My Balticon Schedule

I'm going to my first Balticon this weekend! I plan to attend lots of sessions, but here are the ones I'm officially involved with:

Friday 
5 PM: Helping Authors Find and Work Effectively with Narrators
6 PM: Using Comedy to Humanize Characters and Hook Listeners in Audio Fiction

Saturday
1 PM: Live Reading!
I'm going to read excerpts from the in-progress sequel to Dreaming of Deliverance, as well as from my almost finished kids' novel: Rachel Richards Hates Rats. Alex White, author/producer of The Gearheart will be reading as well!

Sunday
11 AM: Narrating Podcast Fiction:
This will be an expansion of the panel I coordinated for the New Media Expo last January, but this time, I'll be doing it solo! Using clips from your favorite fiction podcasts, I'll share what I've learned about how to be an excellent audio fiction narrator.

5 PM Metamor City Live Show! I get to participate in a live reading with other voice actors. Can't wait!
7 PM Fullcast vs. Straight Read

Monday
10 AM: The Introvert's Guide to Social Media
Noon: Multi-Creatives

Here's a link to the whole Balticon Schedule if you'd like to read more about the sessions listed above, as well as all that'll be offered this weekend. I'm looking forward to so much!

Now to get back to packing...

Trying to tame my gremlin

I'm reading this book:

Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson.

My gremlin is big and clever and relentless. I'm not sure she can be tamed.

Ironically, she's not barking at me much about the audiobook narration. She's given up on that because she knows I'm feeling capable in that department.

But she's focused all her attention on my idea of myself as a writer. She's almost had me convinced that I'm not one.

However, a friend just wrote me about how much her 13-year-old loved Dreaming of Deliverance. It even inspired him to draw a scene from the novel. My first fan art.

I told my friend about Forbidden Fruit and said her son might like it, and then I read a little bit of it and remembered: I'm a good writer. I tell good stories.

That stupid gremlin: my viscous, constant, uber-critical inner voice, had me forgetting.

I will tame my gremlin. I will return to Trae. Finish the rat book.

I'm a writer.

I remember.

Duh!

7-7-7: Renée writing excerpts!

Amanda Brice tagged me on Facebook for the 7-7-7 meme. Basically you are supposed to go to either page 7 or page 77 of your work in progress, go down 7 lines, and then post the next 7 lines. 

So I opened up my two sadly neglected WIPs: Rachel Richards Hates Rats, my middle-grade novel that I discussed in the Roundtable Podcast, and the as yet unnamed sequel to Dreaming of Deliverance. 

But I couldn't decide which page and which WIP to use, so I decided to post all of them here!

Rachel Richards Hates Rats p. 7, lines 8-14:

I took a couple of steps backward, so Ev couldn't grab the phone from my hand and hang up, which he'd been known to do. "I gotta go, Gwennie."

"Aw, I wish I was there! Your own pool in the backyard. Rachel Richard's dad coming over to your house. You're so lucky!"

"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Ev was hopping up and down again. "Bye, Gwen." I pushed the phone's off button while Ev pulled at my arm. "Okay! Just let me get my swimsuit on."

Rachel Richards p. 77, lines 8-14

I thought of what it felt like to sit there alone while everyone else seemed to be having such a good time. I looked down at Ringo. He jerked his head to the side in Rachel's direction. "Go to her, Ellen," he said in his quietest voice. "Make this right."

Why should I? I almost said. This is Rachel Richards we're talking about. She's been terrible to me from the first day I met her. But for some reason, at that moment I couldn't remember all the reasons I didn't like her.

And these are the excerpts that might interest you more...

Dreaming of Deliverance sequel p. 7, lines 8-14

“Barren rock! Yeh’re back!”

“Oh yes, pet. Our dear friend is right. It’s that little girl!”

“I see her, love. I see her. Doesn’t she look pathetic? But we can’t stay here. We must flee. They will come now that a jut has been opened.”

Rough hands pulled me upright.

“Come on, Lindsay! You have to walk. We can’t carry you.”

I blinked at the man standing in front of me. It was twilight but I could see him well enough.

“Michael?” His face was thinner and white tufts streaked his beard, but the restless eyes and gruff voice were the same.

