More Forensics Pieces: Prose and Poetry, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror

My post breaking down the contents of Wolves and Witches for use as forensics pieces has become one of the most popular posts on this blog. (Hello, high school students!) For performers who are interested in something other than fairy tale retellings, here are some of my favorite publications. These are horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and range between about three minutes long and about fifteen minutes long. Cutting’s totally still allowed, right? Prose at the top, poetry at the bottom. Be aware of whether you’re choosing a piece for the National Forensics League (NFL) or the National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL). The NCFL allows pieces that have only been published electronically—the NFL does not. I’ve put the no-for-NFL, yes-for-NCFL pieces at the end. Of course, if you’re reading for class or for fun, who cares? Times are approximate, based on the 1-minute-per-standard-page rule.

Prose – NFL AND NCFL ACCEPTABLE

Escape from Ape City – 1st person, humorous horror (zombies), male narrator – 16 minutes – Read it here – Buy it in print: Zombie Kong

Good Neighbors – 3rd person, humorous dark fantasy (the Fae folk), male narrator  – 16 minutes – Buy it in print: Not Our Kind

The House, the Garden, and Occupants – 3rd person, quiet horror (ghosts), male and female characters – 14 minutes Buy it in print: Triangulation: Morning After

*Drift – 1st person, quiet horror (monsters), female narrator – 12 minutes Read it at Unlikely Story Buy it in print: Shock Totem #3

Two Things – 3rd person, humorous horror (zombies on a spaceship), male and female characters – 8 minutes – Read it here – Buy it in print: Zombonauts: Undead In the Universe

O How the Wet Folk Sing – 1st person, horror (Lovecraft underwater), male (frog) narrator – 7 minutes Buy it in print: FISH

David is Six – 3rd person, fantasy (wish-granting faery), male characters – 6 minutes Buy it in print: Triangulation: End of the Rainbow

*The Scry Mirror – 1st person, fantasy (witches), female characters – 6 minutes Buy it in print: What Fates Impose

Untouchable – 3rd person, fantasy (zombies), male and female characters – 4 minutes Read it here Buy it in print: Night Terrors II

Your Wicked Parts – 3rd person, horror (demon/psychopath), female characters – 4 minutes Read it at Untied Shoelaces of the Mind Buy it in print: Untied Shoelaces of the Mind Anthology 2011

The Hitchhikers – 1st person, horror, male and female characters – 4 minutes Buy in in print: Phobos

Omen – 1st person, whimsical romantic horror, male and female characters – 4 minutes Buy in in print: Shock Totem

Away and Below – 1st person, fantasy (goblins), female narrator – 3 minutes Read it here Buy it in print: Faed

My Rest a Stone – 1st person, horror (ghosts), female narrator – 3 minutes Read it here Buy it in print: Specter Spectacular

Xenofabulous – 1st person, humorous science fiction (aliens and fashion), gender-unspecified narrator – 3 minutes – Buy it in print: The Time It Happened

Prose – NCFL ONLY (published in electronic editions only)

On the Sabbath Day Be Ye Cleansed – 1st person, science fiction (off-planet colony), gender-unspecified narrator – 14 minutes Read it at Redstone Science Fiction

Shimmer – 1st person, science fiction (YA), female narrator – 10 minutes – Read it at Daily Science Fiction

Mr. Terwilliger Confesses – 1st person, humorous science fiction (time travel), male narrator – 9 minutes – Read it at UFOPub.com

Young Bones – 1st person, fantasy (fairy tale), female narrator – 4 minutes – Read it at Daily Science Fiction

The Winter Princess – 3rd person, fantasy (fairy tale), female and male characters – 4 minutes – Read it at Daily Science Fiction

Things I Wish I’d Known Before Drinking the Faerie Wine – 1st person, fantasy (faeries), gender-unspecified narrator – 4 minutes Buy it: Penumbra: Sept 2013

Dolly at the End of the World – 3rd person, horror/sci fi (the apocolypse), male and female characters – 4 minutes Read it at Daily Science Fiction

Remembrance in Stone – 3rd person, fantasy (magic), female characters – 4 minutes Read it at Daily Science Fiction

Things That Matter – 1st person, science fiction (Christmas, the apocalypse), gender-unspecified narrator – 4 minutes Read it here

In Memoriam – 3rd person, horror (vampire hunters), male characters – 3 minutes Read it at Daily Science Fiction

**Loving Armageddon – 3rd person, magical realism (relationships), male and female characters – 3 minutes Read it at Crossed Genres

The Gate, My Beloved; My Story, Its Key – 1st person, fantasy (stories), female characters – 3 minutes – Read it at Daily Science Fiction

She Opened Her Arms – 3rd person, fantasy (Tam Lin and changelings), female speaking characters – 3 minutes – Read it at Fantastic Stories of the Imagination

Poetry – NFL AND NCFL ACCEPTABLE

A Fixer-Upper – 1st person, humorous horror (haunted house), female narrator – 3 minutes Read it at Niteblade Buy it: Candle In the Attic Window

Missed Connections > Pocket Universe – 1st person, humorous science fiction (time travel), gender-unspecified narrator – 2 minutes Buy it: Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #57

Sparks Between Our Teeth – 1st person, science fiction (time travel), gender-unspecified narrator – 2 minutes Buy it: Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia or Bull Spec #8

*The Living Dead – 1st person, horror (zombies), gender-unspecified narrator – 1 minute Buy it: Not One of Us #47

*Long-listed for The Best Horror of the Year vol 4 (Drift), 5 (The Living Dead), and 6 (The Scry Mirror) by Ellen Datlow

**To be reprinted in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2

Love fairy tale retellings? Witches have stories too. So do mermaids, millers’ daughters, princes (charming or otherwise), even big bad wolves. They may be a bit darker–fewer enchanted ball gowns, more iron shoes. Happily-ever-after? Depends on who you ask. In Wolves and Witches, sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt weave sixteen stories and poems out of familiar fairy tales, letting them show their teeth. Available from  World Weaver Press in print, for Kindle, or for Nook.

Craving something longer? The Lair of the Twelve Princesses is a 9000-word sword-and-sorcery novelette, retelling the tale of the twelve dancing princesses featuring a soldier, her genie, and a castle full of treachery, available now at Smashwords or Amazon.