CRYING AND CRYING OUT

 
There is a reason why I call this blog The Emotional Rationalist. Ever since my twenties, when I was reading the books and writings of such popular scientists and thinkers like Bertrand Russell, Jacob Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Francis Crick, and Richard Dawkins, I have always tried to be rational in approaching the world that surrounds us. I have tried to find the facts and face them. I have strived to think critically. I have always wanted, to be mundanely metaphorical, to follow my head and not my heart. Or, more specifically, give considered thought to questions, challenges, and novel approaches to life that have presented themselves. And not give in to knee-jerk, first impression, purely emotional responses.

But the metaphorical heart will have its way. Emotions and feelings are there in each of us and must be acknowledged, even if we choose to deny them. Love is universally considered a good emotion. And yet, it can lead us astray. Hate is widely deemed a bad emotion. And yet, who can deny that it provides a certain satisfaction? I suppose then it would always be best to give each feeling a good think before acting on it. This, at least, is how I have tried to live my life.

Still, I can become a blubbering mass of emotions, usually during filmed fiction, especially those which skillfully manipulate the tears out of you. And I do mean blubbering, as my wife and daughter will attest. They are always ready to shoot me some tissues. But then, I’ve always said, “I cry at movies, so I don’t have to cry at life.”

There has been a lot to cry at in life lately. Trump. The pandemic. The death and devastation now and to come by the Climate Crises. Trump’s insurrection. The war in Ukraine. The potential that our species will expire by its own hands. Emotional tourism can take your mind off these home truths for only so long.

In all these troubles, polarization is disturbingly present. Right versus left. Haves versus the Have-nots. Authoritarianism versus Democracy. Facts versus Myths. And underlining all of these is the main polarization: Knowledge versus Ignorance.

The old saying, “What you don’t know won’t kill you,” is as wrong as can be. But then, as I think it’s also been said, “What you don’t know, you often don’t know that you don’t know.” And that is the worst ignorance of all, except for this: knowing and then ignoring. That is not just ignorance, but arrogant ignorance, ignorance worn as a badge of honor. That is giving in to how you want to feel about something, rather than accepting the facts of that something, no matter how it makes you feel. And it is an all too often proclivity of humans that can be successfully exploited and manipulated, especially by those who would love (an emotion) to have unquestioned authority over you. A functional democracy needs knowledgeable or, at least, informed and rational demos. Tyranny needs only an ignorant, ill-informed, emotional mass.

I have given this thought and concern for years now. As others have as well, I’m sure. And I have found that these concerns have made themselves present in many of my novels. Even when my stories were, ostensibly, focused on other things or written with different purposes in mind. But once these concerns did make themselves present as I composed each novel, they became, in my mind, the actual rationale for the work itself. Which may be a bit of arrogance on my part. But arrogance is an emotion. I could try to deny it, but it does have some nice residual satisfactions. 

  
The impetus to write my novel Journey to Where was to fashion a contemporary scientific romance. That is, a story somewhat akin to the works of H.G Wells and Jules Verne. Novels of fantastic forays into unknown and strange worlds, whether traveling there through time, via a submarine, a sphere covered with anti-gravity paint, or a rocketship. I chose an accidental trip through time. Or Did I? Maybe my protagonists—a group of scientists—end up in a parallel universe. Or perhaps it’s a brand new universe fashioned out of the remnants of their own universe. In any case, they find themselves in a world where dinosaurs never became extinct and are now the dominant two-legged, intelligent (to various degrees) species. Or, actually, two species. The novel offers, I hope, a wide vista, adventure, danger, some humor, and things to contemplate. But it also has a portrait of total authority over the lives of the sentient thinking beings that inhabit the country of Anaraquan. Which translates as Where the Great Quan Rules. It is an authority that hordes knowledge only for its own benefit. An authority that arbitrarily sends people into slavery. An authority dictating who prospers and who doesn’t, who lives and who dies. The novel also proposes the need to defy such authority while acknowledging the damn difficulty in doing so.

Traveling in Space was also written as a variation on a science fiction sub-genre—the First Contact Novel.

