Beth Cato
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Articles by Beth Cato
The Fantastical Food of Fantasy Fiction - Reactor
Two words for you: Turkish Delight. In a discussion of food in the fantasy genre, we may as well start with one of most well-known examples. When I read the Narnia books at age 12—an age when I fervently wanted magic to be real—I was overwhelmed with curiosity about this mysterious confection called Turkish Delight. I mean, it had to be really good for Edmund Pevensie to sell off his family to the White Witch.
Different flames
“Fire day! Fire day!” Roger chanted, the other kids joining in. Elo shrank in her seat. She’d already dreaded today’s assignment, and Roger had to make everything worse. “Stop that!” their teacher, Mrs Hernandez, snapped as she entered the room. “But it’s finally the end of the unit on 2036!” Roger bounced in excitement. His father was captain of the orbital, and Roger declared on a regular basis that he’d be captain some day, too. His family had held command since the orbital’s launch.
Story time
Dervla had known for years that this moment would come, that an integral part of her life story must come to an end. Taking a rattling breath, she flipped the switch to manually activate Nan. After a few long seconds, the lights in Nan’s pupils stuttered to brightness. “Hello, Dervla.” The soft voice was quieter than it had been in their distant days of hiding and survival. “Ten minutes of battery remain.” Dervla nodded, unable to speak as she clutched Nan’s hand.
Dad always mows on summer Saturday mornings
I’d told Dad to wait to do his biweekly Saturday mowing because I was coming over, so of course, he was a quarter of the way through the job as my car parked itself. I sighed. He was so predictable. I waited for him by the open hatch of my car. He stopped mowing and approached, his dark skin sheened by sweat, his silver hair drenched beneath his cap. “The hat looks good,” I said. I’d suggested gifting him one that would send me biometric readings, but he’d insisted on basic cloth. He grunted.
A Feast for Starving Stone by Beth Cato
Review copy was received from NetGalley, Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. A Feast for Starving Stone by Beth Cato Published by Brilliance Audio on January 9, 2024 Genres: Fantasy Pages: 390 Length: 14 hours, 5 minutes Format: Audiobook, eARC Source: NetGalley, Publisher Goodreads Amazon, Audible Two countries at war. A delicious taste of magic.
As Does the Crow
As Does the Crow people say ‘as the crow flies’ to mean the direct route between two locations, but crows zig and zag dip and soar they pause to be curious they slip between the realms of the living and the dead they fly high enough to share dried bread crusts with the very stars and low enough to converse with eyeless fish therefore when I say my soul moves ‘as the crow flies’ you understand more of its flow seemingly erratic and yet it flies with purpose wherever it may go (Editors’ Note:...
A Thousand Recipes for Revenge: Magic simmers in this action adventure
A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato Set in a solidly defined second world, Beth Cato’s A Thousand Recipes For Revenge (2023) gives us political intrigue, rising stakes and a bubbling action adventure steeped in a new, culinary magical system. Adamantine Garland, who goes by Ada, is—or was—a chef, a magical adept who was part of the army of Verdania. When the king of Verdania betrayed her (and others) and disavowed her marriage, Ada deserted, holding a secret close to her heart.
Bready or Not: St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake
A disclaimer straight up: there are many variations on this recipe, and mine is based on a version published in Bake from Scratch Magazine. I can’t say how it compares to others out there, but I can say with confidence that my recipe here is DELICIOUS. There are a lot of steps here but the progression is straightforward. In the old European style, this consists of a yeast cake base with a varied top. Both layers are sweet, soft, and chewy, but in distinct ways. You can see that in the pictures.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2023
Subscribe to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction | View All Issues The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949, is the award-winning SF magazine which is the original publisher of SF classics like Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon, and Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Fall 2022 Flying Starts: C.C. Harrington
Debut author C.C. Harrington has felt a strong draw toward animal stories since her childhood in the English countryside. Among her favorite books were Redwall, the Rats of NIMH series, Watership Down, The Animals of Farthing Wood, and Paddington Bear.
Can’t Wait Wednesday: A Thousand Recipes for Revenge by Beth Cato
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to share upcoming book releases that we’re excited about! This meme is based on Waiting on Wednesday, which was created and hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
A light in the garden
History books like to focus on pivotal incidents such as peace treaties being signed by world powers, battles won or lost, and marriages brokered between dynasties. Those are all important, but history relies more often on quiet, boring moments that involve no major action, no blood, no drama. For that reason, my assignment today is a spring garden in southern California. The vibrancy around me puts rainbows to shame. Bees buzz, birds sing.
