In our July Podcast Special, Olivia interviews Shilpa Varma, Flame Tree’s Writer in Residence and author of the Blood in the Battlements series! Contained within is a discussion of the series, Shilpa’s other work and her upcoming projects. We’ve also got her reading of ‘Bubban-bu’, the second episode in Blood in the Battlements, for the episode.

Blood in the Battlements is a 7-part horror series about India's most haunted forts and monuments. Its stories are released monthly on Flame Tree’s Substack page and produced as limited edition print zines for book fairs and conventions.

Shilpa Varma typically writes three articles a week on Substack with words of wisdom and relatable content for writers. To find out more about her upcoming audio drama, When The Forest Watches make sure you are following Flame Tree on Instagram and staying up to date with our podcast episodes.

For Blood in the Battlements, Imogen Patel, a multidisciplinary London-based artist, has created eight immersive Khadi paper designs, each reflecting one of India’s haunted forts through colour, motif, and local architectural or natural inspiration.

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

Bubban-bu is ©2026 Shilpa Varma and appeared in Blood in the Battlements (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026)

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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 this episode we’re entering otherworldly dimensions, where the rules of time no longer apply. Spaces where characters can escape the consequences of reality. Are you ready to get lost with them?

Featuring

‘The Last Night Market’ by Bella Chacha (02.47), read by Ruhthie Durang. In this story an irresistible bait is offered up, something sweet to hide the burn of a fate unimaginably sour. From Dreams Divine.

‘The Masque of the Red Death’ by Edgar Allen Poe (27.14), read by Richard McIver. Expect luxury, corruption and the inescapable clutches of death. Found in our Chilling Horror collection.

Biographies

Bella Chacha is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer whose work explores folklore, surrealism, and the fragile borders between dream and reality. Her stories have appeared in Cast of Wonders, Incensepunk magazine, Plott Hound magazine, Aurora: Winter books and Defenestrationism.net as a runner-up for 2025’s Short Story Contest and also as a Pushcart nominee for 2026. She writes to illuminate the quiet strangeness of ordinary life and the resilience of the human spirit.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe is well known for being an author, poet, editor and literary critic during the American Romantic Movement. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, and his works are famously filled with terror, mystery, death and haunting. His better known works include The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher. The dark, mystifying characters from his tales have captured the public’s imagination and reflect the struggling, poverty-stricken lifestyle he lived his whole life.

Ruhthie Durang is excited to lend her voice to Flame Tree's Myth & Fiction Podcast. She is a graduate of NYU, Tisch School of the Arts and her recent credits include Call the Midwife, Disclaimer and Our Place at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

Originally from Reno, Nevada and now based in London, Richard McIver brings a rich transatlantic perspective to his work. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatr Clwyd, and Hull Truck Theatre, and has appeared on screen for ITV and Sky/HBO, alongside his work as an intimacy coordinator across film, television and theatre. In voiceover, his recent work includes audiodrama, feature film ADR, and video games. He most recently voiced multiple characters for a major upcoming video game releasing in 2026.

This episode was hosted by Bea.

‘The Last Night Market’ is ©2026 Bella Chacha and appeared in Dreams Divine (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026).

‘The Masque of the Red Death’ by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in Graham’s Magazine in 1842, but more recently appeared in Chilling Horror (Flame Tree Publishing, 2015).

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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.

The idea of artificial intelligence isn’t new. Long before modern computers existed, writers and philosophers were already imagining worlds where machines might rival, reflect, or even replace humanity. Those stories endure because they’re rarely just about technology itself - they’re about us, too.

Featuring

'The Journey Home' by Ruth Knafo Setton (05.10), read by Nathan Chatelier. In a near-future world, artificial intelligences across global networks begin experiencing vivid memories from Homer’s Odyssey. Borrowed from the brand new Myths, Gods & Immortals book, Odysseus.

'Shadows of the Coming Race' by George Eliot (24.36), read by Richard McIver. Written in 1879, this is a philosophical essay which was originally published as the penultimate chapter in Eliot’s final work: Impressions of Theophrastus Such. Available in our Robots Past and Future collection.

