That came WAY too fast! I felt so awesome going into the new year and now I feel behind… in reality, bookish wise I am right on target and ahead of last year. Here are my stats so far for 2014:
Books read do far this year: 24 (with 3 to review yet)
Audio Books listened to this year: 33 ( with 2 left to review)
Last year at this time I was hardly reading/listening/posting anything so this is exciting to be able to spend time in the hobby area that I love!
In other news…
I missed one of the narrator interviews.
Narrator Robert Fass was one of the first of the narrators to send me his responses and somehow in the craziness we call June… I checked him off my spreadsheet as being posted and that was not accurate.
Due to this, I will be posting one more narrator chat that will go up today and will be part of the Audio Month Giveaway. It’s good stuff…. and I want to post it 🙂
Anyhoo… that’s what is up here. Working today, helping a friend out tonight… and who knows what else…
No… really… who knows? Can someone tell me?
Have a super Tuesday! What are you doing this July 1st?
Is it wrong that now that we are at the end of June and audio month sadly draws to a close that I want to take this above picture and cross out the word June and put July? *sigh* All good things must come to an end.
It seems like audio book month went so fast! I had a blast being such an active part of it this year and I hope that you enjoyed the posts here from audio book discussions, audio book reviews, and the amazing narrators who chimed in with their thoughts and experiences with audio. Special thanks to our narrators who hung out here:
Johnny Heller
Therese Plummer
Allyson Johnson
Tavia Gilbert
Xe Sands
Karen White
Patrick Lawlor
Ellen Archer
Khristine Hvam
Good times people… good times. 🙂
And now as I wrap this up I would love to hear some feedback from you on these posts. This posts comments also go into the giveaway that has been running all month for commenting on Audio Book related posts..
Here is what I would love to know:
1. Did any of the posts from this month encourage you to try an audiobook? (New or a long time listen of audio, which audio, and which post?
1a. If you did try an audiobook how was it?
2. Was there a particular post that you enjoyed out of all the audio posts. If so, which one? Why that one?
3. Did you learn anything from the posts by the Narrators?
4. What would you like to know more of about audio books?
As a refresher – here are the posts once again for the last time:
Happy Sunday! Sky is looking cloud free here today and the sun is shining! YAY!!!
For the past two days I have been on the North Shore checking on our cabin, chatting with the neighbors… and reading … GLORIOUS READING. It is amazing how much time I can make for reading when I drive out of cell phone and internet range. I finally finished The Three and read two more books – Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf, and The Young World by Chris Weitz. I finished Essentialism by Greg McKeown and have two hours left on my audible audio on my phone, The Weight Of Silence also by Heather Gudenkauf. (That’s what 8 hours in the car will get me 🙂 )
It is crazy to believe that we are at the end of June already and thus, at the end of audio book month! As tomorrow is Monday and is usually dominated by It’s Monday What Are You Reading, I will more than likely put up a wrap up post tonight. All comments from the audio book posts in June will go into a drawling for a $25 gift card. I will be drawing that winner in the next few days as we start to roll out July and I have a whole other theme for that…. 😉
If you have missed any of the audio book related posts – it is not too late to put in your two cents:
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
Welcome again to another fun chat with a Narrator. Today I would love to introduce the talented Khristine Hvam!
Well hello! I’m Khristine Hvam. Audibook narrator and voice over actress. I started narrating audiobooks in 2008. To name a few of the books I have narrated:
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue, Astray by Emma Donoghue The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Series by Laini Taylor The Jane Yellowrock Series by Faith Hunter The Pure trilogy by Julianna Baggot The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens The Cast in Shadow series by Michelle Sagara The Iron Daughter series by Julie Kagawa
How did you begin narrating?
I always say, I sort of tripped and fell and landed (perfectly) in narration. I started as a voice over actor. I was working on some dubbing work and the director thought I would be a good fit for audiobook narration. He set up an audition for me with Audible and the rest is history.
Narration and other voice over work are my full time job. However, being mommy to an eleven month old is my latest full time job. Both are dreams come true.
That first narration….
My first book was a steamy sexy romance novel. WOW was that awkward! Not only had I never recorded a book before (the recording of a book takes place over several hours a day for several days) but the name of the steamy sexy male character was the same name as the engineer recording for me. That was kind of humiliating. “Oh Rick, OH RICK!!” … I was several shades of red. “Rick” of course, wasn’t bothered at all.
