Sorry for the run of silence on this blog, but I’ve been in a recording studio for the past month recording the audiobook version of my first novel “High Ground.” Prior to writing fiction and, even before my work in nonprofit management, I had a career in broadcasting, so how hard could it be to do the audiobook?
Hard, it turns out. Yeah, I have a voice for recording (some say I have a face for radio, too.) but narrating a 92,000 word piece of fiction in a way that my reader can tell the characters apart and follow the beat and flow of the story was much harder than anything like this I’ve done before. Deepest thanks to my friend and career voice-over pro Lee Gordon in Hartford for the loan of a good microphone, gray flannel furniture pads and good advice.
Some “voice actors” who do this sort of thing for a living, master accents, genders, ages and character traits in their work. Not in my wheelhouse. If I’ve learned anything in my life it is not to try to be someone I am not. Good or bad, stay genuine me. They say good radio or TV technique is treating it as just one person talking to one other person. Imagine you are reading a book to someone. No change in voice makes a dull read. Too much can feel like a Mel Blanc roast. After all, when we read, we just hear one voice in our head that transports us into the story—our own.
I’ll keep you posted on when the editing is complete and the audiobook goes up…and thanks for your kind interest. There’s a new sample chapter of the audiobook now on this site’s main menu.
“High Ground” is available on Amazon in paperback, for Kindle, iPad and Android tablets and on Kindle Unlimited.
Richard Authier Lee 