Lost Trick-o-Treat Brigade

A new story and song!

This is Wilson Arz and this is a true story from a few years ago.

My daughter and her husband always do a “big event” for Halloween. Inviting over family, friends, and neighbors for homemade chili, wood-fired pizza, and smores melted over a campfire. Anyway, on the evening this event occurred, they had about twenty adult guests and a passle of youngins in various costumes.

And because they always give away full-size candy bars, they have plen...

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A new mystery story

The Yellow Sweatshirt

A retired municipal recreation supervisor who takes morning walks for his health, stumbles upon a crime scene, and inadvertently gets entangled in something much darker involving a local criminal defense attorney,  a plastic bag, and  murder.

Dancy’s Daughters

A truestory --- From Nell Trustmon’s  Broken Tree Tales western magazine

Western writer Nell Trustmon was invited to Medicine Bow, Wyoming to tell the life story of the three daughters of Dancy Nevin — Ruth,  Leonore, and Velma

When their hotheaded father was bound in iron chains and cast out onto the barren salt flats of 1891, the lives of the three girls changed forever. Adopted into Salt Lake City's elite, the sisters were groomed as proper young ladies—until an ominous arranged marriage threatened threatened to destroy fourteen-year-old Ruth’s fut...

Dr Faustus and the Bowl of Candy

This is Wilson Arz.

This week, I noticed a new commercial on TV. It was an advertisement for a well-known candy brand. In it, we see a very elderly woman and a young man sitting at a round table. Between them is a bowl of the candy. The young man reaches for the candy. Then the old woman says, “I’ll trade you — your youth for it. The young man says, “OK” and begins grabbing hands full of the candy. In the final scene, he has transforme...

Magnetic Woman

A Lies & Detection Episode

Jonas interviews Juliet Stuart Poyntz

There are people who literally are magnetic, who wherever they go or whatever they do, they draw others to them. My guest for this episode is a genuinely magnetic person.

I believe it is because of her personal magnetism, that the Communist Party came to flourish in the United States during the years before World War II. I now believe that without the presence and the work of Juliet Stuart Poyntz, the Communist left in the US would...

Using selected text from the Lais of Marie de France, episode explores four iterations of medieval-style story-songs generated from the same text prompt.                    

FATE HAS SPUN HER WHEEL

"Into the deep woods, they had fled

Loggi and her Guigeman

She had been the second wife of Yonec

But no more

Now she had pledged herself to the noble knight

For a year and nearly a half they had been together in the dark forest

Making frequent love

To their great delig...

Shoes

An original audio story

For Appaloosa Radio

"Nice kicks," the veteran commented, his voice gravelly from lack of use.

De Marcus dribbled the ball between his legs, catching it with a sharp pop against his palm. He grinned, a flash of white teeth under the fluorescent hum. "Loud, right? They do half the work for you. Cost $1800, but worth it. No better ones on the planet.”

“On the planet. That’s saying something.”

“Like drivin’ a racing machine.”

A Complicated Matter

An audio story about an unexpected friendship

For Appaloosa Radio

When Stacey receives an unexpected phone call from Hawthorne, Nevada, it pulls her back into the shadow of her manipulative ex-husband, Shawn. The caller is Dina—Shawn's most recent wife, and Stacey's former administrative assistant—who has been left bankrupt, facing eviction, and raising two toddlers alone while Shawn serves time in a federal prison.

Putting aside past bitterness, Stacey flies to Nevada. Together, the two women forge an unexpected, fierce...

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Dead Man’s Suit

A Southern Gothic, Ghost Story . . .

1958

Every time Harlan wore it, he thought it had a strange odor. It had been dry cleaned multiple times and no one else noticed any sort of odor. In fact, his wife, Wilma thought he looked “spiffy” in it and loved to see him in the double-breasted, brown suit with the faintest of gray pinstripes. “He looks like a movie star,” she proudly told her sister Nellie Grace Lynn. Far better in that suit than in the greasy dun...

Empty Words from an Empty Head

‘This is Wilson Arz. Recently, I felt the need to create a “political” song. Not about any particular politician, but about the greater assemblage of politicians. How about that for a 50-cent word!  

