This week's podcast is from the opening of a romantic suspense short story. Enjoy!
(Update on Monday: I forgot to publish this because I was so focused on finishing the story!)
The Podcast:
The Transcript:
This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for October 17, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
This is the opening of a romantic suspense short story.
At midnight, Jackson Turner wondered what the heck he was doing, walking to the bar around the corner from Pallas on First Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was a beautiful, warm May evening. The half-moon offered enough illumination that he could see the clean, white, concrete sidewalk.
Jackson had been wondering—not for the first time—how Charlie Watkins managed to scoop these jobs from him. And wondering, again, not for the first time, why he just didn’t ask her out and put them both out of their misery?
He and Charlie had danced around starting a relationship for almost a decade, back when they were juniors in college and competing for internships. Back when she was called Charlotte, not Charlie. He couldn’t count the times he was almost ready to ask her out.
He had won most of those internships, but somehow, she excelled at the business they were both in—cyber and physical security.
He just did not understand it. He was going to ask her out tomorrow, come hell or high water.
The Video:
The video link is here.