In the few years I’ve been doing this amazing work things have changed a bit within the inner workings and politics of the business. More and more home studio recording requests come my way and I’m fortunate that I have a home studio and can accommodate. However, it’s challenging to record at home alone and it can be isolating at times. I have to play the role of narrator, engineer, and director, and I think that can sometimes have a negative effect on the narration. I miss the comradery of working with a producer/director and engineer. But the work is still the same. My approach to the work hasn’t changed. I still go into every new project excited and ready for the adventure.
More and more home studio recording requests come my way and I’m fortunate that I have a home studio and can accommodate. However, it’s challenging to record at home alone and it can be isolating at times.
I’ve grown up quite a bit in these last six years. I have more confidence in my choices as a narrator now. I think that translates into being able to branch out into new genres of work. And I’m really looking forward to that!
Favorite Narrations…..
I think all narrators have a favorite and I have several. My latest is “Frog Music” by Emma Donoghue because it kicked my butt. It was the HARDEST book I’ve ever worked on. And because of how much it pushed me to grow as a narrator IT is one of my favorites. The “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” series by Laini Taylor was just a blast to record. Its filled with incredible characters, it’s written well, and it gave me an opportunity to explore new “voices”… I basically showed up and played all day while recording it. And that’s why I got into this biz in the first place!
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts like this one. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
I can not believe it is almost the end of June. I just took my bike in yesterday for it’s spring tune up. What the…. I feel…. behind.
June is audio book month. Did you know? If you have been around here, you knew.
Anyhoo…
I actually feel bad that I did not mention something earlier this month… I just found out myself a couple weeks ago… but still I should have share….
Sheila! Get on with it already!
Right. Have you heard of Sync Audio? They are giving away two free YA audiobook downloads a week from May 15th – August 13th. I know… I know… we both have missed out on a lot – HOWEVER it is SUPER EASY to do because I did it. And they worked beautifully!
First…
I downloaded OverDrive® Media Console™ (available for every major desktop and mobile platform) on to my Kindle Fire. (As you see here you can also download it on your phone, your laptop…) Then from my Kindle Fire I popped over to the Sync website, logged in and downloaded the two audio books they were offering this week.
Super EASY!
Super COOL!
The audiobooks are only available for one week, but once downloaded onto your device they are yours to keep. This week I downloaded:
Give them a try – they are free and it is a great way to either try audio books or grab a few great titles for us audiobook lovers.
I am on my way to the cabin this morning. Meeting some people to look at our roof. It is a long drive – 3 1/2 hours but I am excited for a few audio book choices I will be taking with me. I shall be back late tomorrow afternoon.
In the meantime, be sure and check out the audio book posts from this month – commenters are going into a drawing for a $25 gift card:
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts like this one. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
Ellen Archer was also at the luncheon we had in New York In May. Audio book listeners may know here from her work on audiobooks such as ROOM by Emma Donoghue, Sunday’s At Tiffany’s by James Patterson, The Penny by Joyce Meyers, and more. Please welcome Ellen to Book Journey.
My name is Ellen Archer. I am a New York City based actor and voice – over artist. I’ve been narrating books for over 12 years and have recorded somewhere around 175 titles. I say “somewhere” because I used an alias for some of my earlier raunchy titles and I’ve “forgotten” what the alias is. Now I’m on the straight and narrow and use my own name. I recently finished MIRROR SIGHT, the latest book in the GREEN RIDER series by Kristen Britain. These fantasy books are seriously good. She’s a wonderful writer. ROOM by Emma Donoghue and WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS by Kate Atkinson are also great books, and I loved recording them.
How are the books chosen?
About half the time, my agent sends me auditions for specific titles that I have requested to audition for by the publisher or the producer. These days, more often than not, the author chooses the narrator from the auditions submitted to him or her. Other times, publishers call my agent and offer me a book or series without my having to audition. I think I’ve only turned down 3 books in 12 years. That either reeks of desperation or is a testament to how well publishers and producers know me.
These days, more often than not, the author chooses the narrator from the auditions submitted to him or her.
