It started as it always does. Well, always might be a little strong. In 2021 I was pitching my somewhat recently re-released short story collection UPSTATE to a quite excellent producer with the idea that it might be optioned for the creation of a serialized podcast, which might in turn be sold to a platform such as Spotify, which might be further optioned by a streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime and become a television series. Which...didn't happen when the producer passed. Was I discouraged, yes, totally, and was I also inspired, yes, totally. I thought, do I need a producer to serialize UPSTATE, could I not do that myself? I could. I could record myself reading the stories. I could produce a podcast. Post it. Promote it. Make it real. Or...I could do most of that and instead of recording the stories myself, I could reach out to some of the friends, family, writers and publishers I love and interacted with throughout my writing life and ask them to record the stories. Which I did. I reached out, cajoled, flattered, pursued and ultimately gathered recordings of every story in the collection, which I now intend to share with you, one episode per week, starting on Thursday, October 6th, and running every Thursday thereafter, God willing, until completion. The episodes will be posted here on the blog and available wherever podcasts are found. I will also post the link for each new episode as they happen below, in order, and gloriously at that. If you want to discuss this project with me or promote it, which would be warmly embraced, please let me know and we'll do that. Post haste. Otherwise, it's been quite a lot of fun looking to make this happen and now...it's really, actually, happening.
UPSTATE: The Podcast
Repetition Patterns
Chapter One - Repetition Patterns read by Judy Tanzer
Chapter Two - The Babysitter read by Cyn Vargas
Chapter Three - The Gift read by Serena Makofsky
Chapter Four - What We Thought We Knew read by Tom Williams
Chapter Five - Change Of Plans read by Christopher Bowen
Chapter Six - Pac-Man Fever read by Mark R. Brand
Chapter Seven - Life As He Had Known It read by Alice Kaltman
Chapter Eight - Shooting Stick read by Hosho McCreesh
So Different Now
Chapter Nine - So Different Now read by Donald Quist
Chapter Ten - In A Single Bound read by Seth Berg
Chapter Eleven - Stevey read by David Masciotra
Chapter Twelve - Cool, Not Removed read by Patrick Wensink
Chapter Thirteen - Panties read by Debra Pritzker Tanzer
Chapter Fourteen - Just Like That read by Giano Cromley
Chapter Fifteen - Never Said read by Joseph G. Peterson
Chapter Sixteen - Goddess read by Glen Binger
Chapter Seventeen - No Nothing read by Ryan W. Bradley
After the Flood
Chapter Eighteen - How It Works read by Leland Cheuk
Chapter Nineteen - Stabbed In The Back read by Leesa Cross-Smith
Chapter Twenty -Barely Breathing read by Tim Walikis
Chapter Twenty-One - God's Work read by Barry Graham
Chapter Twenty-Two - Untrammeled read by Gerald Brennan
Chapter Twenty-Three - The Runner read by Ray Charbonneau
Chapter Twenty-Four - Watching And Waiting read by Pete Anderson
Chapter Twenty-Five - Freddie's Dead read by Robert James Russell
Chapter Twenty-Six - Vision read by Adam Lawrence
Chapter Twenty-Seven - What We Talk About When We Talk About The Flood read by Christian Winn
Chapter Twenty-Eight - We Were All Here read by Mallory Smart
Chapter Twenty-Nine - A Different Story read by Dr. Mike McClelland
Chapter Thirty - Longing read by Paula Bomer
Chapter Thirty-One - Night Swimming read by Mike Smolarek
Chapter Thirty-Two - Something Like This read by Clayton Smith
Chapter Thirty-Three - Things Start read by Sara Lippmann