Gallery of Curiosities

Mechanical by Liam Hogan

Tonight, a young chess whiz is recruited to play a most curious role. This story was previously published by WItty Bard Publishing, in a Steampunk anthology, "Of Airships and Automatons". Author Liam Hogan is a London based writer and host of the award winning monthly literary event, Liars' League. He was a finalist in Sci-Fest LA's Roswell Award 2015 (losing out to "Grandma's sex robot") and has had work published at DailyScienceFiction and in Sci-Phi Journal. Find him online at http://happyend...

A Red One Cannot See by Barbara A Barnett and The Swineherd by Diego Reymondez

It's a fabulous furry double feature with animals acting like humans, humans posing as animals, and maybe, just maybe, exactly what you think its going to be. Tepic Harlequin and Byron narrate. Author Barbara A. Barnett is a writer, musician, orchestra librarian, Odyssey Writing Workshop alum, coffee addict, wine lover, and all-around geek. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Shimmer, Daily Science Fiction, and Flash Fictio...

The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue by Dawn Vogel

A jewel theft threatens to ruin the family business, and it's up to two clever girls to solve the crime before it is too late! Sarah Heiner reads. #steampunk #kids Author Dawn Vogel has been published as a short fiction author and a fiction and non-fiction editor. In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, helps edit Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time to write. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their herd of cats. Narrator Sarah Heiner, active in Second Life under t...

Hypatia and her Sisters by Amy Griswold

A steampunk tale of a scheming inventress and the mechanicals she made. This story was first published in the DAUGHTERS OF FRANKENSTEIN: LESBIAN MAD SCIENTISTS anthology in July 2015. Amy Griswold is the author (with Melissa Scott) of the gaslamp fantasy/mystery novels DEATH BY SILVER and A DEATH AT THE DIONYSUS CLUB. Amy has also published multiple Stargate tie-in novels and is currently working on a steampunk interactive fiction game for Choice of Games. She can be found online at @amygris. Na...

P∃T Shop by Gary Buller

A visit to a pet shop with a collection that rivals our own curious gallery. Vic Mullin reads. Author Gary Buller is an author from Manchester England where he lives with his long suffering partner Lisa, his daughter Holly and dog Chico. He grew up in the Peak District where the hauntingly beautiful landscapes inspired him to write. He is a huge fan of all things macabre and loves a tale with a twist. Narrator Vic Mullin is a 40 year old scotsman who is usually surrounded in a cloud of vapour fr...

Wreck on the Highway by Jake Walters and River And Sea by Nathan Susnik

Osgoode survived 2016, and to celebrate he is bringing you two stories to close the old year and usher in the new. Samuel van Pelt and Tepic Harlequin read. "Wreck on the Highway" by Jake Walters Mr. Walters has been published in several journals, including The Saturday Evening Post, Forge Literary, and Cast of Wonders. He has spent years teaching English in Transylvania. Narrator: Samuel Van Pelt Music: Night on the Docks, Long Note Two, Music for Funeral Homes Part 1 by Kevin MacLeod (incompet...

An Evening at the Club as told by Dr. Horatio Boyle by Kate Philbrick and If You Were A Dinah Shore, My Love by Lou Antonelli

It’s that week between Christmas and New Years, my favorite time of year. Time to tidy up lose ends, get a little silly, spend time with your social life, and head to the club to indulge. Author Kate Philbrick writes horror historicals and creepy fantasies to amuse herself and friends. Scribblings of the strange variety have appeared in random anthologies over the years, and she is presently on the staff of Weird NJ Magazine. She had the pleasure of editing Richard O’Brien’s (yet to be published...

The 2016 Christmas Broadcast from New Babbage

Once a year we go back to where we got our start for the traditional Christmas broadcast from a city that doesn’t exist except as smudges on disks in an unknown server farm. Yeah, there was a script. It was going to be more produced. The girls were going to sing the song. But 2016 being what it was, maybe simplicity was the better approach. Godspeed. The Naughty Child, by Beryl Strifeclaw and Tepic Harlequin Read by Tepic Harlequin Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Boiler Elf Don’t Stare At...

