I recently had the great fortune to place one of my previously published short stories, "There Will Always be Dragons," with the audio fiction podcast Gallery of Curiosities . As an added bonus, the editor, Kevin Frost, asked me if I would like to do the audio recording for the story myself. It just so happened that I'd auditioned to serve as a reader for the podcast around the same time I submitted my story, so the whole situation worked out rather nicely.
It was a strange experience reading my own work aloud. When I auditioned for the podcast, I read a short story by another author, so it was fairly easy to distance myself from the material and just focus on the reading. Reading my own story, however, proved incredibly nerve wracking. I second guessed every passage and piece of dialogue, worrying that it sounded completely ridiculous when read aloud. It's difficult enough for me to be objective about my own writing, so this added layer of personal involvement was quite a challenge to overcome.
But I think it was all worth it in the end. Hopefully I'll have the chance to record additional podcasts in the future and release more of my stories in audio format. You can check out the podcast in a number of formats:
Gallery of Curiosities iTunes feed
Gallery of Curiosities Soundcloud feed
Gallery of Curiosities Stitcher feed
Gallery of Curiosities Google Play Music feed
Direct MP3 download from Gallery of Curiosities
However you choose to listen, I hope you enjoy the experience. If you listen on one of the above feeds, please take a few moments to leave a review as it helps direct more listeners their way. Also, be sure to follow Gallery of Curiosities on Twitter and Facebook (or subscribe to one of the aforementioned feeds) to keep up with their latest releases!