Storyfeather Gazette: Monster-hunters battle bloodsuckers, desert creatures challenge a demon, and a student struggles with a rebellious spell

Published 8 months ago • 2 min read

September 2025 Issue 1

In this issue: Short stories and podcast episodes from the first half of September, and a "did you know" about a way to quickly explore all stories.

Circle format, a three-quarters view of Nila's smiling face from a photo with an oil paint filter applied.

THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF "SPELL" 🗯

I released a poll last time to ask what theme I might choose for September, and I heard...crickets 🦗

There could be any number of reasons for this. One of them is that my choices were uninspired and didn't seem fun. After all, if I had a fun theme in mind, I wouldn't have asked in the first place, would I? 😈

You can read about what I ended up choosing below.

✒️ 🪶 🎙

Greetings! I'm Nila. Every week, I release a new short story and a new podcast episode spanning the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, mythology, fairy tale, fable, and horror.

Whether you're in the mood to read or listen, I've got stories to tell you.

Spell-tember 🙊

✒️ For this month's theme, the many meanings of the word "spell." A spell of strange weather. Spelling words. Casting spells.

🎙 The podcast episodes this issue explore thresholds.

Titles and taglines below. Enjoy!

Short Stories

Digital drawing. A young woman from shoulders up at center, face turned three-quarters to the right. Her left hand is held with fingers curled down and index finger extended just below her mouth, which is parted as if to form the letter “o.” Words surround her, in different colors, fonts, and orientations. Counterclockwise from center: “Laugh” sparkling and curved at her throat like a necklace, “Smile” in curling glowing font resting along her shoulder, “Hide” translucent and patchy near her ear, “Help” stretched tall in a dark patch above her head, “Heal” in thick wavering letters, “Forgive” being blown from her mouth in letters small to big, and “Infect” in sharp dripping font that pierces the back of her hand. She looks down at the word “Forgive.” Watermark of “Storyfeather” along the inside of her left arm. Copyright notice along left side read, “Copyright © 2025 Nila L. Patel.”

We're in Year 12, the Year of Praxis. The word essentially means "practice." Through the stories, I'm exploring elements of my writing practice.

Each link below leads directly to the story post.

CLASH OF THE BLOODSUCKERS
When a bloodsucker survives being struck by sunlight, two sibling monster-hunters investigate. 🩸

Genre: Horror to Mythology
(Written in August but posted in September, this story follows the August theme.)

DESERT BELOW AND SEA ABOVE
One day, a demon settled in a desert, bearing its doom in the form of a stolen sea. 🏜

Genre: Fable, Fantasy

THE FIRST SPELL OF CALLIA
Three students cast a spell that should give one of them the power to manifest the meaning of their words, but the spell instead manifests the words themselves. 💬

Genre: Fantasy

Podcast Episodes

Digital drawing. Left half bottom, a woman in a plaid shirt and wearing a parachute harness seen from the waist-up, glancing up and over her left shoulder. Right half, a translucent tree with two branches. An eagle with rainbow-colored feathers is perched on one branch, wings partly extended, gazing down at the woman. Bars of light cross around the woman and the eagle. The ground is a hazy. Sparks and hazy bubbles are dispersed everywhere. Watermark of "Storyfeather" along bar of light at left.

We're in season 8, the Year of Revisitation. Each episode is a standalone story, but it's inspired by an earlier story.

The text links below go to the Explore page on Storyfeather, where you can listen to the episode, find the links to the episode(s) that inspired it, and more.

Pressing on the Spotify embed image leads to the episode's Spotify page.

THE DOORWAY OF DISARRAY

Using alchemy and electricity, a man builds a doorway that's meant to isolate the mind of anyone who passes through it. 🚪

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction

The Doorway of Disarray

Sep 5 · Storyfeather

44:21

THE MARGIN ALIEN

To rescue her brother, a woman jumps into what she believes is a dimensional rift generated by a device that he has invented. 👽

Genre: Science Fantasy

The Margin Alien

Sep 12 · Storyfeather

45:38

🦠

Sickly green and fleshy red, spiked and dripping, the letters scraped along Callia's palm.

They climbed to the back of her hand.

They flared and leapt toward Raven. They landed on her cheek.

Raven batted and pinched at her face, but her fingers passed right through the letters. They hooked her skin, swung beneath her nose, crawled in.

—From "The First Spell of Callia"

Every Captain needs a Navigator 🧭

Did you know I create hub pages on my site to help you explore all the stories I release in a specific year? Here's a GIF of the page for Year 12.

GIF: A screen recording of the top of the Storyfeather Year 12 page. A banner at top reads "Praxis" and "Year 12" with a text block below. Then a scroll down the page to show a "Go to the End" button and the first five stories, arranged within a box with a dark background. Each story displays an image, the title, a "Read" button, and text box below with tagline and genre.

Links to the rest of the hub pages are in the slide-out menu when you visit storyfeather.com.

Parting words🪶

We're approaching the end of Year 12. I've already started preparing for lucky 13. In the meantime, I've got more enchantments in store for September, and spooks approaching for October.

Happy reading and listening! 📚
—Nila

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