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Teenager Zelle finds herself introduced to her family’s tradition – and amazing power – to hold audiences with the dead. But do the town elders in this remote part of Idaho have Zelle and her mother's best interests in mind? Marguerite Croft is a writer, podcaster, and mother based in the San Francisco Bay Area whose work whose leans towards the intersection of real people and the fantastic. The production is performed by Maiya Koloski, with Shannon Campbell, Christine Marshall, Chris Price, Joe Bearor and Casey Turner. Produced by Casey Turner and Karlyn Daigle. Directed by Casey Turner. Engineered, Edited, Sound Designed by Karlyn Daigle. Recorded at Mind’s Eye Productions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we would like to introduce you to a new story in the Dark Tome universe: Undertow Listen to Undertow: A Dark Tome Story wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to Realm+ on Apple Podcasts to access the entire show now, ad-free. Visit Realm.fm for more information. When investigative journalist Tony Baxter returns to his hometown of Simpson Falls, Maine, a mysterious conspiracy unearths secrets from his past he can’t escape. Joined by friend and fellow lost soul Sonia Proud, Tony must confront the tragedy that shaped him deep in the New England woods— but if they aren’t careful, the malevolent forces in Simpson Falls won’t let them escape.  Undertow: A Dark Tome Story is created and written by Fred Greenhalgh, Produced by Dagaz Media, and presented by Realm. Listen Away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A group of buddies goes hunting in the Maine woods and find an evil beyond imagination. This haunting story is penned by Morgan Sylvia -- a metalhead, an Aquarius, a beer snob, coffee addict, and a work in progress. A former obituarist, she is now a full-time freelance writer. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Pseudopod, Forgotten Realms, Wicked Witches, Wicked Haunted, Northern Frights, Haunted House Short Stories, Endless Apocalypse, Twice Upon An Apocalypse, and The Final Summons, among others. Her first poetry collection, Whispers From The Apocalypse, was released in 2014. Her debut horror novel, Abode, was released by Bloodshot Books in 2017. Her second novel, Dawn, the first book of a fantasy trilogy, was released in 2018. Her most recent book, As The Seas Turn Red, an ocean-themed poetry collection, was nominated for an Elgin Award. She lives in Maine with her boyfriend, two cats, and a chubby goldfish. Nathan Dana Aldritch is a native Mainer currently calling Los Angeles home where he’s a professional actor and also slinger of a mean drink. He has over a dozen television appearances to his name as well and numerous stage credits with such awesome roles depicted as “Psychotic Redneck” “Paranoid Husband” “The Devil” and .. The Elephant Man. If you’ve checked out our standalone mini-series The Dark Tome: Undertow, he plays the small town bureaucrat Marty Ducharme. Sound Design/Editing - Fred Greenhalgh. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Additional sound and music by Mind’s Eye Productions. CONTENT WARNING: This story has strong language and really messes with your mind. Not recommended for listening while on psychedelics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Dark Tome exclusive short story reading of The Ding Ding, written and read by Judith Pancoast. It's the 1970s. A teenager accepts a babysitting job with a strange family because she's dying to scrape up a few bucks to buy records. But this job will prove the strangest she's ever taken when a haunted "Ding Ding" turns up in the middle of the night. Judith Pancoast is a Grammy-nominated musician and writer born and brought up in Waterville, Maine. Her stories have appeared in the new Journal of the Horror Writers of Maine, Northern Frights, and a third was published in the summer edition of the Scary Snippets anthology. Judith is now a proud member of the Horror Writers Association Sound design and music by Carter Wogahn. And featuring the sound of 'haunted ice cream truck' Fred has been dying to put into a production for the better part of 8 years... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week a reading of the short story JANINE, a haunting tale of youth gone awry thanks to devils in the Maine woods. Story by Emma J Gibbon - Emma J. Gibbon is originally from Yorkshire in the U.K. and now lives in Midcoast Maine. She is a Rhysling-nominated speculative poet, horror writer and librarian. Her debut fiction collection, Dark Blood Comes from the Feet, is out now from Trepidatio Publishing and was one of NPR’s best books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in the Toasted Cake podcast, The Muse & The Flame and the New England Horror Writers anthologies, Wicked Haunted and Wicked Weird. Her poetry has been published in Strange Horizons, Liminality, Pedestal Magazine, Kaleidotrope and Eye to the Telescope. Emma lives with her husband, Steve, and three exceptional animals: Odin, Mothra, and M. Bison (also known as Grim) in a spooky little house in the woods. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the New England Horror Writers, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association and the Tuesday Mayhem Society. Read by Lisa Stathoplos - Lisa Stathoplos is an actor, voice artist and special education teacher/behavior specialist. She's been acting on stage, film and video for forty years; teaching for twenty. Moving north from her beloved theatrical home, Portland, Maine, Lisa lives in Searsport with Michael and a motley collection of adopted furry creatures. Sound design and music editing by Carter Wogahn. Thanks to the Fable and Folly network for ad support and Brooklinen for underwriting this episode. Enjoy $20 off your $100 order by going to Brooklinen.com and using Promo Code TOME. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's story is the haunting GARGOYLES, by Stephanie Diaz Reppen. You heard Stephanie's work as Sonia in Dark Tome Undertow. Performing as Stephanie Diaz, she is an accomplished and versatile actress - as, as well as horror aficionado and writer. Stephanie's short story Gargoyles is a treatise on the dark rooms found in every home, and the monsters that lurk within. Content warning: alludes to child sexual abuse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A strange tale of toys left to fend for themselves after a great disaster occurs to humans. Written by Alex Jennings, read by Kym Dakin, with sound design and music editing by Carter Wogahn. This episode brought to you by Function of Beauty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A chapter ends, and a new chapter opens - insofar as there are beginnings, and ends, and middles.

