Liminal Flares

One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted by Emily Dickinson

Maika — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 05:00:00 -0700

You know how a song or fragment of a song can get stuck in your head? It plays on repeat, whether you like it or not, a personal soundtrack that no one else can hear. I tend to have a number of things haunting my mind at any given time - music, poetry, lines from a book, echoes of previously thought or spoken words or phrases, other thoughts circling in a holding pattern, waiting to be written down.

They coalesce into a dynamic mental kaleidoscope of language and sound. Emily Dickinson's evocative poetry is often part of it. A flickering rhythmic phantom, sometimes a select stanza or two, sometimes an entire poem, always a harmonious element of the protean inner pattern.

In this special mini episode we offer up a few shadowy wisps of my mental atmosphere for your listening pleasure: one of Emily Dickinson's bewitching poems, amended to be gender-inclusive, along with a New Year's announcement about Liminal Flares.

As always, we recommend using your headphones to get the most out of Mer's audio witchery.

New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Listen to our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."

Please support Liminal Flares by leaving your rating and (where possible) a review on your preferred podcast streaming service!

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover photo by Maika

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

And on Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lol

We're pausing our release schedule for a few weeks. Regular episodes resume in February!

Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker (part 2)

Maika — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0700

Did you know that Bram Stoker's Dracula (the 1897 Gothic horror novel, not the swoonworthy 1992 Coppola film) originally began with a chapter that was cut from the book before it was published?

That lost chapter was posthumously published as a short story entitled "Dracula's Guest." And today we bring you part 2 of our gender-inclusive revision of that spine-tingling tale.

As always, use your headphones if you've got 'em! Mer bedecked this episode in a heady coalescence of hauntingly beautiful fragments of "Mare Desiderii" from A Blessed Unrest by The Parlour Trick.

And trust me, you do not want to miss out on the full unsettling and titillating impact of an unexpected piece of correspondence at the very end of our tale.

Please support Liminal Flares by rating and (where possible) reviewing the show on your preferred podcast streaming service.

New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Check out our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Piano composition in "Mare Desiderii" by Dan Cantrell, theremin and violin arrangement by Mer.

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover photo by Maika

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

Or Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lol

New episodes every Thursday!

Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker (part 1)

Maika — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0700

Time to lose ourselves in the wintry wilds of Gothic horror courtesy of the one and only Bram Stoker. Nothing says cozy winter listening (or cool summer listening, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere) like gender-inclusive Gothic fiction.

If you like your hygge haunted, haunting, and NOT heteronormative, then you're already home.

Use your headphones if you've got 'em. This week's show is swathed in heady, unearthly theremin. Mer used isolated theremin tracks from achingly beautiful track "Mare Desiderii" (from A Blessed Unrest by The Parlour Trick) as a sort of sonic collage that culminates in sharing part of the song itself near the end of the episode.

Piano composition in "Mare Desiderii" by Dan Cantrell, theremin and violin arrangement by Mer)

There's more of this phantasmal auditory goodness to come when we conclude "Dracula's Guest" next week! In the meantime, after you listen to this week's show, check out A Blessed Unrest in its preternatural entirety. You can also read my rhapsodizing about it on the Liminal Flares blog.

Please support Liminal Flares by rating and (where possible) reviewing the show on your preferred podcast streaming service.

New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Check out our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover photo by Maika

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

Or Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lol

New episodes every Thursday!

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

Maika — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 12:00:00 -0700

Time to switch gears from cosmic horror to cautionary fairy tale. What's better than a fervently sensuous Victorian gothic poem with queer subtext? A fervently sensuous Victorian gothic poem that swaps that subtext for beautifully open queerness.

Welcome to an unabashedly sapphic AND gender-inclusive rendition of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market. This is a truly singular and exquisitely decadent aural treat!

By the way, if you aren't already listening to Liminal Flares using headphones/earbuds, we strongly encourage you to do so - in general, but especially for this tantalizing episode.

If you're enjoying Liminal Flares, please share us with others who might enjoy our haunted and haunting, gender-inclusive story time!

New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Check out our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

Or Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lol

New episodes every Thursday.

The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers (part 4)

Maika — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0700

Have you found the Yellow Sign?

Let's hope you never do.

But we do know two people who have. And they are about to realize it themselves, not that that will do them any good. Welcome to the terrifying conclusion of "The Yellow Sign," in which the cosmic dread peaks, but that dreadful heteronormative exclusion is blissfully absent.

If you're enjoying Liminal Flares, help it grow by sharing it with others who might enjoy our haunted and haunting, gender-inclusive story time.

New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Check out our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover Art Illustration by Daniel Kern

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

And we're now on Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lol

New episodes every Thursday.

The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers (part 3)

Maika — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0700

When it comes to stories in the cosmic horror genre it often feels as though characters are doomed from the start, even if you aren't sure why, subject as they are to the incomprehensible whims and machinations of unfathomable powers.

Sometimes, however, there are instead clear points of no return within a story when characters' fates are sealed, madness and possibly death are now inevitable. And with that, welcome to Part 3 of "The Yellow Sign" by Robert W. Chambers - all the fun of cosmic dread without the dreadful heteronormative exclusion.

