You are listening to a Clark's World magazine podcast with your host and narrator Kate Baker.

I do hope this podcast is finding you well.

We're screaming through the stories left in May so that we can prepare for our June 1st issue.

I do hope you're doing well as you listen to this podcast no matter what you're doing.

And drop me a line to say hello or how you listen.

Our third story for the month issue 152 is Empress and Glass and is by Corey Scary.

Corey Scary is an author, illustrator, and editor who lives in the Pacific Northwest with two

rescued dogs and a judgmental bearded dragon.

His greatest wish is that when his current meat shell falls

apart, science will place his brain into the body of a giant killer octopus,

with which he will be very responsible and not even slightly shipwrecky.

He pinky swears.

They could find more at inkshark.net.

So my dear listeners, I hope you can sit back, relax,

and let me tell you a story.

The train tracks lashed across the wetlands like a stitched wound, and to Manasia, the

sun's red light pooling on the marsh looked like congealing blood.

We'll be there soon, said her attendant.

Manasia couldn't remember this one's name. She thought of the woman as hatchet because of her sharp edges.

Like one of the white herons that strode through the marsh, she had a sharp nose and a strangely curved neck. It looked as if it was meant to be

strangled. Manasia didn't reply. It would always be soon. Her life was structured that way because waiting encouraged doubts.

As the progenitor of a new confluence between fashion, music, and art, she couldn't afford

...