Up now for pre-order: The Wingspan of Severed Hands is an audiobook!
Available from Haruspex Audio, narrated by Rain Corbyn (who you can hear performing my story Oakmoss and Ambergris on the Three-Lobed Burning Eye podcast), The Wingspan of Severed Hands is finally accessible in audio format.
This brief but powerful novella has continued reaching an increasing number of new readers since it came out in 2020, with a big burst of sales last year. If I understood the mysterious ways of the publishing gods, I’d share the secret of its longevity with you, but I really have no clue. Maybe readers seek out weird things. Maybe literacy isn’t dead.
Maybe it’s just a good book! I hope so. I poured a lot into it. Some reviews suggest I may have poured Too Much – which reminds me, I should catch up on reading those new ones. Can I tell you how grateful I am for those of you who take the time to respond by writing reviews? It’s not just the algorithm and all that bullshit that matters. It’s knowing your thoughts and feelings in conversation with the thing I created. You make the fact of having written something more real and meaningful.
How amazing it is to be heard. Thank you.
Rain is a huge talent. They did a terrific job with the baroque and tangled language of the novella. It’s hard to imagine anyone else narrating it after listening to their work. Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a bit hearing impaired, so while I’m not able to enjoy audiobooks as much as quiet reading, my increasing struggles with hearing over the past few years have made me more aware of the needs of others. I very much wish I’d been more aware and empathetic when I was younger.
Accessibility is important for this book, which, mild spoiler alert, features a protagonist with actual amputations. Though the book doesn’t address disability in a direct or logical way, I wanted to handle the topic respectfully, even back before I realized how often I was reading lips to follow conversations; so I researched disability in fairy tales, and also the lived experiences of amputees. Very little of that research shows up in the book. But it’s in the bones.
I’m delighted The Wingspan of Severed Hands will be accessible to folks who can’t use visual media, and also those who simply prefer the experience of listening. If you’re interested, here’s the link to pre-order: The Wingspan of Severed Hands from Haruspex Audio.
Have a look around the site and you’ll find books by O F Cieri, Sam Richard, and Micah Castle. Sam’s Sabbath of the Fox Devils is a personal fave.
As always, thank you for reading!
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