Tall And True Short Reads

Season Four: Episode 100 (1 October 2024)

Twin Souls in the Universe 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/twin-souls-in-the-universe

Read the “What’s in a Name?” blog post: https://www.tallandtrue.com.au/blog/whats-in-a-name

Listen to Episode 8 of Tall And True Short Reads, Splendid Views.

Episode 92 of Tall And True Short Reads, The Lost and Found Story.

Support the podcast: https://supporter.acast.com/tall-and-true-short-reads

Buy Robert’s short story and microfiction 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 Twin Souls in the Universe, originally titled The Hum of the Universe, for the Australian Writers’ Centre’s August 2024 Furious Fiction writing challenge. Their brief for the 500-word story was:

• It had to take place UP IN THE AIR.
• The first sentence had to include a colour and a number — I used a “Blue 15” raffle ticket because blue, not pink, was Mae’s favourite colour as a girl, and at 15, she had decided to become an astronaut.
• And it had to contain the words DOUBT, PACK and SILENCE (longer variations with the core spelling were permitted).

Expanding on the “UP IN THE AIR” setting, the Writers’ Centre explained characters could not stand on solid ground or in or on water at any point in the story, including in a building or tower attached to the ground, up a tree, or on a boat, etc. They could also be in space but couldn’t set foot on the moon or another planet.

Being a Star Trek fan, this last line about space had me thinking of transporter malfunctions, with Scotty unable to “beam up” and reassemble Captain Kirk. Thus, my story about the first test pilot trial of the matter transference program was born.

Three items of interest for podcast listeners:

• The main character in my story, Mae, is UP IN THE AIR at all times, although she reflects on things that happened on the ground. Perhaps this broke the criteria because my story wasn’t showcased or longlisted for the August challenge. More likely, other stories were better than mine.
• I wanted my central characters to pay homage to the pioneers of space travel, hence, Yuri, for the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (of course!). I planned to name my female character Sally after the first American female astronaut, Sally Ride. But as I explained in the “What’s in a Name?” blog post on Tall And True, I’d already used Sally twice, for August 2021 and 2023’s Furious Fictions, Episodes 8 and 92 of Tall And True Short Reads. So, I renamed her Mae after Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to travel into space.
• The story was originally titled The Hum of the Universe because it had a different ending. After Yuri said, “I came looking for you”, Mae replied, “I hoped you would”, and suddenly she heard the hum of the universe. The line was a callback to the silence and loneliness her atoms had experienced. But the day after submitting the story, I realised I’d used the wrong callback. So, when I shared it on Tall And True, along with other edits to tighten the narrative, I changed the last line to … and their atoms swirled like twin souls in the universe. And I changed the title!

I made a few more tweaks to the story when drafting the script for this podcast episode, including the last line, which now reads … and their atoms swirled like twin souls dancing to the hum of the universe.

I hope you enjoyed Mae and Yuri’s dance in the universe as much as I enjoyed writing, editing and narrating it. You can read Twin Souls in the Universe and my selected short stories, blog posts and other writings at TallAndTrue.com. You can also buy my short story and microfiction collections from the Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Kobo online bookstores — links are available in the Show Notes.

This is Episode 100 of Tall And True Short Reads, a major milestone marking the end of Season Four of the podcast, which I launched in September 2020. I’m taking a short break before the launch of Season Five.

In the meantime, search your favourite feed or the podcast website to listen to all 100 episodes and the season trailers. 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, thanks for listening to the 100th episode of Tall And True Short Reads. Please tell your family and friends about the podcast 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:

• Ambient Universe Hum: https://freesound.org/people/FALL-E/sounds/713436/
• Hooray!: https://freesound.org/people/Vesperia94/sounds/403057/

Production Notes

Tall And True Short Reads is 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.