The Ape That Would Not Die! by Megan R. Engelhardt

The Boyproof Watch by John Longenbaugh

Frankenstein Double Feature

200 years ago, four friends huddled around a fireplace and held a story telling contest to keep cabin fever at bay. Tonight we have two stories inspired by that cold summer’s night. Author Dan Micklethwaite is a freelance writer based in the north of England. His most recent short fiction has featured in Unsung Stories, Metaphorosis, and Flame Tree Publishing’s Swords and Steam anthology. His debut novel, The Less than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote, is shortlisted for the Guardian’s ‘Not The ...

The Greatest Zombie Story Ever by John Cooper Hamilton and The Death Mount's Rider by Spencer Koelle

Happy Halloween! Osgoode is having trouble with some annual visitors, and he has two spooky stories for you. John Cooper Hamilton tells of of how Hollywood coped with the Zombie Apocalypse, and Spencer Koelle takes us on an excursion to the Weird West. What does Weird West have to do with Steampunk? Just ask any steampunk you happen to meet in the American Southwest. Matt Zophiel and Nonney Constantine narrate. Explicit tag for brief f-bomb. Author John Cooper Hamilton's website: https://johncoo...

There Will Always Be Dragons by Benjamin Sperduto

The Czar’s Army is having a bit of trouble with the local fauna while pressing eastward across Manchuria. Their only hope? A jaded, insubordinate corporal from the Caucasus. Benjamin Sperduto reads his own work. Author Benjamin Sperduto is a history teacher in Tampa, Florida. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, including Coven (Purple Sun Press), Bad Neighborhood (Spooky Words Press), and Dystopian Express (Hydra Publications). His first novel, The Walls of Dalgorod, is a...

The Revivalist by Stephen S. Power and Ariadne by Jennifer R. Povey

Mad Science Double Feature with two stories about strange inventions and the men who made them. Author Stephen S. Power’s novel, The Dragon Round, was just published by Simon and Schuster. His short fiction has recently appeared in Everyday Fiction, Swords and Sorcery, and the Stupifying Stories Showcase, and it will soon appear in Deep Magic. He tweets at @stephenspower, his site is stephenspower.com, and he lives in Maplewood, New Jersey. Reader John Longenbaugh is a Seattle-based writer and p...

Steam and Hot Air by Zach Bartlett

A "Professor" rents out a barn to build his bombastic inventions. A delightful send up of the steampunk aesthetic. Molly Shipwreck reads. #steampunk Author Zach Bartlett has been called the New Englandest man in New Orleans, both as compliment and insult. His work has been published by Mad Scientist Journal and Wildside Press, and he’s a regular contributor to the reading series Esoterotica. You can find more of him at http://ZachBIsTall.wordpress.com. Reader Molly Shipwreck is an ex-pat Califor...

Dad's Balloon by Andrew McCurdy

Summer is here, so let’s go up the country, all the way to to Nova Scotia for our story tonight, written and read by our own Andrew McCurdy. Andrew McCurdy has been reading and writing science fiction ever since he saw Charleton Heston kneeling in the surf, cursing the half-buried Statue of Liberty. He recently relocated from teaching college in a large city to rural Nova Scotia where he hopes to start writing in earnest. Music: Morning Mist by Brett van Donsel Fiddles McGinty and Heavy Heart by...

A Ring, A Ring O'Roses by Simon Kewin

A tale of an alternate London, where Vapourmen man giant rosewater towers to protect the populace from bad airs. Richard Elen reads. #steampunk Red lights flickered all across the board filling one wall of Dartford Vapour Monitoring Station. The tiny gas flames in the bulbs hissed, their combined sound angrier and angrier as more and more sparked into life… Simon Kewin is the author of over 100 published short stories. He lives in England with his wife and their daughters. His wife is a microbio...

The Scarlet Cloak by Karen Bovenmyer

Consider the red riding hood with a grim agenda of its own. Karen Bovenmyer narrates. Karen Bovenmyer earned her MFA in Creative Writing: Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program in Summer of 2013. She is lucky to train future faculty at Iowa State University, where she works primarily with inspiring Ph.D. students who enthusiastically share speculative-story-idea-generating research. http://karenbovenmyer.com/ Host: Kris “The Ghost of Orson Wells” Law Productio...