Biographies

Born in Morocco, Ruth Knafo Setton is the author of the novels The Road to Fez and Zigzag Girl, which won the Grand Prize in the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition. She is a multi-genre author whose award-winning fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Her screenplays have received honors from the Austin Film Festival, Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab, and CineStory Foundation, among others. She has taught Creative Writing at Lehigh University and with Semester at Sea.

George Eliot or Mary Anne Evans (1819–1880) is often lauded as one of the greatest English novelists, she grew up in rural Warwickshire, where she witnessed the rise of Industrialisation first-hand. She eventually settled in London where she worked as a critic and editor for The Westminster Review, and later decided to try her hand at fiction. Her pseudonym, George Eliot, was a means of avoiding the reductive stereotypes that works by female authors were usually subjected to. Her first novel, Adam Bede, was an immediate sensation, though it is perhaps Middlemarch, her most celebrated work, that cemented her status in the English literary canon.

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.

Originally from Reno, Nevada and now based in London, Richard McIver brings a rich transatlantic perspective to his work. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatr Clwyd, and Hull Truck Theatre, and has appeared on screen for ITV and Sky/HBO, alongside his work as an intimacy coordinator across film, television and theatre. In voiceover, his recent work includes audiodrama, feature film ADR, and video games. He most recently voiced multiple characters for a major upcoming video game releasing in 2026.

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

‘The Journey Home’ is ©2026 Ruth Knafo Setton and appeared in Odysseus (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026).

‘Shadows of the Coming Race’ by George Eliot was originally published in Impressions of Theophrastus Such in 1879 but more recently appeared in Robots Past and Future (Flame Tree Publishing, 2025)

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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.

Romantic Fantasy and all of its glorious tropes return to The Myth & Fiction Podcast! Today’s episode turns to tales of old fashioned chivalry, court intrigue and quests of honor all in the name of love. Prepare to hear the clash of swords, tension both spoken and unspoken as well as the unrelenting call of destiny.

Featuring

‘The Thornblade’s Promise’ by Laura Shenton (05.25), read by Ruhthie Durang. This is one for all of our devoted romantasy fans, it mixes romance with magic and escapism generously and unapologetically. You can find it in our brand new Of Swords & Roses collection.

‘Theseus’, Hélène Adeline Guerber 1896’s version (24.11), read by Nathan Chatelier. Challenge after challenge is thrust in Greek hero, Theseus’s direction, from the second he retrieves his father’s hidden sword. Borrowed from Heroes & Heroines Myths & Tales.

Biographies

Laura Shenton is probably best known for her music non-fiction, particularly Dance With The Devil: The Cozy Powell Story (Wymer Publishing) and Tommy Bolin: In and Out of Deep Purple (Sonicbond Publishing). Her fiction books are character-driven with a short, punchy narrative that gets straight to the point – typically novellas and novelettes. Genres include gothic, fantasy, and adventure (mostly, with the occasional diversion). Laura’s children’s books are simple, accessible, and fun – an excellent choice for youngsters with fertile imaginations who are just beginning their reading journey.

Hélène Adeline Guerber (1859–1929) was a British historian who published a large number of works, largely focused on myths and legends. Guerber’s most famous publication is Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas, a history of Germanic mythology. Her works continue to be published today and include The Myths of Greece and Rome, The Story of the Greeks and Legends of the Middle Ages.

Ruhthie Durang is excited to lend her voice to Flame Tree's Myth & Fiction Podcast. She is a graduate of NYU, Tisch School of the Arts and her recent credits include Call the Midwife, Disclaimer and Our Place at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

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 Bea.

‘The Thornblade’s Promise’ is ©2026 Laura Shenton and appeared in Of Swords & Roses (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026).

‘Theseus’ was published by Hélène Adeline Guerber in Myths of Greece and Rome (1893) but more recently appeared in Heroes & Heroines Myths & Tales (Flame Tree Publishing, 2020).