DoD sequel p. 77, lines 8-14

He led me down a short sandy path to the edge of the river while I admired his ability to communicate with the sisters without addressing them directly. The water was quiet and slow-moving, trickling musically through a cluster of smooth-topped rocks, the largest of which stuck up a couple of feet from the surface at an angle and acted as a natural dam. The resulting pool was big enough for skipping stones or wading, but too small to swim. Clumps of bushy willows, their branches swaying in the breeze, surrounded us and blocked out the view of the cave—of everything really, except the rocks and the water and the starry dome overhead. It was like being in a giant nest.

So there they are! I found it interesting which parts of each story came up: they connect, which is pretty cool. It also made me realize how much I miss these stories. Back at the beginning of this blog, I posted here to motivate myself to keep writing. I need to start that back up again. I love narrating audiobooks, but I'm also a writer and I miss my own stories. I'll get back to it now.

Thanks, Amanda!

Well, this is awkward...and great!

Long time, no post. Yes, I say that a lot. Yes, that should probably be the new title of Pointed Sqiuggle, I say it so much. And while this might have been my longest gap between entries, that doesn't change this very familiar sentiment

But it feels especially awkward today. The difference this time is that I'm at the New Media Expo or NMX (formerly Blog World), surrounded by people who are experts at blogging and new media. Since I break probably all of the rules when it comes to successful blogging, I'm feeling a little sheepish.  Tomorrow I'm doing a presentation here, and it occurred to me that some of the attendees could check out my blog, so I should probably post something more current than the hot weather entry from four months ago.

And lots has happened since August. I'm now narrating audiobooks full time! It's been very exciting, but somewhat stressful since the deadlines have been tight. I've worked on a wide-variety of great books, each of which has had its own joys and challenges. I'll be sure to let you know about them, when they are released.

And that's what's led me to NMX! My experience with podcast fiction has resulted in a career in audio book narration. It's pretty darn wonderful how things have worked out, and I look forward to sharing what I've learned tomorrow in my session.

Here's a link:

Tone and Emotion: The keys to compelling podcast fiction narration

The best part of being here is that I'm getting to meet some of my podcast fiction friends in person for the first time! I've loved hanging out with Abbie Hilton, the Dunesteef guys (Big Anklevich and Rish Outfield), Bryan Lincoln (who is doing the presentation with me), and Lauren "Scribe" Harris. Marshal Latham (also doing the Tone and Emotion presentation) arrives today. What a great group! Abbie, Big, Rish, and Lauren's session is also tomorrow and covers comedy in podcast fiction, which is difficult to do successfully, but so effective! Here's a link:

Using Comedy to Humanize Characters and Hook Listeners 

Scott Sigler is here as well! He has a "Super Session" tomorrow called The Art of Podcast Storytelling. Unfortunately, it's in the morning before my session, but I'm planning on attending most of it.

I think it's fabulous that NMX is featuring podcast fiction this year! I feel honored to be a part of it.

And now my blog isn't so embarrassingly out of date!

More...okay I won't say "soon"...but eventually!

Hooray for a sweltering summer! (My first football practice blog entry)

Last entry I said I would start blogging more and this is what I think I'll do. I spend 2.5 hours most week days sitting at my son Sgzhanke S. Carlo (a.k.a. Shanky)'s football practice. I try to use the time wisely and write but today I took a break from working on Rachel Richard's Hates Rats (my new middle grade novel) to write the following in my notebook.

For the last 12 years I've lived in an area where the summers are hot. I grew up in the SF Bay Area, which has a very mild climate: it never gets too hot or too cold in Fremont. As a kid, I hated the heat. It sapped all of my energy and left me feeling sick and sluggish.

So I never would have thought I'd want to live in a place with hot summers. I'd have thought it would be horrible, and that I'd spend my sunny, sweltering days longing for fall and cooler temps. That's the thing about life, though. There's a lot of truth to the cliché "never say never", because now I absolutely love the heat of the summer.

Today the high was just under 100 degrees Farenheight. Our house was cool in the morning, though: 68 degrees. Evenings here it usually cools down enough that we can leave our windows open and draw in fresh, crisp air with the huge whole house fan in our attic. I like waking up summer mornings as the sun rises, to a cool, quiet house.

