Showing results by publisher "audible originals" in Anthologies

[Explicit Content] In The Other Animals, a worm goes through a breakup, a vulture contemplates the act of killing, a whale falls in love with a song, and more.

This funny, moving collection of eight stories - written by a diverse crew of scientists, literary writers, and comics, and informed by science - explores what animal perspectives can show humans about the world we all share....

In this short tale for fans of Cinderella and Bridgerton, Pearl’s ball gown may carry the whiff of mothballs, but her dance card for the duke’s ball is full…until she loses a shoe. In her enthusiasm, Pearl’s foot slides out of her too-big damask slipper in the middle of a dance and gets kicked around the ballroom to the amusement of the sophisticated guests. What is a spirited but clumsy heroine to do? Can her composure and good humor save her social dignity?

The Lady of the Lake (job description: hand out mystical swords to youngsters with potential) has her first dissatisfied customer. This humorous fantasy tale will appeal to anyone who has ever landed a glamorous job, only to find out that the gig has grueling requirements (in this case, confinement in a swamp and the company of wise-cracking toads.)

All marriages are hard. Many of them fail. Brock Lewis, an evangelical businessman turned self-published author, has the answer. Follow his international bestselling book’s 12-point “Atomic Doctrine” - make eye contact with your spouse? Always! Use the bathroom in front of them? Never! - and you, too, can build a marriage that thrives.

Spending summer vacation at his grandparents’ boring seaside town was not at the top of Bennet’s vacation list. Like a modern-day Little Red Riding Hood, he discovers that his grandparents have a certain terrifying, lupine quality at the full moon.

An old man wakes inside his comatose, completely nonresponsive body. According to his insurance company, in order to return to his life and family, he must pass a test. As if coming out of a coma weren’t enough of a challenge, our patient must also pass the Turing test, i.e., prove he’s human to an AI resuscitation machine. This satirical but heartfelt tale reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut and Ted Chiang asks the question: Can a person articulate the deepest truths he knows to be real?

A young man caught in a time loop has to figure out how to convince his crush—a barista at his favorite coffee ship—to go out with him so he can escape the loop. After a series of mortifying and hilarious attempts, he finally realizes the only approach he hasn’t tried is to simply be himself.

Against the advice of her children, a 70-year-old widow hits the road for a cross country adventure in an aging RV with only her purse-size dog for company. Two hours in, she gets a flat tire and must decide if she will turn back or keep going.

At the heart of Audible's partnership with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is the involvement of LAMDA students in the creative process of making new audio dramas especially for young people.

This magical realist short tale was inspired by the Latin American myth of El Sombrerón, the nighttime guardian of peace and justice. El Sombrerón arrives in a sleepy town to find that a young girl has stolen a golden necklace. El Sombrerón must convince the girl to return the necklace so she can avoid El Sombrerón’s justice…and before the sun rises.

Layla strives and sacrifices to keep a potted plant alive in a gray, post-climate-change dystopia. For fans of Nina LaCour, this short tale asks: can hope bloom from a single seed?

A weary Chicago shop owner catches yet another kid breaking into her bakeshop. The rumor has gone around her inner-city neighborhood that she's keeping cash in a sugar jar and, however unlikely, local kids keep trying to confirm it. With the latest miscreant, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

A World War I soldier writes a love note to his pregnant wife, puts it in a bottle and drops it in the English Channel. Decades later a fisherman finds it and delivers the message to the daughter the soldier never got to meet. Although this heart-warming tale is fiction, it is based on real-life events.

Fairy Godmothers aren’t just for the young! A solitary, middle-aged woman’s self-appointed Fairy Godmother leaves her a strange and sulfurous inheritance. In this mysterious and off-beat speculative fiction short story, KJ Zimring shows why she is a master of the super-short listen. Her work has delighted fans of Asimov’s, Analog, Hitchcock, and Daily Science Fiction.

A ghost decides to help the shy young woman living in her former house. Kyra dreams of becoming an artist, and she flourishes under the guidance of her ghostly mentor. This short, supernatural tale will appeal to fans of friendly ghost stories and family reconciliation.

A man arrives home from an international flight to find that the airline has delivered his lost luggage. Wonderful, except he never lost his luggage in the first place. The story is told through his increasingly maddening call to customer service as he tries to figure out how, and why, the airline created a perfect replica of his suitcase and possessions.

A lonely terraforming AI is delighted when a spacecraft unexpectedly makes an emergency landing on his planet. Hoping that the mysterious woman aboard might want to stay, he strives to be the best host in the universe.

Four generations of settler women on a distant world have different perspectives on the return to a natural life after decades in sealed domes. With a final image inspired by the author’s real-life (on Earth!) family history, this short, multi-generational tale explores the tension between the ties to the past and the promises of adventure inherited by each new generation.

Fairies steal a careless young man's diamond ring before he can propose; he must trick them into returning it before the engagement dinner that night. This short fantasy tale will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and P.G. Wodehouse.

It takes some gumption to claim to be the best tea shop in the city of Kansar, where five ancient roads meet and everyone is selling something. But Yala’s shop has been in her family for three generations and is famed for its brews among warriors and wizards alike. When the Imperial Spell Company claims a monopoly on all magic in Kansar, Yala tries to convince a company henchman that her teas are nothing but ordinary leaves and water.