Traditions

by Michael J. Sullivan

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show notes

In this episode you’ll hear a short story from Michael J. Sullivan about a young girl’s experience as her village’s annual sacrifice. Traditions is narrated by Karyne Norton.

Important Links:

The Author: Michael J. Sullivan’s website, where you can get Traditions and other short stories for free

The Narrator: Karyne Norton’s website

This month’s giveaway

Listen to Karyne’s other podcast: Blood of the Stars – a serialized fiction release of her debut novel

full transcript

Karyne (00:00:07) – Hi fantasy readers. This is Karyne Norton, your fellow book binger, and you are listening to the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast where you can test out a new fantasy story every single week to find your next favorite author.

Today’s story is written by an author who is already a favorite for many of you. Michael J. Sullivan is the New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post bestselling author. Since 2008, he’s released 21 novels with both traditional imprints like Del Rey and Orbit, and on his own as a pioneer in the indie publishing movement, and I’m thrilled to be able to feature one of his short stories.

We had to hunt through several to find one that wasn’t under contract, but I’m so happy this slightly older story of his has flown under the radar, because now I get to read it for all of you. There’s a bit of a mystery surrounding a girl being sacrificed by her village for the greater good, so I’ll just let you listen to see what exactly happens to her.

Please enjoy Traditions by Michael J. Sullivan.

Karyne (00:01:19) –  Traditions is read by Karyne Norton. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. Please go to https://michael-j-sullivan.com to get your free ebook copy of the short story.

Karyne (00:53:32) – I hope you enjoyed listening to Traditions by Michael J. Sullivan, narrated by Karyne Norton.

I absolutely loved the conversation between the dragon and the girl, and in the afterword for this piece, Michael talks a little bit more about that. He says, “What I like most about this piece is the convincing argument the beast makes to save his own life. I can’t help but think he should have stopped while he was ahead. Ultimately, this story shows my distaste for the status quo and how change is ultimately a good thing, and the future is brightest when we dare to not follow what has come before. It has worked well in my career, and more importantly, the woman who I married, who should have been far beyond my reach. And yet I was daring enough to shoot for the stars and ask for her hand in marriage. It’s now been 45 years, and I’m hoping for many, many more.”

Aren’t afterwords great? I love getting that inside information on both the story and on the author. If you want to read more by Michael, go to www.riyria.com or michael-j-sullivan.com to find more of his books. In addition to his ongoing Riyria Chronicles, he is currently working on a new five book series tentatively titled The Cycle.

I keep forgetting to tell all of you about my other podcast, which is a serialized audiobook for Blood of the Stars. After getting so much positive feedback about the podcast, Paeter and I took the plunge to narrate the audiobooks for my debut series, The Half-Light Chronicles, and over the course of several months, I’m releasing the first book in the series, Blood of the Stars, as a serialized audiobook podcast to help as many people find the series as possible. So if you enjoy listening to the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast, I think there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy listening to the audiobook as well. You can find it on all the same podcasting platforms, under Blood of the Stars, or you can listen on my website at karynenorton.com/audio. I’ll also have easy links in the show notes.

Thank you all for listening, and happy reading.

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Narrator

Karyne Norton hasn’t found the key to time travel, immortality, or infinite lives, so she’s taking a break from nursing and photography to focus on raising four human beings while writing epic fantasy.