What's the frequency, Kenneth?

So every time I would listen to that old REM song, I would always wonder, "Who the hell is Kenneth, anyway?" Well you know there is actually an explaination.

This was good listening. I'll let Rick from Variant Frequencies tell you about the episodes of The Failed Cities Monologues I listened to- which were excellent!:


The Failed Cities Monologues is a special feature on Variant Frequencies, an ongoing story told serially from the perspective of the characters, in the form of monologues given by each. I asked Matt about the title.

"I wrote a line in my notes early on I wanted to incorporate into the prose later. About the fool's gold shine of a failed city. Failed City stuck in my head. Then I realized that they've failed in different ways on both sides of the river, and the story is about both cities."

"It really started with 'Steel Gospel' which I wrote as a stand alone short story about the street preachers," Matt said. "A while later I came up with The Feral Twins all on their own, and I thought maybe I could combine the two and probably a third character and write a book that was kind of like Sin City in novel form, changing perspectives. I start working on it, and as I did I came up with more and more characters to write from, and the style, particularly with Ferus, took on this kind of Tennessee Williams quality I liked.

"Then I sent 'Steel Gospel' to a webzine. The editor really liked it, but rejected it because he felt it didn't have a complete story arc. And he was right. He suggested I open it up into a novel, which I'd already been thinking about. And at the same time we'd started the podcast, so all that meshed in my head and I had the idea to tell a story monologue form. Take out the prose elements and the dialogue and do it that way."

Asked if he planned a book written the same way, all in monologue form, Matt replied, "Well, I think by the time I'm done with them all it'll be a book. I was also thinking it'd be interesting as a stage play."

So does he have a clear idea of how many characters, and how many monologues it'll end up with?

"There are eight characters right now, and more might materialize or gain their own perspectives as I go. Between 20 and 30 monologues, maybe. Each character will do two or three."

Ethan is the first installment of the Failed City Monologues, now available to download. Looking ahead, next we'll meet the brother and sister assassins, the Feral twins: loyal only to each other, lethal to everyone else.


So there ya have it! They are also always looking for people to read, so if you're interested (I think even *I* may be- sounds like fun!) you can find a link to their email on their website. :-)

~Dani