Author Topic: Pseudopod 027: My Caroline  (Read 11636 times)

Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
on: March 02, 2007, 10:29:29 PM
Pseudopod 027: My Caroline


By Matt Wallace
Read by J.C. Hutchins

I came home this evening to many strange little details. The darkness. Caroline’s open door. Caroline herself. The sole light in this beautifully rendered powdering room. I noticed all these things, but I really didn’t pay them any mind.

Now I see Caroline’s face floating in the sink, and there is nothing else on my mind.


Note:
Mur’s intro says this is episode 26, but the filename and webpage say it is episode 27. Who is to say which is correct? Time and arithmetic do not operate the same for PSEUDOPOD as they do for the normal world.

P.S…. J.C. Hutchins and another Pseudopod co-conspirator, Scott Sigler, were recently featured in an interesting NY Times article on podcasting and publishing. Check it out. (Registration may be required to see the article. Such is life.)


Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


fiveyearwinter

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 135
Reply #1 on: March 03, 2007, 04:09:47 PM
NOT criticizing, just letting you know - it was Cartoon Network, not Comedy Central.


Pretty good story! Sufficiently creepy, great reading. I think I would have liked it if he hadn't been able to even think about resistance though.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2007, 07:37:31 PM by fiveyearwinter »



Mur Lafferty

  • Editor, Escape Pod
  • EA Staff
  • *****
  • Posts: 23
  • If someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes.
    • http://www.escapepod.org
Reply #2 on: March 04, 2007, 01:21:45 AM
GAH - get the network wrong, get the number of the podcast wrong. I did say the right names of the author and narrator, right?

Embarrassed.Bleh.



Bdoomed

  • Pseudopod Tiger
  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5891
  • Mmm. Tiger.
Reply #3 on: March 04, 2007, 04:56:42 AM
awww thats okay we wuves you Mur!  Love how ya touched on the boston bomb scare!

Story was great too, very interesting point of view to tell this story.  Im wonderin tho what kinda monster she is.  Why must she steal faces?  I hope she doesn't get MY face!

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


fiveyearwinter

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 135
Reply #4 on: March 04, 2007, 06:45:07 PM
Mur.


Listen, Mur. You're doing a good thing here. We all love you. You can be embarassed if you like, but we love you anyway.

-Chris



Russell Nash

  • Guest
Reply #5 on: March 05, 2007, 10:35:16 AM
I got Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline stuck in my head right at the beginning and couldn't get rid of it. Every time he said "my Caroline" I heard a pair of trumpets blast three descending notes and then Neil singing, "good times  never seemed so good." Never having been a Neil Diamond fan this was a bit annoying.

Even with my mind going down unwanted sidestreets, I enjoyed this story. I'm stuck between four different endings. Did he blow her head off? Did he try, but when she looked he couldn't do it? Did he end up just wondering into the street? Did she kill him? I like not knowing the answer, but I want to know.




BSWeichsel

  • Palmer
  • **
  • Posts: 36
Reply #6 on: March 05, 2007, 01:08:48 PM
Good story. Out of the two stories I've heard form Matt Wallace I know I want more by him.

What really made the story creepy wasn't what was happening in this story but how the main character reacted to it. The utter submission was disturbing but completely believable and realistic.

Keep this guy's stuff coming.

Great reading by JC as well he was able to get a timidness to the main character that helped make the story even better then it all ready ways.

Since it began, who have you killed? You wouldn't be alive now if you hadn't killed somebody.


DKT

  • Friendly Neighborhood
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4980
  • PodCastle is my Co-Pilot
    • Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Noir
Reply #7 on: March 05, 2007, 07:06:35 PM
Talk about saving face in a relationship  ;D :P  I liked this one a lot.  Moody and creepy and the reading was spot-on. 


MustardTent

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Reply #8 on: March 08, 2007, 09:59:34 PM
This was a great story, and very fun to listen to.  As I stated at pseudopod.org, this story had me laughing with delight throughout.  Excellent work!