I thought it would be amusing to write one from the point of view of the space aliens. Amusing because it would allow me to do a Dean Swift and have a whole shipload of Gullivers to comment on the strange doings of these strange humans. So there is humor as politics, religion, love, and sex is considered. But also horror as genocide is revealed. As hate runs rampant. And the focus is not just on the humans, but the foibles of the aliens are shown as well. And the twain does meet. This has a detrimental effect on the aliens when their leader takes his authority much too seriously.

Creature Feature: A Horrid Comedy began with a simple question.

Where do the ideas for fictional creatures and monsters of horror come from? Vampires sucking blood, werewolves rending flesh, manufactured monsters running amok, giant gorillas and reptiles stomping over the land, etc. The original authors coming up with these ideas were surely not “writing what they knew.” And then another question occurred to me, Why do these creatures and monsters always just wreak havoc, destroying any prospect of having a decent home in a nice neighborhood? Don’t they believe in, if I may put it this way, creature comforts? And so what began as a spoof of old monster movies and the local TV ghouls who screen them became a mash-up of that with political satire. Why? Because I find it much more logical for monsters to gain political power and authority, take over the world, and have lovely places to live. Horrifying, but logical.

Imp: A Political Fantasia is my most upfront political satire. Albeit with, as the title suggests, a fantastic element to it. I have referred to it as “West Wing as done as a Twilight Zone episode.” But it’s also a portrait, maybe only a quick sketch, of the type of personality that becomes authoritarian. A kind, quite frankly, that disturbs and disgusts me. Especially the fact that they are often so successful. Despite this, I was overcome with hope and wrote a Fourth of July Carol. What precisely that means, you’ll have to read the novel to find out.

 

My two Fixxer Adventure novels, Blood is Pretty 

and Hollywood is an All-volunteer Army, were inspired by fiction and life. The fiction was that in words and images portraying such popular and thrilling characters as James Bond, Travis McGee, The Saint, Bulldog Drummond that I had and have a fondness for. The life was mine during two sometimes surreal decades working in Hollywood as a writer and producer. They are two satiric Hollywood thrillers if you can imagine such a thing. Although you don’t have to, as I already did. And you are more than welcome to purchase them on Amazon and give them a read. But in each book, there is a third element making a point. In Blood is Pretty, it is the allure of power and total authority, even when the one seduced isn’t quite sure what to do with it. But, in having it, something will undoubtedly be done. And that something will not bode well. In Hollywood is an All-volunteer Army, I question the power of popular media, especially if it can be manipulated to protect the Haves from the Have-nots.

 
I know, I couldn’t leave well-enough alone. You would think satirizing Hollywood and providing a thrilling adventure would be enough. But I have always found that the precariousness of freedom, especially freedom of thought, has knocked loudly on my consciousness and, frankly, worries me. I could cry every day over the situation. Maybe it is not just movies I cry at so as not to cry at life. Perhaps it is crying out, even softly, in my novels that allow me some solace. 

It’s not quite the same as manning the battlements in defense of freedom and democracy. But it’s what I do. So it’s what I have done. 

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You can check out my books on my Amazon Author's page or the MY BOOKS page of this blog. 

 

WHAT A GREAT WAY TO START THE WEEK!

What a great way to start the week! Stephen Webb is a British physicist/astronomer and author with a passionate love of Science Fiction (especially Asimov) which inspired him to become a scientist and continues to inspire him. 

He is well-known as a popular science writer and he gave a great TED Talk last year

featuring ideas from his book If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life 

Many thanks to @stephenswebb for the kind words, which are deeply appreciated. 

You can find Traveling in Space (print, audio, ebook) on Amazon.com.

TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING! A CAST OF BILLIONS! -- THE TRAVELING IN AUDIO SPACE CHRONICLES!

I am happy to announce that the audiobook edition of my novel, Traveling in Space, which I have been producing and directing over the past two years, and which will officially launch at BayCon 2014 over the Memorial Day weekend at the end of the month, is now available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

Peter Lonsdale

It has taken us -- co-producer, editor, and audio engineer Peter Lonsdale, 

Jeff Cannata

and actor Jeff Cannata,   

and me -- a little over two years to create this audio performance of my novel.  They have been, I believe, two years well spent.

