September’s podcast guest star is author and editor V. Castro!

V. Castro is the celebrated author of Mestiza Blood, The Queen of the Cicadas and several short stories in our anthologies. She finds her inspirations in Mexican folklore and the urban legends of Texas.

In this episode, recorded at London Book Fair, Nick and V. chat all about their passion for storytelling, folklore and dark fiction.

And the best part? You can hear more from V. next month in our LIVE AND SPOOKY celebrations where she'll be back on the Myth & Fiction Podcast to talk about editing Flame Tree's upcoming anthology, Latin American Shared Stories! This stunning book will be going on sale on the 21st of October.

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.

In today’s episode, we are taking a look into the veil between worlds, the margin between the living and the dead. Is it really so clear which side is which? Or is this veil thinning all the time, in memories we inherit, and in those moments when we brush close to the other side?

Featuring

‘Our Bones Were the Mortar’ by Anjali Patel (01.25), read by Cheryl S. Ntumy. A story from our African Ghost collection, which follows a woman who wants nothing to do with her family’s legacy of necromancy - until she feels the weight of thousands of enslaved souls buried beneath Manhattan.

‘A Visit to the King of Ghosts’ from Hawaiian folklore and recorded by W.D. Westervelt (11.49), read by Shilpa. A narrative where a man's spirit separates from his body to wander the ghostly realm. Borrowed from Flame Tree’s Quests & Journeys.

Biographies

Anjali Patel is a Black and South Asian speculative fiction writer. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in Escape Pod, Uncanny Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, khōréō, The Deadlands, and others. Find her at anjali.fyi or all socials @anjapatel.

W.D. Westervelt (1849–1939) was an American author and pastor. He settled in Hawaii in 1899 and served as the Corresponding Secretary for the Hawaiian Historical Society beginning in 1908. He is considered one of the foremost authorities on Hawaiian folklore in English.

Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian writer of speculative fiction and has appeared in Black Friday, FIYAH Literary Magazine, Apex Magazine and World Literature Today.

Learn more about Shilpa Varma and her role at Flame Tree here.

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

‘Our Bones Were the Mortar’ is ©2021 Anjali Patel and was originally published in Khōréō (2021), but more recently appeared in African Ghost (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024).

‘A Visit to the King of Ghosts’ was recorded from Hawaiian folklore in 1915 by W.D. Westervelt, but more recently appeared in Quests & Journeys (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024).

#podcast #shortstories #necromancy #ghosts #folklore

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.

As any fans of Flame Tree will know already, we pride ourselves on being a publisher of speculative fiction. We’ve covered the founding genres of SFF on this podcast already but perhaps we’ve given slightly more attention to our horror and fantasy short stories, but not today. Today we’re journeying to the future on the back of two of our Science Fiction stories. Brace yourself for worlds where technology has slipped beyond human control, and crime reigns in the skies.

Content Warning: This episode contains depictions of sexual violence.

Featuring

‘Aphrodite T-100’ by Anne Wilkins (01.57), read by Nathan Chatelier. A future where robotoids rule and select human subjects for fertility experiments. This story can be found in our brand new collection: Robots Past & Future Short Stories.

‘The Aerial Burglar’ by Percival Leigh (25.15), read by Bea. Often regarded as the first Steampunk short story, this tale blends Victorian aesthetics with ‘futuristic’ steam technology. Borrowed from our Swords & Steam anthology.

Biographies

Anne Wilkins is a sleep-deprived teacher in New Zealand, who writes in her spare time (which she has very little of). Her love of writing is fuelled by copious amounts of coffee, reading and hope. Anne is supported in her writing journey by her ever-patient husband, her two wonderful daughters and two feline writing assistants.

Percival Leigh (1813–89) was an English comic writer born in Haddington. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s before abandoning this profession to engage in a writing career.

Nathan Chatelier is a British voiceover artist with almost fifty audiobooks recorded alongside thousands of other projects, from videogames to the Mean Girls West End trailer. Check out his demos.

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

‘Aphrodite T-100’ is ©2025 Anne Wilkins and appeared in Robots Past & Future Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing, 2025).

‘The Aerial Burglar’ by Percival Leigh was first published in The Comic Album: A Book for Every Table (1844), but more recently appeared in Swords & Steam (Flame Tree Publishing, 2016).

#robots #ai #steampunk #shortstories #dystopian

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.