Back to School – Chapter Three

Back to School – Chapter Three

by | Apr 18, 2021 | Season One

Tall And True Short Reads

Back to School – Chapter Three

Episode 20 (18 April 2021)

Charlie took another deep breath to calm himself. “Well, Mr Hamilton, it was the weirdest dream I’ve ever had. It was more like watching TV than a dream. Only, it was me on the TV.” Scenes started replaying through Charlie’s head as he recounted his dream to the headmaster.

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Back to School – Chapter Three

Show Notes

Season One: Episode 20 (18 April 2021)

Back to School is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead. The podcast version of the story is presented in six instalments, one per chapter.

Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/young-adult/back-to-school

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:

Story Insight

As explained in earlier chapters, I wrote the original version of Back to School in 1992 when I lived in England. The title of the handwritten draft was A Second Chance. But when I typed it up, it became Another Chance. And finally, when I shared the short story on Tall And True in 2017, I renamed it Back to School.

I quit high school at the same age and in similar circumstances to Charlie. And for many years, I dreamed of being sixteen again and back at school. This short story was an attempt to exorcise those dreams.

In Chapter Three, Charlie recounts to Heavy-Handed Hamilton the “weird” dream that prompted his visit to the headmaster’s office. The scene of Charlie driving a “beat-up old van loaded with tools, ladders and building equipment” is taken from my experience as an electrician in my early twenties. If I close my eyes, I can still hear them “crashing about in the back” of the van whenever I hit a pothole.

As for Charlie’s dread in walking to the house, reading and listening to those lines now remind me of Franz Kafka’s The Castle:

“The path to the front door seemed long. It felt like Charlie was heading in the wrong direction on a moving walkway. Or perhaps he didn’t want to reach the house? Charlie sensed a looming dread but didn’t know why.”

I read Kafka’s books around this time. Perhaps I was trying to emulate his dreamlike sequences? And the confusion we sometimes feel between reality and dreams?

Thanks for listening to this podcast. I hope you enjoyed Chapter Three of Back to School. You can read this and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com.

Chapter Four, The Birthday, will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, check your feed for earlier chapters and other short story episodes of Tall And True Short Reads. And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite listening app.

And 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:

Van engine: https://freesound.org/people/soundjoao/sounds/325808/

Metal clanking: https://freesound.org/people/simone_ds/sounds/366084/

Squeaky car door: https://freesound.org/people/coltures/sounds/262325/

Footsteps on pavement: https://freesound.org/people/Yuval/sounds/205817/

Unlock/open door: https://freesound.org/people/sgcardinal/sounds/395753/

Footsteps in hall: https://freesound.org/people/Anthousai/sounds/398782/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads produced using Audacity. Thanks to Josh (VoiceOverMaster) Meyer for Audacity recording tips and tricks.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the land of the traditional custodians of the Eora Nation.

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

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Back to School – Chapter Three

Back to School – Chapter Two

by | Apr 10, 2021 | Season One

Tall And True Short Reads

Back to School – Chapter Two

Episode 19 (10 April 2021)

The headmaster tapped his pen on the punishment column in the discipline file. “I’m waiting, Edwards. Why do you want to come back to school next year?” Charlie’s mouth still felt dry. “Because I want to sit my exams, sir.” “Yes, but why?” “Um, err—” Charlie struggled to find the words.

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Back to School – Chapter Two

Show Notes

Season One: Episode 19 (10 April 2021)

Back to School is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead. The podcast version of the story is presented in six instalments, one per chapter.

Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/young-adult/back-to-school

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:

Story Insight

As I explained in Chapter One, I wrote the first version of Back to School when I lived in England in 1992. The working title for the original handwritten draft was A Second Chance. But when I typed it up on my old Amstrad PC, I changed it to Another Chance. And finally, when I shared the short story on Tall And True in 2017, I renamed it Back to School.

I was the same age as Charlie in the story when I quit school at sixteen. For many years in early adulthood, I dreamed of being sixteen again and back at school. One day in 1992, I decided to exorcise those dreams by writing this short story.

In Chapter Two, Charlie reveals to his headmaster, Heavy Handed Hamilton, what prompted his visit to the office and change of heart about school next year. It was a dream or “premonition” of what would happen to him if he didn’t finish high school and sit his exams.

My dreams weren’t exactly like Charlie’s. But I did imagine different alternatives had I finished my final year of school.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. I hope you enjoyed Chapter Two of Back to School. You can read this and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com.

Chapter Three, The House, will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, check your feed for Chapter One (earlier chapters) and other Tall And True Short Reads episodes. And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite listening app.

