Episode 62: Lost by Sarah Ashwood
Nairne’s brother is dead. As a peace offering, the enemy clan, the Macnotins, have given him a woman to be his wife. Marlanna is her name, and Nairne is not pleased with the strange woman. What is her secret? And could he ever learn to love a Macnotin?
Also, Big and Rish talk about romance, star-crossed lovers, and by Friggen’s Mountain, about Valentine’s Day love stories?
Special thanks to Julie Hoverson for lending her voice to today’s episode.
Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/dunesteef/Dunesteef_64_Lost_by_Sarah_Ashwood.mp3%20Related Links:
Sarah Ashwood’s Site
Faith Hill’s Lost
19 Nocturne Blvd
Music in today’s episode was Foggy Dew by Dancing Willow .
Some sound effects were provided by freesound.org. Bloopers
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine 
February 1, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Wow, thanks guys for the cry-fest! I don’t usually require tissue when I listen, but today I did. Just when I was tearing up because it was so beautifully perfect, I then had to tear up because it was just so danged tragicly sad.
While I am usually a big fan of happy-ever-after, I truely enjoyed this story. I guess we all need a little tragedy now and again.
As for the voices, the accents didn’t bother me. I know it wasn’t the real McCoy, but I wasn’t offended either.
The bloopers were great.
February 2, 2010 at 10:27 am
STORY: I didn’t really like it. Not because it was a romance — heaven knows I’ve written enough of those — but because it didn’t really cover any new ground for me, and the writing was too slow. There were too many 50-cent words in there, too many moments where I would’ve used simpler language to keep the flow going faster. The whole feel of it was like the flashback sequences in an episode of “Highlander”. All that said, I did believe in the characters, and Nairn was a good protagonist. Marlana penalizing him for misspeaking is typical of a god-in-human-form character, but it was still a major dick move and once Nairn said that I knew what was happening. Honestly, I think this story would’ve been great if it had ended at the moment Nairn truly fell in love with Marlana, and there was no fantasy element at all.
PRODUCTION: Very good. I guessed this was bought so Rish could do his Scottish voices — and you can’t tell me the ubergod creature wasn’t done in the style of Connery. Big’s accent was fine too.
COMMENTARY: If I’d known you were doing V-Day stories, I’d have sent you my SF romance. Maybe next year. On your concern that you’d take flak for running this — I don’t think the flak will come because you ran a romance. I think it’ll come from people who have problems with the story itself. And yes, I’ve noticed other podcasts doing that too. That’s why I record in the basement, and everyone who’s asleep is sleeping on the second floor. (So, you know, if you need screaming and yelling, let me know and I can do more of that… the “death of Agent Howard” from CHEMO was done at full volume.)
February 3, 2010 at 11:43 pm
No big comments. Just thanks for another episode. I enjoy this podcast so much.
February 4, 2010 at 2:14 am
I listened through, and after a minute or so, the accents didn’t bother me. The Scottish accent is a really hard one to master, in part because there’s not just ONE Scottish accent, and having listened to real Scots in conversation, I could never replicate that if I tried.
Hopefully you get points for trying. Or at least for not sounding like Shrek.
February 4, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Being a born and raised South Texan, I couldn’t tell a Scots accent from and Aussie, for the most part.
So, I really enjoyed the story, accents and all! Good tale, good production.
Except for that damned R080T! I’m getting a little tired of his snide comments. Doesn’t he have a mute button?
February 5, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Dude, don’t make RO8OT angry. Think of the children.
February 6, 2010 at 11:16 pm
You’re brave for taking on those accents. I thought you did a good job.
Romeo and Juliet: I never liked the characters – not when I was a 14 year old girl and not when I was an adult. I felt sorry for them, but I didn’t identify with them. It was always Mercutio’s death that made me cry. Clever, crazy, and hilarious and he just gets between the wrong two idiots.
February 12, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Great job! I finally got to hear this production of my story, and was truly impressed. “Marlanna” was particularly good: she fit the part just perfectly. The music and sound effects really added to the overall production. Thanks so much for having me on Dunesteef.
February 15, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Glad you liked it! So pleased I could do you justice!
8)
–Julie
March 7, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Good production – voices and editing both. Thanks for doing the accents; they were good enough for me. Julie was excellent.
Solid story. One of the great benefits I get from the Dunesteef is finding new authors. I was motivated to look up the author’s other work and order a copy of A Minstrel’s Musings.