The Shape off the Bow – a performed reading

Well, I enjoyed performing my own story so much, I decided to try another one. Fellow Burdizzo Books author, Lex H. Jones put out a call recently, asking if anyone would be prepared to record a story from his new collection, Whistling Past the Graveyard as a favour. I’ve not read Lex before, but I wanted the opportunity to get some more audio practice in, so I stuck my hand up. The story I present today is The Shape Off The Bow – a half-hour maritime tale of an ill-fated treasure hunt, isolation, madness, and something unnatural floating up there, just off the bow. Turn off the lights, settle back, and let the (sound)waves wash over you…

I should note, with regret, that I did encounter some issues. As with last month’s story, From Tappet Woods, the gain on the input was set a little low, so you’ll need to punt that volume up. I think I’ve figured out how to resolve that next time round. There is also a single line which has been repeated around the two-and-a-half-minute mark, missed in the original editing process. I discovered it with enough time to fix but, frustratingly, was still unable to do so. Technical issues between OneDrive and Audacity left me without access to the raw data file, and I could not reach it again. It kills me to put things out into the world when I know there are flaws, no matter how small, but it was either that or re-record the entire thing again. Don’t let it spoil your enjoyment.

If you have a short-story you’d like me to record, please do get in touch. This is a cost-free service at present, on the understanding that I am still honing both performance and audio mastering skills, and with the proviso that I may share it freely here on my blog. You can email me at dion@thefinetoothed.com send me a DM via social media, or pop a comment in the box below if you’re interested.

In the credits, I mention a couple of resources, which I’ll link to here. First up, there’s the Free Music Archive, where I found both my Intro music – The Fifth Life, by Circus Marcus, and my Outro music – Post Bellum, by Dee Yan-Kee. Secondly, we have Freesound, where I found the lapping waves that underscore this story. They were recorded by Klankbeeld.

Thanks for joining me once more. I hope you enjoy it.

Catch you next week,

Dion.

Further reading:

My journey into audio continues. You can find all of my current (and future) efforts in the Audio category.

If you’d rather read some reviews, you might search the Review category, which, once again, I’ll be adding to over time.