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.
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:
- 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
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.
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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:
- Bicycle wheel: https://freesound.org/people/Jagielka/sounds/486428/
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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