Macromere Press

First Interview with David Ewald

Macromere: Tell us about the audio files you’ve made available on your website for He Who Shall Remain Shameless. Is there any logic to them? Why, for example, is story number four in the book available to listen to but not the first three stories?

David: The stories you see now on the Audio page of davidmichaelewald.com were recorded without having first been published. The first three stories, “Harriet”, “Chris”, and “Ai’dah” were published in The Harrow and The Bend respectively. The fifth and sixth stories, “Christopher” and “Aegeus”, were also published (in Morbid Outlook and The Chimaera). When I realized the stories were coming together to form a book, an interconnected novel, I decided to not attempt to publish any more of the stories individually but rather get the words out in another way….I’d always thought of trying my hand at recording audio versions of these stories, but I’m no actor, and I’m certainly not able to pull off anything resembling a British accent—or any other accent for that matter. I felt that in order for these recordings to have any success an actual actor would have to be brought in. Matt Gunnison was up to the challenge. Over several months, he and I worked together to get the recordings right. Even then I decided to let the published stories remain unrecorded. 

M: Stories eight, thirteen and fourteen are also not available. Does this mean they were previously published?

D: No. “Linda” is a story that has gone through plenty of revision, and so I’ve taken down Matt’s recording since it’s significantly different from the version that will end up in the published book this summer. As for “Radu” and “Colleen”, well, by not making those available I’m hoping listeners will be interested enough to know how the book ends to read the book itself. 

M: Thanks for clearing that up. We were wondering.

D: I understand that anyone who goes to the Audio page may be hesitant to dive in. My suggestion is to start with the earliest story available, “David”, and go from there (“Andrew” followed by “Alice” and so on). It’s helpful to have read the first three stories before “David”, but “David” is also a good introduction to other aspects of the book—namely the protagonist’s archnemesis, who makes his first real appearance in that story.

M: The Meritocrat.

D: Right. The Meritocrat.

M: So, any plans of making the entire book available in audio?

D: At some point, yes. I’d like to make He Who Shall Remain Shameless available in as many different formats as possible. After the e-book release, I’ll likely look into releasing the novel as a podiobook. 

M: Thanks for taking time to talk with us, David. Until next time.