When I am given a copy of a book, usually it is in a downloadable PDF so I can save a tree and work off my iPad. It took me a while to get the hang of not having the actual hard copy in my hands, as I like to write little notes in my horrible handwriting, replete with scribbles and arrows and different colored highlighting. I also like to write “to do” lists and funny things my kids says. I’ve found that the iAnnotate app, is not the enemy – now I can actually read the notes I make. Bonus!
This pic is just a silly one of the various drinks, lip balm and candies I have in the booth with me
I always read the book before recording. I try to read it as I would a book for pleasure. I don’t stop to make a slew of notes in a separate notebook or stop to look stuff up – I just read. I’ll underline passages that I think are important, put a question mark next to something for which I need clarification, make a quick note about a character to jog my memory later (maybe underline a particular line they speak). After I finish the book, I’ll go back through and look over all the pages on which I made notes and (try to) decipher what I meant. I’ll make a list of the characters and something to describe them/their accent or voice/their story. If they remind me of someone I know, or a celebrity or even another character I’ve done, I’ll make a note of that. Then, for that gem of a book for which I get a director, I make a list of questions for him or her (usually pronunciations for character names, but sometimes for regular every day words that big time smarty pants use, and I don’t know how to say). The director calls the author to get pronunciations on character names or places they’ve made up and then looks up the rest of the stuff. When I don’t have a director, (which is more than half the time) I do all that stuff myself. The more complicated the book is, the longer the process. Non fiction is way easier to prep, while a 27 hour-long fantasy book with 73 characters takes a bit more work. I also do a fair number of books that have long passages in other languages. Fortunately, the fine folks at the Boston Conservatory of Music required I take French, Italian and German to complete my degree in Opera and Vocal performance. I’ve been tempted to write the alumni committee a check more than once. They must know that somehow, because they send me a donation envelope every year.
What I enjoy most about narrating a book is getting lost in it. It is such a great feeling. I love the excitement of finding a character’s voice and it feeling completely right. I know I’ve gotten it right when I’m sad to read the last few lines and it’s over. I remember reading an amazing and deeply personal memoir called THE ORCHARD by Theresa Weir. It was beautifully written in first person. The director, Suzanne Torn, the editor, Tommy Harron and I called the author to ask her a few questions before we got started. It was a lovely two-minute conversation. When we finished the book four days later, I had the strongest urge to call Theresa and talk about what happened to “us” — ask how everyone was doing, how she was doing. I nearly picked up the phone before I realized that I actually don’t know Theresa. At all. I knew it would be completely inappropriate to ask her such intimate questions…but after reading her story for four days, it felt like we were friends. I was that invested. I did “like” her page on Facebook so, I guess we’re kinda friends now, right?
While recording my very first audiobook, I kept stumbling over a word. This was a very easy and unfunny word that I couldn’t say – something like “donut.” I’d get as far as “Let’s go grab a coffee and” (wait for it….) “BWHAHAHAH.” Then the engineer, Kay Ells, started laughing. It was that same feeling you get when you start to laugh in church and it just gets worse and worse. I simply could not get through the sentence without hysterical laughter. This went on for several minutes, as I, red-faced and gasping for air, tried to explain to the director why “donut” is so damn funny. She was unmoved. In the end, I had to read the line with my eyes closed so I couldn’t see Katy’s shoulder’s shaking. And, hey, they hired me back!
You can check out more about Ellen Archer at her website: ellenarcher.com
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts like this one. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
Good morning! Poo weather here the last couple of days which makes me a little disgruntled. Not like I have had a lot of extra time this week with a Wine and Words meeting, a City Board meeting, and Monday’s second dose of The Fault In Our Stars (glutton for punishment I am….) but… I want to mow the lawn before I leave for the cabin probably early in the am now because I will not be ready to go tonight unless I stress myself out – and I am going to try to not stress myself out.
About the reading…
Right? I am sad to admit that I am reading the SAME BOOK that I was reading on the plane on my way back from New York a month ago.
It’s true. It is that time of year of gardening, lawn care, house cleaning, being outside, walking, running, biking, cabin, projects, grilling…
However – this weekend with a couple days at the cabin that is about to change 🙂 I will of course be finishing up on The Three by Sarah Lotz (yes yes yes I have been reading a book about three plane crashes while I myself was on a plane). It is good, the formatting is interesting…. and hopefully next week I will be telling you more about it 🙂
Then… I will be looking at Little Mercies by Heather Gunderkauf (LOVE her books!) and The Young World by Chris Weitz. Yes – BOOKS. Glorious BOOKS.
