That’s one of my favorite lines from my short story, “Into the Breach.”

Speaking of “Into the Breach”, the podcast reading for the story is now live over at Escape Pod. It’s narrated by the wonderful Mandaly Louis-Charles, who runsSweet Coconuts, a Haitian Creole language and resource site.

It’s quite fitting that Mandaly is narrator, considering I used her site as a reference for the Haitian Creole in the story.

By the way, any mistakes (and there are some) with the Haitian Creole in the story are all me. 

I can’t tell you how pleased I was when I first heard Mandaly’s narration. I smiled for the entire 33 minutes. It was spot-on perfect.

She gives the story, and the main character (Michaëlle-Modeste, a.k.a. Lark)  a beautiful, somber, yet powerful voice. It really is the perfect read.Give it a listen, when you have the chance.

Escape Pod also has a forums section on their site where listeners can discuss each podcast episode. There’s an interesting discussion going on over there about “Into the Breach”. Some people seem to get the story (and almost right on the nose, too), and some people don’t.

I won’t give away much here, but I will say the story is set in an alternate Chicago that’s at war with the State of Illinois. In this alternate world, war is fought with exo-skeleton suits, much like the one you see in the picture to the right above. That’s Pepper Potts in her Rescue armor.

In fact, Tony Stark/Iron Man and Pepper Potts/Rescue helped inspire “Into the Breach”. I very much wanted to write a dieselfunk story with powered armor, but with a different flavor. A Chicago flavor, spiced with Creole.

I think I achieved that. What do you think?