Love this podcast?

Support this show through the ACAST supporter feature.

It's up to you how much you give, and there's no regular commitment.

Just click the link in the show description to support now.

Thank you. From the blackest corners of your mind, they call, pulling you deep into shadow, twisting your senses, keeping you from sleep.

It's time to face your darkest fears.

This is Tales to Terrify. Good evening, children of the night, and welcome.

Tonight we're heading deep into the soulless depths of space.

But before we start our slow spiral into the event horizon, I wanted to wet your taste buds for the month ahead.

It's nearly Stoker Award season.

And for those of you who've been listening for a while, you know that we do our best to acquire as many of the short-listed stories in the short-fiction category as we can.

Depending on rights, author interest, or even being able to track down the author's contact info, some years we get most of them, others not so much. This year, however,

we've managed to secure all five Stoker-nominated tales in the short fiction category. And what a crop of award-worthy tales it is. That means we've got a full month of Stoker Award-nominated tales

ready to chill your marrow, starting next week with the final tale taking us into Stoker-Con

weekend. Should prove for some exceptional listening following hot on the heels of our flash fiction contest.

Speaking of which, tonight we have five small sci-fi scares that are sure to send you into the

stratosphere, four runners up, in no particular order, and one winner. We had a stellar turnout for this contest,

so a huge thank you to everyone who entered. Now, this dystopian future isn't going to

write itself. Well, actually, I take that back. Maybe it is. Either way, strap in, hold on, and make sure your spacesuit is properly taped up, because we're about to blow the airlock on the results of our annual flash fiction contest.

The first runner-up comes to us from Argelia Salmon. Argelia Salman is a writer whose work

explores resilience, silence, and the hidden truths people carry. Their stories and essays move

between the intimate and the speculative, often reflecting on disability,

...