Reading – Mortality Bridge

Saturday night’s reading at FogCon went wonderfully, and thanks so much to everyone who attended.

I read two sections from my upcoming novel Mortality Bridge. The first is a brief soliloquy; the second is from one of the core chapters, “Floating Bridge.” I make an effort to memorize my readings so that I can perform them and not just read them, as I think that people prefer feeling as if they’re being told a story over feeling as if they’re just being read to. And because if people take the effort to attend your reading, I think they should get something out of it that they wouldn’t get if they just stayed at home and, you know … read. I also don’t like looking at a page when there are people there wanting some kind of experience. I like looking at the people.

That said, I was only able to memorize the soliloquy. I had big chunks of the chapter down, too, but I really hate having to refer to the page. There’s something about the contact, the immediacy, the rhythm of having internalized the narrative that makes the experience very different for the audience and for me.

A thin wall separated the reading room from a panel in progress, which accounts for what may seem like inappropriate laughter in places. I cleaned up the audio, but there’s not much I can do about the occasional crowd noise. The video clips are brief excerpts from both pieces.

I’ve gotta say, the reaction to these was pretty terrific.

MORTALITY BRIDGE – Soliloquy [06:45]
[audio:http://www.steveboy.com/audio/steven_r_boyett_-_mortality_bridge_(soliloquy)_-_fogcon_03-11.mp3]
Download MP3 (192K, 9 MB)

MORTALITY BRIDGE – “Floating Bridge” [21:17]
[audio:http://www.steveboy.com/audio/steven_r_boyett_-_mortality_bridge_(floating_bridge)_-_fogcon_03-11.mp3]
Download MP3 (192K, 41 MB)