Episode 70 (16 March 2023)

After living and working in England from 1987, my wife and I returned to Australia in 1995, overland. Michael Palin’s 1991 BBC series, Pole to Pole, inspired our journey and route, travelling from north to south for eight months. And along the way, we revisited Berlin, as I recorded in my travel journal.

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Episode 69 (3 March 2023)

In 2019, approaching the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I found a timely book in a secondhand bookshop: The Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961 – 9 November 1989 by Frederick Taylor. The book inspired me to write about my two contrasting visits to Berlin as a backpacker in 1987 and 1995.

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Episode 69 (3 March 2023)

Two Visits to the Berlin Wall is a travel memoir from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the piece on Tall And True: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/nonfiction/travel/two-visits-to-the-berlin-wall

Podcast website: https://www.tallandtrueshortreads.com

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

• Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Fairhead/e/B086HZ36NM
• Rakuten Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/author/robert-fairhead

Writer’s Insight

I shared the Two Visits to the Berlin Wall travel memoir on Tall And True in September 2021. Part One of this two-part podcast episode explains the inspiration for writing the piece, a secondhand copy of the 2006 book, The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor, and the 2021 book, Tunnel 29, which I listened to as an audiobook narrated by the author Helena Merriman. 

Part One also includes the travel journal entries from my first visit to Berlin in 1987, when the Wall divided the city and West and East Germany. Part Two covers my second visit to the Berlin Wall and reunified Germany in 1995. And my observations on my two trips almost three decades after my last visit to Berlin.

Sidenote: Apologies for mangling German place names in this episode. Although I studied German in my mid-twenties and could once proudly pronounce words and phrases in Deutsche beyond “Zwei bier, bitte”, that was over 30 years ago!

I hope you enjoyed listening to Part One of Two Visits to the Berlin Wall. You can read this travel memoir and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story collections from the Amazon Kindle and Kobo online bookstores — links are available in the show notes.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads (Part Two) will be released shortly. In the meantime, check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from Seasons One, Two and Three.

And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite app — doing so helps me share my stories with other listeners.

You can support this podcast financially by making a small one-off or regular donation via the Acast Supporter Page.

Finally, please do this podcast a big favour: Tell your family and friends about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website.

Podcast Theme and Sound Effects

Royalty-free music from Pixabay.com: Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 ‘Pastorale’ – IV. Rondo. Allegro ma non-Troppo, performed by Karine Gilanyan.

Sound effects licensed under Creative Commons 0 from FreeSound.org:

• Shop Bell:  https://freesound.org/people/775noise/sounds/494565/
• Gunfire: https://freesound.org/people/C-V/sounds/523404/
• Ping Sound: https://freesound.org/people/edsward/sounds/341871/
• Plane: https://freesound.org/people/bigpickle51/sounds/262753/
• Clock Ticking: https://freesound.org/people/Julien%20Matthey/sounds/457651/
• Van Horn: https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/479995/
• City Ambience (Cologne): https://freesound.org/people/Pfannkuchn/sounds/384353/
• Siren: https://freesound.org/people/lluiset7/sounds/367442/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity.

Episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.

Episode 68 (13 February 2023)

Handcuffed in the police car, I wished the lamp hadn’t been magical. “That, sir, is a genuine antique,” the stallholder had asserted when I’d stopped and inspected it at the secondhand market. The oil lamp looked like a prop from Disney’s Aladdin. But though tarnished, I thought the embossed metal would polish up nice and shiny and earn me a tidy profit.

READ SHOW NOTES

Episode 68 (13 February 2023)

The Magical Lamp is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the story on Tall And True: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/fiction/short-stories/the-magical-lamp

Podcast website: https://www.tallandtrueshortreads.com

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

• Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Fairhead/e/B086HZ36NM
• Rakuten Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/author/robert-fairhead

Writer’s Insight

I wrote The Magical Lamp for the Australian Writer’s Centre’s quarterly Furious Fiction writing competition in December 2022. The brief was:

• The 500-word short story had to begin with a 12-word sentence.
• Include the sale of a secondhand item.
• And contain at least five different words ending in the letters “–ICE”.

The Furious Fiction brief arrives on the first Friday of the quarter at 5 PM, and writers have 55 hours to write and submit their stories before the Sunday midnight deadline. 

