My nephew wanted to go fishing today, and they went in the early afternoon, leaving me alone in the house. Usually, that means full-volume karaoke wearing only a festive Christmas sock . . . but today, I decided that I'd use the time to record some chapters of "Cormorant." It was the most productive I've been on this thing, getting four chapters done before they came home from fishing. I would've gone on, too, had they just stayed away...maybe all the way to the end.
Years ago (more than twenty five . . . can it be?), my buddy Jeff moved away from home and got an apartment on Locust Lane, way, way up in the hills. He sent me his address, and for some reason, "Locust Lane" struck me as particularly spooky, maybe even potentially terrifying. I vowed to write a story called that one day, and never forgot it, reminding him time and time again that he used to live there.
It's shown up in at least a dozen of my stories, and in the Lara & the Witch novel, she goes to Miller's Fork to live with a family . . . you guessed it, on Locust Lane.
So, it both vexed and pleased me when I walked into the library today and saw this book in their New Release section:
I took a picture of it to share with Jeff. But hey, I'll share it with you too. Because, why the heck not?
The editing continues. In Chapter 27 (of Book 2), a character turns away, "as though to hide whatever spasm of disappointment crossed his face." I might ask that Spasm of Disappointment be put on my tombstone.
I'm averaging just about one and a half chapters a day, here in the home stretch. Of course, I still have to record the last bit of the book, and when that's done, I'll be able to focus just on editing, so I'm pretty sure I'll make it.
I've been thinking about what I can do to celebrate when I finish this audiobook*, some kind of tasty treat or extravagance (when I reached the one-half mark, I bought an overpriced knock-off Transformer--Galvatron, like I had as a kid). And I was thinking of going to the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet where I only go with Jeff, or the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, where I go with no one. It's fun to dream.
*Remember that on the last one (boy, that feels like two months back, instead of more than half a year, like it actually was), I bought one of those delicious-but-expensive energy drinks, as a special reward for myself, and it was gone when I went into my cupboard to retrieve it? That still upsets me, way more than $2.25 plus tax ever should.
So, in editing you discover (meaning, I discover) that there are mistakes you had no idea were mistakes during the recording. For example, there are two main G characters and two main S characters in "Cormorant," and in one chapter, I gave Silas Silveo's voice, and in another, I gave Gwain Gerard's voice.
Oh, and even stranger, in one chapter, I gave Silveo Gerard's voice, for some reason.
Worst of all, there are a couple of these lines that I missed completely, only for Abbie to catch them when I'd sent them her way. Still, they're pretty easy to fix. And the progress continues.
So, on Saturday, there was a big toy show, the biggest one of the year (although they're talking about doing it again at the end of the year, because it got such a turnout), held in a parking lot downtown. And this was the first time I went as a seller instead of a buyer.
It was a very interesting experience, despite my horrible sunburn. The question is: Would it be an interesting experience for the listeners of my podcast?
Also, I got the first of the last twenty chapters done. Yay.
Holy monkey, we're down to twenty chapters left in "The Cormorant." I can't say I never expected to make it to this, since last week I made the world's saddest pie chart with 26 segments in it (to mark off daily on my blog), and when I counted them . . . it was only twenty. So, I'm going to mark off each of these segments as I finish each chapter, and post them here.
Wish me luck . . . it doesn't have to be good.
Every once in a while, other podcasts will still ask me to do a story for them. And I'm usually pretty happy to do it*, since I like to narrate stories, and they're usually pretty good ones. Recently, "Tales To Terrify" asked me to perform "Who Built The Moon?" by Tyler Jones.
Four buddies are on a hunting trip to Canada when something mysterious and/or terrible happens. What happened to John and his girlfriend out in the woods? And what is out there now?**
Every story or character or audiobook presents its own challenges. This one was quite long, with lots of shouting. Check it out HERE . . . if you dare.
*There was one a year or two back that was so incompetently run that they asked me to do relines eight months after I sent them the story, then had the temerity to complain that the new lines didn't match the old ones. If I can remember which publication they worked for, I'd vow not to work for them again. But I can't.
**I bet you can't predict the answer. Because I've read it thrice now, and I frankly don't know.
So, here is the second half of the Dead & Breakfast story "Never Let
Him Go." Mrs. Bice is eager to be rid of Mason Bradley, but someone
else has other plans for him.
To download the episode, just Right-Click HERE.
As I (slowly) approach the home stretch of my work on Abigail Hilton's "The Cormorant," I have grown to hate (above all things) the sounds my mouth makes as I speak. There are, no exaggeration, at least a obnoxious hundred mouth sounds in every single chapter. Are these new? Is it something my voice does as I approach old age? Have they been present in every previous audiobook and I've never noticed them before?
I mean, I make it hard on myself anyway with all the line readings, retakes, chair farts, accent experimentation, and genuine eff-ups each time I sit down to record. But the mouth sounds . . . that's not like saying "Gerald" instead of "Gerard" or reading a Silveo line in Silas's voice. That shite is some dark, subtle, Lovecraftian evil.
Every day, though, I chip away at this iceberg, and am trying to get at least one chapter done daily. By my math, I've got thirty-two episodes left to edit. And twenty-six days to get them done in.
You know, this might be my last audiobook this year.