If you're enjoying Liminal Flares, help it grow by sharing us with others who might enjoy our haunted and haunting, gender-inclusive story time. And please leave your rating and (where possible) a review for our show.

New here and wondering what this podcast is all about? Check out our first episode, "A Prelude at the Threshold."

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover Art Illustration by Daniel Kern

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

And we're now on Mastodon @LiminalFlares@mastodon.lol

New episodes every Thursday.

The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers (part 2)

Maika — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0700

Are you ready for another perilous dip into the realm of early cosmic horror? It's all the fun of cosmic dread without the dreadful heteronormative exclusion: Part 2 of "The Yellow Sign" by American author Robert W. Chambers.

If you're enjoying Liminal Flares, help us grow by rating and (where possible) reviewing the show. And please share us with others who might enjoy our haunted and haunting, gender-inclusive story time. New episodes every Thursday.

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover Art Illustration by Daniel Kern

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website liminalflares.com

And we're now on Mastodon @liminalflares@mstdn.social

The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers (part 1)

Maika — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0700

Time to immerse ourselves in some early cosmic horror courtesy of American author Robert W. Chambers. It's all the fun of concentrated cosmic dread and none of the dreadful heteronormative exclusion!

Along the shore the cloud waves break,

The twin suns sink behind the lake,

The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.

By the way, just case you aren’t already doing so, I strongly recommend listening to our episodes with headphones or earbuds in order to get the full enveloping eldritch experience of Mer’s audio engineering sorcery.

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover art by Daniel Kern

To learn more about Liminal Flares visit our website at liminalflares.com

If you enjoy what we’re doing, support the show by rating and reviewing it wherever you listen to podcasts. And please share Liminal Flares with your friends.

New episodes every Thursday.

Want to request something for a future episode? We welcome requests provided the work is in the public domain - short stories, poetry, a passage or chapter from a book. Submit your requests via the website or on social media.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Maika — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 04:00:00 -0700

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, but make it gender-inclusive.

Surprise! Because our first episode is so different from what we’ll be sharing on a weekly basis, we’re dropping episode 2 today for an early taste of Liminal Flares proper.

The very first time I amended a piece of literature to make its language gender-inclusive, I used Poe’s legendary poem about a grieving lover whose suffering is steadily exacerbated by a vexatiously laconic corvid visitor. So what better place to kick things off than where I began doing this purely for myself?

Also in this episode: after reading “The Raven” I take a few minutes to draw back the curtain and share precisely how I edited the poem to make the language gender neutral.

This is not something I plan to do for every episode. But I thought some listeners might appreciate an illustration of the specific sorts of grammatical changes that I make in the short stories and poetry read on this podcast.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoy what we’re doing, please support the show by rating and reviewing it on your preferred podcast platform, and share Liminal Flares with your friends.

New episodes every Thursday.

Writing/Editing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover art by Daniel Kern

More info at liminalflares.com

A Prelude at the Threshold

Maika — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0700

And now for something completely different. A personal story before eldritch story time officially begins: an introduction of myself, your narrator, and an illustration of why I created this show in the first place.

I created Liminal Flares because I know how much it would’ve meant to me to find this while growing up as a queer, trans, nonbinary person struggling comprehend themselves amid a relentlessly heteronormative world.

I created Liminal Flares to be found by anyone who needs these haunted and haunting, gender-inclusive tales - be that because we help you feel more seen, valid, and included, or simply because you enjoy otherworldly storytelling that doesn’t exclude anyone based on their gender.

I created Liminal Flares because present day me also needs things like this to exist in this fraught yet wondrous world.

Herein lies the context that makes Liminal Flares so much more than another podcast of spooky stories. (Not that there's any such thing as too many eerie, atmospheric podcasts!)

Weekly story time commences from here on out. We have such unearthly enchantments in store for you. New episodes every Thursday.⁣ Please share Liminal Flares with your friends.

A few links to things mentioned in this episode:

The Trevor Project study about Gender-Affirming Care for Youth

Your Lessons Now Trans Voice Lessons (follow them @yourlessonsnow)

Recently read books:

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi

Between You and Me: Transitional Comics by KC Councilor

Writing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover art by Daniel Kern

More info at liminalflares.com

Otherworldly Gender-Inclusive Bedtime Stories

Maika — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 05:30:00 -0700

What if there were a place where you could listen to haunting tales bedecked in unearthly music without ever smacking into language that breaks the spell of the story by pretending that people outside the gender binary don’t exist?

You’ve found that place. And I’m so glad you’re here.

This is Liminal Flares - weekly bedtime stories from beyond and in-between.

Join me, Maika, your queer, trans, nonbinary narrator, as I read pieces of eldritch literature drawn from the public domain and amended to be gender-inclusive.

Story time begins on Thursday, November 3rd.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and please share Liminal Flares with your friends.

Writing & Narration by Maika

Music by The Parlour Trick

Audio Engineering by Meredith Yayanos

Cover art by Daniel Kern

More info at liminalflares.com