Tall And True Short Reads

Season Two: Episode 37 (29 October 2021)

Welcome to the Lucky Country is a short story from the Tall And True writers’ website, written and narrated by Robert Fairhead.

Read the story: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/short-stories/welcome-to-the-lucky-country

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 an earlier and shorter 500-word version of this short story for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s monthly Furious Fiction in April 2021. The competition brief was:

• The story must begin in some kind of QUEUE
• It must include the words CROSS, DROP and LUCKY
• And have a MAP.

I didn’t win or make the short or long lists for Furious Fiction April, but I shared The Lucky Country on Tall And True. And then, later in May, I saw an ad on social media calling for submissions for The Big Issue Fiction Edition 2021.

Before the dust had had a chance to settle on The Lucky Country, I was reworking it. The Big Issue brief allowed for a longer word count, so I added to the back story of my protagonists, the group of refugees hoping to cross the border for a better life.

And I retitled the story Welcome to the Lucky Country to underscore the stark contrast between the group’s dream and reality. 

As for the fictional Lucky Country, I borrowed an idea from Terra Nullius by the Australian Indigenous writer Claire G. Coleman. But no spoilers, you’ll have to read her book – which I highly recommend. (Amazon affiliate link.)

Thanks for listening to Welcome to the Lucky Country. You can read my short stories, blog posts and other writing at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story collections from the Amazon Kindle and Kobo online bookstores. Links are available in the show notes.

The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will appear in your podcast feed shortly. In the meantime, don’t forget to check your feed or the podcast website for earlier episodes from Seasons One and Two.  And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite app. Doing so helps me share my writing with other listeners.

And finally, please support this podcast by telling your family and friends 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:

• Footsteps: https://freesound.org/people/SpliceSound/sounds/218304/
• Crowd shouting: https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/486193/
• Map folding: https://freesound.org/people/krb21/sounds/118606/
• School bell: https://freesound.org/people/WebbFilmsUK/sounds/200318/
• Sports crowd: https://freesound.org/people/habbis92/sounds/206003/
• Seagulls: https://freesound.org/people/plantmonkey/sounds/377107/
• Gunfire: https://freesound.org/people/C-V/sounds/523404/
• Crowd screams: https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/486179/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads 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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