In episode one, my director mentioned briefly that she was surprised to learn how similar the process of writing a book is to the process of recording the audio version. I sat down with her when we were done and asked a bunch of questions about how she sees the audio process, and nodded a lot. I also got a chance to talk to another reader, and a sound engineer. Enjoy!
A vlog of day one of recording the audiobook version of Once Was Lost. Includes a celebrity member of team zombie.
Related links:
S.G. Browne’s Music Notes for Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament at Largehearted Boy
Follow Kirby on Twitter. Follow S.G. Browne on Twitter. Follow French fries on Twitter. Oh, nevermind.
Now that everyone is on the bandwagon for this newfangled contraption we like to call the Internet, it’s time to say goodbye to such archaic activities as going to airports and driving on freeways and sitting alone in Ramada bars listening to local experimental jazz bands. Unless you like that sort of thing. The wave of the future? Virtual visits! You heard it here first. Okay, not first. But you know what I’m saying. The point is, virtual visits are more affordable for the host, and take away less of an author’s writing time, and still give us both the advantages of live interaction. Win-win-win! Or is that win-win-win-win?
I made this little video to give you a sense of what a virtual visit would feel like. All you have to do is imagine my head projected at 100 times its actual size in your classroom. Coooool.
For more information, visit my page at the Skype An Author network. (And note the special deal for the first 2 requests I get!) Oh, I neglected to mention in my “what you’ll need” list on the video: computer WITH webcam. Also I want to throw in this link from author/teacher Kate Messner, who successfully hosted a virtual visit with Laurie Halse Anderson awhile back…
Beam me up, Scotty!
(Sorry. I promise not to say that again.)
[Edited to add: Just realized video was set to private. Now it is public.]
One reason I switched to Mac was so that I could do more with multimedia without having to really know what I’m doing. I’m not so into the talking head video blogs, but wanted to see what the built in camera could do and how the iMovie software worked, so that’s what I’ve started with.
Eventually (soon) I’d like to get a real digital video camera and be able to do interviews and other stuff more like short films – and maybe YOU could send me a video question and I could post a video response? Or something? What kinds of things do you like to see writers do with video? Or do you just not watch videos when writers post them? I rarely do, to be honest…it’s so much quicker to read something. Which may make you wonder WHY I’m doing this. Well, as Sarah Ockler pointed out when I asked about video blogs on Facebook, people who don’t go to conferences or don’t get a chance to see you at book signings or whatever might like a chance to see what a walking/talking YOU looks like. And I agree. I know that I would have loved to be able to see and hear some of my favorite authors when I was a teen – I would stare at their photos on book covers and wonder what they were really like. But maybe you are the type who does not care, which is also fine.
Sorry for the sound on this* – you’ll probably have to turn your volume all the way up if you want to watch. (And if you want to hear me talk a little about my next book, you do!) And…don’t forget to turn your volume back down again when you’re done so that the next thing you listen to doesn’t give you a heart attack.
*Do other video bloggers use external microphones instead of built in, or have you just learned to talk louder when recording?
