My story
"Lent" went live on
Four Way Review a couple of days ago. The text comes with a voice recording of the piece which you can find on
Soundcloud. The recording was made under funny/challenging circumstances at 5:00 PM or so on the seventh day of my Sierra Nevada residency. The heater blowing through the vent was too loud so I shut the bathroom door. The little dorm refrigerator in the little dorm was making a sluicing sound, so I unplugged that. Finally when the room quieted down I started speaking the story into my iPhone. One take, two. Two-thirds of the way through the third take, a dog started barking in the hall. I kept on reading. It was a small-dog bark, racheted up with alarm--I don't think he was supposed to be in the building-- but as his warning came in at a slightly heightened moment of the story, I decided to leave it in. I'm curious as to whether you hear it. From the here on out, the story will always be, for me, in part about the single-digit temperatures pushing against the other side of the glass, the fluorescent coil on the ceiling with its missing dome, the bare walls, a packaged sanitary napkin in the drawer. In other words, a dorm vacated by its usual inhabitants over winter break.
2 comments:
I enjoyed the story, and I didn't hear the dog. I thought maybe I was too engrossed by your words. I listened to it a second time and was lost in the words again, when I realized that the bloodhound and his smaller friends next door were having a barking party. Your little dog would have seemed to be one of their number even if I had heard him.
Well, as much as I'm a friend to Dog, I do have to admit that I'm happy to hear that you were "too engrossed" in the story. The little dog I was talking about is barely discernible, actually. A little trick to get people to listen--another confession.
A barking party sounds like fun!
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