Tall And True Short Reads
The Dark Web
Episode 7 (18 November 2020)
Kevin caught the news in a chat room on the Dark Web. NASA had detected an unidentified object on a collision course with Earth. He wasn’t surprised NASA had kept the news secret from the public. It was further proof of a plan by scientists and elites, backed by billionaires, to create a new world order.
Five Meet On Zoom
Show Notes
Season One: Episode 7 (18 November 2020)
The Dark Web is a short story from TallAndTrue.com, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.
Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/the-dark-web
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 Dark Web was my October 2020 entry for Furious Fiction, the Australian Writers’ Centre’s monthly short story writing competition. The rules for October were:
- Each 500-word story had to include someone or something being CAUGHT
- It had to include the words: OBJECT, WOUND, BAND, and ELABORATE
- And the final two words had to be THE MOON.
The final words, THE MOON, set me thinking of space and NASA and conspiracy theories. And this led me to write a story about a man who spends too much time in the dark alternate universes and truths of the internet and not enough time in the real world with his family.
As for the other words, did you “catch” them in the story? If not, listen again and here’s a tip: each is only mentioned once and in the following order: CAUGHT, OBJECT, WOUND, BAND and ELABORATE.
I didn’t win October’s Furious Fiction. But once again, I enjoyed furiously working my imagination around the criteria and writing the short story in 55 hours, albeit a darker one than my previous entries.
I hope you enjoyed The Dark Web. 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 website.
The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads, Splendid Views, will be in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, check your feed to make sure you haven’t missed any of the earlier episodes, Five Meet On Zoom, A Moving Sculpture, Too Late Lenny, A Song on the Radio, The Cat in the Trunk, and A Jittery Journey.
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:
- Glass bottle chink: https://freesound.org/people/LampEight/sounds/259671/
- Woman laughing: https://freesound.org/people/sagetyrtle/sounds/33658/
- Quarrelling voices: https://freesound.org/people/therover/sounds/463804/
- Pouring liquid: https://freesound.org/people/FillSoko/sounds/257957/
- Sipping drink: https://freesound.org/people/Sheyvan/sounds/471078/
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.