Why two years?  Well, that’s a story, isn’t it?  I have chronicled that story in a series of postings on this blog, and which I have gathered together and put in chronological sequence below. If you are asking that question, or would just be interested in the story -- continue reading.

I thank Dave Doody, my publisher at Bluroof Press, 

Dave Doody and me

for suggesting that we do the audiobook. It has been the most satisfying creative collaboration I’ve ever experienced, and a great deal of fun.

You’ll see above that I said this is a “performance” of my novel, rather than a reading. And that’s exactly what I believe we have achieved.  I asked Jeff Cannata, and incredibly fine actor, to pull out all stops and give me full-bodied performances of all the characters in the book, including, of course, the first-person narrator. You will also notice in the title of this post, I declare that there are billions in the cast. That is absolutely true, for there are billions in my novel. 

Some of the billions in Traveling in Space
Illustration by Todd Cronin

Fortunately for Mr. Cannata, not all of these are speaking roles, and I only had to ask him to create about 35 separate characters, both male and female; both alien and human. A minuscule amount compared to billions, but otherwise, in all rational consideration, a rather heavy dramatic and vocal load.

Jeff did not disappoint. 

Audiobook fan or not, I believe you will enjoy the performance -- or, rather, performances -- that Jeff gives, as I hope you will enjoy the story  have written.

And now, let’s return to April 6, 2012....

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Friday, April 6, 2012

TRAVELING IN AUDIO SPACE # 1

An adventure is starting on Saturday. Well, that may be hyperbole, but I’ll stand by it because I’m excited and delighted.

On Saturday we have the first recording session for the audiobook version of Traveling in Space. I love the human voice, I always have, and when I write I try to write as if my work will be read out loud. This is obviously true of stage and screen plays, but it is also true for me when I write novels.  That’s why audiobooks are such a delight. It is a full circle return to the beginning of literature, which started as an oral tradition. 

And, as I said, I have a particular fondness for things oral.

My first published novel, Blood is Pretty: The First Fixxer Adventure was produced as an audiobook by Crossroad Press  (who had previously published the ebook version), and I was really happy with the results. Crossroad handled everything, including booking the reader, Jonah Cummings.

Jonah Cummings

Jonah, like many voice over artists these days, has a small recording studio at his home in North Carolina, and he produces his own recordings. Jonah and I had an initial conversation over the phone to allow him to ask me questions about the book and how I see the characters, and allowed me to tell Jonah what I thought were the things most important to emphasize in certain characters and certain moments of the story, and that since the book is a first person narration, everything in the book should be performed, not just read. 

Jonah then recorded the text in chunks, and when he was happy with them, he would send me an audio file. I would listen and correct any mispronunciations of names or ask for changes in interpretation I felt should be made. There were little of either, and it was a very nice ride with Jonah bringing my characters alive.  The biggest surprises came when Jonah would give a character a voice completely unlike that character’s voice that I had always heard in my head -- and it was better.  That gave my own work a new dimension, a different texture, and a way for me to see my work as others might see it.   

If you like audiobooks (or even if you just have an MP3 player and are tired of music), I suggest you sample a bit of Jonah’s work on Blood is Pretty on the audiobook's Amazon page here.   

If you are intrigued by Jonah’s performance buy the audiobook .

I won’t stop you, in fact I encourage it. 

Traveling in Space is going to be a different experience.  The idea for the audiobook came from my publisher Dave Doody of Blüroof Press. When Dave saw me give a reading of a section of the novel for GuerrillaReads, he said, “Let’s do an audiobook with you reading.”  “Great idea,” I said, “but not with me reading.” I explained to him that as much as I like reading my work at appearances, 

(You can check out my reading on the My Books section of this blog.)

and as much as I am a ham -- 

I am not an actor, especially not a well trained actor (high school drama classes do not count).  But I had in mind the perfect actor to do the job.

