On this week’s episode of the Flame Tree Myth & Fiction Podcast, we feature two powerful short stories linked by their discussions of motherhood - but don’t be mistaken, these stories are anything but sweet.

Featuring:

‘Pegasus’ by Danai Christopoulou (00.50), narrated by Amanda Benzecry. A narrative that follows the famed pegasus, through its creation, violent birth and its resulting vow of revenge. This story can be found in Medusa, a book published last year in our Myths, Gods & Immortals series.

& ‘The Mother’s Eyes’ by Charles Dickens (11.26), narrated by Nathan Chatelier. A story that follows a man who is haunted by the eyes of a grieving mother after he indirectly causes the death of her child. Published within Charles Dickens Supernatural Short Stories.

Biographies:

Danai Christopoulou (she/they) is a queer Greek SFF author and editor currently living in Sweden. Their short fiction has been published in Fusion Fragment and others, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for a Nebula Award. Follow them on X for regular updates.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812. Dickens kept up a career in journalism as well as writing short stories and novels, with much of his work being serialised before being published as books.

Amanda Benzecry (voice actor) regularly narrates books for Audible, is on the panel for the RNIB and is a frequent contributor (both as a narrator and a writer) to TNF Soundings, providing audio material for the visually impaired.

Nathan Chatelier is a British voiceover artist with almost fifty audiobooks recorded alongside thousands of other projects, from videogames to the Mean Girls West End trailer. Check out his demos.

This episode is hosted by Bea.

‘Pegasus’ is © 2023 Danai Christopoulou and was originally published in The Icarus Writing Collective in 2023 and appeared in Medusa (Flame Tree Publishing, 2024).

‘The Mother’s Eyes’ by Charles Dickens was first published in The Old Curiosity Shop and Other Tales, Chapman & Hall in 1841 and more recently appeared in Charles Dickens Supernatural Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing, 2020).

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator) and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.