Curiosities

One dozen odd, bizarre, and genre-defying stories to entertain and delight. Go on a roadtrip to a Lovecraftian hell-pit. Witness acrobats leaping into the void. Sail uncharted waters with the deadliest of crewmates. Explore a shadow dimension populated by echos of the film industry. Experience the Louvre in the throes of the cataclysmic Artpocalypse. Fear the clown. And yes, we have… a Zombie Gorilla!
From darkly humorous to Bizarro adjacent, these are the strangest stories ever to have landed in the Curiosities mailroom.

Available now on Amazon in trade paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited. Follow the handy links in our store page.

Behind-the-scenes numbers for 2020:

907 manuscripts were submitted

in the 69 days that we were open

by 634 authors and 1 translator.

27 manuscripts accepted (3%)

4 were successful revisions

3 were reprints

2 were translations

at least 1 was written where English was a second language, and possibly 2 others.

The most fortunate author was Gwen Katz, who submitted twice and was accepted twice.

The least fortunate author submitted 13 times.

We had 5 active readers in the slush pile— 3 Americans, 1 Canadian, and 1 from Spain.

The most commonly used characters were (in descending order) Death, The Devil, and Jack the Ripper. This has been very consistent over the years.

We published 25 stories and 2 author interviews in 2 issues.

We aired 13 stories in 12 podcast episodes.

We’ve finally reached 100 episodes! Here is the first episode we ever aired all the way back in 2010, which was first published in the November 1913 issue of The Strand magazine. Vic Mullin narrates the first story ever to feature the legendary air kraken.

Unfortunatley, the original story master file was not in a recoverable condition. The sound quality on the story is very 10 years ago.

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Music:

Tick Tock Tick Tock Quarantine Time by WinnieTheMoog
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6145-tick-tock-tick-tock-quarantine-time
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Faster Does It by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/3741-faster-does-it
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Story music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Cover art: “Air Kraken over New Babbage” by Vic Mullin

What a year, what a year. Here’s the author eligibility list for Curiosities in 2020. This is not considered a pro market by SFWA.

First English Publication (short story)

B. Morris Allen “Payback” in Curiosities #8 (dinosaur western)

AJ Brennan “Dorothea Defies Convention” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, gaslamp, fantasy)

Natasha C. Calder “The Death Trade” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, SFF, horror)

Harris Coverley “The Instant” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, horror)

Ian C. Douglas “Mary Shelley and the Saint Pancras Ghoul” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, horror)

Angela Enos “The Automat’s Automaton” in Curiosities #8 (weird, dieselpunk, bizarro-adjacent)

JL George “Shards” in Curiosities #7 (fantasy, horror)

Philip Brian Hall “A Rainy Day at St Bartholomew’s” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, SF, mystery)

Paul R Hardy “Twilight of the Electric Shadows” in Curiosities #8 (SFF, bizarro-adjacent)

Liam Hogan “Six Coins” in Curiosities #8 (fantasy, nautical SF, YA)

Gwen Katz “Seven Cups of Tea” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, SFF, fairy tale)

Sebastien Mantle “One Last Date at the Pitside” in Curiosities #8 (horror, humor)

Avra Margariti “The Acrobat’s Guide to Vanishing Without a Trace” in Curiosities #8 (fantasy)

Phil Margolies “The Prince in the Darkness” in Curiosities #8 (historical fantasy, dieselpunk)

Jason J. McCuiston “Euphonia” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, horror)

Tannar Miller “St. Marco” in Curiosities #8 (gasoline fantasy)

Lena Ng “The Finishing School” in Curiostities #8 (gaslamp, bizarro) **first publication by Rufo’s Dog in 2020

Konstantine Paradias “And The Faces Screamed In The Gallery” in Curiosities #8 (bizarro-adjacent, horror, superhero)

MM Schreier “Inked” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, gaslamp)

Priya Sridhar “The Taste of Storms” in Curiosities #7 (steampunk, SFF)

Shaun van Rensburg “The Night Bazaar” in Curiosities #7 (fantasy)

reprints

CB Droege “Jack Be Nimble” in Curiosites #8 (steampunk, superhero)

Adam Gaylord “The There-It-Is Store” in Curiosities #7 (gaslamp, YA)

Chris Kuriata “Whaling With Clowns” in Curiosities #8 (bizarro, horror)

Jordan Taylor “The Mirror Crack’d” in Curiosities #7 (gaslamp fantasy)

Considering everything else that has happened this year, how would you react to a ghost in your home? Sarah Golding narrates a timely ghost story.

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Author Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Nevada, but lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son. She’s known for her Pushcart-nominated poetry, short stories, and novels. Her work has appeared in F&SF and Asimov’s among other venues. For more about her work, please see edda-earth.com/bibliography.   

Narrator Sarah Golding has created a huge range of character types for indie audio drama, and been in such wonderous podcasts as Amelia Project, Edict Zero and Hostile Worlds. She runs script writing competitions with her company, Quirky Voices, producing and performing new writing at podcast events. For more information, visit SarahGoldingVoiceActorAndMore@weebly.com

Theme Song: Ashes Ashes by Deus Ex Vapore Machina used by permission

Circus Clowns Lighter Edit by Zev Weinstein (Pond5.com)

Long Note Two by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Singular Perversion by Kevin Macleod(incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Day of the Dead — when the past comes to visit. Voices of the dead will speak today on our podcast feed through a selection of famous old time radio plays. Selections have been screened for listening quality.

Listen today, for on the morrow, they will vanish again in to the aether.