Welcome back from another humongous hiatus from blogpost writing. It's almost as if sitting down to write something longer than 15 words is getting beyond imaginable to my brain. That's a worrying thought that I am going to put right back into the cellar with the rest of them, to be dusted off again in a few weeks. I hope you've been well, anyway.
It's time to sit down and reflect not only on the release of audiobook number six(!), but also to look ahead and decide if any of the lessons I've learned will truly be learned from at all as I begin to narrate my next book.
Look! That's my name!!
Have you ever had your name on a poster ??
Sorry - that was unnecessarily aggressive. I put it down to poor sleep and uncontrollable narcissism (more on this later).
I'm so pleased to announce the release of Book 2 of the Raymara Chronicles: Of Secrets and Serpents. If you haven't heard about this brilliant series yet, let me encourage you to check it out on Audible and iTunes. If you're a fan of fantasy, twisty character drama, enemies to lovers and found friends, then you will love this epic tale full of twists and turns, dragons and demons, and more than its fair share of brooding glances.
As an actor, its been a joy to voice so many brilliantly written characters that are forever stuck within my head. Suzunne, the black dragon king of sass and shade, will - in particular - always hold a special place in my heart.
You can listen to both audiobooks in the Raymara Chronicles here:
What - wait - there's another one??
Slow down, OK? You know as well as I do that once a project is done, you've got to spend as little time as you can promoting it so that you can dive straight into the next project, right??
What do you mean that's a terrible idea?
Make room down below for my continuing intrusive thoughts, 'cos we're taking to the waaaaaaves!!
Ooh look at that gorgeous cover art...
This one was a huuuuge (GOOD) surprise to me.
To satisfy my desire for world audiobook domination, I started auditioning for new titles pretty much as soon as I'd hit submit on Of Secrets and Serpents. To hell with the thought that the author might come back to me with changes (she didn't!), I want a shiny new one NOW!
I submitted three auditions over the space of a month (one for a gritty historical fiction novel, The Gorzer Squire https://bit.ly/3wvmDoO; and another for a spellcasty, mysterious, political intrigue novel, Knights of the Alliance https://bit.ly/42KdVz6), heard not a pinch from one, and got shortlisted to the final two narrators for the other. I held my bated breath for a good couple of weeks (VERY patient of me), before finding out that the author had decided to put the audiobook on hold for a while, so wouldn't be hiring. It is always great to know you've been strongly considered for an audiobook given that most of the time you will receive a generic rejection email from Audible, so I wasn't too upset by the eventual petering out of the Gorzer Squire.
Then along came Althalos to my audition page. Fantasy setting? Check. Gorgeous cover art? Check. Well-written? Checkedy check CHECK! From the reading of the audition script, I was confident Francis was talented AND experienced, a formidable combination. What made me go all Angelica Schuyler was the rather unusual direction he had given in his notes. I quote:
"Hi everyone! I'm looking to have the narration be with an American accent, while the dialogue of the various characters will be British, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish. I'll provide more information once it becomes necessary, but you won't have to worry much about that until a bit later into the book."
Oh Francis stop. Do you want an American narrator or a British one - or do you not mind? SAY SOMETHING DAMMIT! From previous experience emailing authors with this kind of question, I guessed his answer would be along the lines of 'I'm open to interpretations!'.
'Shall I just go for it?' I thought. Stuff sending him an email. I'm just going to waltz right into that recording booth with my best Stetson on and bang out some accents. Accents are, incidentally, my favourite actor's toolbox item. I must always remind myself that every character does not need a new accent (it steals from the realism of the setting), but when an author faintly suggests this or that character might sound Eastern European, you better believe I'm rocking up to my studio in a green mankini, if you get what I mean.
The audition script required two characters - Althalos and his father, Andevan. Francis had suggested the latter kind of sounds like Paul Bettany. While I'm not an impressionist, and thank goodness that Francis doesn't want me to be, it can be very helpful to have a keystone character in your head to ground your character's voice with a specific volume, pitch, breath quality and range. Having Bettany's Vision in my head meant I didn't stray too far from the voice I'd started with.
For good measure, I decided to record the last few paragraphs in Scottish, Welsh and Irish accents.
Obviously not at the same time. Don't be silly.
It might feel a bit like showboating, but I've found most success in auditions when I find ways to fully showcase my skills, rather than muting them.
And something must have gone well, because within a couple of days, Francis was on the old email offering me the job! I saw his email at 4.30am on a weekday (he's in the US) which did mean I lost out on 90 minutes of sleep, but hey - I'm basically an American voice actor baby!! It was a huge compliment that an American author would choose me to narrate his book, and I have been relishing the challenge ever since.
I'm a good number of chapters in now, and boy is this a corker of a book! This post is getting a little long now, so I'll probably write more on what I like about it, and what the experience has been like narrating in a non-native accent soon.
By the way if anyone has a strong padlock or maybe some dry-fast sealant, I have a cellar door that needs seeing to.
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