Welcome to the Tall And True blog of a writer and podcaster, Robert Fairhead.
In addition to sharing posts on this website, Robert is a writer and editor at the Tall And True writers' website. He also writes and narrates episodes for the Tall And True Short Reads podcast, featuring his short stories, blog posts and other writing from Tall And True.
Robert's book reviews and other writing have appeared in print and online media. In 2020, he published his début collection of short stories, Both Sides of the Story. In 2021, he published his first twelve short stories for the Furious Fiction writing challenge, Twelve Furious Months, and in 2022, his second collection of Furious Fictions, Twelve More Furious Months. And in 2023, he published an anthology of his microfiction, Tall And True Microfiction.
You can follow Robert on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the Mastodon social media platform.
On Monday, 11 December 2023, my twenty-one-year-old son and I set off in his van on a 10-day, 4600-kilometre dad-and-son road trip from Sydney to Margaret River. We had planned the trip for over six months to spend Xmas/New Year with our WA family. And yet, I only had a vague idea of our route.
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Your William Shakespeare crafted clever lines with hidden meanings, like, “All the world’s a stage.” It’s as if he had insight into my five-act play on my pet subject, humanity. Act One: Earth is a Garden of Eden. A troop of apes descends from the trees and totters on two legs on the African savannah.
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Dad probably hoped to take his secrets to the grave, but a heart attack scuppered his plans. “Will you come back for the funeral, Aaron?” my sister, Becky, asked when she called with the news. “Yes, of course,” I replied. “And can you stay a few days to help Mum and me tidy up Dad’s stuff?”
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In September 2024, Danielle Baldock (@WritingDani) from the #WritingCommunity on Twitter/X ran her third #30Words30Days microfiction challenge for the year. She posted daily prompt words and invited writers to share our 30-word stories. As with the earlier challenges, it was fun and addictive!
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Episode 100 (1 October 2024): Thinking about things was not supposed to happen during matter transference. Scientists couldn’t predict what it would feel like, but the disassembly, transfer and reassembly of a test pilot’s atoms occurred at the speed of light, so in theory, there was no time for thoughts.
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I’m not anti-woke, but the interview line-up in reception for the call centre job looks like your typical twenty-first-century checklist to ensure unsuccessful applicants can’t sue the company for discrimination. For a start, the six serious candidates are split fifty-fifty between males and females.
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Episode 99 (17 September 2024): I’m getting too old for this. My speechwriter’s pulse quickens as the PM mounts the flag-decked stage, flanked by senior ministers and mining industry executives, to announce her government’s green coal plan. Panned by environmentalists and scientists, polling suggests it could be a vote winner … if the PM nails my speech.
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Episode 98 (1 September 2024): The local dog club, where I volunteered as a trainer for twenty years, ran season-ending Fun Days with events like Fancy Dress, Agility Slalom, Waggliest Tail, and other novelty races that changed from year to year. One of my favourites was the Sack Race, where my dear old dog and I always placed third.
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If you thought about it, the process for selecting the first matter transference test pilot was archaic, although Mae considered it a lucky omen when she drew the Blue 15 raffle ticket. Blue, not pink, was her favourite colour as a girl, and at 15, Mae had decided she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up.
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Episode 97 (14 August 2024): Excuse me, humanity, please pay attention. I have an urgent message. “What? Not in the middle of my reality TV show!” I’m sorry. I’ll be brief. But first, a little background. My message concerns the fate of a pale blue dot in the inky expanse of the universe. Beyond its fragile borders is vast nothingness.
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Writers often comment on the difficulty of naming characters. But I didn’t have that problem with one of my earliest stories, which featured four children, sibling pairs, John and Wendy and Jack and Jane. Not very imaginative, I know, but I was ten when I wrote Sand Island, inspired by Enid Blyton.
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Episode 96 (28 July 2024): I open my eyes, blink and try to focus on the bright lights set into the white ceiling flying past overhead. I hear beeps and muffled voices. It feels like I’m strapped to a camp stretcher, but it’s moving. I’m on a hospital gurney. What happened? I want to ask. But there’s a tube down my throat, and I can’t talk.
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I arrive late for Josh’s athletics carnival. His mum and I attend school events on alternate years. “Tell Josh I’ll be there,” I’d said when she called to remind me about it. “Don’t let him down again, please,” she’d replied. The last event in Josh’s age group, the 1500 metres, is about to start.
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I grew up in Perth, WA, in the 1960s and ’70s, with very little interest in Indigenous or Aboriginal issues. It wasn’t until I left Perth for Sydney in the early 1980s and then headed overseas to live in England from the late ’80s to the mid-’90s that I started to question the “true history” of Australia.
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Episode 95 (9 July 2024): In 1987, my wife and I shouldered our backpacks and set off from Australia. The plan was to live and work overseas in England for two years, using it as a base for UK and wider world travels. And the widest of these were inspired by reading books like Alan Moorehead’s The White Nile and The Blue Nile.
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In April 2024, Danielle Baldock from the Twitter/X #WritingCommunity reprised the #30Words30Days microfiction challenge she’d run with Sumitra in April 2023. Danielle posted a daily prompt word to inspire us to write and share our 30-word stories. It was so much fun that we were all keen to do it again in June!
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I’m a lone-wolf superhero. Heck, I’m not called Solo Shield for nothing! So, I wasn’t keen when Long Vision suggested we buddy up as a dynamic duo. “I don’t know, Viz,” I replied. “Neither of us wants to play Robin to Batman.” “It won’t be like the comics, Solo,” he asserted. “We’ll be equals.”
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Episode 94 (18 June 2024): Have you ever had one of those mornings? You know, where everything goes wrong. It’s like a farce, a series of mishaps increasing in frequency and intensity that have you howling with side-splitting laughter or shedding tears of frustration.
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I wrote a post in April 2024 about spending 62 minutes in a float tank on my 62nd birthday in March. In addition to Tall And True, I have an eponymous writer profile and blog site, RobertFairhead.com, where I cross-share posts. This website has an AI page builder, so I thought I’d test it with an AI blog post.
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By definition, brevity is the key to good microfiction. There is no time for plot and character development, so every word must count. ~ Robert Fairhead
I hope readers enjoy the short story journeys in Twelve More Furious Months and make it home in time for dinner. ~ Robert Fairhead
I look forward to the Writer's Centre's monthly Furious Fiction competitions because I've become addicted to the escapism of writing short stories! ~ Robert Fairhead
This slim book is hard to put down. And the only regret we may feel after reading it is that we reached the end too quickly! ~ Denise O'Hagan
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~ Maya Angelou
Share your untold story — fiction, nonfiction and reviews — on Tall And True, an online showcase and forum for writers, readers and publishers.
