A teenager tries to balance coming of age and simple survival in the post-water apocalypse of Southern California, in Eric Guinard's "A Case Study in Natural Selection and How It Applies to Love," in the newest episode of the Tales To Terrify podcast. This is among the longest stories I've ever been asked to narrate for somebody else's show, and I decided (a page or so into it) to do it in my Teen Boy Voice 1. But don't worry, the other characters get Teen Boy Voice 2, in case you miss that one.*
This is an amazingly bleak story, set in a future where global warming has turned the United States into a brutal desert, where human beings struggle for resources, and occasionally spontaneously combust. Editor Seth Williams asked me to perform the story, but gave me the option to reject it if I chose (they usually do this, and I can't think of a single time I've ever turned them down--though there was one where the main character was definitely supposed to be female, and I asked if they were sure they wanted me to do it--though there have been one or two I wish I had turned down).
Still, it's absolutely made for me (unless, of course, you hate Teen Boy Voice 1), and a couple of moments really resonate with me, imagining an End of the World episode of "The Wonder Years" where everybody gets to nail Winnie Cooper but Kevin.
I don't think I've ever written anything like this, but I'd like to give it a try (I couldn't manage anything this bleak, though, as shitty as life can be, which includes lines like, "As Liz leaves, I almost tell Tommy how unfair natural selection is. For in this environment, I've become the least likely to propagate."). If I, or the world, live that long, that is.
If it interests you, check it out at THIS LINK.
*I don't know why you would; I'm sick to death of it.
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