Thaurismunths

  • High Priest of TCoRN
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 1421
  • Praise N-sh, for it is right and good!
Reply #9 on: March 09, 2007, 01:31:42 PM
Good story and well read. J.C. Hutchens was the right choice for the character. I loved how well he portrayed the hesitant and henpecked hero. His carefully controlled yet uneasy voice played well in to the mood of a man so well 'groomed', but not completely subdued.
The ending left me a little flat. I think it could have stopped a few lines earlier than it did, but I'm a sucker for stories that run with you all the way to the cliff's edge, but let you make the leap on your own.

I got Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline stuck in my head right at the beginning and couldn't get rid of it. Every time he said "my Caroline" I heard a pair of trumpets blast three descending notes and then Neil singing, "good times  never seemed so good." Never having been a Neil Diamond fan this was a bit annoying.

Thanks Nash. I didn't have that problem 'till you mentioned it. ;)

How do you fight a bully that can un-make history?


Russell Nash

  • Guest
Reply #10 on: March 09, 2007, 08:52:21 PM
I got Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline stuck in my head right at the beginning and couldn't get rid of it. Every time he said "my Caroline" I heard a pair of trumpets blast three descending notes and then Neil singing, "good times  never seemed so good." Never having been a Neil Diamond fan this was a bit annoying.

Thanks Nash. I didn't have that problem 'till you mentioned it. ;)

Glad I could help. ;D



Paul Campbell

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • Cossmass Productions
Reply #11 on: March 10, 2007, 10:39:42 AM
Excellent story and reading.  I love Matt's writing.  My ipod happened to queue up his other story released this past week, No World for Warriors, right after My Caroline. (http://web.mac.com/rstringer/iWeb/VariantFrequencies/Podcast/CC5C94C7-5087-48B1-882F-14889E1F3264.html)

Oh, and put me down as Nash's second victim. da-da-dA-DA.  DUM-Dum-dum.

Paul W. Campbell
* IM - AIM: kemitix / MSN: paul@paulwcampbell.com / Yahoo: kemitixii
** Coming June 1st from Cossmass Productions:
** Estalvin's Legacy - Episode 1 (http://estalvinslegacy.info/)
** Promo: http://cossmass.co.uk/series/estalvinslegacy/promo1


Russell Nash

  • Guest
Reply #12 on: March 10, 2007, 07:32:24 PM
Excellent story and reading.  I love Matt's writing.  My ipod happened to queue up his other story released this past week, No World for Warriors, right after My Caroline. (http://web.mac.com/rstringer/iWeb/VariantFrequencies/Podcast/CC5C94C7-5087-48B1-882F-14889E1F3264.html)

Oh, and put me down as Nash's second victim. da-da-dA-DA.  DUM-Dum-dum.

I'm going to have to keep score. That's two.



Kaa

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 620
  • Trusst in me, jusst in me.
    • WriteWright
Reply #13 on: May 16, 2007, 05:06:46 PM
I'm going to have to keep score. That's two.

Ahem. Three.  And I just listened to this story yesterday at lunch.  I'm catching up before subscribing.

DA da daaaaaah! Good times never felt so good.....

I invent imaginary people and make them have conversations in my head. I also write.

About writing || About Atheism and Skepticism (mostly) || About Everything Else


Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8729
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #14 on: September 15, 2009, 08:58:31 PM
This was a great story.  Between this and Killing Jars I enjoyed this much more.

The best aspect of this story was how it took a mundane problem/concern, and turned it into something really horrific.  I think most men (and perhaps the ladies too, I don't know) have worried when considering a serious relationship that they will lose their identity in lieu of the marital "we".  This took that fear and multiplied it by making it into a supernatural horror situation.

The way I imagine the ending is for him to shoot her right then and there.  I assume she's gotten away with this time and time again, but this time she pushed her mate just a bit too far, pushing the mouse and finding the lion beneath.



Millenium_King

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 385
    • Ankor Sabat
Reply #15 on: August 18, 2010, 07:49:42 PM
What a fantastic, sick, twisted and thoroughly enjoyable story.  It kept me guessing, kept me on my toes and kept me interested the entire time.  I really can't fault this one for much: maybe a slight lack of character development for the main character - but overall, I thought it strong enough.  I think I might put this one in the top 10.

Great reading too!

Visit my blog atop the black ziggurat of Ankor Sabat, including my list of Top 10 Pseudopod episodes.