And 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:

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads produced using Audacity. Thanks to Josh (VoiceOverMaster) Meyer for Audacity recording tips and tricks.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the land of the traditional custodians of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

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

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Back to School – Chapter Three

Back to School – Chapter One

by | Apr 4, 2021 | Season One

Tall And True Short Reads

Back to School – Chapter One

Episode 18 (4 April 2021)

The wooden bench in the hallway outside the headmaster’s office was hard. It made you squirm. But once you’d sat on it, you daren’t wriggle to relieve the creeping pins and needles. Because if you did, old Heavy-Handed Hamilton would look up through his glass office door and note your fidgeting.

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Back to School – Chapter One

Show Notes

Season One: Episode 18 (4 April 2021)

Back to School is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead. The podcast version of the story is presented in six instalments, one per chapter.

Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/young-adult/back-to-school

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:

Story Insight

I wrote a version of Back to School when I lived in England in 1992. In the original handwritten draft, the working title for the story was A Second Chance. But when I typed it up on my old Amstrad PC, I changed the title to Another Chance. And finally, when I shared the short story on Tall And True in 2017, I renamed it Back to School.

I left high school at sixteen, the same age as Charlie in the story. For many years, I dreamed of being sixteen again, back at school, and studying for my final exams. And one day in 1992, I decided to exorcise those dreams by writing this short story.

Chapter One – The Office draws on visits I made to the headmaster’s office during my turbulent school years. Like Charlie’s headmaster, Heavy-Handed Hamilton, mine was a disciplinarian and a stickler for the school uniform. He threatened me with the cane and expressed his firm belief during one visit to the office that I wouldn’t be returning for my final year of high school.

I wonder what my headmaster would have said if, like Charlie, I’d asked to come back to school and sit my exams?

I hope you enjoyed Chapter One of Back to School. You can read this and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com.

Chapter Two, A Dream, will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, please check your feed for other short story episodes of Tall And True Short Reads. And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite listening app.

And don’t forget to 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:

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads produced using Audacity. Thanks to Josh (VoiceOverMaster) Meyer for Audacity recording tips and tricks.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the land of the traditional custodians of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

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

View All Episodes

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Back to School – Chapter Three

The Performance

by | Mar 24, 2021 | Season One

Tall And True Short Reads

The Performance

Episode 17 (24 March 2021)

Three minutes into the performance, and I stifled a yawn. Crammed in the front row with a clutch of fellow bored hacks, I hoped no one had noticed. However, the acclaimed actor and playwright and recently appointed head of NATS, Barry Lazarus, turned and fixed a beady eye on me from centre stage.

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The Performance

Show Notes

Season One: Episode 17 (24 March 2021)

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

Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/the-performance

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:

Story Insight

I wrote The Performance in February 2021 for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s monthly 500-word short story competition, Furious Fiction. The story had to:

  • Take place in a SCHOOL
  • Begin with the word THREE
  • And include the adjectives: MAGNETIC, UNCOUTH, SUSPICIOUS, and FLOWERY.

The definition of SCHOOL was flexible. It could be an educational institution, a school of thought, or a school of fish.

I toyed with the latter idea for a while, beginning a draft story with “Three fathoms down”. But then I switched to something sci-fi-ish, with “Three parsecs out”.

And by a circuitous route, which I can’t explain, this led me to write the line, “Three minutes into the performance”. I had small parts in amateur plays when I lived in England. And I know there’s nothing worse than being caught yawning by a director during a rehearsal. I’ve also seen powerful performances on the stage that have shaken me awake.

Suddenly, I had my story set at the National Arts and Theatre School. The school is rehearsing its first performance under the stewardship of the acclaimed actor and playwright Barry Lazarus. A young (caffeine-deprived) journalist draws the short straw to cover the dress rehearsal. And Lazarus spots him yawning in the front row. He invites the journalist to read a part in the play and see beyond its soporific beginning.

As for the adjectives, I trust you didn’t yawn and miss them in the story?

I hope you enjoyed The Performance, like the student actors and hacks. You can read this and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, please check your feed for earlier episodes. And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite listening app.

And don’t forget to 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:

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity. Thanks to Josh (VoiceOverMaster) Meyer for Audacity recording tips and tricks.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the land of the traditional custodians of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

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

View All Episodes

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Back to School – Chapter Three

Three Minute Microfiction

by | Mar 10, 2021 | Season One

Tall And True Short Reads

Three Minute Microfiction

Episode 16 (10 March 2021)

By its definition, the key to good microfiction is brevity. There is no time for plot and character development; every word must count. The writer plunges the reader into the story and wrenches them back out, leaving it to the reader’s imagination to reflect upon what they have read.

