All of the words I said out loud for S01E39 of Audio Drama Debut, my podcast showcasing new audio drama, fiction and RPG trailers.
F/X - Fountain pen writing, and then being capped. Fire gently crackles in the background.
THE LIBRARIAN: Hello there. Come in, sit down, try not to be too cheerful. Sorry, but I'm nursing something of a hangover, and I could really do with you not being too loud today.
Help yourself to the White Peony, and don't slurp.
Celebrating? No. Why would I be celebrating? I've been grieving. I don't know what's been going on out there, but in here I've just lost my position as head of the fireworks committee for the Library of Audio Fiction's display.
Did you not realise that that was this week? The 5th was Thursday, so obviously yesterday was the day we had the big display. I'd stockpiled rockets, mines, sparklers, Catherine wheels and a few other things, and then discovered that someone else wanted to be in charge this year.
Apparently these roles do technically require common consent, so we had to have a quick hustings and vote. I nearly won, but in all the excitement, I managed to forget to vote myself, and so lost by two.
I did have a cunning plan to put some sparklers in the Director's office to distract her, so that I could sneak my vote into the count, but she caught me in the act. And when I heard her coming, I turned around so fast I got a crick in my neck. If it's not one thing it's another. Plus at five past four, I'd apparently missed the deadline anyway.
So I'm afraid, instead of watching fireworks last night, I got a trifle drunk and put some podcasts on. Listened to a show about a woman living with her new, very suspicious roommate, a chat show for complex individuals, and a consultancy for people in a very specialised field.
But I suppose you don't want to listen to my problems, you just want those trailers you came in for. Fine then, I'll tell you about a few, and then you can please quietly leave.
First, The Hollow is a modern take on the timeless story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. When three 6th graders at Sleepy Hollow Middle School stumble upon a real-life ghost story, they find themselves on the trail of the Headless Horseman himself. Is he truly a terrifying ghoul, or has he been misunderstood for all these years?
[CLIP - The Hollow]
THE LIBRARIAN: Then, It Came From the Parking Lot! is a four-part Halloween special about a world just to the side of ours where monsters are very real. And, in the case of Dracula, very bored. It's time for his infamous monsters-only Halloween party he throws in a rented venue in the city park every year, but this time things are thrown for a loop as a room full of history's greatest villains face a force of nature none of them are prepared to fight: a bear in the parking lot.
[CLIP - It Came From the Parking Lot]
THE LIBRARIAN: And this week's RPG, Dwarven Moss began when gaming expert Tom Hodgins decided to ignite an old passion of his by playing some Dungeons & Dragons, so he recruited his friends, comedian Kris Siddiqi, and musician Jay McCarrol to play their very first official campaign. It captures the hosts’ enthusiastic, improvised collective storytelling and elevates it with atmospheric effects and cinematic music. The end result is like an old fashioned radio play. It’s a story of two unlikely companions, a dwarf and a half-elf, lost together in Barovia, a mysterious land under the control of Strahd, the Dark Prince.
[CLIP - Dwarven Moss]
THE LIBRARIAN: And finally, The NoNap Podcast, which is a short series of spooky and wholesome tales for children.
[CLIP - The NoNap Podcast]
THE LIBRARIAN: And that's that. Right, leave me to my misery. Go see if that traitor has put any pictures of the fireworks on our twitter page. It's @AudioDramaDebut.
Anyway, cheerio!