I have an even better one. 

Superfluidity --- speech that never ends, goes on forever, flowing indefinitely without purpose or reason.

Empty words from an empty head. ‘

NO HUNNEY BUNNIES HERE

This is Wilson Arz.

We had been neighbors for years, but after his wife died, he decided that their house was just too big. So, he sold it and moved into an apartment community for seniors. A couple of months after he had moved in, I dropped by for a catch-up visit. 

Over instant coffee and stale bagels, he told me he was not happy with his move. The apartment was OK. No problems.  Just, when he had signed the lease, the agent had teased him that th...

Jim Mounts-Miller, Creative Director for Appaloosa, welcomes listeners to Season 15.

Appaloosa Radio is pleased to offer the humor and the music of story-teller Wilson Arz.

This is Wilson Arz. When my kids were small, I used to play a bedtime game with them. They would tell me a letter, and I would make up a nonsense song with every word starting with that letter. One that I still remember is -- “Bungling Bearded Burglars from Broadstone Beach”

Just a whimsical song with lots of alliteration.

We used to sing it as a round with me starting and then they would come in. Here’s my recreation of it.

Stingaree Gulch

A Ring-Tailed Roaring Good Time

By J. J. Mounts-Miller

Fleeing a rigged boxing match and a deadly mob ultimatum, legendary promoter Tex Rickard arrives in the Nevada boomtown of Rawhide to build his ultimate masterpiece: Stingaree Gulch, a sprawling empire of vice. As the silver rolls in, Tex sets his sights on an impossible dream—staging a controversial heavyweight championship for Jack Johnson. But in a town built on illusions, Tex meets his match in Vera Locke, a brilliant "widow" executing a devastating con. Stingaree Gulch is...

My Dad delivered batteries all over hilly Seattle. Drove a truck. Lead-acid batteries. Batteries for cars. Trucks. Fishing Boats. Picked up old ones. Delivered new ones. The acid ate his clothes. Scarred his hands. 

He had done the Army during Viet Nam. We lived in Ballard, near the locks. Upstairs in a once-Victorian house. My Mom worked at the doughnut shop. Coming in at four. Frying dozens and dozens.

In 1981, my Dad went to night school to learn welding. He wanted a job at the Navy Ship Yard, but they wouldn’t  hire him because he h...

Friends and Devoted Listeners –

Appaloosa Radio Online is ending its podcast series effective January 15, 2026, shifting our focus to our VIMEO and YouTube video channels.

However, we will continue to maintain an archive of our previous audio stories for those who wish to re-visit them.

As many of you know, we began as four friends who wanted to create audio theater together. With our partnership with the Sacramento Suburban Writers, we grew into a web host for original fiction, posting over 300 audio stories.

“Where stories come alive” was our both our slogan and ou...

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A new musical story

A Little Monkey Magic

Act One

A whimsical musical journey to the early days of cartoon animation, featuring Jiminy, the ever-inquisitive, always impulsive, and incredibly funny organ grinder’s monkey, and his three animator friends at the Carousel Cartoon Company of Chicago. 

It was 1934 during the very worst days of the Great Depression, and, unfortunately, the Carousel Cartoon Company of Chicago was forced to close. The three animators who had operated the company decided to store the nearly half-million ink draw...

2025 Spring Songfest

This is a collection of songs from several stories that we have recently shared on Appaloosa Radio. Enjoy the 2025 Spring Songfest. 

Selections include:

·       Shadows and Silhouettes

·       Whimsey Lullaby

·       Weight of Goodbye

·       Middle-Aged Hippie

·       Coyote

·       25 is Too Slow

·       Jar of Sand

·       My Love is a Sonnet

·       Strong Enough

·       Barefoot Morning

·       Grandma’s Rules

·       Warm Hearts and Calloused Hands

·       Beer, Cigarettes, and Stress --- My Life is a Mess

25 is too slow

By Eureka Wallace

Sign says 25,

that's a snail in disguise.

 I'm a rocket on wheels, 

not a cloud in my skies.

