In Part I, I told you how I got started formatting my existing books into audio books with the help of my producer/narrator Carin Gilfry. Here is the rest of Carin’s story.
Carin Gilfry, narrator: I always knew how each character should sound by the way the dialogue was written. Cheets in particular, the mischievous and very effervescent elf, quickly became my favorite. I always wanted to be a Disney princess, but in reality, I think I was more like Cheets as a child. Eager, loud, and always wanting to be everyone’s friend. I always intended to narrate books when not in a production, but I actually narrated EEElf, while in rehearsals for Offenbach’s La Perichole with New York City Opera. It worked surprisingly well. Though, I did get locked in a hotel closet, trying to find a quiet space to narrate… Adventures of audiobook narration on the road!
After The Exciting Exploits of an Effervescent Elf, I narrated Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys. This book has about 20 different characters in it, all with very distinct personalities. Typically with ACX, a narrator submits the first 15 minutes of a book for approval by the publisher, and within those first 15 minutes a lot of the characters appear, and the publisher can decide if they like the characterizations or not. For Bertie, I had a LOT of characters to give voices to, and may of them were not in the first 15 minutes of the book.
I decided to record a 20 minute long sample of all the different voices I was thinking of, and send it to Trisha. Doing that first gave me a great blueprint for how the book would come to life. Listen to Sample (Bertie, the Bookworm…)
Every time I record one of Trisha’s books, I can’t help but smile. Her stories are so charming, so sweet, so fun, and they are full of characters I adore. It is so wonderful to get to take on the voices of all these characters. Especially after a long day of singing modern opera or narrating poorly written spy
novels! I feel transported in to their world. I know it’s strange to say, but Cheets, Emma, Donald, and all the rest of the recurring Fabled Forest gang, feel like a part of me. I get excited when they do, I laugh when they laugh… literally and figuratively. I have been a part of their world for 7 months now, and I absolutely love it.
I have just finished working on the first book of the Fabled Forest Series, Emma and the Lost Unicorn and re-recording Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon. Listen Emma Sample It is available now on Audible.com, Amazon.com, & www.iTunes. I can’t wait to go back to the forest tomorrow!
Listen
Elf Demo (The Exciting Exploits of an Effervescent Elf). Since this writing, I have completed the audio book for “Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon” and it will be available in a couple of weeks.
TS: My narrator had some nice things to say about the latest in my audio books that we have worked on together: “I love this story. It is so sweet and has a great arc. I’m currently working on four books but yours are always my favorite, and this one is at the top of my list. There is nothing like narrating a really fun kids book with lots of crazy characters after a long day of poorly written spy novels… (ugh!)” THANKS! Carin
To read Part I of How to Create an Audiobook, click here
Carin has recently been vetted by audible.com and is an: Audible.com Approved Producer and Narrator
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Visit my store here or go to www.audible.com
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! September will feature Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is October’s author and Patrick Taylor will join us in November. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.
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