The 207th Time I Went Back to March 9, 1980
This is my 207th time returning to March 9, 1980, but the 35th time I have broken into my childhood home. Before I started using my homemade time machine, I had never been one to defy rules. Back at age seven, I stole a candy bar from a grocery store. Anvil-heavy guilt compelled me to confess everything to my mom before I’d taken a single bite. “Thank you for coming to me. You did the right thing,” she’d said, smiling. “You’ll remember this lesson forever.” Nothing is forever about memory.
Timeless Pie - Uncanny Magazine
Timeless Pie she saved her money to buy a thirty-minute trip back in time to visit the diner where she could watch her grandpa young with a head full of hair working behind the counter as she ate a piece of his maple apple pie with coffee the piece she ordered to-go traveled fifty years ahead of time to be sneaked to her grandma in hospice care who couldn’t eat more than a bite but breathed it in and smiled © 2022 Beth Cato Nebula-nominated Beth Cato is the author of the Clockwork Dagger...
With Cardamom I'll Bind Their Lips (Artemis Rising 5)
Cast of Wonders 353: With Cardamom I’ll Bind Their Lips (Artemis Rising 5) March 19, 2019 [ 4572 words ] Author : Beth Cato Narrator : Nika Harper Host : Amy Brennan Audio Producer : Jeremy Carter Artist : Yuumei Discuss on Forums First published in Uncanny Magazine (April 2017) Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:33 — 34.1MB) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | Podchaser | RSS With Cardamom I’ll Bind Their Lips by Beth Cato In the...
Escape Pod 813: A Consideration of Trees
Escape Pod 813: A Consideration of Trees December 2, 2021 [ 4728 words ] Author : Beth Cato Narrator : Sandra Espinoza Host : Alasdair Stuart Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Discuss on Forums A Consideration of Trees originally appeared in Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology in October 2020. Mentions of death, child endangerment, and physical child abuse.
The right cornbread
My NeurNet flashed the alert across my eyes: my kitchen was low on several staple ingredients required for my menu plan for the week. My initial reaction of ‘huh?’ was immediately replaced by worry. What was Mom making? My ’Net hadn’t sent me any alerts on her vitals, so I checked manually. Blood pressure and blood sugar looked fine, but her body position — was she sitting on the floor? Had she fallen? I pinged her ’Net. No answer. I pinged again. Still nothing.
Turkish Delight - Reactor
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Welcome home
The sentient construct of the late Tunde Lankham had lingered in sleep mode for months, all too aware of the steady decline in the battery life of the base that housed her consciousness. She fully roused in an instant at the tone indicating a presence at the restaurant’s front door. For an instant, she thought of employees arriving for the day, of how she’d greet every guest with a smile, as she had when she was alive.
How to Find Yourself Again
by Beth Cato Published in Jul. 2021 (Issue 69) | 252 words © 2021 by Beth Cato.
Shared pain
A migraine pulsed through the right side of Dana’s skull as she gazed at her boyfriend Coll, her eyes half-shut against the bright lights of the ShareShare medical chamber. Coll chuckled good-naturedly as he focused on his phone. An attendant affixed sensors to his body. “I need to show you this vid later.” Coll waggled his phone towards Dana, grinning. “Tomorrow, maybe.” Her migraines tended to last two days, and this one had started yesterday at dawn.
How to Find Yourself Again
by Beth Cato Published in July 2021 (Issue 69) | 405 words © 2021 by Beth Cato.
What friends are for
The only good thing about Mama getting hurt was that she kept falling asleep, and that’s why Benton was able to sneak out of the parking garage and go back home to get Barker. Benton’s apartment building was still standing, but his door was busted open and the windows were in a million pieces all over the floor. He hadn’t caused the mess, and he knew he shouldn’t get in trouble for it, but he still started to cry. Everything looked so wrong! Barker wasn’t on the dresser where he’d been left.
Beth Cato - Fantasy Magazine
Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She’s the Nebula Award-nominated author of the Clockwork Dagger duology and the Blood of Earth trilogy from Harper Voyager. Her short stories can be found in publications ranging from Beneath Ceaseless Skies to Uncanny Magazine. In 2019, she won the Rhysling Award for short speculative poetry.
2020 Year in Review and Awards Eligibility
In 2020, Escape Pod published 21 original science fiction stories and 32 reprint stories. We also published a print anthology with 9 original stories, and 6 reprints. If you are nominating and/or voting for these awards, please consider our original publications for the Short Story category of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, among others. The full list is below! Escape Pod is eligible for the Best Semiprozine Hugo Award.
