Thursday, October 16, 2008

Audio Books, voicing actors and authors

I received a treat in the post yesterday. The audio book version of The Mentalist. My first audio book. I walked around the house with a particularly stupid grin on my face, till I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror on the landing.


First, the cover design, which I really like. It captures the Victorian theatre feel of the story. Creepily, the picture is so like the theatre I based the story around that I had to look several times before I could convince myself that it wasn't that same building. I do believe the designer must have read the book. Come to that, perhaps my descriptive writing wasn't too bad either.





Secondly, the CD player, surely. I must have gone directly to listen to it? No. I was scared. What if it sounded different to the way I imagined it sounding? What if the voicing actor didn't understand the speech rhythms I'd built into the text?

It was several hours later before I dared to listen. I shouldn't have worried. It is beautifully read. A strange experience indeed hearing my own words come out of the mouth of an actor.

I know the opening almost by heart. I was constantly aware of the words that were about to come from the machine. Here and there, the actor had put slightly different stresses onto the words than I do when I am reading for an audience. Subtle differences. Improvements, all of them.

If you want a copy, the web address of the publisher is as follows http://www.wfhowes.co.uk/catalogue/titles.php?&t=3411

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