“Dear God” is not the first story I wrote featuring gods; in fact, it’s not the first story I’ve written for Not About Lumberjacks featuring gods.

Gods are strange things to me. I’m a life-long atheist, but I love the storytelling opportunities gods of all kinds offer.

Also, I might just talk about how the Marvel Thor movies influenced this episode…and how they didn’t. (In many ways, an old Dungeons and Dragons rule book should probably get the most credit for the story.)

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Also, I mention a friend named Laura Lange in this episode.

It just-so-happens that the day I release this episode of Behind the Cut…that Laura released an episode of her show, The Peaceful Life Podcast, in which she and I talk about being bullied as children. We talk about a Not About Lumberjacks favorite story, “Purvis” — as well as Dungeons and Dragons and many other things.

Episode link is right here.

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Episode Transcript >>

A panhandler is given a magical postage stamp.

Content Advisory: Swearing. Scam artists. Mention of parental death. Homelessness. Misogyny.

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Credits:

Music: Ergo Phizmiz and Chad Crouch

Story and Narration: Christopher Gronlund

Episode Transcript >>

If one desires, they can have a story end in so many different ways.

Some stories just have a feel from the start for a certain kind of ending, but others are shaped by a writer’s environment — sometimes even being affected by other stories written around the time a particular story is done.

That’s what I talk about with “A Race to the End.”

The 100-year-old son of the oldest man to ever live plots to kill a 123-year-old man about to break his father’s record.

Content Advisory: Swearing and cartoonish violence. Stress of aging and mortality. A son trying to live up to his father’s expectations.

Credits:

Music: Ergo Phizmiz and Chad Crouch

Story and Narration: Christopher Gronlund

The last episode was a bit of a departure, with seven bits of micro-fiction. The most fascinating thing was hearing which stories people loved most (“Vlad Stovepipe” won).

So…for this episode of Behind the Cut, a bit about each of the stories…

A bit of a departure this holiday season: seven stories instead of one!

Content Advisory: “Be a Man”: Child abuse, mention of a dead dog (by gunshot), alcohol abuse, and murder. “Fucking Asshole”: Uhm…swearing! “The Intersection”: Anger, violence (shooting), and family loss of a child (shooting). “Vlad Stovepipe”: Cartoon violence. “Hardcore”: Swearing and violence. “Another Christmas Eve”: Divorce, violence (family fistfight), swearing, depression, loneliness.

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Credits:

Story and narration: Christopher Gronlund

Music: Ergo Phizmiz and Chad Crouch (aka Poddington Bear)

Something a little different this time…

Because “The Hidebehind” was the first episode of Not About Lumberjacks with a male narrator other than me, I chat with Defender Radio’s Michael Howie about what it was like to work together on the story’s production.

It’s a glorious tale of friendship, creativity…and majestic beards!

(Also, you should totally follow Michael on Twitter and Instagram.)

Something lurks in the woods outside a lumber camp in this story I SWEAR is NOT about lumberjacks…

Content Advisory: Swearing. Violence (involving fights and knives). Alcohol use. Mass poisoning. Horror (monster in the woods). Dementia brought on by environmental factors. Implied cannibalism.

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Credits:

Story: Christopher Gronlund

Narration: Michael Howie, of the Defender Radio Podcast. (Follow Michael on Twitter!)

Music: Ergo Phizmiz and Kai Engel

There really is a Memorial Park where after-school fights took place when I was in junior high school.

And I was involved in one myself; in fact, some reality creeped into “Memorial Park.”

If you’re interested in what’s real and not in the story, look no further than this…

An after-school fight pits the meanest kid in Walt Whitman Junior High School against one of its shyest geeks.

Content Advisory: Swearing. Bullying. Violence (bullying and an after-school fight). Humiliation.

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Credits:

Music: Ergo Phizmiz and Chad Crouch

Story and Narration: Christopher Gronlund