Tall And True Short Reads
Escape to the Beach
Episode 10 (22 December 2020)
The golden sand squeaks in protest as Megan presses her body more firmly into the beach towel. A gentle breeze carries a salty scent and chills the sweat glistening on her sun-toasted skin, as gulls crawk and waves break in a relaxing rhythm. Megan licks her lips and sighs. And then a phone rings.
Escape to the Beach
Show Notes
Season One: Episode 10 (22 December 2020)
Escape to the Beach 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/microfiction/escape-to-the-beach
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
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/author/robert-fairhead/id1436773436
- Rakuten Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/author/robert-fairhead
Story Insight
I wrote a version of Escape to the Beach in 1991, when I lived in England, as the entry requirement for a local tutor-led writers’ circle.
The tutor panned my short story as “too vague”. And looking back, it was vague and flowery and had an unbelievable premise. In the original version, the forsaken wife, Megan, had remotely dispatched her philandering husband, Edward, by using medieval magic, which she had studied at evening classes!
Setting aside the silly storyline, almost thirty years on, I still loved the contrast between Megan’s dream and her response to the phone call. And so I re-worked my short story, and with middle-aged insight, added her desire to shut out reality and escape to the beach.
I hope you enjoyed Escape to the Beach. Please subscribe to the short story 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.
The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, please check your feed to make sure you haven’t missed any of the earlier episodes.
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:
- Seagulls: https://freesound.org/people/plantmonkey/sounds/377107/
- Waves: https://freesound.org/people/amholma/sounds/376802/
- Phone ringing: https://freesound.org/people/robotjay/sounds/275163/
- Switch: https://freesound.org/people/EricsSoundschmiede/sounds/457410/
- Phone hung-up: https://freesound.org/people/DrNI/sounds/164035/
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.
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