Tri!

There's been some curiosity about the triathlon I mentioned in my last entry. So for anyone wondering how it went, here are some pictures from the race. As you can see, I had a lot of fun, as crazy as that might sound!

Before the start...


After the swim...


Ready to bike...


Starting the run...


The finish!


If you'd have asked me a few years ago if I would ever do a triathlon, I'd have said, "No way!" But I think I'm braver now. I still get anxious about taking on challenges like triathlons, writing novels, and (probably toughest for me) self-promotion, but I take those challenges on anyway, because I don't want to let myself down. Also, even though I still have perfectionistic tendencies, I won't let the worry about not being perfect keep me from trying.

So take on a challenge from time to time. You don't have to "tri", but try...something you've always wanted to attempt. You won't regret it!

P.S. I'm picking up the pace on the DoD2 writing. And look for a blog post about endings, DoD's ending in particular, in the next few days!

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!

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!

No, really! I'm still around!

It's July 10, already?! Didn't I just post a blog entry? No? Crud!

The time is getting away from me. I'm writing some, recording lots, and have plans of course, but I haven't been blogging about anything, because nothing is available yet.

Soon, I'm pretty sure.

Anyway, as for the writing, I'm working on DoD 2, which probably won't be called DoD 2, but I don't have a title yet. That's not unusual since I didn't come up with "Dreaming of Deliverance" until the book was over 2/3 written. I have a hard time with titles. I like them to have multiple meanings, which Dreaming of Deliverance does, if you think about it. Anyway, I'm doing a lot of brainstorming, outlining even for this second book, which is very different from my usual process. The story of DoD was discovered as it was written, which was a ton of fun and worked well, I think, because Lindsay didn't know what was going on. She learned things as she went and so did we.

This book is different, however, because it's where we learn answers to all of the questions that came up for Lindsay. The story is going to end with this book and I don't want to spin my wheels writing without knowing where it's going. I do have a big chunk written already, but before I continue, I need to solve some problems. So I'm doing a lot of thinking and questioning and answering. I'm learning some incredible things about the whole situation. It's really cool! So don't worry. Progress is being made, even if I'm not sharing much about it right now.

As for the voice work, I think the story I narrated for the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine should be live before too long. I can't wait to share it with you!

I'm also doing some voice work for Craig Robertson's next podiobook and that has been so much fun! You wouldn't believe the variety of characters in this one. As soon as that becomes available, I'll point you in that direction. You won't want to miss it.

Then there are three other voice work projects that should be underway before the year is out, that I will be starting soon, and should be available to you in the next few months. I'll keep you posted!

And I'm going to have a story in the Farrago Anthology! Something else that I'm thrilled about, but again, isn't quite ready. If you're curious what the Farrago Anthology could possibly be, check out this blog post by author/podcaster/editor powerhouse, Jennifer Hudock: The Power of Community I love being a part of this effort!

That's all for now, I think.

I will blog more soon.

Really!

I'm still around!

I miss you guys! I miss releasing new DoD episodes! Lucky me I still get to interact with the characters as I work on the sequel. I'm toying with the idea of releasing an excerpt from the still unnamed DoD 2. Is that something that might interest anyone? Email me or leave me a comment here, if you'd like.

I'm also thinking of starting a question and answer series about Dreaming of Deliverance or anything: writing, narrating, whatever. Craig had a question about the end of DoD, that I'd love to share with you all. And if anyone else had questions I'd be happy to answer what I can: as long as it doesn't spoil what's coming!

But if you'd like to hear me read something new, that's available right now, I recorded a story written by Kenn Crawford and his grandmother Hannah Crawford, that's now live at Kenn's site. It is beautifully written and very moving. The story behind this story is almost as touching as the story itself. So be sure to check out "Steven's Song".



And I was interviewed for Podioracket's Blog Talk Radio show! It was so much fun and there were lots of good questions. If you missed it and would like to hear it, here's a link to the archive. During the interview, someone told me they liked reading about the Africa trip. I still have lots of pictures, so here's a new one for you! A dung beetle! Not the most picturesque of the African animals, but really when you think about it, they are pretty impressive!

