled, folded over, flagged, and dog-eared notebook, expecting to see the unintentional thumbprint on the edge of the page in fine detail. Instead, I saw some kind of roller coaster in a dozen shades of blue. Some glowing, some metallic, some watery. Something that looked like a tiny orange dot zoomed around and around the loops and twirls of the coaster. What story or stories am I revisiting in...
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Laser Beam Ice Cream
Storyfeather
A kitchen mishap leads to the accidental invention of the most powerful ice cream in the world. Genre: Science Fiction Excerpt: His portable, miniature laser beam healing aid flew out of his hand and landed in the still-open container of vanilla ice cream. Arthur pushed down the momentary surge of panic about the electronics in the laser. He reached out to pick the device out of the ice cream. Luminescent sparks made him recoil. What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode? Each Season 8 episode is a standalone story, but it’s connected to or inspired by...
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Matchstick and Mischief
Storyfeather
Two adventurous friends offer to help a scientist whose revolutionary invention for all mousekind isn’t exactly authorized. Genre: Science Fiction, Fable Excerpt: “What happened to gravity?” Matchstick asked, as he pushed his legs against a stone. The stone moved away from him, and he, moved away from it, and toward the other two mice. Mischief reached into her satchel for her pencil and pad. “Fab, we fell into the isolated chronon field. Can you confirm?” “I…” Doctor Fabaceous clutched the control slab against his chest. His eyes faced forward, but he...
info_outlineA group of curious and ingenious humans build a spyglass to peer into the realm of the gods, to find out why the gods are not governing the world as they were expected to.
Genre: Mythology
Excerpt:
Not in the beginning, but early in the history of the world, many mortals suspected that the ones who called themselves gods were shirking their duty of properly governing the world. Some responded by entreating the gods. Others by railing against them.
But a few decided to try answering the question of what it was that the gods spent their time doing if they were not doing what was expected.
What story or stories am I revisiting in this episode?
Each Season 8 episode is a standalone story, but it’s connected to or inspired by a previous story through a character, a place, an object, a concept, a continuation of events (ahem, sequel), and so on.
Resourceful mortals versus neglectful, cruel, and petty gods. This theme doesn’t seem to get old for me. Two previous episodes that explore that theme and inspired this episode are “Godsfear” and “A Sword Named Blasphemy.”
MERCH!
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MY FIRST BOOK (yay)
Ever wonder how I’ve gotten all these hundreds of stories written? I have a method. And I talk all about it in my book called Fictioneer’s Field Guide: A Game Plan for Writing Short Stories.
It’s now available as an eBook, paperback, and hardcover.
The book title takes you straight to the book on Amazon.
Or you can visit my Store page: STORYFEATHER STORE
The Store page has a sign-up form for my email newsletters. Fictioneering mischief and writing tips. Choose what you want. (Either way, you're choosing high jinks.)
CREDITS
Story: “The Union of the Spyglass” Copyright © 2021 by Nila L. Patel
Narration, Episode Art, Editing, and Production: Nila L. Patel
Music:
“Haven” by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Intro and Outro)
“Abstract Vision #5” by ANDREW SITKOV (Outro)
Music by NICHOLAS JEUDY (Dark Fantasy Studio)*
“Scroll of the wind walker”
“They don’t return”
“Ancient gods”
“Runes”
“To Falgaltown”
“Haven”
“Signs of desolation”
“The harbor”
“Flames on ice”
“Fallen leaves”
“The huntsman”
“Wide place”
*These tracks were part of a music and sound effects bundles I purchased from Humble Bundle and sourced from GameDev Market.
Music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov is licensed from GameDev Market
Sound effects from AudioJungle, and GameDevMarket
Changes made to the musical tracks? Just cropping of some to align with my narration.
Find more music by Nicholas Jeudy and Andrew Sitkov at gamedevmarket.net
Find more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com
Episode Art Description: Digital drawing. Composite image. At center, a floating island wreathed with glowing clouds, surrounded by a wispy net of light. Behind the island a circle, a view through a spyglass showing a partial view of the moon at top and a night sky. The circle is encased by a square showing the same view of the sky. In the top right corner are bolts of lightning. In the top left corner are colorful sparks of light. Along the bottom stand a row of twelve people seen in silhouette from the back, each one holding on hand on the shoulder of the person standing next to them. This square is flanked by thin panels. The right panel at bottom depicts a partially constructed ladder next to a support tower. The left panel shows a spyglass or telescope angled to view the floating island. A final set of panels flanks the rest of the image. The scope extends into the final left panel. Thick gray fog or clouds appear at bottom. At right middle, three smaller floating island are chained together with bridges. The sky above displays colored gases. At left, a net of light extends and expands from one corner of the central island. A larger overlay of the circle showing the sky and moon sits to the left of the whole image. A smaller overlay sits to the right. Borders at top and bottom to make the final image a square. These borders repeat motifs from the main image. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along middle right.]