Cherry and Star Anise – Episode one of the Dean and Cordelia series.

Intro

Hello and welcome survivors to the next story in the Apocalypse Café.

Today we present to you the first episode in the Dean and Cordelia three episode arc titled “Cherry and Star Anise.”

I’ll come back with comments at the end, but allow me, survivors, to quickly introduce the author and the performer.

Jesse Daniels is a tree-climbing Virgo with an amazing whistling ability. He can often be found at the peak of a mountain with his dog and wife in tow. He enjoys storytelling, drawing, painting, and creative endeavors of all types. He is working on a fantasy novel with a creative take on classic monsters and a unique magic system, hoping to get it out and into the world within the next couple of years.

Currently, Jesse has a non-fiction book out through Storey Publishing focused on tabletop game design, titled Make Your Own Board Game. Look to his website, PiedRaven.com, for more information on his other work including Hibernation, a bear-centric card game that is available for purchase, and Between Realms, a celtic-mythology themed, worker-placement card-game coming soon.

Our audio artist for today’s piece is Clara McCouch. Clara is an aspiring young actor, fresh out of high school, all set to leave behind the pastoral farmlands of central Pennsylvania in pursuit of her BFA in acting at Montclair State University in northern New Jersey.

And she does an outstanding job on this read.

Additional thanks to my thespian survivor friend Duane for putting me in touch with Clara.

So…my survivor friends, grab a glass of good merlot, a handful of silverware, and sit back and enjoy “Cherry and Star Anise.”

Outro:

Smoke curls from a petulant fire built from shipping palettes and dried dung over the village.  The rim of hills obscured by apocalyptic steam.  The men draw lots to decide who must climb out of the safety of our valley to forage today.  To risk the elements.  To avoid the monsters.  To survive one more week.

One more day.

Alrighty my survivor friends, this, of course, is Chris, your producer and host.

Hope you are enjoying the new Apocalypse Café series.  My intention is to keep providing these short story arcs and once we get enough piled up, I’ll create a new stand-alone podcast feed for them.  It’s a lot of fun to be able to read and edit other creative’s work.

I met Jesse in the local writer’s club and when I spun up this new project, I asked him if he had any odds and ends he’d be willing to share.  This story was one of those.

I like the way he weaves the dynamics of a new relationship into the monsters stories in a game-like or comic way.  I also like the characters and their truth in a crazy world.

There will be two more episodes in this arc.  We are going to switch voice artists for episodes two and three because Clara went off to college.  I hope she remembers us when she’s a movie star.

If you, yes you, have a story you would like to contribute to the Apocalypse Café, or know a starving artists who would like to play along – please reach out to me.

You can send me an e-mail directly at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com, or use the contact form on the website at www.oldmanapocalypse.com  – Likewise if you’d like to read for us reach out.  I am paying a tiny bit but it’s for the love of the craft.

Speaking of paying, the best way to support us is through Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/aftertheapocalypse

Over the summer I added all the original After the Apocalypse Episodes to Patreon as audio products that you can get ad-free by episode, by season and by straight up subscription.

https://www.patreon.com/aftertheapocalypse/collections

Recently I have been posting book reviews of the 12-books I read over the summer.  The latest was my thoughts on Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.  https://www.patreon.com/posts/book-review-tale-139732693

I also have put up an author website at ChrisRussellAuthor.com if you want to know more about my other projects.

Now that I’ve swept most of my summer-Post-after-the-apocalypse cleanup and Apocalypse Café startup tasks off my cluttered desk I can get back to the art.

I am writing a three episode arc of my own in the Apocalypse Café universe and I’m working on completing the rest of the novels in the After the apocalypse series.

Book one, ‘The Old Man” was released last year and is available for purchase anywhere books are sold – I even found it on the shelf at my local library – which made me giddy with delight.

If you want a signed copy I’ve got a bunch cluttering up my office – just send me an email.

Life is good. I am grateful and I’m looking forward to many new adventures!

So…as the stinking, toxic mud slumps from the hillside in a wave of killing sludge, we barricade the doors with stout timbers and wait for the horror to pass.  We huddle in the small huts at the valley floor waiting for the others to return with food.

Waiting for them to return at all.

All we can do is hope.

And keep surviving.