Finally, I'm supposed to mention that I was nominated for a Parsec award: Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team Apparently that's the kind of thing that one should blog about. I'm very humbled and thankful that someone thought of me for this category. So thanks to whomever put my name forward.

There's more coming, and I will try to be better about letting you all know about it. I'm going to be doing some voice work for the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, as well as for a couple of podcast novels. I will keep you posted on the progress there as the release dates for those projects get closer!

Take care, everyone! Thanks for sticking around. Even though DoD is over, there is more to come!

Dreaming of Deliverance is complete!!

I still can't believe it. 32 episodes, over 560 pages of text, and over 6 months of recording and audio editing, and now it's finished!

Actually, it's been finished for a couple of days, but I've been so swamped with life and other projects, I haven't had a chance to blog about it until just now!

Thanks so much to everyone who encouraged and supported me throughout the process. I had a lot of learning to do to pull it off, but I'm really pleased with the result and so glad to have had the opportunity.

Now I'm going to work on the sequel, and do some voice acting and narrating for other books. Once they are ready for your listening enjoyment, I will post about them here!

Also, it's almost summer, so the kids will be home and there will be lots of activity here for a few months until school starts up again. That might keep me a tad busy.

Plus I might be podcasting with one or two other people that have been mentioned here in this blog. Well see...

So even though the podcast episodes of DoD are at an end, there will still be a lot going on with me.

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

In honor of Mother's Day...Baboons and Ep 31!

Happy Mother's Day! I've finished episode 31 of Dreaming of Deliverance. It should be live at Podiobooks.com soon, but I've put it up here at REChambliss.com if you'd like to listen to it right now!

There is only one more episode to go. Wow!

As for Africa photos, I had several mother/baby photos and wanted to post one of them in honor of moms everywhere. I chose this mama and baby baboon. You don't usually think of baboons as sweet and maternal, but they clearly are.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

More soon.

Tired

Too tired even to make a "clever" simile about how I'm like a mama elephant (and I sure feel like one sometimes!). But I wanted to post this picture, because I love it! Taking pictures of the elephant babies was tough, because the rest of the elephant family was so protective of them. They'd usually stand between us and them. But we were patient, and eventually got this photo!

But as I said in the title of this entry--I'm tired! So even though the picture could probably tie in to the rest of what I wanted to tell you, I'm not going to try to make that connection.

I've been subbing away! But I did record episode 31 of Dreaming of Deliverance early yesterday morning, and I will have it edited and up before the weekend is out.

Only one more episode after this. I still can't believe it!

Brave like an Ostrich

See these ostriches? Their heads are up! There was nothing for them to fear or avoid. Or if there is they're facing it.

I'm tempted to bury my own head in the sand, so I can forget a little that I'm subbing all day tomorrow and Friday. With my head in the sand I could pretend I had the whole day ahead to record the next episode of Dreaming of Deliverance. But since the Ostriches heads are up facing reality, I guess I'd better face the situation too. I'm not going to be wimpier than an ostrich!

So I'll get up early (4:30 am) and record ep.31, before joining my lively, energetic 5th graders. Then I'll get up early (yes, 4:30 the next day) and start editing ep31 before joining my lively, energetic High School students.

Head out of sand, doing what I can to get this done!

More soon!

Mongoose, Hippos? Yes! Ep 30? Soon!

---

Happy Friday, everyone!




Two new Africa pictures today: Some banded mongoose (see the baby going for a ride?) and just a few hippos.










I'm subbing all day today then heading up to the mountains for the weekend with my sister and friends. But I'll still be getting Episode 30 all ready for you. Just three more episodes left. I can't believe it's wrapping up so soon!

Africa Photo of the Day: Thirsty giraffe near Ndutu

Doesn't seeing what this guy has to go through to get a drink help you appreciate the convenience of taps, cups, and opposable thumbs? It's the little things...

Africa pic of the day and Episode 29 is live at Podiobooks.com

Do I even need to write anything here? Doesn't the title say it all? Well, I can tell you that these elephants weren't fighting, they were playing--so cute! I took their picture in Manyara National Park. I have lots of elephant pictures, but this was one of my favorites.

