New Tales Told – Original Short Stories

He has four words. He's had them for forty-two years. He's said them in the car, he's said them in the shower with the water running, and he still can't get the stress to fall where it belongs.Now the seatbelt sign is on, the descent has started, and his brother is running out of days. In his jacket pocket is a voicemail he has never played.There's a rule pilots follow below ten thousand feet. Nothing gets said that doesn't need saying. He always thought that sounded like a good way to live.An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.Please be sure to follow on your podcast service and if you enjoyed the story please leave a five star review or rating.For more short fiction podcasts visit shortstoryverses.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is a job nobody warns you about. After the dying comes the paperwork, the hold music, the strangers in call centers who need proof that she is gone.For two years she was her mother’s caregiver. Now she is her mother’s administrator. She makes lists. She keeps folders. She is very good at this.Then she reaches the bottom of the last statement.An original story, written and read by Don McDonald.Explore our multiverses of short fiction at shortstoryverses.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nobody in New Orleans had ever made Bernard de Marigny look foolish in public. He was rich past counting, small as a foil, and very likely the most dangerous man in Louisiana with a pistol in his hand. Then a blacksmith from a far parish, seven feet of him and slow to speak, said something true on the floor of the legislature, and the whole chamber laughed.The card came to the forge two days later.The blacksmith was no duelist. He was, however, a man who had spent his life learning where something hard gives.From Short Storyverses. More at shortstoryverses.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Season Two of New Tale's Told, a collection of my original short stories. I've spent the summer creating some unique tales for you. I hope a few of them bring you a bit of pleasure.The Garden was finished before anyone in it was born. The rain arrives on schedule, in the amount that has been decided. The manual has never been improved on.Nobody touches anybody. Children learn it early, with the short rod, because correcting is cheapest when they're small.Sela is twenty-two and has never had a low year. When the tremor takes the hands of the old man who grades pears beside her, she stands up and says, "I'll take that." Nothing forbids it. There is even a provision.Two hundred and nine times. Over twenty months.Somebody is keeping the number.“The Garden’s Wall” started with a question I couldn’t put down. What would a society look like if it decided, sincerely and on the evidence, that compassion was a defect to be bred out? Not a cruel place. A reasonable one, where the punishment is measured, the reasoning is sound, and nobody enjoys any part of it.The answer turned out to be a garden, and a wall nobody built, and a gate that opens outward, and forty-one people put through it in a single lifetime.If you enjoy these stories, please check out my many short story universes at shortstoryverses.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 off, for good.I kept thinking about that final star, and about who, or what, might still be there to see it go. Not the science of it, really, but the loneliness of it. The last witness in a universe with nothing left to witness. That question became a watcher, and a long vigil, and this story.\It's called Dark. I'm glad you're here for it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 life.The Pen is an original short story set in the world of The Line Uncrossed, a literary Civil War novel about family, memory, survival, and the irreversible weight of seemingly small decisions. Told with wit, warmth, and the hindsight of years, it offers a deeply human glimpse into the young men who marched toward war before they understood what war truly was.The Line Uncrossed, available May 22, 2026 at Amazon.com, BN.com, and a host of other book and e-book services.Podcast listeners can get an early access to The Line Uncrossed e-book offer with bonus stories, including this one, at donmcdonald.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

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. 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 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 script stops working. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 your car—and rediscover the power of a story well told. You never outgrow good stories. New Tales Told is part of the "Short Storyverses" podcast network. If you love stories, check out our other shows: Season's Readings for holiday tales, Litreading for classic fiction, Readastorus for stories the whole family can enjoy, and FRIGHTLY! for when you want to lose a little sleep. Find them all at shortstoryverses.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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—or any world—stays simple. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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—true ones, tall ones, and the ones that live somewhere in-between—over at ShortStoryverses.com. It’s the home of New Tales Told, Litreading, Season’s Readings, FRIGHTLY! It's a multiverse of stories crafted for people who simply love a good tale well told. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.