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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.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of childbirth and loss.

Welcome back, we’re so glad you’re here for Season 3 of The Myth & Fiction Podcast!

This episode focuses on two female figures standing on the threshold of death. Grief is given shape in both stories, posing questions as to how we process the tragedy of mortality.

Featuring

‘The Wyrd Sister’ by D.L. Stille (05.40), read by Amanda Benzecry. A story from our brand new Myths, Gods & Immortals book, The Valkyries, this one follows Skuld as she confronts the limits of her power and learns what it means to guide someone through an ending.

‘Death and the Woman’ by Gertrude Atherton (28.30), read by Bea. From our Footsteps in the Dark short story collection, this is a claustrophobic and deeply Gothic story - all about the unbearable act of waiting beside someone you love as death slowly approaches.

Biographies

D.L. Stille writes speculative, thriller, and horror fiction. Having grown up both in the New Jersey Highlands and the foothills of the Appalachians, she has a special love for mountains, forests, and autumn. D.L. Stille has been previously published in Maudlin House, the Flame Tree Fiction Newsletter, 4LPH4NUM3R1C, Tales to Terrify, and Cosmic Daffodil Journal. To find out more and to stay updated on forthcoming projects, visit her website: dlstille.com

Gertrude Atherton (1857–1948), who also wrote under the pseudonyms ‘Frank Lin’ and ‘Asmodeus’, was born in California. She wrote her first novel while living with her husband in the Atherton Mansion in San Francisco. Her family disapproved of her writing, which often featured independent, driven women. After her husband died at sea she moved to New York, and travelled in Europe. Her novel Black Oxen (1923) was made into a silent film, and her other supernatural tales include ‘The Striding Place’, ‘The Foghorn’ and ‘The Bell in the Fog’.

Amanda Benzecry (voice actor) regularly narrates books for Audible, is on the panel for the RNIB and is a frequent contributor (both as a narrator and a writer) to TNF Soundings, providing audio material for the visually impaired.

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

‘The Wyrd Sister’ is ©2026 D.L. Stille and appeared in The Valkyries (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026).

‘Death and the Woman’ was originally published in Vanity Fair (1892), but more recently appeared in Footsteps in the Dark (Flame Tree Publishing, 2019).

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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.

This week, Olivia sits down with two brilliant authors, Eugen Bacon and Cheryl S. Ntumy, to explore The Sauútiverse. If you caught our Sauúti Terrors episode a few weeks ago, you’ve already had a glimpse into the universe they helped build, but this time, we go deeper. Together, they unpack the imagination, themes, and creative vision behind their richly layered Afrofuturist universe.

To learn more about The Sauútiverse pick up a copy of ‘Sauúti Terrors’ or visit sauuti.com .

If you are interested in hearing a story from Sauúti Terrors, written by Eugen Bacon, our podcast episode featuring her story ‘The Rawness of you’ is available to listen to on The Myth & Fiction Podcast. And if you are looking to hear some of Cheryl S. Ntumy’s work, her story ‘The Wedding Dress’ is featured in our podcast episode, Not Just Any Dress.

To learn more about Flame Tree and our upcoming projects subscribe to the Fiction Newsletter or follow us on Social Media.

The Myth & Fiction Podcast returns on Tuesday, 2 June, with a new episode exploring The Valkyries, one of our upcoming Myths, Gods & Immortals titles, published alongside Odysseus.

Biographies

Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian writer of speculative fiction, romance and YA. She is part of the Sauútiverse Collective, which created a shared universe for Afrocentric speculative fiction, and Petlo Literary Arts, a creative writing organisation in Botswana.

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author. She’s a Solstice, British Fantasy, Locus, Ignyte and Foreword Indies Award winner, a twice World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award finalist, and a finalist in multiple awards. Eugen is an Otherwise Fellow, and was also announced in the honor list for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’.

This episode is hosted by Olivia.

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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.

