Tall And True Short Reads
The Cruise Ship
Episode 9 (13 December 2020)
Should have done this years ago. But don’t tell Pearl I said that ’cause she’s been on at me for ages to do a cruise. I kept telling her I didn’t want to be stuck on a floating hotel with a bunch of strangers. I’d rather spend our holidays towing a caravan around Australia, where I know the score.
The Cruise Ship
Show Notes
Season One: Episode 9 (13 December 2020)
The Cruise Ship 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-cruise-ship
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 The Cruise Ship in September 2020 for Furious Fiction, a monthly 500-word short story competition run by the Australian Writers’ Centre. September’s brief was:
• The story had to be inspired by the photo of a ship deck
• Begin with the letters SHO
• And include the words SCORE, SLICE, SPRINKLE, STAMP and SWITCH.
The ship deck photo had me thinking of cruise ships, and that led me to write another COVID inspired story, based loosely on the Ruby Princess debacle in Sydney, in March 2020. I know someone who travelled on that cruise with his wife. And while thankfully neither of them got sick, his Facebook photos of the Captain’s farewell party made it look like a germ factory, even without coronavirus!
The letters SHO gave me the first word SHOULD, as in, “Should have done this years ago.” As for the other words, did you hear them in the story? Each is mentioned once and in the order, SCORE, SLICE, SPRINKLE, STAMP and SWITCH.
The 55-hour submission deadline for the #FuriousFiction competition ends at midnight on the first Sunday of the month. Although I had a fair idea of what I wanted to write, thanks to the usual weekend duties and distractions, and inevitable short story edits, I submitted my September entry with only one last furious minute left on the clock!
I hope you enjoyed this short journey with The Cruise Ship. Please 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.
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:
- Ship horn: https://freesound.org/people/monotraum/sounds/208714/
- Seagulls: https://freesound.org/people/plantmonkey/sounds/377107/
- Bar ambience: https://freesound.org/people/lunchmoney/sounds/380200/
- Bottles chinking: https://freesound.org/people/LampEight/sounds/259671/
- Slot machine jackpot: https://freesound.org/people/JoannaLuna/sounds/448842/
- Dance music: https://freesound.org/people/cgoulao/sounds/431538/
- Waves: https://freesound.org/people/amholma/sounds/376802/
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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Support this show https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.