And I love wearing summer clothes: shorts, flip-flops—no socks or sweaters. I love not being cold. I love taking the kids to the pool and sitting in the shade, reading and writing and jumping in myself when I get too warm. At night, it's the perfect temperature to sleep with no covers. Did I mention how great it is to never be cold?

So now I'm sitting in the shade at Shanky's football practice. I've got my notebook, my iced tea, my ipod, and my Kindle. It's 6:30 PM and the temperature in out in the sun where the boys are playing is in the 90s.* And I'm trying to appreciate this lovely warmth because there are only two more months of it to go before the cold and rain of winter arrive.

*Poor Shanky. He probably has very different view about this hot weather. I've got my shade and my tea. He's out in the sun in a helmet doing jumping jacks and pushups!

At long last, a blog post about "Boxed"!

Okay, this post is way over due. In my defense, I was waiting to podcast about it with Eric before blogging about it. But he's dragging his feet in a big way about podcasting with me--who knows when we'll do another episode--and it's been forever since I blogged, so the time has come!

I produced a story back in June for the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine called Boxed. It was written by Will McIntosh and is a super creative story with terrific characters. I had so much fun narrating and producing it and I absolutely loved editing in Big Anklevich's lines. His character Jackie was hilarious, as written, but the way that Big performed those lines made the whole thing laugh-out-loud funny. And if that was not enough, Eric did a small part in the story. We recorded it during this episode of Unpublishednotdead. So give it a listen both to hear Eric's podcast fiction debut and just because it's a great story! :)

In other news, I've decided to blog more. I know, I know: You'll believe it when you see it! But there are lots of things I've wanted to write about lately--more related to my life at home. Kids and sports (my son just started his first year of tackle football), having a teenager (my daughter turned 13 at the beginning of the month), my continual quest to balance my writing, my voice work, and my family duties, etc. 

So new Pointed Squiggle entries will appear before too long! Look out for them!

Renée on other podcasts: The Drabblecast and The Roundtable Podcast

But first here's a picture of my 42-year-old self dressed in 80s regalia: the sort of thing I actually wore in the 80s. It might seem random and extraneous to this blog post, but my 80s transformation is mentioned in my most recent Unpublishednotdead podcast with Eric, so maybe it's kind of relevant...









What I actually wanted to tell you about, however, is two other podcast appearances that I've made this week. The first was in The Drabblecast. Surprise! I voice a creepy little girl. I know. What a departure for me! But it's a very cool story called "Endless Encore" by Will Ludwigsen. Will has written a series of what he calls "Postcard Stories" where he uses old photographs and drawings to inspire his writing.  Here's the picture that inspired "Endless Encore". See the well? See the strings? Check out what Will has done with this image!

http://www.drabblecast.org/2012/05/25/drabblecast-244-doubleheader-xi/

Then I had the great fortune to participate in the Roundtable Podcast with the very awesome Dave Robison and Brion Humphrey, along with my old friends and colleagues Big Anklevich and Rish Outfield. I'm too tired and lazy to do a new write up about this experience, so I'm just going to cut and paste the thoughts I posted in the Dunesteef Forums:

I'd heard about the Roundtable Podcast (http://www.roundtablepodcast.com/) from Bryan Lincoln*. If you're not familiar with the Roundtable Podcast, Dave Robison and Brion Humphrey are the hosts and every episode features a guest host and a writer who is looking for help with a story idea. I needed some guidance on an idea that was out of my comfort zone and thought that Big and Rish would be the perfect guest hosts to help me. They were great! My day-to-day life is filled with kids' needs: lunches, homework, clean baseball jerseys, etc, and it's lacking in creative brainstorming, so I can't express how fabulous it is to kick around ideas with other creative people, like Big, Rish, Dave, and Brion. This was such a great experience and helped me so much. I also thought Big and Rish's separate 20 minutes showcase was really interesting and entertaining and it gave an intriguing behind the scenes look into how the Dunesteef works. 

