“Deal With God” Debuts in U.S.A.
The first story podcast—this author’s first published fiction—debuts in America online.
Today, my short story “Deal With God” debuts for general audiences. The story is my first published fiction—it debuted from Free Spirit Publishers with inclusion in the Spring 2024 anthology Reaching the Dead End, a book of stories—and, coincidentally, the first episode of this podcast. A song by Kate Bush inspired “Deal With God,” as I wrote and podcast on Autonomia.
The central character, Tetonia, springs from a military tent (depicted by yours truly using X’s Grok technology) and runs up a hill in the dystopian capital city’s fog toward the man she loves and is promptly shot down—by her beloved husband. “Deal With God” unfolds from there.
The action takes place amid a tense standoff at a major government compound, pictured below, on the Avenue of Mothers, as the husband—a top-ranking soldier—threatens to strike the state’s bureaucracy down. Tetonia and her husband embody the conflict. When in love, what can one do under compulsion by the state?
Listen to the podcast version as I read my story aloud here. Or read the version included in the book of short stories, Reaching the Dead End. Or, for the first time, read my slightly updated story in Classic Chicago magazine at no charge here.
Does Tetonia survive? What is her husband’s aim? Does he know he shot his wife charging up the foggy hill? Motives, outcomes and true love are tested and twisted in a dystopian “Deal With God.” A sci-fi climax comes as tented military technologists and a nurse decide what to do about the rogue husband and wife in turmoil.
I wrote the story with romantic love in mind. That my first published fiction is a story of woman and man bonded in love while constricted in an oppressive state is an achievement, however small, for which I am proud. May you enjoy listening to or reading this short tale of love and heroism under tyranny.
Read “Deal With God” here.
Listen to the story of my first published fiction here.
Related Episodes, Articles and Links
“The Patient and the Passenger” by Scott Holleran
Read this short story on Classic Chicago magazine here.
I just went over to Classic Chicago To find your story. Not sure how to find something specific there. There is no search bar 🥺.
Scott, It's best to offer a ~free sample~ in the case of fiction:
Browsing this substack, it seems that to read any of your short stories, one has to subscribe. But there's lots of people who write fiction and those who don't know you would need to Read an example to find out if you're any good or if they like your type of writing:
Doing fiction is a different skill from non-fiction commentary on the current culture.