Podcast on Episode 895 for Tuesday the 10th of June 2025.

The Day of the Sea by Jennifer Hudak,

read by Pippet Alice Stevens and produced by Eric Valdez.

Rated PG-13.

Good morning, good day, good afternoon and good evening, and welcome to podcast on the Flying Castle of Fantasy Fiction.

I'm your host, Matt Dovey, and it is my privilege to present for your enjoyment, The Day of the Sea by Jennifer Hudak, narrated by Pippa Alice Stevens. This story was first published in the magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, aka FNSF, in the July-August 2023 issue.

Jennifer Hudak is a nebula-nominated, speakelter fiction writer fuelled mostly by tea.

Her short fiction can be found in places such as Strange Horizons, the magazine of fantasy and science fiction, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Ristlet.

Originally from Boston, she now lives with her family in upstate New York, where she teaches yoga, and it's pocket-sized animals and misses the ocean.

Pippa Alice Stevens is an actress and voiceover artist.

She can be seen in The Invisible Wall playing Rose Barkley and spiraling, playing Natalie.

And now pay attention, for our tale is about to begin, and we've been waiting for its arrival for so long.

The Day of the Sea by Jennifer Hudak, narrated by Pippa Alice Stevens.

When the sea came to our village, she was an old woman.

She arrived when the water crested and draped over the earth,

its salty fingers pushing out offerings of sea glass and bladder rack.

Her dress trailed behind her, hair tangled with kelp and tentacles.

No one doubted that she was the sea.

Everyone was disappointed.

We'd all heard tales about the power of the rising ocean,

how it levelled towers and returned rock to sand,

how it would destroy everything in its path in order to make its way home to our village.

...