Tall And True Short Reads

The Light Above

Episode 96 (28 July 2024)

I open my eyes, blink and try to focus on the bright lights set into the white ceiling flying past overhead. I hear beeps and muffled voices. It feels like I’m strapped to a camp stretcher, but it’s moving. I’m on a hospital gurney. What happened? I want to ask. But there’s a tube down my throat, and I can’t talk.

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The Light Above

Show Notes

Season Four: Episode 96 (28 July 2024)

The Light Above is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the story on Tall And True: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/fiction/short-stories/the-light-above

Read my 2020 blog post about Furious Fiction: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/blog/furiousfiction-writers-centre-competition

About Judd Exley: https://www.juddexley.com/about/

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story collections online:

Story Insight

I wrote The Light Above for the March 2024 Furious Fiction, the Australian Writers’ Centre’s 500-word flash fiction challenge. The brief for March was that each story had to include:

  • A character who revisits something
  • The same colour in its first and last sentence
  • And the words CAMP, FAST and SPARK (longer words retaining the original spelling were permissible).

When I started writing the story, I planned to have my character revisit a place, like their hometown, after a long absence. But I’ve drawn from the deep well of this autofiction for several other stories—I left my hometown, Perth, Western Australia, in 1983, when I was twenty-one, over 40 years ago. Instead, I switched on the “bright white light” of a near-death experience and the “place” became the afterlife … or life, depending on how you read the story.

I didn’t make the Writers’ Centre’s showcase or longlist for March, which left me feeling a “little low”. But fellow Furious Fiction writer Judd Exley, with whom I shared The Light Above, lifted my spirits (pardon the pun) with his enthusiastic feedback:

“Oh man, oh man, did I love that story. That was brilliant, utterly brilliant.”

So, I picked myself up, revisited the story, rephrased a few passages, tweaked a word here and there, and shared it on Tall And True, my forty-second (official and unofficial) Furious Fiction since April 2020.

As I wrote in a 2020 blog post on Tall And True about the challenge, by its name and nature, Furious Fiction doesn’t afford writers time to reflect on their writing. 

Consequently, the story I’ve shared on Tall And True differs from the one I submitted to the Writers’ Centre. But The Light Above respects the criteria and word-count rules, and the judges would still recognise it and, hopefully, agree that it’s a better story for my reflection and edits.

I hope you enjoy listening to this episode. You can read The Light Above and my selected short stories, blog posts and other writing on TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story and microfiction collections from the Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Kobo online bookstores — links are available in the show notes.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be released shortly. In the meantime, please check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from all four seasons. And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite podcasting app — doing so helps share my storytelling.

You can support the podcast financially by making a small one-off or regular donation via the Acast Supporter Page.

Finally, please share this episode with family and friends and spread the word about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers’ website.

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:

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is produced using Audacity. Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

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Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.

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