Sudden Fictions

Host: R. B. Wood Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita. An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence The Black Fire Concerto and The Ghoulmaker's Aria, his forthcoming dark fantasy novel Trail of Shadows, and his newest horror collection, Slow Burn. Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable "The Button Bin" was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, The Spider Tapestries, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.  As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology Clockwork Phoenix 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for Mythic Delirium, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years. He's a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor's Choice selection, and Hungry Constellations, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.  With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists. You can find him on Instagram at @mythicdelirium and Bluesky at @mythicdelirium.bsky.social.

Host: R. B. Wood Karl Dandenell is a graduate of Viable Paradise and a Full Member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. He and his family, plus their cat overlords, live on an island near San Francisco famous for its Victorian architecture and low speed limits. His preferred drinks are strong tea and single malt whiskey. Apart from Sudden Fictions, Karl's work has appeared in such places as Fireside Fiction, Metaphorosis, DreamForge, Little Blue Marble, Speculative North, and the anthologies Abandoned Places and The Science Fiction Tarot. He counts Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Patricia McKillip among his early influences.

Host: R. B. Wood Bill Kirton was born in Plymouth, England a long time ago but has lived most of his life in Scotland. He has written stage and radio plays, songs and sketches for revues, flash fiction, short stories, novels, stories for children and books aimed at helping students to write effective academic essays and dissertations and get the most out of university and work. Dr. Kirton has been a university lecturer, actor, director, TV presenter, visiting professor and artist at the University of Rhode Island, spent a few years as a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow in universities in Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews, and, more recently, held workshops in schools aimed at helping final year students with the transition to university or college. He loves writing and exploring many forms and genres.

Host: R. B. Wood Susan E. Rogers lives in sunny St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA transplanted from Massachusetts. Her move was the catalyst to focus on her life-long ambition to write. Her other interests include genealogy and psychic spirituality, often twisting these themes into her writing. She self-published her first book in 2018 about her own psychic experiences, published an occult thriller with an indie press in Sept. 2023, and self-published a second paranormal non-fiction book in 2024. A supernatural mystery novel is under contract with another publisher for a planned release late 2024. Starting in 2020, her short fiction has been published in print anthologies and several literary and genre magazine.

Host: R. B. Wood Scotty Sarafian is a Florida-born writer who grew up in Dublin, Ireland and Wilmington, Delaware. His work has been published by Coffin Bell, Pulp Modern Flash, Ghost Orchid Press (A Very Ghostly Christmas), Neon Hemlock (Opulent Syntax: Irish Speculative Fiction), Skywatcher Press (The Depths Unleashed: Book 1), Black Hare Press, and Trembling with Fear. He was longlisted for Pulp Literature's 2023 Raven Short Story Contest. He lives in Dublin with his mischievous pug.  

Host: R. B. Wood Bill Kirton was born in Plymouth, England a long time ago but has lived most of his life in Scotland. He has written stage and radio plays, songs and sketches for revues, flash fiction, short stories, novels, stories for children and books aimed at helping students to write effective academic essays and dissertations and get the most out of university and work. Dr. Kirton has been a university lecturer, actor, director, TV presenter, visiting professor and artist at the University of Rhode Island, spent a few years as a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow in universities in Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews, and, more recently, held workshops in schools aimed at helping final year students with the transition to university or college. He loves writing and exploring many forms and genres.

Host: R. B. Wood Wicker Stone is an avid reader and writer of everything horror. He's been in several anthologies, magazines, and this Podcast. He's currently trying to find a home for his first novel. In the mean time, he's plugging away on two other novels and a short story collection. He lives in central Maine.

Host: R. B. Wood Lori D'Angelo is a grant recipient from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a fellow at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, and an alumna of the Community of Writers. She holds an MA from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an MFA from West Virginia University. Her work has appeared in various literary journals including BULL, Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, Moon City Review, and Rejection Letters. Her first book, a collection called The Monsters Are Here, is forthcoming from ELJ Editions. 

Host: R. B. Wood Mia Dalia is an internationally published, CWA-nominated author of all things fantastic, thrilling, scary, and strange. Her short stories of horror, noir, science fiction, mystery, crime, humor, and more have been featured in a variety of anthologies, magazines, literary journals, online, and adapted for narrative podcasts. Her stories have been voted top ten of Tales to Terrify 2023 and shortlisted for the CWA's Daggers Awards 2024. She is the author of the novels Estate Sale and upcoming Haven, novellas Tell Me a Story, Discordant, and Arrokoth, and the collection Smile So Red and Other Tales of Madness. FInd her online at: https://daliaverse.wixsite.com/author https://linktr.ee/daliaverse

