Four Havok Flash Fiction Stories

by Nadine Brandes, Katherine Briggs, Ruth Nguyen, and Karyne Norton

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show notes

In this episode you’ll hear four flash fiction stories ranging from magical schools to steampunk. All four were originally published by Havok and were written by Nadine Brandes, Katherine Briggs, Ruth Nguyen, and Karyne Norton. The stories are narrated by Paeter Frandsen and Karyne Norton.

Important Links:

The Author: Karyne Norton’s website, where you can get The Light That Takes for free

The Author: Ruth Nguyen’s newsletter sign up

The Author: Katherine Briggs’ website, where you can get Experiments and Enchantment for free

The Author: Nadine Brandes’ website; be sure to check out her newest book, The Nightmare Virus

The Narrator: Paeter Frandsen’s website

This month’s giveaway

Listeners’ Choice Award: Vote for your favorite story here!

Finding Fantasy Reads is taking a summer break! Episodes will resume August 6th, 2024!

full transcript

Karyne (00:00:07) – Hi fantasy readers. This is Karyne Norton, your fellow book binger, and you are listening to the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast where you can test out a new fantasy story every single week to find your next favorite author.

I wanted to do something fun for the last episode of the season, so I decided to pick four flash fiction stories from four different authors. Two of the stories are being featured in a brand new anthology from Havok, and two of them are from deep in the Havok archives, but they are handpicked by me because I adore the stories and the authors. It’s an eclectic collection with a magic school setting, a bittersweet love story, a steampunk, and a Wizard of Oz story, so there’s something for everyone.

I want to make sure you get to know a little bit about all the authors today, because each one is worth your attention, so I’ll introduce each author and story as we go. Be sure to stick around to the end for info about our giveaway and our Listener’s Choice Award. I need your votes to pick a winner.

The first story is easy to introduce because it’s one of my own, and it’s narrated by my brother, Paeter Frandsen. It’s about a boy who visits a phoenix hatchery and discovers a secret not just about phoenixes, but about himself. Last summer, I submitted A Dying Phoenix to Havok on a whim, and in addition to being published, it went on to be picked for the Reader’s Choice Award for their Season 10 anthology, Legendary. That anthology was published just last week, and it has over 30 fantastic flash fiction stories if you’re looking for more great stories and authors.

I also recently found out A Dying Phoenix was chosen as a finalist for the Realm Makers Short Story Fiction Award. The winner will be announced at their dinner in July. Frankly, I will be a winner even if I don’t win, because the winner will have to give a speech, and it’s one thing for me to hide in my closet and read you all a bunch of stories, and it’s another for me to stand up on a stage and put two words together. Regardless, I’m so grateful for the amount of love people have shown for this story. Please enjoy A Dying Phoenix by Karyne Norton.

Paeter (00:02:25) –  A Dying Phoenix is read by Paeter Frandsen. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. 

Karyne (00:10:23) – I hope you enjoyed listening to A Dying Phoenix by Karyne Norton, narrated by Paeter Frandsen of Christian Geek Central. You should all know where to find more of my books by now, but just in case, I’ll have a direct link in the show notes to my website, where you can snag the prequel to my epic fantasy series, as well as a link to the Havok anthology that came out last week.

This next story is also in the anthology, and it’s written by Ruth Nguyen. As a child of immigrant parents, Ruth found her place to belong in fictional worlds. Her classical education, studies at the Author Conservatory, and voracious reading habit fuel her quest after truth and beauty. When she’s not writing magical characters finding victory in darkness, she can be found reading Shakespeare, singing opera, and training her dogs in rural South Carolina.

Her story, Seaflash, hits that poignant balance of tragic and hope that I always find myself drawn to. And since it was also chosen for the Legendary anthology, I know I’m not the only one who loved it. I’ll be sure to tell you more about Ruth and her books in a few minutes, but for now, please enjoy Seaflash by Ruth Nguyen. 

Karyne (00:011:46) –  Seaflash is read by Karyne Norton. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. 

Karyne (00:20:04) – I hope you enjoyed listening to Seaflash by Ruth Nguyen, narrated by Karyne Norton. If you want to read more by Ruth, it’s coming, but you’ll have to sign up for her newsletter to keep track of it. I’ll have a direct link to her Instagram and sign-up page in the show notes, and I’ll even throw the Havok anthology link in there a second time because I really think you all would love it.