Tony has the opportunity to revisit the moment in his childhood when everything changed, and faces an impossible choice.

Today, an original short story by Dark Tome creator Fred Greenhalgh, HENRY - a meditation on loss, and a study of the power of love to hold off the forces of darkness. Inspired by the steadfast heart of his late pet, Henry. Content warning: depicts pet mortality. This short story appears in the winter 2021 edition of Northern Frights: The Journal of HORROR WRITERS of MAINE [http://horrorwritersme.com/northernfrights/] Written, read, sound designed by Fred Greenhalgh with sounds/music from Mind's Eye Productions studios. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Knocked off balance between there and now and the over there, Sonia latches on to an unreliable narrator to help her track down Tony. The crossing will be more dangerous than she could ever imagine.

Sonia's nightmares may become reality as Tony makes a momentous decision to confront his past.

Tony and Sonia find themselves within the mirrored walls of the Malleus Corporation building, fighting to hang on to health and sanity, as memory and reality grow increasingly unreliable.

With their stay in Simpson Falls unexpectedly extended, Tony and Ricky visit an old childhood haunt while Sonia unearths secrets tucked along the river.

Tony takes Sonia to the iconic Mona's Diner, and while grappling with the age-old question, "Whoopie pie or blueberry pie?" an unexpected visitor changes their trajectory.

As Tony ponders shocking new information, Sonia joins Digby and Madge for a Dark Tome conspiracy theory tour. As they see the sites -- the distressed downtown, the site of a legendary bookshop -- Sonia discovers she's getting far more than she bargained for.

Tony's blurry childhood memory comes into clear focus during a nightmare which quickly transitions to the world of the waking. He and Sonia pull together to get to their assignment - the Press Conference about the new hospital - and start to get a feel for what's really going down in Simpson Falls.

Reporter Tony Baxter is called back to his home town of Simpson Falls, Maine to investigate a new multi-million dollar boutique hospital project by the mysterious Malleus Corporation. He's joined by photojournalist and friend, Sonia Proud, but as the two wind their way from Boston to Maine, it quickly becomes clear that Tony's misgivings with the town are shrouded with a childhood tragedy which threatens to emerge from underneath the surface.

Today we announce Dark Tome Season 3 - yahooo! Coming in January, 2021.Also, a re-play of a classic horror radio play, reinvented by Fred's FinalRune Productions.Three men who tend the light at a reclusive island off the coast of French Guiana see a rogue ship adrift in the Atlantic. The reason for the derelict ship soon becomes obvious – it has been overrun by hundreds of thousands of ferocious ship's rats.The rats land on the isle and soon we are in for a claustrophobic tale of terror as the three men struggle to keep their minds from cracking under the pressure of thousands and thousands of squeaking, scratching, hungry rats.Written by George Toudouze, adapted for radio by James PoePart of the FinalRune/Mad Horse Old Time Radio on Location Project

"I gotta give you a warning: there is no truth about the Dark Tome. If you think I can tell you anything certain about it, well, turn your computer off now and knock yourself in the head for the fool you are. What makes you think we can ever understand something so old?" A special episode featuring recovered tape of the author, Wilbur Gussy, reading his controversial 1999 essay, "The Curious History of the Dark Tome," long thought to be an apocryphal part of internet history. Though its authenticity has been hotly debated in academic and online forums over the ensuing two decades, none can cast doubt how effective it was at creating a lucrative online book business for the AOL user who wrote it. The more cynical online commenters suggest that it was written as a crass commercial publicity stunt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices