Podcast on Episode 914 for Tuesday the 21st of October 2025.

The Magnolia Returned by Eden Royce, read by Larice White and produced by Eric Feldes, rated PG.

Good morning, good day, good afternoon and good evening, and welcome to Podcastle, the flying castle of fantasy fiction.

I'm your host, Matt Dovey, and it is my privilege to present for your enjoyment.

The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, narrated by Lorice White.

It's even more of a privilege as this story is a podcast original and so we are the people

who get to show it off to the world for the first time.

Before we get into it, a small note on a passing piece of news. Holy Paladins and Pissants, we won the Ignite Award last week!

We've been the bridesmaid every year since the inaugural awards, losing out to, and, let's be fair, some incredible compatriots in Lavar Burton reads, Corrieu, Nightlight and Black Women are scary.

So to be among their number now as outstanding fiction

podcast is, well, bigger than words. There's a lot of stress and effort and hard work goes into

making this castle fly as high as it can and it is a labour of love for so many of us, a voluntary

burden of deadlines that we suffer because the outcome is, well, all this,

a chance to make the world a little better through stories, both the short-term hope and love and

laughter, and, we hope, the long term, with a little extra weight leaning on that moral arc we

hear so much about, a little more compassion in the world, a little more empathy and understanding.

And as I record these words, I am utterly and absolutely alone, of course, I have to be

for recording, lest Eric's head explode with the effort of cutting out all the background noise.

So to be reminded like this, that you are all really out there, really are listening and really

do appreciate it. Well, from all of us, Devin and Winini and Eleanor and Shingai and Caitlin and

Eric and everyone on Slush, thank you so, so much. Today's author is Eden Royce.

Eden writes for the adult, YA and children's markets and her work has appeared in a variety of print and online publications.

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