The power of books to materially impact someone’s life….
So I was narrating a reverse harem a couple of years ago, and as part of the plot, the main characters (one is a park ranger) hike the Bright Angel Trail, stay at Phantom Ranch, and romance and adventure ensue. As I was reading, I marked how incredibly
Somehow, improbably, I wrote two (very different) books in the last year, in addition to a full schedule of narrating, and a wholly unexpected, objectively major, health crisis. I was rounding 200 books narrated, and wanted to see if I could do something a little unique. When it turned out to not suck,
Read MoreMy attempt to demystify production companies and distributor/aggregator options. Where is your book going to go on sale?
Read MoreWhat is your favorite thing about writing? …. But there are times, rare and too far removed from one another, when for no logical reason the writing comes out so good that after finishing, I feel physically strong.
Read MoreYou’ve sorted out the basics of narrating on Discord, now you want to know how to share your screen with that neat compiler the cool kids are using that shows you, your DAW, the cover of the book you’re recording, and more…
Here’s how.
Discord is an app developed for gamers, that enables voice sharing, and also video (webcam) or screen sharing, and it's an exciting new forum for sharing narration. For narrators, it’s like reading to someone in the room again; for listeners, it’s a sneak preview and an intimate insight into the complexity of the narrator’s process.
Want to try it right now? Here's the walkthrough:
I recently passed the nominal threshold of 100 titles narrated, about 650 total hours of finished audio. The things I learned from my second 50 are quite different from what I learned from the first 50. Those were about the doing, these are about the being.
Read More“I love using music to write. It gets me in a certain mood and I'm able to create images in my head like movies.”
Read MoreI'll tell you why romance: I tried to write a literary novel, and it just went nowhere. I worked on that thing for years, and I could not breathe life into it. Finally, I got to the point where I couldn't write at all. Total block. This went on for years. So I thought, I'm going to write something that's pure fun, pure enjoyment, just as an exercise to see if it'll help me write again.
Read More“I find it incredibly satisfying to write strong women who don't find other strong women intimidating. Nor do they compete with each other. Instead, they lift each other up.”
I started writing my first book in 2002. I had written lyrics and little stories before, but didn't get serious about it until 2002. That's when I started Something About Eve. I had some pretty trying times in my childhood and my imagination is what kept me going. That's the thing that got me into writing.
Read More2019 was an interesting year for me: after weathering significant changes and challenges in my personal life, I got more organized, happier, and my health turned in the right direction.
Even though it might seem illogical while Australia is tragically in flames, and there is plenty to despair over, I continue to feel inexplicably optimistic about 2020. Good things may happen this year, all around our precious globe.
Read MoreHave you ever noticed how hard it is to turn off tracking on your phone?
First, you have to find where it is, in Settings. Location Services? Then, when you turn it off, it warns you that programs on your phone may not work if you opt out. Are you SURE you want to stop automatic tracking?
This was how Brett Frischmann's lecture, on Being Human in the 21st Century, began.
Read MoreIn May, I was one of six Audible Approved Narrators asked to contribute to an ACX blog post on production hints. It was quite an honor to be featured here along with these other fantastic narrators!
Publishers are usually willing to produce an audiobook only if a print or ebook sells beyond a certain number of units. And in my experience, publishers [would] rather the author do all that work for them. I wasn’t willing to leave an audiobook to the chance my book would stumble on its own audience. I also prefer to have control over the final product.
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