This next story can be found deep in the Havok archives, and it’s written by Katherine Briggs. Katie crafted her first monster story at age three. Since graduating from crayons to laptop, she continues to devour and weave fantasy tales while enjoying chai tea. She lives outside Houston with her co-adventurer husband and rescue dog, and she classically educates amazing middle school students, teaches ESL to adults, and enjoys studying other languages. Her flash fiction story, The Tinker, is a fun little steampunk story that leaves me wanting more in this world. Okay, I won’t make you wait any longer. Please enjoy The Tinker by Katherine Briggs.

Paeter (00:11:15) –  The Tinker is read by Paeter Frandsen. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. 

Karyne (00:27:39) – I hope you enjoyed listening to The Tinker by Katherine Briggs, narrated by Paeter Frandsen of Christian Geek Central. In addition to being one of my closest writing friends, Katie is the fantastic author of The Eternity Gate, the first book in a YA fantasy duology put out by Enclave. The second book comes out this fall and I can’t wait to read it. While we’re all waiting, you can head to Katie’s website and sign up for her email newsletter to grab her short story collection, Experiments and Enchantment. I’ll have the direct link for it in the show notes.

If you enjoyed listening to Paeter narrate either my story or Katie’s, you might also enjoy listening to his podcast, Christian Geek Central, where he discusses movies, video games, and all things enjoyed by self-proclaimed geeks from a Christian worldview.

This last story is kind of the reason I had this whole idea. One of my very favorite authors doesn’t write short stories, and it made me sad that I had no excuse to invite her to be featured on the podcast. Until I discovered something so far back in the Havok archives that it’s not even in their digital archives, but their old magazines. It was a fun little story featuring a munchkin who’s destined to save Oz, and it was written by Nadine Brandes.

Nadine is the author of six young adult books that range from dystopian to historical fantasy. Her dystopian Out of Time series is one of my son’s favorites, and her fantasy, Wishtress, is one of mine. She is an adventurer with four kids all born in the last six years, and she loves Jesus, Harry Potter, and Fiddler on the Roof. I haven’t actually sat through a complete viewing of that last one, so maybe I should revisit it. I’ll have more info on Nadine’s books in a few minutes, but for now, please enjoy Great and Powerful by Nadine Brandes.

Karyne (00:29:40) –  Great and Powerful is read by Karyne Norton. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. 

Karyne (00:39:21) – I hope you enjoyed listening to Great and Powerful by Nadine Brandes, narrated by Karyne Norton. Nadine has a brand new science fantasy book coming out in July called The Nightmare Virus. It’s Inception meets Ready Player One, which means it would be an automatic buy for me even if it wasn’t written by her. I’ll have the pre-order link in the show notes.

Don’t forget we’re running another giveaway this month. You have only four more days to enter to win several fantasy audiobooks along with a three-month Audible subscription. You can enter to win at findingfantasyreads.com/giveaway and I’ll have the link in the show notes.

But wait! This is the final full episode of the season and I have a very important task for you. I know I always close out the episode asking for you to leave a review or sign up for the newsletter, something to help grow the podcast and keep us connected. But today I’m asking you to do one last thing for the season, and I would venture to say it’s the thing I want you to do the most out of anything I’ve ever asked. I want you to vote for your favorite story on the podcast this first season.

There are so many to choose from I know it’s going to be hard, but I have them all laid out on a Google form and you simply have to click and submit. This award is more important to me than the others because this tells me what you want more of and it tells the author just how much his or her stories are valued and authors need to hear that. We’re sort of a self-deprecating bunch and an award like this can help us finish whatever tough chapter we’re writing.

So please go to findingfantasyreads.com/vote or click on the direct link in the show notes to place your vote. I’ll be announcing the award winners on a short bonus episode in June but otherwise you all will have to wait until August 6th to hear my voice again. I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for listening, have a wonderful summer, and happy reading.

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Narrators

A fan of comic books, sci-fi, and fantasy since childhood, Paeter Frandsen is the owner and chief content creator of Christian Geek Central. He lives in Mesa, AZ with his wife and two sons.

Karyne Norton hasn’t found the key to time travel, immortality, or infinite lives, so she’s taking a break from nursing and photography to focus on raising four human beings while writing epic fantasy.