PARADOX | SEASON ONE: THE WILD WIND - A Novel by Cory Zimmerman

The Wild Wind is an American gothic tale about a woman born and raised on the grounds of a psychiatric institution—not as a patient but as the daughter of the asylum’s farmer—who learns of love and loss while grappling with the question of what it means to be sane when insanity is the norm.

“What’s to be sane in the garden of madness?”

That’s the question haunting Sarah, a centenarian writing about her life growing up at the asylum on the bank of the Illinois River. After a long-tormented life, Sarah intends to commit after completing a typewritten manuscript spoken to a man named Sam. Through a lens of lore and myth—the secrets that shaped Sarah’s twisted and mysterious life are revealed.

In Sarah’s labyrinthine quest for healing and peace, she painstakingly deconstructs the most transformative moments of her life. Her journey, spanning a century, is marked by profound hardship and survival, leading her to the poignant realization: “Sanity is but paper in a world consumed by fire.”

The Wild Wind defies convention, blending plot and character development in a refreshingly unique way. With an equally unusual structure and lyrical prose, Sarah’s account is intellectually intriguing and emotionally compelling. It sheds light on the darker aspects of American society and history, encouraging readers to view themselves and the world from a fresh perspective.

Written, edited & narrated by Cory Zimmerman

Executive Producer, Cory Zimmerman

Dedicated to Dr. George Anthony Zeller (1858-1938 ), whose vision and journals inspired this tale.

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Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 1: When SARAH, an isolated old woman, awakes to see a spider in the corner drop down not once but three times, she knows she will die in the same old farmhouse where she was born. Sarah intends to kill herself by consuming a bottle of pills, leaving behind a peculiar manuscript addressed to a man named SAM. In a reverse chronology, an account of a long and often macabre life spanning the entirety of the twentieth century begins. Sarah, having been born and raised on the grounds of the Hilltop State Hospital—not as a psychiatric patient, but as the daughter of the asylum’s farmer on the cusp of her own death, expresses what she has learned over a lifetime of love and loss at the very crossroads of life and death. All the while, Sarah continually grapples with the existential question of what it means to be 'sane' when insanity is the norm, declaring, “Sanity is but paper in a world consumed by fire.”

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

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Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 2: NURSE KATE embarks on a poignant journey to join the ranks of young nurses at the Hilltop State Hospital after her brother's untimely and tragic death. On her first day, she meets DOCTOR ZOLLA, a figure of hope whose progressive ideals precede him. Later, she accompanies a mute, known simply as BOOKBINDER, at the beginning of a journey of healing from a rather severe nervous breakdown.

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

https://radioverte.works

Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 3: As Sarah's stash of pills runs out, she is forced to endure the throes of a violent withdrawal. But upon finding a misplaced bottle on MOMMA's dresser that "shakes like a rattlesnake," she pops "two reds and blue," which send her on a drug-fueled, Homeric odyssey into the thicket after blackberries for jam.

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

https://radioverte.works

Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 4: After being introduced to the array of colorful characters who occupy the dayroom, Doctor Zolla discovers ROSE in a poorhouse. Having been locked in a Utica crib for forty years, she is permanently hunched over like a toad and blind from gouging out her eyes after being haunted by OLD SCRATCH. The doctor brings Rose back to the Hilltop, where she undergoes a remarkable recovery, her enduring spirit becoming a totem of the Hilltop’s transformative vision.

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

https://radioverte.works

Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 5: Hobos, angsty teenagers, and Satanic worshipers invade the deteriorating buildings of the shuddered Hilltop as Sarah stalks them under the influence of pills she scavenges from the abandoned pharmacy.

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

https://radioverte.works

Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 6: The last nail in the coffin of Sarah’s impending isolation is hammered by the death of Richie. Sarah confesses her relationship with “Nazi pills” she steals from the asylum, reformed in what she views as a fascist vision of hell since the death of the progressive Doctor Zolla. Sarah begins her rapid descent into a decades-long state of madness. Ronald Reagan closes the Hilltop, and the patients walk the streets of the nearby city of Grandview, where they eat out of dumpsters and freeze to death in the winter.

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

https://radioverte.works

Season One - THE WILD WIND - Chapter 7: It’s a dark time as PA dies in the cornfield he labored all his life, and the drums of war can once again be heard on the horizon. Sarah weighs the worth of empathy after Junior returns from WWII in a wooden box and Momma is found swinging from a twisted tree, having succumbed to lifelong grief.

A PLACE OF PARADOX is a Literary Fiction Podcast Written & Narrated by Cory Zimmerman.

A RADIO VÉRTÉ PRODUCTION

SEASONAL | WEEKLY

https://czstudio.works/pop

https://radioverte.works