Tall And True Short Reads
The Lonely Moon
Episode 87 (15 February 2024)
If you ask me, the Moon is the best object in the night sky. And you don’t need an expensive telescope to observe it. A pair of binoculars does the trick. I’m looking at the Moon now, leaning against a wall to steady my hands, and it’s a beautiful sight. No wonder it inspires poets and lovers.
The Lonely Moon
Show Notes
Season Four: Episode 87 (15 February 2024)
The Lonely Moon 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-lonely-moon
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
Furious Fiction is a short story writing challenge run by the Australian Writers’ Centre on the first weekend of the month. I have submitted an entry to every Furious Fiction since my first in April 2020 (A Song on the Radio). Except for the October 2023 challenge, when I was in Perth on a whirlwind trip for a family wedding.
To satisfy my Furious Fiction fix, I decided to write an unofficial short story, as I did in 2022 when the challenge briefly moved from monthly to quarterly, using October’s brief and respecting the 55-hour deadline.
However, the following weekend, I was involved in the Voice to Parliament Referendum in Australia and the next, while still in shock from the result, I narrated and released a podcast episode, the last of a three-part story inspired by the Voice campaign, Some Things Change, Episodes 79, 80 and 81 of Tall And True Short Reads.
The first chance I had to write my short story was on the last weekend of October. The Writers’ Centre’s brief was:
- The story had to feature someone looking through a TELESCOPE or BINOCULARS.
- It had to include a five-digit number, e.g. “90210”, “10,000”, etc.
- And the words BLIND, WIND, FIND and MIND (did you hear them in my story?).
The Writers’ Centre also publishes its Furious Fiction showcase on the last weekend of the month. I had planned to include a telescope in my story. But I read the showcased entries and some featured telescopes, and they were good, so I changed tack on my astronomical equipment. And, as astronomers like our narrator will tell you, binoculars are perfect for observing our nearest celestial neighbour in the night sky, the Moon.
As often happens with my Furious Fictions, after labouring on the opening paragraph, The Lonely Moon “wrote itself”. I let my first-person narrator’s conversational words and emotions flow, adding appropriate callbacks, confident I’d know when I’d written the last sentence.
I may sound big-headed, but four years of official and unofficial Furious Fictions have given me confidence in my writing process. That’s why I highly recommend the Writers’ Centre’s monthly challenge to aspiring writers or those like me who crave monthly fixes!
I hope you enjoyed my lunar tale. You can read The Lonely Moon and all my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story collections, including the latest Tall And True Microfiction anthology, 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 in your podcast feed soon. 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 your family and friends and tell them 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:
- Owl Hoots: https://freesound.org/people/Breviceps/sounds/465697/
- Wind: https://freesound.org/people/mario1298/sounds/181248/
- Footsteps: https://freesound.org/people/Yuval/sounds/205817/
Production Notes
Tall And True Short Reads produced using Audacity.
Podcast episodes are recorded in Sydney, Australia, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.
Acast Podcast Supporter Page
Support this show: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads.