GENESIS

In 2020, the world ground to a halt. A devastating global outbreak forced people into isolation, confining them to their homes and severing them from the rhythms of daily life. Countless people lost loved ones; almost everyone lost their sense of normalcy. Amid the fear and uncertainty, everyone found their own way to survive. Some surrendered to vices, some fled, and others buried themselves in work, hobbies, or new obsessions just to hold onto their sanity.

I turned to writing.

After a decade spent writing screenplays and watching how nearly impossible it is for an unknown writer to get a script made into a film, I started asking myself a different question: what if I didn’t need a studio at all? As an audio engineer by trade, I realized I already had the tools to bring a story to life myself — recording, sound design, mixing, scoring. I could build the world I’d written, one sound at a time.

In the spring of 2020, I set a goal: take one of my screenplay ideas and turn it into a full audio drama. Three years and 750 pages later, I had a complete 14-episode series. I spent the next six months recording live voice actors and building out the pilot episode — sound design, score, mix, all of it.

Then I spent a year pitching Zephyrus One to the handful of companies producing audio dramas. After five meetings and months of conversation with a development executive at Audible, they ultimately passed, unwilling to bet on an unknown writer.

I didn’t have the budget to record fourteen episodes with a full cast of voice actors. For a while, I was stuck. But I’d made a promise to myself to finish this project — so I started exploring ElevenLabs’ AI voices. Impressed by how lifelike they sounded, I rebuilt the pilot myself: voicing the protagonist and using AI voices for the rest of the cast.

When I shared the new version with ElevenLabs, they loved it — and asked if I’d finish the entire series as the first audio drama released on their ElevenReader app. I said yes without hesitation, and spent the next seven months completing all fourteen episodes.

After a strong debut on ElevenReader, Zephyrus One is now available worldwide on every major podcast platform.

Six years in the making…

I hope you enjoy listening to Zephyrus One as much as I enjoyed creating it.