The Hidden Gems Podcast (The Best Short Stories You've Never Heard)

He couldn't love her in life, but he could avenge her in death! Today's episode features a short story written by Dan Hitt, entitled "Crown Your Hatred," which is set in a brutal, far off world of mysterious assassins and duplicitous tin men.

For a chance to have YOUR story featured, please submit your short story of 5,000 words or less to
www.TheHiddenGemsPodcast.com

If you liked this podcast, check out the Midnight Balloon podcast at www.MidnightBalloon.com where two friends of questionable humor make unspeakable confessions! Join Rodney Hom and Dr. Cathleen McCarthy as they take a disarming journey through the mysteries of psychopaths vs. sociopaths, getting rid of the body, homicidal kids, ghosts and avoiding demon possession.

If you enjoyed The Hidden Gems Podcast, we would love it if you would subscribe, rate and recommend to your friends and family.

A special thank you to the talented John Bell for sound design! You can find John's podcast, The Bell's in The Batfry at https://thebatfry.com/

*Thank you for listening! *

A young Vietnam soldier finds himself on his first sweep and destroy mission with a commanding officer who may or may not be up for an Article 15 for making a Charlie eat the mud off his boots.

Thank you for listening to The Hidden Gems Podcast, which is dedicated to bringing you the best short stories that you've never heard. For more short stories on The Hidden Gems Podcast, please go to: https://www.thehiddengemspodcast.com/podcast

If you liked what you liked this story, you can find more of C. Mack Lewis's fiction at https://cmacklewis.com/

John Bell is our was our narrator and he is also the writer, producer, and actor on the award-winning "Bell's in the Batfry" podcast, which can be found at http://thebatfry.libsyn.com/

We are always looking forward to discovering our next writer, so if you are interested in contributing, please send us your short story of fewer than 5,000 words to [email protected]

Thank you for listening!

Exactly how far will Ralph the Exterminator go to get the perfect Christmas tree? And what IS the difference between robbing the homes of Republicans versus Democrats? Find out in today's short story!

Join us for Episode 9 of The Hidden Gems Podcast, which features the short story "The Christmas Tree" which was written by C. Mack Lewis. For more information and writing from C. Mack Lewis, go to https://cmacklewis.com/

Narrated by John Bell who is also the writer, actor and producer of The Bell's in The Batfry podcast, which can be found at https://thebatfry.com/.

Submit your own short story of 5,000 words or less for a chance to be featured on The Hidden Gems Podcast at: https://www.thehiddengemspodcast.com/

If you like this podcast, check out the Midnight Balloon podcast, which is a limited-series podcast of topics you were told you'd go to Hell for discussing. https://www.midnightballoon.com/

Craving noir? Dig in and find out what happens when a down-on-his-luck reporter gets caught in the cross-hairs of the one woman he’s never been able to forget. Is it love? Or does she have an ulterior motive that just might get him killed?

I'm your host, Cathy McCarthy, but I also write fiction under the pseudonym C. Mack Lewis and this is my short story. I was born in South Jersey, the land of Silk City diners, nuclear plants, corn fields and the Jersey Devil. My youth was spent reading voraciously, everything from Trixie Belden's (in the vain hope that Jim would slip Trixie the tongue) to my Aunt Mary Ellen's steamy bodice-ripping novels to anything in the stack of books my dad brought home from the library every Saturday, which got me hooked on the novels of Robert Ludlum and Donald E. Westlake.

After earning a degree in Marketing at Auburn University, I spent the next five years in the business world, which is a polite way of saying that I had eleven jobs in a five year period, including door to door sales, skip tracing people who didn't want to be found, repossessing cars and collecting on defaulted student loans. During this five-year period, I did an in-depth study of abnormal psychology and sociopathic behavior - and then I divorced him.

I didn't have enough money for therapy, so I decided to go to medical school where I earned a degree as a doctor of podiatric medicine. That kept me occupied for the first two years and then I had what I refer to as a 'walking nervous breakdown'. The school psychologist, Terry Murphy (thank you!) helped put me back together and I finished the last two years with weekly therapy and a healthy dose of legal pharmaceuticals.

My two-year surgical residency in Buffalo, New York introduced me to a new world of human behavior, including junkies, addicts, criminals, punks, S&M beauty queens and angry housewives with ice picks.

Upon graduation, I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona where I moved into my parent's guest room (my standard of living sky-rocketed!) and I took a loan to open a private practice so I could (finally!) be my own boss. I've been in practice since 2000 and I've made Phoenix magazine's 'Top Doc' list in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016. I am passionate about podiatry and helping people who suffer from foot pain. I write the blog 'Podiatry Shoe Review', which is dedicated to helping people find good-looking shoes that are good for your feet and are pathology specific.

With the money from my loan to start the practice, I hired and an old-fashioned matchmaker to find me a decent man with a career. She did find me a lovely man whom I dated for a year and a half - and then I met my husband, whom I adore.

I love being a podiatrist and I am not ready to quit my day gig to become a full-time writer - mostly because I think I would go bat-shit crazy without the grounding (and humbling) force of dealing with the complex, subtle and fascinating world of feet. No, I do not have a foot fetish, but one does become fond of feet when they start paying for your mortgage and vacations.

My screenplay OH BROTHER won the Phoenix Film Festival screen writing competition in 2005 and was optioned by Gold Circle Films in 2008. I'm the author of GUNNING FOR ANGELS and BLACK MARKET ANGELS, which are the first two books in THE FALLEN ANGELS TRILOGY and I am currently working on the third and final edition, THE ANGEL WORE BLACK. I've recently published THE FIX & OTHER SHORT STORIES on Kindle because I decided that an ebook online was a better place to store my short stories than in a box in the basement.

I hope you enjoy my stories! They were born from my passion for storytelling and my demented sense of what constitutes a grand ole time.

For more information on my books, click on https://cmacklewis.com/

Ocean in the Sky is a charming short story that recaptures the nostalgic days of childhood summer vacations, including barbeques and days at the beach with family and friends.

For more information on the podcast or to submit your short story for the opportunity to be featured on the podcast, please go to: https://www.thehiddengemspodcast.com/

To listen to John Bell's podcast, please go to: https://thebatfry.com/