“A slightly gentler, but equally insightful Twilight Zone.”

Very enjoyable, and thought provoking stories. I think Rod Serling would be impressed.
iTunes listener review – 2015-10-27

Makeshift Stories has changed significantly since I started the podcast in 2008. The original episodes were serialized stories intended to evolve with listener input and was targeted at a younger audience. The characters in the two additional story-lines, “The Other Story” and “Way-station,” were pulled from the first year and again were targeted to a younger audience.

At the end of the second year of the podcast, I introduced a series I named “Somewhere Sometime,” which I wanted to be one-off bedtime stories that would not be tied to any specific genre. The first episode, “The Boy Who Loved Candy,” was, in fact, a bedtime story I had made up on-the-fly for my son a few years earlier, one night when I had turned out the lights and was trying to get him to go to sleep. “The Boy Who Loved Candy” was the inspiration for the current format of the podcast.

Although I had initially thought of Makeshift Stories as science fiction(ish), it has never really fit into a single genre, and it was only a listener’s review on iTunes that made me realize what the stories had become.

“A slightly gentler, but equally insightful Twilight Zone.”

I was very flattered that the listener compared the podcast to the Twilight Zone. But their (he or she used an alias, so I do not know who they are) comment finally helped me identify the themes that have run through the podcast; mystery, wonderment and the unexpected. Moreover, like that venerable TV show, Makeshift Stories crosses many genres.

I hope that the podcast has improved over the years and that you have as much fun listening as I have writing and producing Makeshift Stories each month. I wish I could create more episodes, but having a demanding full-time job and physical world responsibilities limit how much time I can put into the podcast.

A note on the Spoken Word

The power of the spoken word is, I think, often underestimated. There is something fundamental about listening to a story that must hearken back to the beginnings of language. The mind of the listener creates a unique picture of what is being said. In this sense, the experience is the sum of the author’s imaginations or storyteller and the listener – something that a video can never do. It is a personal experience that allows the listener to be totally engaged.

I hope you find something here to enjoy, and if you do, please tell your friends about us and feel free to share any story you see here.

Alan V Hare