Mortal Uncoil

Dear Listeners,

Episode 38 for you!

I did some long car journeys by myself recently.I improvised stories to keep myself amused. The roads were long and the weather was hot. I suppose that was the starting point for this bit of mind travel. I hope you enjoy coming along, too.

Here's your direct link. Of course you can use the player above or find us with iTunes or your podcatcher of choice as well. If you're enjoying the podcasts, drop me a line and say 'hi' by comment or email, or come and chat on the Facebook page - be great to meet you!

This week's soundtrack is by Satori on Magnatune. Lovely.

Thank you for listening,

Seymour

Poor Butterfly

Dear Listeners,

It has been a while - a long while - since the last episode was published. In the meantime I have had wonderful emails, comments and feedback from so many of you that I have finally found the time to get writing and recording again.

This story was sort of inspired by reading "Flappers" by Judith Mackrell and by a favorite song by Huw Williams, "The Summer Before the War". I hope it feels nostalgic.

Here's your direct link to the mp3, and you can get previous episodes on the "Archive" page.

I'm looking forward to bringing you more in 2018. If you're on the Facebook, join us there, too: https://www.facebook.com/bordersofsleep/

Thank you so much for listening!
Seymour

My Journey

Dear Listener,

Here's episode 36 - a number that is pleasantly divisible - so we're bringing you something slightly diffrent: a little of the tale of how 'Stories from the Borders of Sleep' was born. It's personal and autobiographical, but I hope you like it. I trawled this up from some material I wrote about three years ago when we started the podcast.

Here's your direct link to the MP3. Check out the archives page for the back catalogue.

The gentle music in the background is from a firm favourite, Cari Live.

May your dreams be sweet!

Seymour

The Night of the Nipperquins

Dear Listener,

A few months ago, a dear friend asked if I might read a 'bedtime story' to the guests at his wedding, right at the end of the evening, before they went home.

This is the story I wrote for the occasion, recounting what may be the strangest wedding night of all time. It is dedicated very affectionately to my friends, the happy couple (James and Marie), whose marriage I hope will be full of even more mystery and imagination than I could conjure for this little offering.

Your direct link to the MP3 is here. The music is from Cari Live's album 'Mindreader'.

It went down very well with the guests, and it was a real pleasure for me to try a story on a live audience - something I don't get to do very often.

I hope you enjoy it, too.

Wishing sweet dreams for you and all those you treasure,

Seymour.

Hitting it Out of the Park

Dear Listener,

Welcome to episode 34. As an editor, in my "bread and butter" day job, I've come across a lot of juicy business jargon that I've taken great delight in "decommissioning". But what was to be done with all these baffling metaphors, many of which seem to have been "re-purposed" from the sportsfield to the boardroom?

Put them in a story of course ...

This is an episode dedicated to corporate daydreamers, opponents and proponents of boardroom bluster, meeting doodlers and anyone who has ever had to circle the waggons, eat their own dogfood or deploy blue-sky thinking - this is for you.

Here's the direct link for download, or you can listen using the embedded flash player at the top of the post.

The sound track is from "Waiting" by Benji Goodrich, which is such a lovely album that I recommend you go here to listen to all of it on Magnatune.

Enjoy the podcast, and try to stay awake in those meetings.

Sweet dreams,

Seymour

Thrice Buried

Dear Listener,

As the gap between episodes gets longer so, it seems, do the podcasts. I shall try to do some shorter ones next. This one will fill your ears for about 28 minutes - but I hope you enjoy it. It's really a story for spring time (that's when I started writing it) but if you're in the northern hemisphere, and it comes to you in the dog days of Summer, I still hope that you enjoy it.

Picture Credit: Ben Hudson

For those who need it here's a direct link to download the MP3. You'll also find us on iTunes, if that's how you get your fix, or you can click on the embedded player at the top of this post to listen. Go to our archive page if you want to find links to all the previous episodes in one place.

Thank you very much if you've been in touch by email, Facebook or comment to encourage me in the last few months. Notably, one listener in Australia sent me a picture he'd drawn of how he thought Tolly Pep-Me might look. Another listener in New Zealand got in touch because she was sharing the stories with her book group, and that led to a great conversation. Many of you have dropped me a line to tell me you've appreciated the stories for all sorts of reasons. It thrills me to hear from listeners and I'd love to meet you on our Facebook page, where I'll also try to keep you up to date on what's happening in the world of Borders of Sleep.

