Tall And True Short Reads
Too Late, Lenny
Episode 3 (1 October 2020)
Between you and me, Lenny, there are more mourners at your funeral with the COVID restrictions than would have been graveside had you died before the pandemic. Streaming it over Zoom helps boost your numbers. Mind you, most of the faces on my computer screen are strangers, or I haven’t seen for ages.
Too Late, Lenny
Show Notes
Season One: Episode 3 (1 October 2020)
Too Late, Lenny is a short story from TallAndTrue.com, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.
Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/too-late-lenny
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 Too Late, Lenny in July 2020 for Furious Fiction, a monthly 500-word short story competition run by the Australian Writers’ Centre. The brief for July’s Furious Fiction was that the story had to take place at either a WEDDING or a FUNERAL, something had to be CUT, and it had to include the words OVER, BETWEEN, and UNDER.
I set Too Late, Lenny at Lenny’s FUNERAL. Due to COVID restrictions, his funeral is streamed OVER Zoom. Our narrator, Bob, tells the tale, “BETWEEN you and me”, of his friendship with Lenny, how it had been CUT and rekindled. And the story ends with Bob watching Lenny’s coffin lowered “six-feet UNDER” via Zoom.
I didn’t win Furious Fiction July, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing Too Late, Lenny. However, when I shared it on Tall And True, I changed the narrative slightly. Bob’s still our first-person narrator, but in the original version, he only addresses the reader. Revisiting the story, I thought it sounded better for Bob to speak to his old friend Lenny in the opening and closing paragraphs.
I hope you enjoyed Too Late, Lenny. 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, A Song on the Radio, will be in your podcast feed shortly.
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.
- Clock Ticking: https://freesound.org/people/FlashTrauma/sounds/398275/
- Cafe/Restaurant Ambience: https://freesound.org/people/lunchmoney/sounds/380200/
- Comedy Laughter: https://freesound.org/people/Evil_Ear_Recordings/sounds/524775/
- Hanging Up Phone: https://freesound.org/people/DrNI/sounds/164035/
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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