Jeff Cannata is an actor 

and Internet TV host (The Totally Rad Show on Revision3)

who I had directed twice for readings at the Writers Guild of America. The first time was for a reading of a one-act play by Ray Bradbury, The Better Part of Wisdom. He had come recommended by a casting agent and I took the recommendation (there are no real auditions for one night readings). Playing opposite Seamus Dever from TV’s Castle, and the wonderful James Cromwell, Jeff impressed me greatly with his very subtle yet forceful performance as the British lover of an Irish man being visited by his grandfather in 1950s London. (you can see video clips of the reading here) Just his very accurate, seamless, non-cartoony accent told me how well trained he was in the technical aspects of acting. His performance showed me how intuitive he is in the art of acting.

Jeff, James Cromwell and Seamus Dever
photo by Michael Jones

Later I directed Jeff playing the lead in a reading of Sam Bobrick’s The Physic, a comedy mystery that won last year’s Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play. Although directed is a bit of an overstatement. Essentially I blocked for the reading the play’s original cast from the Edgar winning production that had been directed by Susan Morgenstern. Here I got to see Jeff’s comedic talents, 

Jeff in "The Psychic"
photo by Greg Mitchell

So, I asked Jeff to perform Traveling in Space for the audiobook.  Luckily, Jeff is a huge audiobook fan, a science fiction fan, and, I’m happy to say, after readingTraveling in Space, a fan of my book. He said yes. Simpatico compatibility reigns! 

So...starting Saturday we will enter into my good friend Peter Lonsdale’s home recording studio and start a fun adventure. 

Peter Lonsdale

Peter 

is a long time film editor 

(Back to the Future, The Rocketeer, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) who also loves audiobooks. He and I will produce the recording, I will direct, and Jeff will, I am sure, will reveal new dimensions to my novel. 

Eventually the audiobook version of Traveling in Space will be available from Audible.com, Amazon and at the iTunes store.

Assuming there might be something interesting to write about as we move forward, I will continue with occasional new chapters in Traveling in Audio Space.

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Monday, November 5, 2012

TRAVELING IN AUDIO SPACE #2

Actors are a particular breed of artists. 

They are, if good, more than adept at painting portraits. Not, of course, with the paint and brush of a graphic artist, or even with the words and imagination of a literary artist. But with their own bodies, voices, and often a keen, if intuitive, understanding of what’s under the skin and within the minds of various personalities. It doesn’t matter if their medium calls on a deep exploration of their own selfs, or just surface tricks of the trade, if the outcome is a distinct individual you believe, their art is a joy. 

I muse on this the day after another recording session for the audiobook of my novel,Traveling in Space. 

As I have reported before in this blog, when my publisher at Blüroof Press, Dave Doody, asked if I could produce the audiobook, he also suggested that I be the “reader” of my own work. But a good audiobook of a novel to me is not read but performed.  And, although I can be a happy ham in front of audiences, to record a story takes an actor, both innately talented and well trained.  

Just the issue of knowing how to protect your voice, which I don’t, is enough caution against someone as untrained as myself in the thespian arts.

Yesterday’s session only proved this point to me again as I directed and listened to my first choice for this project, Jeff Cannata, not only narrate the story in the first person voice of my lead character, but give voice, and personality, to nine other characters as well. Four women and six men.

What fresh hell I put him through. 

But Jeff, being not just an actor, but a damn fine actor, sailed in and out of the various personalities with ease, making it look easy, when I know damn well is isn’t. It was like watching someone with split personality syndrome -- no with fractured personality syndrome. Except it’s not a syndrome, it’s a talent, a fine and wondrous talent that is a joy to watch. And even more of a joy to listen to.

Here’s the odd thing I discovered. Jeff’s performance was of a certain kind when he was doing it live, a joy, as I said, to watch. But became a wholly different performance to listen to in playback. For it was no longer Jeff performing the characters, but just the characters being the characters. So, in a sense, it was no longer a performance, but a document of characters who had become real. 

As good acting should be.

And I have more fresh hell to put Jeff through. Here’s the full cast he has or will be performing as we continue recording.

THE LIFE

What you need to know about THE LIFE: 

They are from the planet The Living World, and travel in space in their huge lifeship, The Curious, finding facts. They believe themselves to be the only life in the universe.

Each has a name that reflects a physical or personal attribute, or their position in society. When either change they have a name metamorphosis. 

They swear a lot.