 Got dreams in the trunk.

Ambitions on my dash. 

Speedometer screaming, gotta move fast .

25 too slow.

Can't cage my flow. 

Road's a canvas, that I paint.

Gotta let it show.

Gotta let it show. 

Gotta let it show.

Wheels...

Regarding a Murder

Part 4 of 4

By Stan Morgan

Private Investigator

A True Story

A private investigator revisits an old murder, one that impacted him directly when he was a child.

“It was November 18, 1947. I had just turned eight and was in the Third Grade at Wayside Elementary School in the southern edge of Bakersfield. 

Every day, my younger brother and I walked the three-quarters of a mile from our house in the Southgate area to the school. To avoid walking along the...

Regarding a Murder

Part 3 of 4

By Stan Morgan

Private Investigator

A True Story

A private investigator revisits an old murder, one that impacted him directly when he was a child.

“It was November 18, 1947. I had just turned eight and was in the Third Grade at Wayside Elementary School in the southern edge of Bakersfield. 

Every day, my younger brother and I walked the three-quarters of a mile from our house in the Southgate area to the school. To avoid walking along the...

Regarding a Murder

Part 2 of 4

By Stan Morgan

Private Investigator

A True Story

A private investigator revisits an old murder, one that impacted him directly when he was a child.

“It was November 18, 1947. I had just turned eight and was in the Third Grade at Wayside Elementary School in the southern edge of Bakersfield. 

Every day, my younger brother and I walked the three-quarters of a mile from our house in the Southgate area to the school. To avoid walking along the...

Regarding a Murder

By Stan Morgan

Private Investigator

A True Story

A private investigator revisits an old murder, one that impacted him directly when he was a child.

“It was November 18, 1947. I had just turned eight and was in the Third Grade at Wayside Elementary School in the southern edge of Bakersfield. 

Every day, my younger brother and I walked the three-quarters of a mile from our house in the Southgate area to the school. To avoid walking along the busy Casa Loma High...

Science Fiction

The Wine of Frogs by Anthony Marcolongo 

Indefinite longevity. Lengthening human life spans to millennia instead of decades. The firm had been working  for years and had finally achieved a major breakthrough. However, its founder had other, more sinister plans.

This story was originally published in the anthology, The Moving Finger Writes...

Tattoo 

An original story for Appaloosa Radio

Last December before Christmas he placed third in the Regional Finals for the Mr. Perfect Body competition. The year before, he had placed second, just seven tenths of a point behind the winner. Then, to celebrate he had an artist tattoo a full-color version of Leonardo DaVinci’s “Last Supper” across his pects and abs. It cost him nearly a thousand dollars and took the artist nearly a full day, and the pain was so intense that he couldn’t do a full workout for nearly...

Edge Clinging

For Appaloosa Radio

As we age, we lose both our mobility and our self-confidence, and in losing our self-confidence, we stick very close to the edge of the pool. 

Appaloosa Radio Online offers

Alligator

A story from Nell Trustmon’s Magazine “Broken Tree Tales”

In rural mining communities like Boyce, Colorado, the arrival of the “Alligator Man” created a community-wide celebration. How could any of the Lithuanian miners continue to work in the deep, hard rock silver mine when there was a real, live alligator in town? Gotta see that!

Alligators were hardly rare in places like Florida or the bayous of Louisiana. And almost anyone who visited a zoo in one of the major easter...

Appaloosa Radio presents an original musical story

Surprise Valley

The hippie resort of perpetual happiness

Here is another great song from Act 2 of the musical.

You can download the full show on Appaloosa Radio Online.

Peace and perpetual greetings! Featuring new tie-dye songs in the hip style of the early 1970s.

Appaloosa Radio presents an original musical story

Surprise Valley

 The hippie resort of perpetual happiness

Here is a favorite song from ACT 2!

The Road of Life Has Many Detours

A very personal story by Gisela Butler

The pick-up truck came over the center divider and became airborne. I could see the wheels of the truck coming in my direction.  I just said, “Oh my God, please…” 

Instantly, I ducked towards the passenger side. Then I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my ribs. I lay there in pain going in and out of consciousness. That’s all I remember. 