So if you want to hear the three of us, here's the link: http://www.roundtablepodcast.com/2012/05/workshop-episode-13-guest-hosts-big-anklevich-and-rish-outfield/

And here's the link to the 20 minutes of Big and Rish: http://www.roundtablepodcast.com/2012/05/20-minutes-with-big-anklevich-and-rish-outfield/

Thanks so much, guys!

* I will be asking for Bryan's help too. But it's spoilery: for the sequel to my first novel, Dreaming of Deliveance, so I can't have a public brainstorming session about it, unfortunately. I'd like to record our conversation (when it finally happens) for later release. It really is so valuable to bounce ideas off of other people.

Get squished by a boulder or do another round of The Artist's Way?

Hi everyone! Missed me? I'm tempted to use this video as an excuse for why I've been MIA. But no. It was made using the Action Movie App. Cracks my kids up every time!

Anyway, Eric teases me about always starting my blog entries by apologizing for not blogging more. And it's sooooo tempting to apologize this time because I haven't blogged since February. But I won't. I'll restrain myself. I'm not sorry! So there!

Things are typical with me. I'm doing a lot and not enough, simultaneously. I just wrapped up another audiobook, and you'll be able to hear me in some upcoming podcasts. I'll give you details when I have them. But I'm not writing enough. I'm dying to immerse myself in DoD 2. It's percolating in my head but I just can't focus on it quite yet. My kid's book is very close and I want to finish that up first.

I flounder too much. I get a lot done but I don't think I'm as efficient as I should be. But I'm going to do another round of the Artist's Way. If you were with me back in 2006, you might remember that I took a stab at the Artist's Way then. It's a very powerful creative program and I want to do it again. So I am! Here's a 2006 blog entry about it.

Want to do it with me? I'm probably going to start Sunday!

New stories! New studio! It's even smaller than the tent!

Long time no post!

My sorry-for-not-blogging-more-frequently excuse hasn't changed much: I'm still busy, busy, busy!

But I did want to share these pics that my daughter took of me recording a new young adult novel called Codename Dancer by Amanda Brice. Okay, it was slightly more of a photo shoot than a real recording session because when I'm actually recording, I completely wall myself in with foam, but that wouldn't have made for a very good picture, so I left one wall down for this.

Anyway, I have some new equipment and a new recording space. It might be a little difficult to tell from these pictures just how small my new space is, but the "table" that my mic and light are on, is a bar stool and I'm sitting in a preschool-sized chair. Fortunately I'm not that big of a person, and don't have claustraphobia.

The new set up might be small, but it gives me great sound. Plus it's always ready to go, unlike the tent which took 1/2-hour to set up every time I needed to record. I also have a new microphone, preamp, and digital recorder. I was sad to retire my trusty Blue Snowball, but the new equipment definitely gives me a richer, more professional sound.

And I am doing lots of recording for Audiolark. Soon the books I've already narrated will be up on Audible.com. But in the meantime, if you want to hear me, here are some relatively recent stories:

Dream Engine by Tim Pratt at the Journey Into podcast. Hear me narrate a story as a bodiless, genderless entity!

We Figure the Leaves by Kristine Ong Muslim at the Way of the Buffalo. Gorgeous writing in this flash fiction piece.

Save the Date by Joe Zieja, and Catastrophe Baker Makes First Contact by Mike Resnick at the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. No Renée narration in these; instead I did some voice acting, and both stories called for over the top, goofy performances.

Rain by Abby Manheim at the Dunesteef. I produced and narrated this beautifully written, thought-provoking story.

So those are the new fiction pieces featuring moi, but I also did a duel Unpublishednotdead with Eric/Kael! We figured out how to manage recording a podcast in two locations, and it turned out pretty well, despite all of my "uh"s, "you knows" and "kinda"s. We answered lots of writing and relationship questions. I'm not sure how helpful we were, but regardless, we're hoping to make these podcasts regularly!

As for writing, I'm having a problem carving out time and it's so frustrating. I need a kick in the butt there, for sure. Again, nothing new! I've been thinking more and more about Dreaming of Deliverance's sequel and I'm itching to dive into it and explore that world again.

Soon, I hope.

Stop Censorship No to SOPA/PIPA

I'll be off line on 1/18/12, to join in the protest of SOPA/PIPA. Here's a video explaining why we should all be very concerned:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.