If you're curious about the soundtrack to this episode, check out the work of Kourosh Dini and the harp playing of Cheryl Ann Fulton on Magnatune.

That's all for now, but let's do this again sometime soon.

Wishing you sweet dreams,

Seymour

Kalakut's Gift

Dear Listener,

Welcome to episode 32! We've passed the milestone of providing a bedtime story for each night of the month, but we press on. Once again I apologise for the slowdown in producing fresh stories over the last year and thank all the listeners who have left comments or emailed me to say that they are enjoying the stories and to ask for more.

Here is a story about a little girl and a volcano. For many months, I just knew I wanted to write a story about a little girl and a volcano, but that was it: no plot, no further idea but this image in my mind of a tiny girl and a huge volcano. Finally it is here. As much as I'd like to unwrap for you all the layers of what this story means to me, I leave it to you to take your own interpretation from it, and I'd actually rather hear about what it means to you - that is always more interesting.

Tim did a great job on this without being able to use his usual software so I hope the sound is up to scratch - it seemed more important to get a fresh episode out than to have it quite as polished as usual.

For those who prefer to download the MP3 directly, here's a link. But please consider subscribing to the feed using a podcast client or grabbing it from iTunes. There's also an archive of all the episodes so far if you need to catch up. The podcast also now has a facebook page where I'm hoping I'll get to meet and interact with you more, so check it out.

Finally, the beautiful cello music in the background (and sometimes the foreground) of this episode comes from an album by Emily Burridge on magnatune.com.

Well I hope you enjoy this and have sweet dreams until next time,

Seymour

The Jellyfarglemarsh

Dear Listener,

"What on earth is a Jellyfarglemarsh?" I hear you ask, "Have we waited nearly a year for episode 31, only to find it full of nonsense words?"

Yes ...

In this episode you will also hear about sanfels and guborgions and ... well I don't want to give too much away.

Here's a direct link to the MP3 ... but don't forget we're on iTunes, too.

The important thing is that Borders of Sleep is finally back in business. We are projecting a more realistic writing and recording schedule to bring you a new story every fortnight. Thank you to all those who have been in touch to let us know how much they are anticipating new episodes and I am sorry it has taken so long to produce some new material - life gets in the way.

The soundtrack for this episode comes from Future Forever by Ion.

I hope you enjoy it.

Sweet dreams,

Seymour

Return to the Borders of Sleep

Dear Listeners,

Here's wishing you a belated "Happy New Year!"

I have to thank many of you for leaving lovely comments on the podcast page (here) and some of you for even getting in touch by email to let me know that you have been enjoying the stories. I have had a number of  queries about whether the podcast was going to continue in the future and I wish to answer emphatically in the affirmative.

YES!

Stories from the Borders of Sleep has been one of the most enjoyable creative projects of the last few years for me. I set out with the intention of continuing my output of stories as a creative baseline for the foreseeable future. Along the way, I have been really encouraged by listener feedback and delighted to hear that people all over the world have been downloading the stories and even falling asleep to them.

Even though I have not uploaded any new material in recent months, there continues to be a steady traffic of between 50 and 100 downloads a day. The production of new material has tailed off since I have had a tough winter where I have found it hard to write on top of all the other things going on. However, we have plans for the Spring.

Borders of Sleep will relaunch at the back end of March / beginning of April this year so please sit tight, listen again to your favourites in the meantime and send me more encouraging feedback while I prepare a batch of new stories for your listening pleasure in 2013.

Thank you for listening and sweet dreams  ...

Seymour

Cantatur in Taberna

Dear Listener,

Mevlana tells a story about a wandering sufi who comes to a monastery and stays there. Unbeknown to him, they sell his donkey and use the money to prepare a tremendous feast.The whole community goes wild through the night. The climax of the celebration finds the wanderer dancing with his hosts and everyone is chanting "the donkey has gone, the donkey has gone". When he wakes in the morning he finds out what has happened but they say to him, "we thought you knew what we had done, after all you were singing with us 'the donkey has gone' all night long."

Well, that and many other things were in the back of my mind when I wrote this story. I enjoyed writing it very much and I hope you enjoy listening to it. My apologies to all natives of Yorkshire and Geordieland whose inflections I have ineptly bastardised for the voices of some of the characters.

Here is a direct link to this episode for those who prefer it that way. This week's soundtrack comes from two projects featuring Tim Rayborn's music: his album "Honey from the Thorn" and his work with Canconier in "The Black Dragon". You can get both albums on Magnatune.

Sweet dreams ...