Ever wondered what I sound like?

Wonder no more. Check out my narration of this story “Ashes and Buttercream” by Malina Douglas here:

https://www.castofwonders.org/2023/07/cast-of-wonders-541-ashes-and-buttercream/

I had no idea how to submit anything for audio. What’s a girl to say in the recording? So I did the only thing I know best…I told a Soviet joke:

“A worker standing in a bread line says: ‘I have had enough, save my place, I am going to shoot Gorbachev.’ Two hours later he returns to claim his place in line. His friends ask, ‘Did you get him?’ ‘No, the line there was even longer than the line here.’ “

I laugh just typing it!

I never thought I’d get money to narrate or that people would WANT to listen to my audio. As a little kid, my parents used to turn up the car radio so they wouldn’t have to hear me sing. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t listen to the recording of myself.

It’s a different experience reading someone else’s work versus writing my own and not just because the styles are different. There’s a level of reinterpretation and recontextualization. I based the reading on my own experience as an immigrant from Ukraine (from way back) and imagining what it must be like for refugees lucky enough to escape now. I worry maybe I was more morose than the piece deserved? Let me know your thoughts.

In the old Slavic faith, domovois were house spirits that lived in old-school Slavic stoves/ovens. In return for bread and milk they kept the house and its inhabitants safe.

Old school stoves: