You know you've married a patient woman when...

Blazing Reader,

You know you've married a patient woman when she can endure three hours of you struggling to say what probably adds up to about 100 words in German and French.

On Tuesday, I brought Ina to the recording studio where I recorded the audiobook version of Much Ado About Corona. She had already reviewed all my attempts at the French and German dialogue in the novel... and we now had five pages of retakes to go through.

Here she is in the director's chair, while I'm in the sound booth behind...

I did, however, manage to say one line in German perfectly. No retakes were needed. It was one of Ina's favourite lines in the novel:

Stefanie leaned back, letting her long hair hang over the back of the chair. “My grandmother always said: ‘Du hast ein Gehirn. Benutze es.’ You’ve got a brain. Use it.”

While Much Ado About Corona is a novel about the COVID deception — possibly the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity — it's also a story about the humour, hope and happiness intrinsic in humanity. You can view a free sample or purchase copies here.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. Three hours didn't prove long enough to record all the German/French retakes, so we will be returning for another session. Plus, we still need to record all of the Schubert verses the novel contains. If you missed it, you can see our candid camera music rehearsal here.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.