LIFE SEEDER — Later know as LEIF  

The narrator of our story.  His task on the lifeship is to look for a planet suitable for life so that the factfinders can eventually settle on it and plant their seed. A task disturbingly interrupted when a planet is discovered not only suitable for life but already teeming with it

SHE — Later know as SHEILA

The owner and manager of a fieldfloat sports team (her vocation) and one of the finest pleasurepals (her avocation) on the lifeship.  Both vocation and avocation are dispensed with when she is given the task to study the strange Otherlife institution of marriage.

OUR LEADER 

The leader of the lifeship and of the Life within. Gruff, insulting, bold and, worse, bored with traveling in space.

MEMBERS OF THE LIFESHIP COUNCIL:

THE LARGE MAN — Later know as ANGEL VOICE.

Sublimely superb in the composition and performance of hums. He has an ego as outsized as his body.  

THE VERY SMALL AND DELICATE WOMAN — Later know as VENUS

Supremely intelligent factfinder even among all the other factfinders who are, of course, supremely intelligent.  She would rather keep her eyes on the stars than stick her feet into the mud of the Otherlife’s planet.

THE VERY UGLY MAN — Later know as the NURTURER

Interpreter of the laws as they were perceived and created by The Master Provider.  He likes to see things grow.

THE BT MAKER

He makes Brain Teasers and Brain Ticklers, and all his communications bubbles are flashy and multicolored.  

THE LANKY GENTLEMAN — Later know as ARGUS

The lifeship’s expert on ignorance and hate, and is therefore given the task to study Ignorance and hate among the Otherlife.  It is a daunting task. 

THE LARGE HANDED WOMAN

The lifeship’s expert in mental states who is given the task to study the odd Otherlife phenomenon of religion.

THE PILOT

He pilots the lifeship, keeps to himself, and loves to look at the stars.

THE LIFE SEEDER’S ASSISTANT 

Happy in his position but still bearing a racial grudge millennia old. Upon the discovery of the Otherlife he is forced to grow and find a creativity in him he did not know he had.

THE LIFE SEEDER’S ASSISTANT’S SON

A particularly puerile and putrid pocket of puss.  

THE OTHERLIFE

What you need to know about THE OTHERLIFE: 

Theyʼre human — what else do you need to know?

PRESIDENT CROWELL

Until the arrival of the Life in the lifeship, he had been the Speaker of the House. However as the previous president dies of a stroke, and the Vice President quickly resigns, he finds himself in the Oval office with aliens from outer space. A classic pol from the old school, he is a bit intimidated by statesmanship.

GENERAL MILLIKIN

A very grounded professional soldier who discovers the power of zero gravity. 

MICHAEL TORME

Ex-TV star and owner of Michael Torme’s Honeymoon Paradise Resort. He knows that love and marriage goes together like a horse and carriage.

THE HONEYMOONERS

STAN AND MARY

A young honeymoon couple. She’s pregnant and he’s      delighted.

JOSH AND RACHEL

An old honeymoon couple. Jewish, they fell in love while singing “Sunrise, Sunset”

JOHN AND CAROLE

A Christian honeymoon couple. God was the matchmaker, so who are they to argue.

MARGARET CLEVELAND

Works for the International Genocide Project. Wise beyond her years — and she’s ninety-five years old. 

PATRICIA BARKS

White House intern charged by the president with the task of helping the Life understand Otherlife religion. She fails.

JOSEPH GILLETTE

Owner of the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Thinks the Large Man as Angel Voice will be a giant in the entertainment business.

STUART

A loving father down on his luck in Vegas. Convinced Angel Voice can take him to heaven, he starts a riot.

THE SCIENTISTS:

DAVID - Later know as BUSHFACE

Studies quantum physics, he believes science and religion can coexist.

ANDREW - Later know as SHARP CHIN/SHARP NOSE

A biologist.

SARA - Later know as BRIGHT SMILE

An astronomer and astrophysicist.

ADRIAN - Later know as ANGEL HAIR

A neurobiologist, he thinks Bushface has his thumb up his bum.

SALLY - Later know as TITS

A well-endowed paleontologist who knows how to make a mean Bone Diggers Delight. 