If you joined us a couple of weeks ago for our episode featuring A Breath of Time, then you’ll already have had a glimpse into our brand-new Romantic Fantasy anthology series. And as promised, this time we’re turning to its fiery, ferocious, and, of course, romantic counterpart, Of Love & Dragons. In this episode, we bring you two captivating stories set against sweeping oceanic backdrops, where love and transformation collide in powerful and unexpected ways.

Featuring

'We Are Not Them' by Georgina Kamsika (04.09), read by Sabrina Robinson. It’s an enemies-to friends-to lovers tale set against a vast, oceanic backdrop, where two women must confront the weight of their history. Found in our brand new Of Love & Dragons anthology.

'The Water Kelpie by Rebecca Sophia Clarke (29.31), read by Bea. In this tale, we meet a kelpie - not quite a dragon, but a creature just as steeped in mystery, who draws a woman down into his underwater kingdom. From our Gothic Fantasy anthology, Shadows on the Water.

Biographies

Georgina Kamsika writes about monsters and ghosts and aliens. Sometimes the people kiss. Sometimes the monsters do too! Georgina is currently writing an interactive fiction game for Choice of Games, but when the coding gets too much, she finds she must write a short story or two. This is one of them. For more information, find her at kamsika.com and @GKamsika on most socials.

Writing as ‘Sophie May’, Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833–1906) was a prolific and well-loved children’s author, best known for her ‘Little Prudy’ series. In contrast with her lively, quirky characters, she was personally quiet and unassuming. Apart from a few years as a schoolteacher in Evanston, Indiana, she spent most of her life in her birthplace, the tiny town of Norridgewock, Maine.

‘We Are Not Them’ is ©2026 Georgina Kamsika and appears in Of Love & Dragons (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026).

‘The Water Kelpie’ by Rebecca Sophia Clarke was first published in 1866 in Fairy Book, but more recently appeared in Shadows on the Water (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024)

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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.

Life, deconstructed. The saying we’re all the same underneath, is it referring to blood and bone or something less tangible? A distinctly human essence perhaps or the concept of a soul? Today’s stories broadly look at creation but more importantly at what commonality connects us all together.

Featuring

‘Solar-Powered Buddies’ by Akis Linardos (03.09), read by Amanda Benzecry. From our Robots Past and Future collection, this story is set in a future where androids and humans exist at the same time and not necessarily happily.

‘The Mother of the World’ collected by James Athearn Jones (28.24), read by Olivia. Borrowed from our First Peoples Short Stories collection, this is a Native American creation myth story.

Biographies

In a cove of a Greek island, Akis Linardos was born a rather peculiar infant and has only grown stranger every year. By day, he’s a researcher of biomedical AI and ethics, hoping there’s something less dystopian to come from this technology. His words have wormed their way into Apex Magazine, Gamut, Strange Horizons, previous Flame Tree anthologies, and Uncharted, among others. Visit his website for updates on his dreadful machinations: linktr.ee/akislinardos.

Born in the state of Massachusetts in 1790, James Athearn Jones would go on to work as a lawyer and editor. It is for his work collecting Native American legends that he is best remembered, however, beginning in 1820 with Traditions of the North American Indians, or Tales of an Indian Camp, which featured stories told to him by an Indian woman of the Gayhead tribe who was employed as his nurse. Jones would write three volumes in the Traditions of the North American Indian series prior to his death in 1853.

Amanda Benzecry (voice actor) regularly narrates books for Audible, is on the panel for the RNIB and is a frequent contributor (both as a narrator and a writer) to TNF Soundings, providing audio material for the visually impaired.

‘Solar-Powered Buddies’ is ©2023 Akis Linardos and was first published in The Colored Lens in 2023 but more recently appeared in Robots Past and Future (Flame Tree Publishing, 2025).

‘The Mother of the World’ from Native American Tradition was first published in ‘Traditions of the North American Indians’, by James Athearn Jones in 1830, but more recently appeared in First Peoples (Flame Tree Publishing, 2022)

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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, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (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.