As for episode 29, in case you don't have a link to the podiobooks.com listing of Dreaming of Deliverance, here it is!

Africa Photo of the Day: Lioness Near Kira Wira

I'm finally going through my Tanzania pictures. Check out this gorgeous girl!

Episode 29: for those who want it ASAP!

Hey everyone!

Lots of delays with episode 29. I had bad karma or something, because I ended up having to record 3 different times! (Usually, I get the whole episode read in one shot.)

It's uploaded to podiobooks, but sometimes it takes a little while to go live there, so if you'd like to hear it sooner, I posted it on REChambliss.com

Here's the link.

Enjoy!

More soon!

Renée in Africa!

Here I am in Africa--actually visiting the Maasai village. You can see the trinkets for sale behind me.

I'm going to try to get more Africa pictures up. It's been almost a month since I've been back--I think it's time!

More soon!

Okay, now 28 is live on podiobooks.com!

So you don't need to go to the REchambliss.com link to listen to it. I was hesitant to put it there, because the site needs a lot of work. But I had it ready, and it sometimes takes a day or two after I've finished it before it can go live on podiobooks, so I thought something might be better than nothing. But it's the same audio file, so you don't need to listen to it in two different places.

I was telling someone the other day about how even though I have perfectionistic tendencies, I've had to relax some because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get the episodes out regularly. The mom-thing limits both my time and my ability to record, since I don't record when the kids are home.

Anyway, I've been wanting to improve the web site forever, but haven't had much of a chance to do it. Now that we're so close to the end (just 4 more episodes), what I think I will do is post some bonus behind the scenes sorts of commentary on REChambliss.com after the whole book is live. I'd wanted to do them as I went and have the podcast version of Dreaming of Deliverance available in two places, but it all proved to be too tricky for my meager web master skills, and I thought having them on podiobooks took priority!

Today is Monday. The kids are back in school and I wasn't called to sub. So I might record episode 29. Or I might clean the house and go to the grocery store. Decisions, decisions! I know which I'd rather do, but sometimes duty calls!

More soon!

Episode 28!

It's not up yet at podiobooks.com, but if you want to hear it sooner, I've uploaded it to REChambliss.com.

More soon!

Episode 27 is Live!

Episode 27

This was a longer episode, but I wanted to give you the whole chapter. My 3-year-old niece has been staying with us so I haven't had a chance yet to record for episode 28, but tomorrow is the day!

We have just 5 episodes remaining!

More soon.

Episode 27, Runners Round Table, Dead Hunt, Facebook

Hello!

So I'd been hoping to be able to announce that Episode 27 of Dreaming of Deliverance is live. But it's not yet. I finished it and uploaded it Saturday evening, but it hasn't been posted yet at podiobooks.com. Soon I'm sure! Thanks so much for your patience!

But if you want to hear an interview where I talk about some of the background and inspiration for Dreaming of Deliverance, check out the Runners Round Table podcast from last week. I had so much fun talking with Joe, Toni, and Leslie. They were very welcoming and had so many great questions. Among other things we discussed the fact that unlike Lindsay, I've never been incarcerated. That part of DoD came from research and my imagination.

And of course there's Kenn Crawford's Dead Hunt! He just released episode 8. Have you been listening? Things are getting dicey in Margaree. And it's doing really well on the podiobooks.com charts, which doesn't surprise me at all. It's so well-produced and is such a creepy story! I sure tried my best to do it justice with the narration.

Finally, I'm hoping to have some sort of Facebook presence soon. It will be another way that people can communicate with me, as well as with each other about Lindsay, Joel and Trae. I'm not sure if it will be a regular profile or a fan page, but I'll let you know once it's ready to go. Do any of you have a preference there?

That's about it for me. Remember you can follow me on twitter: @reneechambliss

More soon!

The Runners Round Table

Next week I'm going to be on the Runners Round Table podcast, to talk about runners in fiction and Dreaming of Deliverance. I'm really looking forward to it!


More soon!