POPE PETER II

Previously the Archbishop of Canterbury who effected a reconciliation between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, and now is determined to bring all other religions under the vast dome of the One True Church. He wants his “Children from the Stars” to help. 

It is my fervent hope that after we are finished recording Traveling in Space, that Jeff will still be talking to me. Or even just still talking.

In the meantime, feel free to check out Traveling in Space now available on Amazon.com in both print and ebook editions.

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Friday, February 8, 2013

Traveling in Audio Space #3

I’m looking forward to getting back to recording some chapters for the audiobook of my SF satire, Traveling in Space.  

As I’ve reported on in previous posts (Traveling in Audio Space #1 and Traveling in Audio Space #2) I am producing and directing the audiobook for my publisher, Blüroof Press.  It’s been slow-going as my reader/performer Jeff Cannata

and my recording guru and editor Peter Lonsdale 

have busy schedules doing what they do. Jeff is not only one of the hosts of the internet’s popular The Totally Rad Show, 

Fan Art by *Daniel Mead

he’s always traveling for this that and the other

and putting in fine performances on the Los Angeles Stage. 

Peter has been at Disney putting in late hours editing a new animated TV show D7 

which I can’t tell you anything about except that it sounds like it may become a very popular show, indeed.  

And me, of course, I’ve been on assignments for a super secret agency -- 

Drawing by Brad Bird (1980)
Yes -- that Brad Bird

but the less said about that the safer for all of us.

The last session we had was a real revelation of Jeff’s talents. I am, obviously, a fan of Jeff’s (I’ve directed him in several staged readings at the Writers Guild), 

Jeff Cannata and James Cromwell in the reading of Ray Bradbury's "The Better Part of Wisdom." - Photo by Michael Jones

but I was a bit worried as we got to this session as it was of chapters where the tone of the book suddenly changes.

Traveling in Space is a comic novel my publisher describes as “A unique science fiction first contact novel from the point-of-view of the aliens; a 21st Century Gulliver's Travels with Homo sapiens as the Lilliputians.”  But it is also a novel of ideas, as the reviews have pointed out:

"Superbly entertaining and unique...thought provoking." -- The Mindquest Review of Books

"Many of the aliens' encounters with human beings are downright funny...much to think about and I'm sure that "Traveling in Space" will play on my mind for some time to come" -- Russell Blackford, Neworld Review & Metamagician and the Hellfire Club blog

"A unique spin of science fiction... With much humor and much to think about...not to be overlooked" -- Midwest Book Review

A good way to spur thinking in such a work is to contrast the comic -- outsized characters, extreme situations, ironic absurdities -- with horrors. In the case of TIS, one of the horrors is a scene of genocide, reported on by one of the aliens who have “stumbled” across Earth while traveling in space.

Jeff’s performance of this scene I found riveting -- which makes it hard to be dispassionate as you are trying to direct. But then that’s the way, maybe the fun, of a creative endeavor -- mixing the passionate with the analytical. Jeff has that wonderful ability to move from the comic to the serious, 

making both very real and immediate.

And now we come to another session. Peter is ready to man the board.

And Jeff is ready to face the mic.

And I’m ready to throw at Jeff some long “reports” from the various alien “factfinders” to read -- all in their very individual voices. It will be like a vocal Cirque du Soleil. But I’m confident that Jeff is limber enough for it.

You can read about Traveling in Space and all my books on the My Books section of this blog.

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  Sunday, March 17, 2013

Traveling in Audio Space # 4

The above message came to me via Google+ which I seem to be part of and have very little idea what it is. Nonetheless, if it brings me such nice messages I'm all for it.

As to the answer:

Well, Peter, we are pushing forward and will, in fact, be recording Chapters 22, 23, and 24 tomorrow March 18th. Only seven chapters and little things to record after that.  I'm hoping we can do that soon, and prepare the file for Audible.com and get it out by the Fall.

It's going well, and we are very happy with what we've got, the talents involved  (Peter Lonsdale, our recording master; Jeff Cannata, our performer) can get together only when their schedule permits, so we have been moving slow.  But that also means we have been taking a lot of care for the product, and I hope that will show in the end.