I like to quarantine the weekend for devising, writing and editing my short stories. However, on this quarterly weekend, I had a lunch date with a friend on Saturday and an all-day family event on Sunday. And the Socceroos played Argentina in a do-or-die World Cup game at 5 AM on Sunday.

Consequently, I wrote my Furious Fiction entry more furiously than usual, with even less time for reflection and proofreading. And the short story I shared on Tall And True is a reworked version of the original. 

For instance, the 12-word first sentence in December 2022 was:

“Sitting handcuffed on my sofa, I wish I’d walked past the lamp.”

But I reworded it to introduce the magical element of the lamp and its consequences from the start of the story:

“Handcuffed in the police car, I wished the lamp hadn’t been magical.” 

There are other subtle differences between the versions, but I’ve respected the brief. And I hope you enjoyed this Furious Fiction-inspired short story.

You can read The Magical Lamp and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story collections from the Amazon Kindle and Kobo online bookstores — links are available in the show notes.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be released shortly. In the meantime, check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from Seasons One, Two and Three.

And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite app — doing so helps me share my stories with other listeners.

You can support this podcast financially by making a small one-off or regular donation via the Acast Supporter Page.

Finally, please tell your family and friends about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website.

Podcast Theme and Sound Effects

Royalty-free music from Pixabay.com: Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 ‘Pastorale’ – IV. Rondo. Allegro ma non-Troppo, performed by Karine Gilanyan.

Sound effects licensed under Creative Commons 0 from FreeSound.org:

• Police Siren: https://freesound.org/people/conleec/sounds/159744/
• Secondhand Market: https://freesound.org/people/e0fd96/sounds/659634/
• Cash Register Ka-Ching: https://freesound.org/people/Zott820/sounds/209578/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity.

Episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.

Episode 66 (16 January 2023)

Eighty is the new fifty, or so I’m told. But my back wasn’t this dodgy when I was fifty, and my knees lasted longer than a circuit of the park with the dog before seizing up. And I wasn’t caught short so often that I needed to memorise the location of the nearest public toilet for emergency pit stops!

READ SHOW NOTES

Episode 66 (16 January 2023)

The New Fifty is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the story on Tall And True: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/fiction/short-stories/the-new-fifty

Robert’s dog posts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyDogPosts

Robert’s dog posts on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mydogposts/

Podcast website: https://www.tallandtrueshortreads.com

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

• Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Fairhead/e/B086HZ36NM
• Rakuten Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/author/robert-fairhead

Writer’s Insight

I wrote The New Fifty in September 2022 for the Australian Writer’s Centre’s quarterly Furious Fiction writing competition. The brief for the 500-word short story was:

• The first sentence had to contain the word FIFTY
• The story had to include a four-legged animal
• And the words EMERGENCY, BRUSH and BOARD. (Longer variations were acceptable as long as they retained the original spelling.)

As a long-term dog lover, the four-legged animal for the story was an easy choice. (I even have Twitter and Instagram accounts for my dog posts.) And, as usual, it wasn’t hard to find places for the required words, for instance, pairing BRUSH with a dog.

However, after submitting it, I had a crisis of confidence in the story. In the original Furious Fiction version, the protagonist was fifty, not eighty, and the first sentence was:

Fifty is the new thirty, or so they tell me.

I’m sixty, and it occurred to me that the thoughts I attributed to my protagonist were of an older man. So I flipped the opening line and perspective of the story to:

Eighty is the new fifty, or so I’m told.

By coincidence, shortly before sharing The New Fifty on Tall And True, I saw a story in a local newspaper headlined, “Eighty is the New Forty”!? Does that make sixty the new thirty? With my back and knees and growing need for “pit stops”, I doubt it!

I hope you enjoyed listening to The New Fifty. You can read this and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story collections from the Amazon Kindle and Kobo online bookstores — links are available in the show notes.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be released shortly. In the meantime, check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from Seasons One, Two and Three.

And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite app — doing so helps me share my stories with other listeners.

You can support this podcast financially by making a small one-off or regular donation via the Acast Supporter Page.

And finally, please tell your family and friends about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website.

Podcast Theme and Sound Effects

Royalty-free music from Pixabay.com: Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 ‘Pastorale’ – IV. Rondo. Allegro ma non-Troppo, performed by Karine Gilanyan.

