Monday, August 23, 2010

Prisoner of NaNoWriMo--A Voice Actress's Thoughts: Part 1

Hi everyone! Look it's my third Monday in a row with a new blog entry!

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!

Monday, August 09, 2010

Finally, I have some news!

Hello, my invisible friends!

It's been about a month since my second "I'm still around" post. Pathetic, huh? But there's just been no big news. Maybe I need to start blogging about writing progress, or favorite books or something. It might be better than the empty void that's been Pointed Squiggle for the last few months!

However, now I finally have some news! There is something coming out soon that I was lucky enough to be involved with.

Craig Robertson's next podiobook, The Prisoner of NaNoWriMo has a release date: August 20, 2010! From the Facebook announcement:



Piers Langland is a mild mannered paint salesman with one burning passion. He aspires to be a famous author. Each November he looks forward to entering The National Novel Writer Month competition. To be a winner in NaNoWriMo he must write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, a tall order for any writer. Turns out, it is an especially tall order for our hero. Join Piers as he struggles to choose a topic for his novel before he can begin his epic task. Vampires or space opera, romance or pulp fiction, what should he choose? Unfortunately, the greatest object holding him back is Piers himself. Follow this hilarious tale as Piers blunders his way though one genre after another, leaving a trail of wackiness and comical disasters in his wake. Can Piers choose a topic? Can Piers finish his book? Can Piers get even one thing right without bungling it terribly? Read The Prisoner of NaNoWriMo and find out.

So a couple of months ago Craig asked me to do a role for this. And then he asked me to do another role for it. And then another. Soon I was doing (with one exception) all of the female parts.

I was an alien with an accent like we've never heard before, a doting housewife, a Romanian shot putter, a ball-busting judge, a lizard-like psychiatrist, and a seductive vampiress. Oh and I almost forgot: an emotionally fragile secretary. How could all of these characters fit into one story, you might wonder? Well, I've also been fortunate enough to hear Prisoner of NaNoWriMo in its entirety and they do! It's a hilarious story and it makes my writing difficulties seem very trivial and boring in comparison to what poor Piers has to endure. I hope you guys like it as much as I did!

I'm also writing more. The kids go back to school next week which is bittersweet because I do love having them around, but I also love having more time to write. DoD 2 continues to shape up into a very exciting and more complete form. I love this story!

And more voice work is coming soon, I'm pretty sure. But I don't have any other dates for it yet. I'll let you know as soon as I do!