Spoken Into Existence – Week 1: Subverting Apocalypse, One Voice at a Time

Last week, we kicked off Spoken Into Existence—our real-time audio storytelling experiment—with authors Joseph Nassise and Tom Leveen. Together, they’re writing, voicing, and publishing a serialized novella series using Spoken’s AI-powered tools. This week, they dove headfirst into the creative trenches, revealing how Sackcloth and Blood is anything but your typical apocalypse story.

Writing From the End of the World

At the heart of Sackcloth and Blood is a bold reversal: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the heroes, not the villains. And their incarnation in this version of Earth? A punk teenager named Moxie Kirk—War herself—who opens the series at an anti-nuclear protest and is anything but eager to take the reins of destruction.

With each novella centering on one horseman (plus a final volume bringing them together), Joe and Tom are intentionally writing against type. The characters evolve over history, passing their mantle from person to person, and this current generation is unlike any myth you’ve read.

Enter Sister Mary Agnes, a chain-smoking, combat-boot-wearing nun with a ruler and a mission. She’s the Harbinger—part mentor, part enforcer—and she’s got no patience for horsemen who won’t ride.

Audio-First = A New Creative Muscle

One of the biggest shifts this week was exploring how the medium shapes the message.

Joe and Tom both shared how writing with audio in mind changes their process. Joe, whose prose leans heavily on visual description, is rethinking how those images come alive when heard instead of read. Tom, with a deep theater background, is leaning into character rhythm, voice, and dialogue to carry the emotional weight.

They’re not writing a radio play. They’re crafting immersive fiction narrated in third person, blended with full character voice work—and that nuance matters. With Spoken’s evolving toolkit, they’re aiming for something between single-voice narration and full multicast drama. A hybrid form. A new genre, even.

As Joe put it: “The act of listening is an immersive experience. We’re not just telling a story—we’re building a world people can step into with their ears.”

Tools Are Changing the Rules

Traditionally, producing an audiobook—especially a multicast, high-production one—was expensive, time-consuming, and often out of reach for indie authors. Joe and Tom have seen both sides: publisher-funded audiobooks that may never materialize, and personal projects too short to justify the cost of narration.

Spoken flips that equation. With tools that let them build, cast, and publish their audio-first work from the ground up, they’re not just writing a story—they’re reinventing the creative and production workflow for audio publishing.

As Tom put it: “There should be literally nothing stopping a creator from making an audiobook on their own. That’s the power of this platform.”

What’s Next?

The story is underway. Moxie has entered the scene. Sister Mary Agnes has her ruler ready. And now it’s time to find their voices.

Next week, Joe and Tom enter Spoken Studio for the first time to start exploring voice casting. They’ll test AI voices, react live to hearing their characters performed, and begin shaping their narration experience.

We’ll be with them every step of the way—and you’ll hear what happens when writers start thinking like directors.

Learn about Joseph Nassise: https://josephnassise.com

Learn about Tom Leveen: https://tomleveen.com

Try Spoken: https://ihave.spoken.press