Host: R. B. Wood Susan E. Rogers, a writer of speculative fiction and non-fiction, lives in sunny St. Pete Beach, Florida, transplanted from Massachusetts. Her interests include genealogy and psychic spirituality, which often twist through her prose. She's published three books with a fourth due out in late 2024, and her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Links to her books and short stories are on her website: susanerogers.com

Host: R. B. Wood Maria Haskins is a Swedish-Canadian writer and reviewer of speculative fiction. She lives just outside Vancouver with a husband, two children, several noisy birds, a snake, and a very large black dog.  Maria's work Her short fiction has appeared in Best Horror of the Year Volume 13, Nightmare, Lightspeed, The Deadlands, Sunday Morning Transport, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and elsewhere. Her fiction can also be found in her short story collections WOLVES AND GIRLS and SIX DREAMS ABOUT THE TRAIN. Find out more on her website mariahaskins.com.

Host: R. B. Wood Cheryl Cantafio is a poetry and children's book writer from Norristown, Pennsylvania. When she's not writing, she works in information technology, co-hosts a podcast (You Only Go Once), reads gothic horror or thriller novels, or binge-watches movies and television series. Her book My Stay with the Sisters: Poems was her debut as an author and poet in May 2023. Her gothic poetic tale, A Place No Flowers Grow, will arrive on September 24, 2024. Barry and the Big Jump will be her debut children's book, set to release in November 2024. Connect with her on Instagram: @cherylc.writer

Host: R. B. Wood Poet Laureate of New Bedford, Massachusetts from 2014 to 2021, author and playwright Patricia Gomes is published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Gomes is the author of four poetry chapbooks. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee (2008, 2018, and2021) as well as a 5-time Rhysling Science Fiction Award nominee. Recent publications include Poem Alone, Horror Writers Poetry Showcase X, Potter's Field 8, and the soon to be published anthology The Lycanthropicon.

Host: R. B. Wood L. Marie Wood is a Golden Stake Award and two-time Bookfest Award-winning, Ignyte Award and two-time Bram Stoker Award® nominated author.  She is also a MICO Award-winning screenwriter, a Rhysling nominated poet, and accomplished essayist. Wood is the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association, founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an English/Creative Writing professor, and a horror scholar. Learn more at www.lmariewood.com.

Host: R. B. Wood Karl Dandenell is a graduate of Viable Paradise and a Full Member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. He and his family, plus their cat overlords, live on an island near San Francisco famous for its Victorian architecture and low speed limits. His preferred drinks are strong black tea with milk and single malt whiskey. Karl's fiction and poetry have appeared in publications and podcasts in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. You can follow his occasional posts and read more of his fiction on his website, www.firewombats.com.

Host: R. B. Wood Lucretia Stanhope, a neurodiverse, relentlessly optimistic chronic illness warrior with less grace than determination, navigates her crone stage in a quaint Midwest town surrounded by cornfields. Amidst enduring medical trials that could rival horror stories, her pen never rests. When not lost in the wonderful lands of her imagination, she finds solace in doting on her three chihuahuas and her endlessly patient husband.

Host: R. B. Wood Lucretia Stanhope, a neurodiverse, relentlessly optimistic chronic illness warrior with less grace than determination, navigates her crone stage in a quaint Midwest town surrounded by cornfields. Amidst enduring medical trials that could rival horror stories, her pen never rests. When not lost in the wonderful lands of her imagination, she finds solace in doting on her three chihuahuas and her endlessly patient husband, a fellow scribe who shares her love for storytelling, boundless enthusiasm for the adventures yet to unfold, and never denies her dessert first.

Host: R. B. Wood Gary Robbe is an educator and writer currently living in Colorado. He has had numerous stories published in e-zines, magazines, anthologies, and podcasts. His debut collection of short stories, Not Buried Deep Enough, was published in October 2023. Gary is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and a founding member of the Denver Horror Collective. He is also an associate editor with Bewildering Stories. 

Host: R. B. Wood Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human's body. Please send help or tuna. She toils away for JournalStone and Trepidatio Publishing as a submission reader, is a co-founder and editor for Alien Sun Press, a reviewer for Hellnotes, co-editor and art/writing contributor for Weird Fiction Quarterly, and has been published by Eighth Tower Press, The Wicked Library Podcast, Sudden Fictions Podcast and other places. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from Cardinal Stritch University and is a photographer for Getty Images. Usually, you can find her on Facebook asking for help to escape her human body or to get tuna. Tuna is nice. Cats like tuna. She also likes cat naps in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Host: R. B. Wood Michael Ehart has been at various times all the expected things: laborer, seminary student, musician, shoe salesman, political consultant, teacher, diaper truck driver, stand-up comedian, and the least important guy with an office at a movie studio. He made his first sale to a magazine at age 15, which means he has been writing for over 50 years, with the aforementioned occasional breaks for gainful employment. He lives in the upper left hand corner of the United States with his wife and youngest daughter.