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Three Minute Microfiction

Show Notes

Season One: Episode 16 (10 March 2021)

Three Minute Microfiction features three microfiction pieces from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the microfiction on Tall And True:

1. There’s No Need To Wake Up – https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/microfiction/no-need-to-wake-up

2. And I didn’t even get convicted – https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/microfiction/and-i-didn-t-even-get-convicted

3. We Need to Talk – https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/microfiction/we-need-to-talk

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

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

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

Story Insight

I discovered the microfiction genre when reviewing a collection for Writing NSW, Loopholes by Susan McCreery.

Wiktionary.org defines microfiction as “Fiction that has a significantly shorter than average length.” Synonyms include drabble, flash fiction, flashfic, short-short story, sudden fiction and even twitterature.

By its definition, brevity is the key to good microfiction. There is no time for plot and character development; every word must count. The writer plunges the reader into the story and wrenches them back out, leaving it to the reader’s imagination to reflect upon what they have read, what lead to the situation, and how it might resolve itself.

Microfiction will not be to every reader’s taste. Some may consider it a modern malaise, where our pace of life has become too fast to enjoy a leisurely read. Or Twitteresque, where US Presidential pronouncements are reduced to 280-character tweets.

And yet, microfiction is not as recent a form as some might imagine. Ernest Hemingway is said to have written a famous piece in response to a challenge to write a six-word novel: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

I wrote these three microfiction pieces at different times in my life. There Is No Need Wake Up was written for a local radio competition in 2000. The brief was to include the tagline, “There is no need to wake up”. As luck would have it, I have occasionally dreamed my footy team has won games that, in reality, they lost.

And I Didn’t Even Get Convicted was also written for a local radio competition in 2014. The story had to be 200 words or less and to end with the line, “And I didn’t even get convicted”. I received a nice thank you for my entry. But I didn’t even get selected as a winner.

The final short piece, We Need To Talk, was written for a competition run by Meanjin Quarterly to celebrate the introduction of 280-character Twitter in 2017. The rules were simple: tweet a 280-character story and include the hashtag #meanjin280. I didn’t win the competition. But I repurposed the piece for another microfiction competition run by the Australian Writers’ Centre in 2019, as We Need to Talk in 29 Words. And this was published on their blog.

I hope you enjoyed this dabble with microfiction. You can read these pieces and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com.

Thank you for listening. The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, please check your feed for earlier episodes. And subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite listening app.

And don’t forget to 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:

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity. Thanks to Josh (VoiceOverMaster) Meyer for Audacity recording tips and tricks.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the land of the traditional custodians of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

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

View All Episodes

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Back to School – Chapter Three

The Choice

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Season One

Tall And True Short Reads

The Choice

Episode 15 (27 February 2021)

We hit the road at sunrise. Anna complained about packing the bikes in the pre-dawn dark. But we had to make up for the kilometres we’d lost yesterday to punctures and her mishap. Our reward was a crimson landscape when the sun crested the horizon. I rode ahead, and Anna fell behind, as usual.

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The Choice

Show Notes

Season One: Episode 15 (27 February 2021)

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

Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/the-choice

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:

Story Insight

The Choice was my new year entry for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s monthly short story writing competition, Furious Fiction. The brief for January 2021 was that:

  • Each story had to BEGIN AT SUNRISE
  • Use the words SIGNATURE, PATIENT, and BICYCLE
  • And include a character who has to make a CHOICE.

The plot and characters for the story came to me very fast while walking my dog, similar to my December 2020 Furious Fiction entry, The Gift. I decided on a middle-aged couple on a bike tour that goes awry. I wrote it as a two-hander, with Frank and Anna’s voices and thoughts revealing a shorthand tale of the ride and their life together.

The sunrise start was an easy decision. The choice at the end was more difficult, and I leave it to the reader to imagine what Anna decided to do with Frank’s life support.

As for the words in the Furious fiction brief, I like playing with positioning them in my short stories. And this time, I held off using the words until the final paragraph – did you hear them?

I hope you enjoyed your short ride with The Choice. You can read this and all my short stories and other writing at TallAndTrue.com.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, check your feed for earlier episodes.

Don’t forget to tell your family and friends about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website. And please subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite listening app.

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:

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity. Thanks to Josh (VoiceOverMaster) Meyer for Audacity recording tips and tricks.

Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the land of the traditional custodians of the Eora Nation.

Acast Podcast Supporter Page

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

View All Episodes

Contact Us