Sound effects licensed under Creative Commons 0 from FreeSound.org:

• Dog wagging tail: https://freesound.org/people/tallandtrue/sounds/657779/
• Dog panting: https://freesound.org/people/AGFX/sounds/221497/
• Whistle: https://freesound.org/people/strongbot/sounds/568995/
• Kids laughing: https://freesound.org/people/kikorurelas/sounds/642516/
• Kettle boiling: https://freesound.org/people/cupido-1/sounds/433538/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity.

Episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.

Episode 65 (22 December 2022)

I’m taking a short break from writing and podcasting over the Xmas/New Year holiday period. But as a special treat for podcast listeners, I’ve put together a Kris Kringle collection featuring three “festive” episodes from the Tall And True Short Reads archive: The Gift, The Special Tree and The Spirit of Xmas.

READ SHOW NOTES

Episode 65 (22 December 2022)

The Kris Kringle stories in this collection first appeared on the Tall And True writers’ website and were written and narrated by Robert Fairhead:

• The Gift: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/the-gift.
• The Special Tree: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/the-special-tree
• The Spirit of Xmas: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/blog/the-spirit-of-xmas

Podcast website: https://www.tallandtrueshortreads.com

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

• Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Fairhead/e/B086HZ36NM
• Rakuten Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/author/robert-fairhead

Writer’s Insight

I’m taking a short break from writing and podcasting over the Xmas/New Year holiday period. But as a special treat for podcast listeners, I’ve put together a Kris Kringle collection featuring three “festive” episodes from the Tall And True Short Reads archive:

The Gift was my short story for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s December 2020 Furious Fiction writing competition, and it had to include a GIFT of some kind. While I didn’t opt for a cliched Xmas theme, the story proved to be an early Xmas “gift” for me as it was one of the most fully formed I’ve devised and written, submitting it 12 hours before the competition’s midnight deadline.

The Special Tree was my December 2021 entry for Furious Fiction. Part of the brief was the story had to include a TREE and, once again, the temptation was to fashion a festive season scenario. As with The Gift, however, I wrote a short story that had nothing to do with Xmas or Xmas trees. And instead, I drew on my boyhood experience of climbing trees for the protagonist and plot.

The Spirit of Xmas is a blog post I shared after spending Xmas 2019 with my West Australian family in Margaret River, south of Perth. Unfortunately, COVID and state border closures meant I couldn’t return to WA for another three years. And I released this episode in January 2022, dedicating it to my family and other families who spent Xmas 2021 separated or alone due to COVID.

At the end of each Kris Kringle story is an expanded explanation of when, why and how I wrote it.

I hope you enjoy this collection. You can read all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story ebooks, Both Sides of the Story, Twelve Furious Months and Twelve More Furious Months, from the Amazon Kindle and Kobo online bookstores — links are available in the show notes.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be released shortly. In the meantime, check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from Seasons One, Two and Three.

And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite app — doing so helps me share my stories with other listeners.

You can support this podcast financially by making a small one-off or regular donation via the Acast Supporter Page.

And finally, please tell your family and friends about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website.

Podcast Theme and Sound Effects

Royalty-free music from Pixabay.com: Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 ‘Pastorale’ – IV. Rondo. Allegro ma non-Troppo, performed by Karine Gilanyan.

Sound effects licensed under Creative Commons 0 from FreeSound.org:

• Santa’s sleigh bells: https://freesound.org/people/BrianJamesLong/sounds/330415/
• Male laughter: https://freesound.org/people/Eneasz/sounds/119459/
• Female laughter: https://freesound.org/people/sagetyrtle/sounds/33658/
• Party background: https://freesound.org/people/dbspin/sounds/396684/
• Footsteps: https://freesound.org/people/Anthousai/sounds/398782/
• Champagne cork: https://freesound.org/people/ultradust/sounds/166923/
• Clock ticking-alarm: https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/522119/
• Door closing: https://freesound.org/people/sgcardinal/sounds/395753/
• Bird song: https://freesound.org/people/ken788/sounds/386732/
• Computer keyboard: https://freesound.org/people/D4XX/sounds/567266/
• Slammed door: https://freesound.org/people/TiesWijnen/sounds/455540/
• Chainsaw: https://freesound.org/people/piwilliwillski/sounds/548411/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity.

Episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.