October 1, 2021

Horror City Radio Presents Six Tales of Terror

Horror City Radio Presents Six Tales of Terror

Welcome back Fictional Café listeners to our Halloween Horror Month!! We’ve got a lot of spooky stories meant to terrify and traumatize, starting with Horror City Radio, a collaboration podcast by various writers and actors. WARNING: Please remember, these stories ARE NOT for the faint of heart, or for those who are easily spooked or scared. Horror City Radio (formerly Horror.City) is a horror story podcast created with all original stories, characters, and content. This is not random creepypasta. These individual tales build up a world—a world with something terribly wrong inside. Darkness controls every corner of this city, and madness runs rampant. Follow along with reoccurring characters as their journeys interweave and piece together the terror that is . . . Horror City. Episode 1 Episode 1 featuring: “The Driver: Graveyard Shift” by Mike…

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September 17, 2021

“Agonal Dreams,” A Post-Apocalyptic Audio Drama

“Agonal Dreams,” A Post-Apocalyptic Audio Drama

Who’s ready to get a head start on our Halloween fun with a little “Agonal Dreams” by Courtney Holloway? Due to the immense amount of submissions that we have received in the spirit of the spookiest holiday of the year, we will be kicking off our own Fictional Café celebration a little early.  However, I should warn our listeners that due to the horror genre of this audio production, these are episodes not for the faint of heart, and should probably not be listened to if you have problems with EXPLICIT CONTENT and VIOLENCE. We are posting them in order to celebrate Halloween by sharing the scariest stories we can find. With that in mind, I would like to present : The Beginning of the End, a three-part series.  The Beginning Of The End Three…

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September 3, 2021

“Coming Home” and “Run Sally” by Podplays

“Coming Home” and “Run Sally” by Podplays

Welcome back Fictional Cafe Listeners, this week we will be covering “Coming Home” and “Run Sally” two episodes that can be found on Podplays. Unlike most of our Audio Arts posts which follow a serialized format, these two episodes are completely independent of each other’s stories. What they both have in common however, is their MUSIC. PodPlays® are Family Friendly audio dramas delivered in podcasting format. It’s like listening to a movie with the added bonus of discovering new and original songs written and recorded by Nashville’s top HIT songwriters and artists. So turn it on; turn it up, and don’t worry if the kids want to listen in, in fact, ask them to sing along! “Coming Home” Charlotte left her small town sweetheart, Dash, for the life of a high society designer in London….

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June 18, 2021

“Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones

“Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones

Welcome back Fictional Café Listeners, it’s time for our second audiobook for Audiobook Month! I’d like to share with you a personal favorite, “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones, read by Jenny Sterling. Many of you may be familiar with Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 film adaptation of this book, but I prefer the narrative version, as Diana is able to create a story that is beautiful in its detail and wonderful in its world-building. Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the…

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June 4, 2021

“Wuthering Heights” adapted by Rachel Pulliam

“Wuthering Heights” adapted by Rachel Pulliam

Happy June Everyone! This week we are going to listen to “Wuthering Heights,” written by Emily Bronte and adapted by Rachel Pulliam. In honor of June being Audiobook Month, I thought it would be fun to post an old classic, that is both timeless and – in this case – produced by Dream Realm Enterprises. Penned in 1847, Emily Bronte’s story of love, hate, and revenge has remained an eternal classic. Heathcliff, a foundling boy, is taken in by the kind Mr. Earnshaw and raised with his own children, Cathy and Hindley. While Hindley’s jealousy grows, Cathy finds the boy endearing and together they form an inseparable bond. Despite her connection and love for Heathcliff, Cathy struggles with fulfilling society’s expectations of her to marry a rich man or the desire to follow her heart….

