So Craig's newest podiobook The Prisoner of NaNoWriMo is up and available: Episodes 1-5, anyway. I think I had at least a line in all of them. Have you listened yet? What do you think? I thought I would give a mini behind the scenes take on what's out so far.
Episode 1: We meet Piers, our hero. He's about to start NaNoWriMo and is very excited about it. His wife, Samantha, is not. I think it's so hard for the people in our lives to understand the importance that all of the aspects of writing and storytelling have for us fiction people. Clearly Samantha doesn't get it! Craig asked me to give Samantha a Minnesota type of accent, but I didn't really pull it off. She does have a distinctive way of speaking, however!
Episode 2: One of Piers's first story attempts is space opera and in his try at it I play a seductive alien named Reledma. For this one, Craig thought a valley girl dialect might be interesting. Well, I can do a valley girl accent no problem. I grew up in California in the 80s, after all. But seductive Valley Girl? That had me stumped for awhile until I remembered the classic film: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion! I channeled Romy, whom I don't think of as a particularly seductive chracter, but she has a slower way of talking that I thought could work. She's played by Mira Sorvino and actually her outfit in this picture looks like something Reledma might wear!
Episode 3: Here is our introduction to Trudy, Piers's secretary. This is my first New Jersey-ish sort of accent. Trudy doesn't say a lot in this one, but we'll get more from her later--lots more! Anyway, I like this episode because I can SO relate to trying to go through story ideas in my head and all the ways why different elements will work or not work! It's also the first in a string of disastrous personal interactions for Piers. Never sketch real-life people as characters--especially if the characters are flesh eaters!
Episode 4: Trudy has only a brief appearance here and there aren't any other female characters so I don't have any behind the scenes comments about this episode. But as a writer I can relate to trying to write in restaurants--with much better results than Piers, fortunately!
Episode 5: Ah, Imperia Brimwoe. She's gorgeous and powerful and I would love to talk like her all the time. (Maybe I'll try it at the next PTA meeting!) Also I wish I had her dress, hair, and gliding ability. After the Imperia scene, Piers has another unfortunate encounter--this time with his barber, hilariously portrayed by Bryan Lincoln. Who'd have thought books could be such a volatile topic?
So that's the Prisoner of NaNoWriMo so far! I'll write more of my impressions about it as future episodes are released!
In other news, Odin1eye wrote a very thoughtful, detailed review of the podcast version of Dreaming of Deliverance for his blog Views from Valhalla. It still blows me away that people are listening, weird as that might sound since I started podcasting it 10 months ago, but I so appreciate hearing from them. Odin1eye has reviewed most of the biggies in podcast fiction and I'm humbled and grateful to be included in his blog.
More soon!