Of course, as you know, its not that I have not been talking books. I have been doing a LOT of audio, a lot of REALLY GOOD audio. We still have a few days of audio month left….
Have you tried audio yet? If so what are you listening to?
If not, Why not read some of the audio posts here suggesting books and give one a try?
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
To help you out – here are the posts that qualify for this Audio Month Giveaway:
When the Khan’s family home burns to the ground, Saba Khan’s high school teachers and classmates come to the rescue by planning a fund-raiser to help the family get back on their feet from this devastating loss. When a piece of art is found abandoned in an alley way and donated to the fund-raiser, later to be found out to be rare and worth thousands, battles begin…
who should receive the money raised from the art piece?
The finders of the piece?
The school?
Or does it go to the Khan’s?
When the art turns up missing from the gym where it was being stored, fingers are pointed and tongues accuse.
Written at a middle grade perspective, Saba Khan, our main protagonist goes through all emotions while in the midst of the fire crisis including hurt and including love when a popular boy turns his attention to her.
With the story being told from different perspectives including the Principal of the school, Saba’s boyfriend, and classmates this book in audio format is a delight to the ears.
I didn’t love this story, but I did enjoy it.
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts like this one. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
It is Paris in the summer in 1926. Ernest Hemmingway along with wife Hadley are enjoying time in the villa in southern France. They laugh and flirt and receive admiring glances from strangers, yet they are not alone. Fife, the woman who caught Ernest’s eye at a party awhile back is there as well. As much as Hadley wishes she could hate her, she finds Fife’s laid back easy-going ways to be appealing. It is easy to see what draws Ernest too her,and Hadley herself has come to know Fife as one of her dearest friends even thought she occasionally gives Ernest an ultimatum – end it now.
Eventually, Ernest does end it. But not with Fife. He ends his marriage to Hadley and marries Fife who is overjoyed as she has won the man of her dreams, even at the cost of Hadley. Together, Fife feels, they were go into their golden years hand in hand.
As years go by, Fife starts to see Ernest giving an appreciate eye to a younger, perkier woman named Martha. Fife suddenly know what it feels what it must have been like for Hadley as she watches, helpless as her husband finds ways to go away with Martha. Heart sick, Fife watches her marriage crumble before her.
But – if Martha thinks that she is the last of the Hemingway wives; she had better think again….
Woo this was good! I listened to this on audio and Kate Reading did a wonderful job narrating the voices of Ernest’s four wives as well as Ernest and an assortment of friends along the way. (Kate Reading’s rendition of Fife was exactly as I would have pictured her sounding, a distinctive smooth self-assured voice.
This was one of those audio books you hate to turn off. I love historical fiction! This audio was filled with real letters and telegrams of conversations that just added to the intrigue of Ernest Hemingway. I had no idea about Ernest’s life or loves, or even his untimely surprising death.
The book is told in alternating chapters by each of the four wives (talk about hearing “her side” of the story!), this fictional story unfolds as though you were right there. It has left me wanting to know more. I have never read Hemingway, but I plan to give him a try after feeling that I now… kind of know the man, and am now curious between all that time of having an unsettled heart… what did he write about?
Audio book month continues and so do the narrator posts and audiobooks and of course, the giveaway that goes along with it. Please welcome narrator Patrick Lawlor. I did not have a lot of time to chat with him in New York but now he will share his narrating life with us:
My name is Patrick Lawlor and I have been narrating audiobooks since 2001. Full-time since 2004. This is what I do, this is my job. How lucky am I that I have a job that combines two of my favorite things, reading and talking?!
I have recorded over 325 books. in every genre. Some of my favorites include Merle’s Door, Lessons From a Free Thinking Dog, by Ted Kerasote, Adam Canfield of the Slash, by Michael Winerip, Timecasters by Joe Kimball (J.A. Konrath), The Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann, The Darwin Awards series by Wendy Northcutt and the controversial Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.