PodCastle 405, ARTEMIS RISING: Beat Softly, My Wings of Steel
Show Notes Welcome back to Artemis Rising 2! Beat Softly, My Wings of Steel by Beth Cato By the light of the full moon, I crept onto a battlefield mounded with decaying soldiers and horses. Mud squished beneath my boots as I searched for a horse’s soul. This close to the Jen picket lines, they had likely already scavenged for souls of both flesh horses and those that had already been reborn as pegasi, but I was desperate.
Apocalypse playlist
Roar Like a Lion by Triumph Nothing like an 1980s arena rock ballad to establish optimism as news comes about the imminent, probable end of humanity. Music constantly streams through Orchid’s head thanks to the chip installed behind her right ear. Such implants are fairly commonplace, but most augment the brain and senses in other ways. Her curated filter of tunes enables her to work, survive, even to sleep in an otherwise overwhelming world.
Swashbuckling Cats ebook by Rhonda Parrish - Rakuten Kobo
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Bready or Not: Cadbury Egg Brownies
Three years ago, I shared my recipe for Cadbury Egg Brownies. Today we revisit that glorious recipe–and double it. Because it obviously didn’t deliver enough sweetness the first time around, right? Here’s the thing about these brownies: they taste like Cadbury Eggs, but BETTER. That’s because they aren’t as cloying sweet. The brownie layer balances things out in a magical way. This is a time-consuming recipe because of the layers and the refrigeration time involved, but it’s not hard.
Bready or Not: Ginger Chai Carrot Cake
Trust me, this Ginger Chai Carrot Cake is amazing. This is the only carrot cake I have ever liked. That’s right, I made the cake even though I was pretty ambivalent about carrot cakes overall. The combination of ingredients just appealed to me somehow. I actually went out and made the cake a week after reading the original recipe in Bake from Scratch Magazine.
Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology
Description Since 2005, Escape Pod has been at the forefront of a new fiction revolution, bringing the finest short fiction to millions of listeners worldwide. Now editors Mur Laffterty and S.B. Divya bring you fifteen science fiction stories from fan-favourite authors. From reality engineering to the budding theater group on a generation ship; bizarre alien species to clockwork automata; visions of a polluted and broken world to global rewilding projects; teddy bear spiders to tiger lawyers.
The human is late to feed the cat
A waiting game. Sassafras was most displeased. The woman was late to return home. Sassafras positioned herself in the hallway with a clear vantage point of both the front door and the laundry room that contained her barren wet-food dish. Credit: Illustration by Jacey Her anxiety increased as the hours passed. She fully groomed herself five times over, and even lapsed her guard duties long enough to eat some dry kibble; that dish was despairingly low as well. Her snack done, she resumed her watch.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - July/August 2019
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – July/August 2019 Subscribe to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction | View All Issues The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949, is the award-winning SF magazine which is the original publisher of SF classics like Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon, and Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Sometimes you end up where you are
Illustration by Jacey One of Grandma’s favourite sayings had been: “Sometimes you end up where you are.” Her quirky sense of humour helped her endure the arduous decades she spent perfecting her time machine. Now Liz had ended up in 1984, her ten-year-old daughter Sasha beside her. They stood before the holiday window spectacle of Canford’s Furniture Store.
The wind knows all
Illustration by Jacey The wind knows all. Even as it roars, it listens. It understands each blade of grass, each grain of dust, the very burden of its soil. Above everything else, the wind wishes its world to survive. It knows the girl stands ready, eyes squinting as the Lady’s shuttlecraft lands amid what was once the town square. The girl is the last to remain of this aborted colony. Humans arrived here just 15 years earlier, determined to tame this far-flung world.
Tales of Excellent Cats
Before we were six. Now we are one. We differ on many points, but on these we agree: Always trust our instincts, always reward loyalty, and always pounce upon minions of the Unseen. Without these tenets, we are no longer worthy of the adoration of Man. Monarch Trillani Persian von Mau, deceased Cats have inherited the world, unifying their six fractious monarchies after untold centuries. These cats have been uplifted to use tools and language, and they seek to rediscover the ruins of the Old Ones.
Deep Roots by Beth Cato
From the author of The Clockwork Dagger and The Clockwork Crown comes a compilation of short works set in the same world: The Deepest Poison, Final Flight,and the Nebula-nominated Wings of Sorrow and Bone. THE DEEPEST POISON Octavia Leander, a young healer with incredible powers, has found her place among Miss Percival’s medicians-in-training. Called to the front lines of war, the two women must uncover the source of a devastating illness that is killing thousands of soldiers.
The Clockwork Dagger: A Novel|NOOK Book
Overview Full of magic, mystery, and romance, an enchanting steampunk fantasy debut in the bestselling vein of Trudi Canavan and Gail Carriger. Orphaned as a child, Octavia Leander was doomed to grow up on the streets until Miss Percival saved her and taught her to become a medician. Gifted with incredible powers, the young healer is about to embark on her first mission, visiting suffering cities in the far reaches of the war-scarred realm.
