Welcome to the By The Fire podcast! I'm Dave Smale, a husband, dad, navy veteran, Christian and a wannabe novelist (which is code language for "unpublished"). You may have heard me on TheBLAST Podcast with Pastor Adam Dragoon where I functioned as the color-commentary guy. One of my favorite things in the world is stories by firelight, Whether it's reading a book by my living room fireplace with a cup of tea (or cocoa, if you like), or listening to someone tell a story by a campfire. Well, in the past few years I've turned from story consumer to storyteller, thanks mostly to my kids (and God, but that's a story for another time). They always want to hear a story before bed. After running up too many late fees at the library, I had to start making things up. And, boom, my "writing career" was born. So, in this podcast, I'll be reading you my unedited, yet-to-be-published stories which were crafted mostly - you guessed it - by the fire. Am I looking for feedback? Sure! If these stories suck, I kinda need to know that. Who knows, maybe you can help stop another bad piece of fiction from being published! But mostly my hope is to entertain you, inspire you, make you think, introspect, give you hope for the future, and, ultimately the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is, I believe, the only hope for the human race. Hey, I did say I'm a Christian. Thank you so much for listening.