And I really appreciate you kind words, sir, and hope you'll enjoy the audiobook version of Traveling in Space, as much as you have the book book -- twice!

Keep traveling!

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Thursday, August 29, 2013

TRAVELING IN AUDIO SPACE # 5

It wasn’t really three men in a boat, but it was three men on a journey, intermittent though it may have been.  On April 7th of last year three men -- not J., George, and Harris, and certainly not accompanied by the dog Montmorency (although there was a loud-barking, annoying big bastard of a dog next door) -- set out to travel audio space and record my novel Traveling in Space as an audiobook. We -- Peter Lonsdale, Jeff Cannata and myself -- ended the recording journey on August 21, a little over a year and four months later. This is an awfully long time to be recording an audiobook, but circumstances were such that it took this amount of time. And I’m glad it did.

Audiobooks have been growing in popularity of late, and not just because of long distance commuters who may well have been the bulk of audiobook adherents in the past. It seems the proliferation of MP3 players, not only as stand-alones, but built into smartphones and tablets, have added to the audience for the out loud declaration of an author’s work. And this I am also glad about.

I have loved “Spoken Word” recordings -- to borrow the category from the Grammys -- ever since high school when Drama class saved, or possibly made, my life, and I would check out multi-disk LPs of Broadway plays from the local library. In listening to Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, 

or a very young Martin Sheen in The Subject was Roses, 

I fell in love with the human voice -- especially when divorced from the visual. I did not grow up in the Golden Era of radio when it reigned as Home Entertainment, when dramatic plays of many genres, and comic greats coming in from the closure of Vaudeville, kept America company during the Great Depression and World War Two. 

I grew up in the first decade of commercial television, my eyes focused on flickering black & white images of actors on horses packing six-guns, 

and Dinah Shore. 

My father loved Dinah Shore. 

So discovering these LPs 

was a great revelation to me -- what fine “music” the instrument of the human voice could provide.

When I graduated from high school, after three years of involvement in drama classes, the drama club, and the plays that came out of them, having spent most of those years wanting to become an actor, 

I left adolescence, ironically, not wanting to become an actor. For shortly before donning the cap & gown it had occurred to me that what my involvement in drama had developed in me was not my talent for acting -- which was fairly minuscule -- but a love of the written words that actors perform.

“Author” replaced “Actor” as the first letter in my alphabet.

But the idea of performing an author’s words remained important to me. And I do mean performing, not just reading aloud. Reading aloud gives only sound to words. Performing gives life to words. Not a revolutionary thought. After all, the stringing together of words in order to make magic was first done in order to present them orally, long before words were ever written down.

A bit of a burden as they had to be memorized. But eventually the tool of writing -- first created to notate the trade in beer and stuff, 

Sumerian tablet from 2050 BCE - a signed receipt saying: “Ur-Amma acknowledges receiving from his brewer, Alulu, 5 sila of the ‘best’ beer.”

but soon adapted for more creative efforts, dispensed with the burden of memory. Except, of course, for actors acting on stage. 

And as writing -- and the complimentary ability of reading -- was pretty much kept among elites in the commercial, political, and religious professions, most of the rest of society, if they were exposed to the creative endeavors of writing at all, probably were exposed through the human voice in readings from unrolled scrolls.

It was not until after the perfection of the movable type printing press in the Fifteenth Century, and the rise of the prose novel in the Eighteenth Century, that individual, silent-in-your-head reading took hold among a mass of readers.

Still, readers would often read out loud to their friends and family,

and some authors would perform their own words to crowds, most famously 

Charles Dickens

and Mark Twain. 

For millennia words were creatures of sound.

But written words, those rationally ordered little black bugs of type streaming across a white page, and now a white screen, eventually became, in the main, separated from sound, from the oral tradition. I have always found that to be a bit sad.  Especially when certain people developed the ability to speed read, foregoing even the inner sound of the author’s words in their heads. (See my Huffington Post blog on this). But not to be deterred by that, I decided that whenever I would write prose (which has turned out to be more often than writing for the stage or the screen) I would write my words for the human voice, whether heard silently in one’s head or coming into one’s brain through vocal vibrations.