I was very lucky to get into audiobooks at a time when there were a lot fewer people trying to do this for a living. The Audio Publishers’ Association held a yearly job market, which was, in essence, a chance for prospective narrators to audition for a bunch of publishers at once, and then have several opportunities to socialize with them and start to get to know them. I was able to make several lasting relationships and got my first gig halfway through the day!
I completed 5 books my first year, 9 my second year, and about 12 my third. Since then, I average between 25 and 30 books a year. This has become my full-time job and I couldn’t be happier about it. I still do theatre when I can, that’s where my roots are, and that was my primary focus before audiobooks, but mainly I record. I have a studio in my home, and these days, record most of my work there. This is probably the biggest change in the industry since I began. There is a huge movement toward narrators recording themselves at home. Digital technology has made it relatively easy to get professional-quality results at home for relatively little money. The internet and things like ISDN and ftp sites, make remote recording and moving around sound files quite do-able. There is a certain, undeniable convenience about recording at home, to be sure, but I do miss going into the studio and working with a director and an engineer. I am, after all, a performer, and I enjoy having others around. Books DO still get done in studios, and I go in every chance I get, but the market being what it is, and the sheer number of narrators entering the business each year, means I need every advantage I can get, and home recording is a big one.
This is probably the biggest change in the industry since I began. There is a huge movement toward narrators recording themselves at home.
Through the years, as I have been exposed to more and various material, I have gone through a process of discovery. For the most part, I have been making this up as I’ve gone along. I have had some wonderful directors who have guided me in the right direction, but I am definitely a work in progress. I have matured, certainly, and learned many techniques that have made me a better story-teller. I generally read slower and more clearly. There was a tendency in earlier books to speed up. My voice also had a tendency to get a little high-pitched when excited. I have much more control these days. At the same time, I am getting older, and so is my voice. I like to think it’s getting better, richer, but those female characters are certainly having to evolve a bit! Altogether, I think I’ve remained pretty consistent, though along the way, I have experimented quite a bit with how to narrate a book, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Sometimes REALLY…not. It has been a challenging and thoroughly enjoyable ride!
My first audiobook recording gig will always be one of my more fun memories, no matter how many books I record. I was attending the APA Job Market in New York, in early 2001, and I had just auditioned for a room of publishers and producers, when one of them, a producer named John McElroy, caught me in the hall and said he had a short project I would be perfect for. Was I interested? “Of course”, I said and he promised to get me the script by the end of the day. It would require extending my stay in NYC by a day, so I would basically break even, but I was getting my start! And in New York City! (I lived in Los Angeles at the time.) I was ecstatic! I continued the day on a cloud.
When I read the script later in my hotel room, however, that cloud did that little “poof” disappearing thing you see in cartoons. What I had was a chapter from a book of erotica. It resembled nothing so much as a 30 minute Letter to Penthouse. I am certainly not prudish in the least, and I have nothing against erotica, and this wasn’t especially hardcore or anything, but I DID start to wonder about the ease with which I got this gig. And what, exactly in my audition made John consider me ‘perfect” for this? Well, maybe this was normal. What did I know? I had never done a book before.
The next day I went downtown to “the studio.” When I arrived at the address, it was a small, unmarked door between a Bodega and a nail place. I went up to the 3rd floor and entered what seemed to be a travel agency, where Russian seemed to be the primary language and a lot of big, swarthy gentlemen looked dully uninterested in my arrival. I had flashes of that scene in the movie FAME, where the girl goes to her first on-screen gig.. A good quart of flop-sweat released itself into the sleeves of my shirt. After ten minutes or so of trying to get the receptionist to understand what I was looking for (words like “recording,” “audiobook” and “studio” were not among the dozen or so words of English she knew, and that angered her), I decided to call the studio. Outside. At a pay phone. It turns out I had transposed two numbers in the address, and the beautiful, professional studio was across the street!
I had a nice conversation with the director John. In the end John said very nice things about my work and handed me a check and that was that. I was a paid audiobook narrator! I had done my first project! As it turns out, the first of many to come. And no, they have not all been like that.
Please watch this site for June audio book related posts, like this one. For every post you comment on in June that has this audio book symbol:
I will put you into a drawing for a $25 book certificate for each comment (Barnes and Noble or Amazon – your choice). Winner will be drawn in July.
Book Journey 