The Peculiar Gravity of Home
Everyone else in the lunar base could continue to fluster and fuss over the lack of aeroships from Earth, but I needed to find Mister White Whiskers forthwith. “Where have you gotten yourself to, you silly thing?” My brittle, high voice echoed within the narrow duct. I’d done this job for nigh fifteen years, and this was the first time a cat had vanished in the midst of work.
A picture is worth
Illustration by Jacey In Klatok’s brief time on Earth, one thing had become clear: humans had no comprehension of the damage done by their kind. Klatok had accepted the onerous burden of their mission with a fervent desire to deliver justice. After weeks on Earth, they were no less committed to their cause, yet mourned how the coming cataclysm would delay humanity’s enlightenment. Even so, the event must happen. The immortal souls of Klatok’s kind must take priority.
The Roost of Ash and Fire
Easy Prey tried to concentrate, but the music made it hard. The sweet-smelling love songs his coworkers preferred left an acid taste in the back of his throat. He would have used a portable facemask for his own music—Prey liked his songs pungent, with a little more rhythmic savagery in them—but Sharp Salt, his boss, had strictly forbade personal music organisms. Ruins team unity, she said. The data blurred a little in his nostrils.
The Fantastical Food of Fantasy Fiction
Two words for you: Turkish Delight. In a discussion of food in the fantasy genre, we may as well start with one of most well-known examples. When I read the Narnia books at age 12—an age when I fervently wanted magic to be real—I was overwhelmed with curiosity about this mysterious confection called Turkish Delight. I mean, it had to be really good for Edmund Pevensie to sell off his family to the White Witch.
Breath of Earth
After the earth’s power under her city is suddenly left unprotected, a young geomancer must rely on her unique magic to survive in this fresh fantasy standalone from the author of the acclaimed The Clockwork Dagger. In an alternate 1906, the United States and Japan have forged a powerful confederation— the Unified Pacific—in an attempt to dominate the world. Their first target is a vulnerable China.
The Fantastical Food of Fantasy: Magic Made Real
Two words for you: Turkish Delight. In a discussion of food in the fantasy genre, we may as well start with one of most well-known examples. When I read the Narnia books at age 12—an age when I fervently wanted magic to be real—I was overwhelmed with curiosity about this mysterious confection called Turkish Delight. I mean, it had to be really good for Edmund Pevensie to sell off his family to the White Witch.
ROAR OF SKY by Beth Cato
The conclusion to Cato’s (Red Dust and Dancing Horses and Other Stories, 2017, etc.) Blood of Earth trilogy takes its magically gifted young heroine to Hawaii on a quest to understand both herself and her extraordinary powers so she can save the world and the people she loves.
Breath of Earth by Beth Cato | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble®
After the earth’s power under her city is suddenly left unprotected, a young geomancer must rely on her unique magic to survive in this fresh fantasy standalone from the author of the acclaimed The Clockwork Dagger. In an alternate 1906, the United States and Japan have forged a powerful confederation— the Unified Pacific—in an attempt to dominate the world. Their first target is a vulnerable China.
The 133rd Live Podcast of the Gourmando Resistance
Claudia had been a devotee of the Gourmando Resistance Podcast since episode 20. She knew what to do as hostess. She knew she may not have much time to do it. Her battery-operated stove burner was assembled, the large pot atop it half full of oil at approximately 180 °C. Her dough was mixed. Half of it was loaded into an old plastic device that, oddly enough, was called a gun, although this device extruded dough in various shapes and sizes, depending on the disc that was loaded into the end.
How One Writer Wrestled With Imposter Syndrome Until She Got Published
I arrived at my very first writers' conference and workshop, nauseated at the thought that the whole trip might be a huge waste of money and effort. After years of struggle, I had a few good short-story publications to my name, but so far, I'd failed to achieve my biggest goal: selling a novel.
Stitched Wings by Beth Cato
Madeline fled from her new governess and into the shadowy strangeness of the garden. Strange, this garden, because she and Mother had scarcely been in that house for a week, and more so because Mother had expressly forbidden her from that part of the property. That made the garden the ideal hiding spot. After their months in the desert hinterlands of Drell, the greenery of the stone-walled paradise delighted Madeline.
To This You Cling, With Jagged Fingernails
Your awareness of magic is dying, and now Grandma is dead, too. The two losses are not directly connected, and yet they are. You have felt the awful ordinariness of the world intrude upon you. Clouds are slow to form recognizable shapes. Animals are more reticent to speak. Maybe they smell the hormones that steep within your body and rot your ability to see and accept magic.
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