Last of the Spice Schooners by Philip Brian Hall

A rotting ship reeking of death moors at Pool of London, the crew fallen victim to a mermaid. Vic Mullin reads. Author: Born in Yorkshire, Oxford graduate Philip Brian Hall is a former diplomat and teacher. Outside work, he has stood for parliament, sung solos in amateur operettas, rowed at Henley Royal Regatta, completed a 40 mile cross-country walk in under 12 hours and ridden in over one hundred horse-races over fences. He lives on a very small farm in Scotland with his wife, a dog, a cat and...

YOU-GO-BACK by Elise Forier Edie

A watchmaker tells of his boyhood job at the famed American Museum of P.T. Barnum, and how a demon was acquired for the menagerie. Keith Edie reads. First published in Strange Tales V. Author Elise Forier Edie is a playwright and author based in Los Angeles. Her most recent play, “The Pink Unicorn,” has been performed all over the US and Canada. Her short fiction has appeared in Metaphorosis Magazine and The Enchanted Conversation. You can find out more about her at her website: EliseForierEdie....

The Cathood of Maurice by Edith Nesbit

A naughty boy trades places with his scheming cat. Bookworm Hienrichs reads. #vintage #fantasy #kids

Love is a Masterpiece by Chris Kelworth and This Peculiar Way of Hers by Joel Arnold

Our reboot episode, featuring two curious on stories of the strangeness Love. Osgoode welcomes you to the gallery and presents two new stories for Valentine's Day. "Love is a Masterpiece" by Chris Kelworth. Mr. Kelworth lives in Hamilton, Ontario. He has been writing science fiction and fantasy stories with increasing diligence for the past twenty-five years, and is a graduate of the Odyssey, Taos Toolbox, and Young Gunns workshops. He works in Burlington as a computer software developer under a...

The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells

If you're going to haunt a proper English gentlemen's club after you die, you'd best be a member. Vic Mullin narrates. #ghosts #occult #vintage We return to Brunel Hall to hear Mr. Victor Mornington, the steamlands’ most famous hotelier, read The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells. Grab a drink, turn down the lights, and get comfortable, because story night is Serious Business in New Babbage. First publication: The Strand Magazine, March 1902 Reader: Mr. Victor Mornington (Vic Mullin...

The Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen

What is in that powder my brother keeps taking? A classic fright from 1895, said to have been an early influence on HP Lovecraft. Junie Ginsburg narrates. Arthur Machen was born in Wales and became enamored with mysticism and the occult at an early age. The Novel of the White Powder was part of The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the inde...

The Red Haired Girl by Sabine Baring-Gould

Good help is so hard to find, but what do you do when your family is complaining about a maid that you don't remember hiring? Junie Ginsburg reads. #VintageHorror #Ghosts Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was an eclectic scholar and folklorist whose best known work is the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers. Oddly, he is also noted for writing The Book of Were-Wolves, the 16 volume The Lives of the Saints, and the popular Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, which was an overview of medieval superstition....

The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft

An early work from H. P. Lovecraft's Dream cycle stories. Sit back, relax, and have your squire bring a coal from the stove to spark the hookah. This story was first published in the November 1919 issue of The United Amateur. Host: Vic Mullin Reader: Byron Music: Valentine Wolfe

A Man of Science by Jerome K. Jerome

Ghosts, revenge, skeletons in the closet? Is it October yet? Tonight, our favorite lowlander, Victor Mornington (Vic Mullin), reads "A Man of Science" by Jerome K. Jerome. First published in The Idler, an illustrated monthly of literature and humor, in September of 1892. Keep the brandy carafe near, you might need just a nip before this one is over. Host: Junie Ginsburg Reader: Victor1st Mornington Outro: Byron Ad: Emerson Lighthouse Music: Kevin MacLeod(incompetech)

The Brownie of the Black Haggs by James Hogg