So I have always loved the idea of audiobooks. And to be able to produce this one (with Peter Lonsdale, also our recording master), 

directing as fine an actor as Jeff Cannata 

in the performance of my words, has been a joy. And the fact that it has taken this long, has just extended that joy. It inadvertently turned out to be a way to keep that joy to myself for a while. But, as we do these things to share, it’s time, now that the main recording is done, to do the editing, do necessary retakes, package it all together, and send it out to travel in audio space on its own and see if any of the joy I have felt is transferred to a listening audience. I hope so.

By the way -- can you tell me the literary allusion I used in the first paragraph of this blog?  Now there’s a book that begs to be read/performed out loud.

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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Traveling in Audio Space # 6 -- Almost Done. No Fooling!

When we started this task to record an audiobook of my novel Traveling in Space, I thought it would take us a year. After all, Peter Lonsdale, my co-producer, editor, and recording engineer, 

was only available on the weekends as he was spending his weekdays as a film editor for Disney and Dreamworks and places like that. And Jeff Cannata, 

who would perform the novel, is a very busy actor and host of several internet shows on the wonderful world of all things fun in science fiction, video games, fantasy, TV and movies. And I was busy doing something -- I think. I’m not sure because that was almost TWO years ago.

But, no one had given us a deadline, and we were like kids putting on a show, so we wanted to have fun doing it, and we wanted to get it right.  And the more senior members of our little crew had to take some time off to aid some starving surgeons who needed the extra work.

But be all that as it may -- here we are, about ready to finish up the audiobook, send the digital 0s and 1s off to Dave Doody, my publisher at Blüroof Press, 

who will then send those 0s and 1s off to Amazon’s Audible.com.

We will officially launch the audiobook at BayCon 2014, being held in Santa Clara, California over the Memorial Day weekend. 

Jeff Cannata and I 

will be doing a presentation ay BayCon 2014 about our collaboration, which I think has been rather unique.

The audiobook of Traveling in Space is not a corporate product, handled by well seasoned work-for-hire pros with maybe input from the author, maybe not. And it’s not a new indie, freelance work-for-hire product many self-publishers and indie-publishers are producing these days for a market that is growing in size and listenership. We like to think our audiobook has been handcrafted by people who were all invested in it, not just as a product and as an adjunct to the print publication of the book -- but as an artistic endeavor that we believe can stand alone.

Of course, it will be up to listeners to tell us if we are correct or not. And we eagerly await their response.

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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Traveling in Audio Space # 7 -- Finally! The "Traveling in Space" audiobook wraps recording

Giving "voice" to Traveling in Space
Me, Peter Lonsdale, and Jeff Cannata

After a long two years of intermittent yet lovely days of gathering with Peter Lonsdale and Jeff Cannata to “expand” my author’s voice by producing, indeed, “handcrafting,” an audiobook of my novel Traveling in Space, we wrapped recording the book on April 2nd. They were days of a certain like-mindedness in bringing the book into this medium -- modern yet ancient; literary yet dramatic; one entering the mind via a different route -- with as much craft, art, and skill possible.

Peter was determined that every 0 and every 1 in this digital landscape would be perfectly placed. Jeff was determined to make the performance of the book layered and nuanced, as he made his performance of each character the same. And I was determined to enjoy the process, to be not only the director, but the first member of the audience. 

And afterwards?  We allowed ourselves to be a little silly

And now it's packaging the whole thing, adding the front and end credits -- voiced by my lovely wife, Amanda -- some music and sound design, and have it ready to launch at BayCon 2014 

via Audible.com

over the Memorial Day weekend,

And just in time for my birthday, which just happens to fall on Memorial Day.

It’s nice of all you good people to have a BBQ in my honor.

COMING SOON!

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Back to May 16, 2014

And now it is done and ready to be downloaded through --

Audible:  

http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Traveling-in-Space-Audiobook/B00KB4GTZ0/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1400258946&sr=1-1

Or Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Traveling-in-Space/dp/B00KCSA992/ref=la_B001JS27EO_1_3_title_2_audd?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400265094&sr=1-3

Or through your local iTunes store.

My thanks -- my love, indeed -- to Jeff Cannata & Peter Lonsdale.  Guys, literally, I could not have done it without you.