New Tales Told – Original Short Stories

This is the season finale of New Tales Told. I wrote this one because of a fact I couldn't put down. The universe is expanding, and it isn't going to stop, and the stars are burning the only fuel there is. The bright ones go first. The small, dim, stubborn ones last the longest, trillions of years, and then, someday, the last of them goes out, and there is no morning after it. The lights simply go...

In August 1864, thirty thousand Union prisoners were dying behind a wall of felled pine in southern Georgia. The man in command was a Swiss-born captain with a ruined arm, a sick wife back home, and a daughter whose portrait he kept on his writing table. His name was Henry Wirz, and a year later he would be the only man executed for war crimes after the Civil War. "Man or Monster" follows him thro...

Henry Pollard has always had a dangerous relationship with words. In 1861 Indianapolis, while the country rushes headlong toward war, Henry would prefer to remain where he is: alive, sarcastic, and safely distant from glory. But a simple errand on behalf of a worried mother places him at a recruiting table outside the statehouse, where one ordinary moment begins quietly rearranging the rest of his...

In April, 2026, an American F-15E Strike Eagle went down over western Iran. The weapons officer ejected into the Zagros Mountains and was eventually recovered, in an operation whose full scope remains classified, but which is understood to have involved the destruction of hundreds of millions of dollars in American aircraft on the ground rather than risk leaving them, or him, behind. The Crevice &...

During the Civil War, the military's telegraph network was run by civilians. Teenagers, some of them. Elias Murrow was nineteen, careful, and precise. He trusted the procedure because the procedure had never failed him. Then two messages arrived that couldn't both be real, and he did exactly what he was trained to do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a parable set in a village where things run smoothly—because they always have. Problems are addressed. Responsibilities are shared. And when questions arise, there is a structure in place to handle them. Over time, that structure has grown more refined, more comprehensive… and more complete. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are things we expect from the world. Walls stay still. Rooms hold their shape. The spaces we live in behave. And when they don’t, we look for explanations. Old houses settle. Pipes shift. Light plays tricks. But sometimes the world doesn’t explain itself. When an answer can’t be seen, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. There is something. Something all too real. Something beyond frightening....

Every crime begins as a solution. At least to someone. This is a story about a solution. A rented room. A promise. And a man who believes he is doing what’s necessary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This story is not about the America we live in. It’s about an America that could exist—slowly, legally, and quietly—if people stop asking questions. Civic Duty follows a retired teacher whose life is reduced to data points, compliance scores, and administrative decisions. A speculative warning about what happens when systems replace judgment and loyalty becomes measurable. Hosted on Acast. See aca...

Here is a quiet story about love that arrives too late, and lingers in unexpected ways. About two people who find each other where they never expected to meet. And what it means to hold on, even when you know you can’t. Please check out our other short story universes are shortstoryverses.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Right Call is a work of fiction, loosely inspired by a real turning point in my own life. The events, characters, station, and circumstances have been changed. What remains is the emotional truth of a moment many people recognize: standing at a crossroads between what looks sensible and what feels right. This story isn’t about radio. It’s about listening—to others, and to yourself—when the scr...

No one remembers the first human thought. But it remembers us. We tell ourselves that memory lives in bones, in blood, in history books and hard drives. But memory is older than all of that. Memory is the original technology. And once it learned how to survive us, it never stopped evolving. The Eternal Code  is a story about inheritance that has nothing to do with money and everything to do w...

Before there were screens, there was a fire, a voice, and a story. Narrator and author, Don McDonald  invites listeners back to humanity’s oldest tradition—listening.  New Tales Told  features original fiction inspired by the timeless tales that made us human—stories written for adults, but you won’t need to cover the kids’ ears. Gather by the fire—or more likely, on your walk or in...

Frank has reasons for not decorating anymore. Christmas is quieter now. Darker. Easier to ignore. Then a new neighbor moves in next door—six years old, endlessly curious. What starts as a simple conversation turns into a small act of defiance against grief, routine, and the belief that some lights, once turned off, should stay that way. The Star is a gentle story about unexpected persuasion, borro...

In  Santaverse , a brilliant researcher completes a quantum experiment that opens a door she never meant to find. What begins as a scientific breakthrough quickly turns into something stranger—and far more personal. On the other side of the connection is a presence that shouldn’t exist, a figure woven from equal parts myth, memory, and physics. And once contact is made, nothing in her world—o...

“The Long Echo” follows a man sorting through his late father’s belongings when he discovers journals and letters from generations he never knew. As he reads, he begins to notice something startling—tiny inherited patterns that have traveled through his family for more than a century. A gesture. A habit. A way of thinking. The story becomes a meditation on continuance through lineage, showing how...

Drawn from a true incident and retold with a few reconstructed details,  Safety Matches  looks back at a 1962 summer when kids roamed free, parents were overwhelmed, and a box of matches seemed like a reasonable way to pass the time. It’s a story about curiosity, misjudgment, and the surprising weight of a moment you’re too young to understand.  You’ll find more stories like this—tr...

A lonely late-night talk show host at a 50,000-watt "blow torch" station goes from no callers to every line lit up, with every caller sharing the same impossible story. These listeners are from across town, but much father away. Dead Air  is an original  New Tales Told  story about connection, loneliness, and the signals that resonate out into the void. Authors Note: Dead Air is a v...

In a neighborhood caught between old ghosts and new money, Mara just wants a good night’s sleep. But when she offers to walk her neighbor’s barking dog, she steps into the orbit of Iris Lopez—a fiercely independent woman facing the quiet end of her life. What begins as a simple favor becomes a profound exchange of grace, purpose, and belonging.  The Borrowed Dog  is a story about lonelin...

Before laws, before guilt, before language fully formed—someone planned the first murder. Told in the voice of an ancient storyteller, this episode imagines that moment: when hunger, envy, and reason collided, and the first deliberate killing changed humanity forever. Murderous Origins  explores the likely beginnings of premeditated violence among early Homo sapiens. Archaeological evidence s...

There’s a reason crows gather in cemeteries. They remember. They watch. And sometimes, they wait.  Murder of Crows isn’t a tale borrowed from the past—it’s one I wrote for  New Tales Told , a series of original stories that echo in the spaces between memory and myth. This one lingers in the cold silence of the American frontier, where the shadows are long and the watchers have wings. Set...

This is the inaugural story for the New Tales Told podcast available on this service. While this story is purely fictional, it unfolds in the shadow of a real disaster—one that affected communities close to my own family in Asheville, where my mother, sister, and niece live. I want to express my sincere concern and empathy for those who were impacted. That said, this is not a story about the trage...