Well, here’s something fun.
For some time I’ve been wanting to do something with fiction in audio. I’ve been into podcasts and audio stories for some time, after all—even before the total craze seems to have hit. And I’ve played with it a little in the form of doing the odd podcast here and there related to a silly-fun fake baseball world I participate in. But only now have I finally gotten up the energy to jump into audio with my actual fiction.
Deciding to start small, I took a fun short story and went wild.
So, let me introduce “Deca-Dad,” a story that first appeared in Analog. It’s got an 18-minute runtime, and was a lot of fun to work on. It’s written by me, narrated by me, and engineered by me. Even then, I think it sounds pretty fair (great promotion there, Ron Pick up my audio book! It sounds pretty fair!).
You can get it free on Audible (or through Amazon, which is what I’ll link to) if you pick up a 30-day trial. I suppose I should also note you can get the story in text for a whopping $.99.
Either way, I hope you’ll like it.
Excerpt:
“Hello, Mr. Hakkinan,” I said, taken aback by his familiarity. My family is not so intense, and his closeness felt somehow threatening.
“Mr. Hakkinan?” he said, holding me by both shoulders. “That will never do. How about D-dad?”
“D-dad?”
“I figure it’s been 250 years since my hide last saw this rock, and at twenty-five years a generation, that makes me a deca-dad.”
Collins explores the relationship between a great-great-great-to the 10th grandson and the men who choose space over family with excellent dialogue and a keen eye for his character’s unstated desires.
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