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May 21, 2021

“Wordtastic” by Steve Schneider

“Wordtastic” by Steve Schneider

Welcome readers and listeners, to a podcast that is both delightfully amusing, entertaining and educational about kids and spies and kid spies! Welcome to “Wordtastic” by Steve Schneider! Due to an evil plot that has wiped out written language and is causing spoken language to fade from memory, special agent spy kids must race against time to collect and archive known vocabulary before it is lost forever! The show provides multiple exposures to content-rich vocabulary terms in the context of a fun story of spies and espionage that features kids as the heroes and main characters. In this premiere episode of Wordtastic! we meet the teams of special agent kids and learn about “The Incident.” An energy wave, known as “The Pulse” has swept across the world and removed all written and recorded information and…

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April 9, 2021

“Shadows of Tyranny” by Ruby Fink and Sebastian Prooth

“Shadows of Tyranny” by Ruby Fink and Sebastian Prooth

Welcome Fictional Café listeners to Shadows of Tyranny, an audio drama by Ruby Fink and Sebastian Prooth and one of the first shows this audio barista ever wrote. As a blooming sci-fi nerd at the tender age of twenty, this was my first sojourn—as it were—into the world of audio dramas and podcasting. The journey towards writing the one and only episode of the anticipated 7-part series was arduous, the hours long and frustrating, and by the end of it neither of us had the heart to continue with the rest of the story. But the process wasn’t without merit. In researching the world that Gene Roddenberry had created in 1966 I was introduced to a universe that I fell in love with and continued to learn about for the next . . . well,…

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March 20, 2021

“Pyramid of Peril,” by Gregg Taylor

“Pyramid of Peril,” by Gregg Taylor

Presenting this week . . . “Pyramid of Peril” by Gregg Taylor! Listeners, we’re trying a new thing this week, an audiobook sample from the wildly talented Decoder Ring Theatre. Though there are more than enough podcasts out there to tantalize your audio experience, we at The Fictional Café thought it would be fun to expand your range of listening opportunities. With that in mind, let’s check out this story . . . involving a certain daring duo. A desperate call for help from half a world away brings our masked man of mystery far from the urban jungle he is sworn to protect. With his mentor, Maxwell Falconi, who once fought crime behind the mask of the Stranger, in mortal peril, the Red Panda must battle both ancient powers and modern terrors, just to…

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March 6, 2021

“Throwing Shade,” by Andrew J. Pond

“Throwing Shade,” by Andrew J. Pond

This week on The Fictional Café we have Throwing Shade by Andrew J. Pond! Chicago, 1934. In a city rife with crime and corruption, a hero emerges. The Shade, who rushes in where fools fear to tread . . . with predictable results. Luckily for Chicago, there’s the Vamp, a female crimefighter replete with all the skill and talent the Shade lacks. Can the Shade save Chicago from crime? Can the Vamp save The Shade from himself? Eclectic Full Contact Theatre presents Throwing Shade, the 1930’s radio satire you’ve been dying for. Mayor Crane’s Secretary, Misty LeBlanc, has been abducted. Can the Shade and the Vamp rescue her? The Shade and the Vamp tangle with the Tallys. Can they prevail? If you enjoy this podcast, you can check out more episodes on their website. Eclectic…

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November 13, 2020

11th Hour Audio Productions by Owen McCuen

11th Hour Audio Productions by Owen McCuen

  From the twisted and dark audio files of 11th Hour Audio Productions, comes a little belated Halloween Horror. But first, a little about this collaborative company: October, 2011, producers, actors and designers from FinalRune productions and Aural Stage Studios gathered in a mill in Biddeford, Maine to record, post-produce and release a horror production for Transcontinental Terror. The result was James Comtois’ Ogle Award-winning “Intensive Care.” Alex wakes in a run-down New England hospital with foggy memories of a car accident. He asks nurses about his missing girlfriend, Elizabeth, but can’t seem to get any answers. In fact, he can’t seem to get anything straight from anyone. And – was that a scream in the distance? Sometime back in September 2015 they decided they wanted to produce a quick horror audio drama, just for fun. In Intensive Care fashion,…

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