I got awesome news a few weeks back and have had to sit on it until now, which is super, super hard because I wanted to be jumping up and down about it all over the internet. But now that it’s published and available, I can talk about it: my flash fiction piece “Until Death” was selected to be part of The NoSleep Podcast’s Suddenly Shocking Vol. 12!
This is the 2nd time I’ve been fortunate enough to have my work appear on The NoSleep Podcast. My story “A Friend in Need” was part of the bonus content for Season 14, Episode 1 (which you can listen to for just $1.99).
Like “A Friend in Need,” the Suddenly Shocking flash-fiction series is available only to season pass subscribers who have purchased access to The NoSleep Podcast’s Season 14. If you’re not already a subscriber and you love horror stories, it is a worthwhile investment! It costs about as much as a single audiobook but has 60 hour of scary radio-drama style stories. Click here to subscribe.
I was so completely overjoyed that they chose to produce “Until Death.” I wrote it as part of an exercise in a horror workshop earlier this year, in which I was pushing myself to draw upon my deepest, darkest, most personal fears. On top of that, we were challenged to write something very short, and the story ended up being only 355 words (that’s only a little longer than this blog post so far).
What I ended up with was a very quick view into a traumatic moment. It didn’t feel like a horror story, but it did leave me feeling very raw and emotional. I thought it would be un-sellable. I expected to hang onto it until I publish my short story collection in 2021. But then Jessica McEvoy let me know the NoSleep team had opened submissions for a very short time for “suddenly shocking” flash fiction stories. How could I resist?
My audiobook listeners will already be familiar with Jessica, who narrated Donn’s Hill, Donn’s Shadow, and Hide and Seek. In addition to lending her narrative talents to audiobooks, she is also a regular voice on The NoSleep Podcast and performed “A Friend in Need”. She and the talented Nikolle Doolin collaborated on “Until Death,” with Jessica voicing the narrator and Nikolle portraying Paige, my main character.
You guys, I cried when I heard it. Nikolle’s performance is so emotional. The music by Brandon Boone is so poignant. And Jessica, as always, manages to find the core of the story and bring it to the forefront so beautifully.
“Until Death” is only one of many incredible tales in this volume. I really, really hope you’ll check it out. You’ll find my story at about 1 hour, 55 minutes in, but the 2-hour long collection is definitely worth your time.