blurring the Line Between Life, facts, and Fiction

A Marketer Changed the Name, so Offal is Less Awful

How a Casual Conversation Informed My Fiction Writing

When Jesse and I had this fascinating discussion about offal, I wrote episode eight of my audio-fiction podcast, The History Singer. So, of course, the word offal showed up. Here’s the scene.

text of the history singer audio excerpt

We rode forth in a loose wedge formation to dispatch the remaining riders. I blocked out the noise of battle. It enhanced the scope of my awareness as if I stood within a circle and innately knew what was going on within and around it. Pretty words for a man who was slicing heads off necks, blood burbling up like fountains. A few heads hung on by a bit of tissue, swinging as their mounts ran on, eyes wide with terror.

It was a silent choreography of death. I blocked a strike to my head with the flat of my sword, forcing the rider’s blade around and down to slice his belly open, organs spilling out like offal.