Hello, readers!

I know what you’re thinking; it was a mere week ago you heard from me. But I come bearing good news: My second story of 2026 is out in the world! “The Worth of Ashes” marks my third appearance in PodCastle and first original story with them.

Listen to, or read, it here: https://podcastle.org/2026/04/14/podcastle-939-the-worth-of-ashes/

One sentence summary: In a world where loved ones’ ashes impart the abilities of the deceased upon the living and thus are used for trade, a mother tries to help her children with the grief over the loss of their aunt, her sister, while also having to make the choice of whether to give up the last of her sister’s ashes—all that she has left of her sister—for food.

“On the Worth of Ashes” began life as a flash story, written for a challenge to produce a 750-word flash in a weekend. Clearly, I and other readers felt this story needed many more words than that, since it now clocks in at over 4400.

The initial prompt I used was about “browsing images of unusual marketplaces,” and honestly I don’t remember any images that stood out to me as particularly unusual—but I began thinking of what might be unusual to trade, and came up with loved ones’ ashes. That, plus feelings about how historically and culturally, marketplaces are places women frequent filtered in. So then I started thinking about the value of so-called women’s work, motherhood¹ included.

The value of art also features strongly in the story, because the deceased sister whose ashes my mother-protagonist, Aselya, attempts to barter was an entertainer, which brought joy to her family and to the town she lived in.

So: childrearing and art, two things which are undervalued in my protagonist’s society, and in mine.

It’s not for no reason we have AI techbros telling us all we really need is a regurgitation machine to make “new” visual art and literature and why one such techbro apparently feels it’s impossible to raise a child without the advice of a glorified chatbot. It’s this strange juxtaposition of “Oh no, this thing that people, and especially women, have been doing for millennia is so difficult I need a resource-hungry new invention to do it” and also “But if I can’t do it, why should I bother with finding a human who can?”

It’s also, “Art is so simple, a machine can do it, which means you don’t have to!” while ignoring that the creation of the art is the point.

Same with childrearing: the relationship a parent develops with their child is the point.

The work, and the relationship, is the point.

There are no AI techbros in my story, which takes place in a preindustrial, secondary world fantasy setting.

But there are people who try to make my mother protagonist feel she, and her sister, are of no value. It’s a quieter story, so I don’t feel it’s a spoiler to say that in the end, Aselya focuses on her own community, which does value her and knows her, and her sister’s, true worth, and that’s where she finds comfort and the strength to go on.

Sometimes, I think that’s all we can do: circle our metaphoric wagons among the people who know our worth, celebrate with each other, and find the strength to go on.

Though if you’re like me, you can also laugh when unprofitable AI companies are forced to shutter big projects and lose a major client in the process.

I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning.

Till next time!

-Amanda