I later woke up as my clothes were being...

Do you love Interactive Collaborative Fiction?

Interactive Collaborative Fiction is the art of jointly shaping a narrative through collective storytelling.

Appaloosa Radio Online, in collaboration with the Sacramento Suburban Writers, is launching an exciting new forum for Interactive Collaborative Fiction (ICF) and is seeking “Story Pilots” to guide the journey. ICF is a process where narratives are shaped collectively, not by a single writer, but by a community that evolves the story over time. Think of it as modern-day campfire storytelling, now facilitated through platforms like Instagram.

We k...

The Devil is in the Details --- The Art of Deception

An original story by

Thomas Hessler

It really wasn’t a wild prank. Nobody got hurt, some were entertained for a while, and the incident displayed a principle of human characteristics. I would do it again, and I think if you asked those who know me, they would say, “Uh, huh.” 

Every so often I pick up a book about writing. I mean, some of the authors might really have something to say that is...

Most Despicable Brute

An Original Story by Appaloosa Radio

From the continuing

 City of 4000 Spies Series

“If Noble Son Dusko Rarrko, the Second Son of the 19th Great Nobleman of Sassko were ever to write his memoirs, telling about his entanglement in the world of espionage, he could tell of great schemes involving the greatest of empires and nations. He could also tell of well-planned assassinations that were eons in planning and implementation. He could tell of technologies stolen, and...

On the Morning Commuter Bus

An original story

For Appaloosa Radio

 CHAPTER 3

Many contemporary hi-tech employees ride express commuter buses daily to and from their work sites. Larry Jay Connors is just one of the many. He is a numbers guy, a veritable filing cabinet for numbers, whose specialty is making fiscal projections, doing benefit analyses, and generating cost-to-price determinations.

Unfortunately, Larry is also a “quasi social isolate” who stares at his own shoes to avoid eye contact with others. As the story begins, Larry’s personal life ha...

On the Morning Commuter Bus

An original story

For Appaloosa Radio

 CHAPTER 2

Many contemporary hi-tech employees ride express commuter buses daily to and from their work sites. Larry Jay Connors is just one of the many. He is a numbers guy, a veritable filing cabinet for numbers, whose specialty is making fiscal projections, doing benefit analyses, and generating cost-to-price determinations.

Unfortunately, Larry is also a “quasi social isolate” who stares at his own shoes to avoid eye contact with others. As the story begins, Larry’s personal life ha...

On the Morning Commuter Bus

An original story

For Appaloosa Radio

CHAPTER 1

Many contemporary hi-tech employees ride express commuter buses daily to and from their work sites. Larry Jay Connors is just one of the many. He is a numbers guy, a veritable filing cabinet for numbers, whose specialty is making fiscal projections, doing benefit analyses, and generating cost-to-price determinations.

Unfortunately, Larry is also a “quasi social isolate” who stares at his own shoes to avoid eye contact with others. As the story begins, Larry’s perso...

Travelling

by

Pamela Hummel-Morgan

This week we visited some friends in Monterey. They had recently returned from a seven-week trip driving across Europe, putting over 6,000 miles on their rental cars.

Tautologies

By J. J. Mounts-Miller

For Appaloosa Radio

October 2024

I have been thinking a lot about something I read in a magazine. I had read: “Brain waves spike during death.”

Researchers found that in the process of dying, brain activity increases. When it is graphed, it represents a distinct series of sharp, upward spikes. Before these spikes, there is usually a period of low-level dormancy, typically a relatively flat line of limited brain activity. Then, during death, brain wave activity spikes.

This has taken...

Here are four micro-stories that I worked up for the Summer 2024 Micro-Write Challenge. All are extremely short, ranging from 116 to 465 words.

They are:

·        Shoes – a basketball story

·        The Man with the Perpetual Cough – a western character sketch

·        Risk Averse – taking risks as a senior adult

·        My English Teacher was a Space Alien – a fictional memoir 

Enjoy!

J.J. Mounts-Miller