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

Greetings Clark's World Citizens. I hope this podcast finds you well as always.

It's June 1st and while there isn't much news to report, except when I bug you to fill in

your Hugo's, if you are an attending or supporting member of the Chai Khan World Khan,

or to nominate a favorite speculative fiction podcast

for a PARSEG Award, or to rate us on iTunes, or to subscribe via the Nook or the

Kendall or via Waitless Books.

These are just some of the ways that you can show your support for a Clarks World magazine now on its 69th issue.

Now with all that out of the way, I want to jump into the first story for the month of June 2012.

Immersion by Elliot Devodard. 2012. engineer. In her spare time she writes speculative fiction. She is the author of The

Obsidian and Blood trilogy of Aztec Nor fantasies and her writing has been

nominated for a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, and the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

She can be found on the interwebs at aliet de bodeard.com and I'm going to spell that one for you. It's A L-L-I-E B O D A R D. A previous story entitled Scattered along the River of Heaven is available in our archives.

I highly suggest you go and listen or read.

So without further ado, let me tell you a story.

Immersion by Aliette de Baudard.

For Clark's World magazine, Issue No 69, June 2012. In the morning, you're no longer quite sure who you are. You stand in front of the mirror, it shifts and trembles, reflecting only what you want to see, eyes that feel too wide, skin that feels too pale.

An odd, distant smell wafting from the compartment's ambient system

that is neither incense nor garlic but something else something elusive that you once knew.

You're dressed already, not on your skin but outside where it matters your avatar sporting blue and black and gold,

the stylish clothes of a well-traveled, well-connected woman.

For a moment, as you turn away from the mirror,

...