As per usual, I'm late to announce this on this blog, but I have exciting news. My short story "Chain Reaction" won third place in the Journey Into Journey short story writing contest from the Journey Into Podcast. Twelve people entered, but only six people, counting me, submitted stories. We were each assigned a different song from the band Journey. The title of the song would be the title of our story, and we build the story around the title. We also had to include at least two phrases from the song, of at least four words each somewhere in story. The story could be about whatever we wanted.
Third, second, and first place included monetary prizes plus getting your story produced on the podcast. Third place is $5, second place is $10, and first place is $25. Of course, publication order is, third, second, then first. I won third place, and as far as I’m concerned, I got the best deal, since that meant I was first to get my story produced. The true reward, for me, was always to hear my story produced in full cast audio.
My story is called "Chain Reaction." And it’s a full cast production with all sorts of talented voice actors. Nick Griffalco and Arthur Hikma have entered a contest to win $100,000. They must be the final ones to get off a roller coaster. However, one night Nick hears the roller coaster talking to him. It wants him to be the prophet of a new religion based around roller coasters. Arthur thinks Nick has completely lost it. He is determined to get Nick to snap out it before he goes completely off the rails. It’s sure to be one wild ride.
We’ve got Norm Sherman from The Drabblecast as our main character Nick, and he nails the role so well. Well, this story probably wouldn’t be out of place at The Drabblecast. Dave Robison uses his deep authoritative voice to great effect as the Rollar Coster God, and Marshall Latham himself gives a surprisingly spot-on performance as Arthur. There were many other characters with minor roles, but voice actors who gave exception performances. For example, Rish Outfeild gives a surprisingly fun performance as minor character Sean. His right hand man Big Anklevich cameos as AJ, another minor character. Tena Kolakowski Actually sounds pretty close to how I imagine Gwen sounding. Meanwhile, Bria Burton does a respectable job as Arthur’s girlfriend Molly. Great performances all around.
Normally, I'd take this opportunity to tell you more about the behind the scenes aspects, but Marshall already took care of that. He read and recorded those bits himself as an author's note. He intended to include it with the story, but he forgot in his rush to get the story out. In hindsight, if I'd been smart, I'd have called the Journey Into Podcast voice mail number and left a message of myself reading the author's note, but it is what it is.
However, I will include some bit I forgot to put in the author's note. For those wondering, no, Arthur and Molly's names aren't a Harry Potter reference. Molly was originally named Holly, after an internet friend I used to have. However, said friend and I had a bit of a falling out, and I liked the name Molly, so I made the somewhat lazy switch of name. I didn't remember what Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's names were until after the story had been published.
One the flipside, however, the part where Nick says that all is one, and one is all, was indeed a reference to Fullmetal Alchemist. When it comes to how I imagined Nick sounding, I wrote his lines with Gray, from the Let's Play channel GrayStillPlays, in mind. However, I was still pleasantly surprised by Norm's narration. And hey, it's not every day that Norm Sherman himself narrates your story. Hmm, I wonder if that makes "Chain Reaction" and honorary Drabblecast story. It certainly wouldn't have been out of place at The Drabblecast.
On a similar note, Arthur's last name was going to be Drakoni originally. However, I decided to change it at the absolute last minute. My twitter handle, as you might be aware, is ArthurDrakoni, and I was worried people might assume that Arthur was meant to be a stand-in for me.
Also, there was one minor error. During the part where Nick says "I'll give three truths..." that was suppose to be Arthur's line. It my fault for not making that more clear, and I don't gold it against Marshall and the gang.
But enough of all that. Go give it a listen now, and be sure to listen to the author's note too. This is very exciting progress, and I'm very pleased with the final result.
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