#shortstory

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #54: Falling Leaves Don’t Weep

Episode #54: Reading of The Thirteenth Hour Epilogue Short Story, “Falling leaves Don’t Weep”

https://archive.org/download/Podcast54_201608/Podcast%2054.mp3

This week, I’m reading the short story “Falling Leaves Don’t Weep,” the stand-alone short story epilogue to The Thirteenth Hour.  It’s a short tale about how one night of insomnia leads to a surprising amount of insight for an elderly monarch (actually King Darian IV from the novel as a much older and wiser man who is looking back on his younger days with a mixture of regret and embarrassment).  I figured Darian needed an epilogue since we never really found out what happened to him in the story.

I can’t say for sure, but when I rereading this story, I was reminded of the story The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, a book my mother used to read to me as a child, and am guessing it was an influencing factor in the creation of this story.

As an aside, I’m in the process of trying to transition old episodes of this podcast (episode #53 and prior) to a new host.  This is the first one on the new host.  There should be no change for you, the listener, either accessing new episodes directly here or via iTunes.  But after 8/31, there may be some issues accessing old episodes of I’m not done updating the old links.  But in that case, it should be resolved in a few weeks.

As always, thanks for listening!

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The Thirteenth Hour Gets a Prequel and an Epilogue!

As of next week, there will be two more pieces of writing in The Thirteenth Hour universe – two short stories that serve as figurative bookends to the book, though they are meant to stand alone.  Putting them out has taken much longer than I anticipated, but luckily, I’ve had a lot of help from beta readers and my brother, all of whom were invaluable in spotting areas that needed fine tuning.

1.) “A Shadow in the Moonlight”: a young hunter accidentally interrupts a spell which literally turns him into a shadow, only able to venture out into the world by night, where interactions with other people leave him with such intense anxiety that he avoids them altogether. He is trapped in this state while encountering an injured runaway, whom he decides to help, despite the personal pain it causes.  I realize this description makes it sounds like a vampire story, but it isn’t, really, though the intention was to make it more gothic in nature than the original book, as the majority of the action takes place in a land of seemingly perpetual night (sort of like Brandon Lee’s The Crow).  It’s set a number of years prior to the events in The Thirteenth Hour and written in the same new adult/young adult style as the book.

Shadow in the Moonlight cover_edited-1 lo rez

2.) “Falling Leaves Don’t Weep”: an elderly king reflects on a life of self-absorption and hedonism after a falling leaf blows into his bedroom one night when he’s unable to sleep.  Takes place several decades after the events of The Thirteenth Hour.  In contrast to the other story, this one is more of a psychological story, as almost all of the narrative takes place internally, in the King’s head.

Falling Leaves Don't Weep cover_edited-2 lo rez

Each of the stories features small cameos by characters from The Thirteenth Hour, though the purpose was to highlight characters and situations that didn’t really get discussed in the book or in some cases, tie in with a sequel.

The stories will be available on Smashwords and Amazon.  I’m currently putting the finishing touches on them for the 3/20 release date.  Stay tuned!

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