Tall And True Short Reads
The Gift
Episode 13 (4 February 2021)
“Happy anniversary, Darl.” My blank look doesn’t wipe the smile from his face. “It’s our double anniversary, remember?” he prompts, presenting me with a single red rose. “Nine months since the party and six months since you moved in.” My nan taught me to tell the truth. “Of course I remember,” I lie.
The Gift
Show Notes
Season One: Episode 13 (4 February 2021)
The Gift is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead. At the end of the episode, Robert provides an insight into the story, which he wrote for Furious Fiction in December 2020.
The show notes include links to The Gift on Tall And True and the podcast’s theme music and sound effects.
Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/the-gift
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 Gift was my December 2020 entry for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s monthly short story competition, Furious Fiction. The 500-word story for December had to:
- Include a GIFT of some kind
- Open with a first sentence containing only THREE words
- And use the words PALM, MATCH and ROSE.
The email with the competition brief from the Writers’ Centre arrived on the afternoon of Friday 4th. And I had 55 hours to write my short story before the midnight deadline on Sunday 6th.
But as I later tweeted, I “wrote” it while walking my dog that Friday evening. By the time I got home, I had fleshed out the characters and plot and ticked off the criteria. All I had to do was get the words out of my head and into my computer.
Yes, there were the usual edits and tweaks. However, The Gift was one of (if not the!) most fully-formed stories I’ve ever written in such a short time frame. And I submitted it 12 hours before the deadline.
I hope you enjoyed my furiously written short story. Did you hear the words PALM, MATCH and ROSE, and did you guess the GIFT? 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:
- Male laughter: https://freesound.org/people/Eneasz/sounds/119459/
- Female laughter: https://freesound.org/people/sagetyrtle/sounds/33658/
- Party background voices: https://freesound.org/people/dbspin/sounds/396684/
- Footsteps on wooden floor: https://freesound.org/people/Anthousai/sounds/398782/
- Champagne cork: https://freesound.org/people/ultradust/sounds/166923/
- Clock ticking: https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/522119/
- Door closing: https://freesound.org/people/sgcardinal/sounds/395753/
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.