THE BADLINGS audiobook is published!
It's here! It's here! Get your copy at:
Comment below and tell me why you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE A FREE COPY, and I will pick a bunch of winners so you get the audiobook for free (I don't remember how many free codes the ACX people send me, I think it's 20, so maybe I'll give out 5).
Now, to the story of production. This little book only looks so very innocent, but the production of it wasn't innocent at all. I want to share with you Erich's story.
Erich Lane is the incredibly talented voice-over actor who fell in love with the book and reached out to me on ACX with a reading sample, and I loved it, and so we started working together, and then in the middle of it Erich disappeared. I waited for a while before pinging him and asking him if anything was wrong. And turns out, something was.
Erich's father died.
He listened to Erich's recordings of the chapters as he did them and gave him feedback and was looking forward to finding out what happened at the end of the book and never did. I cried when I found out and told Erich to take his time or give up on the project if he didn't feel like doing it anymore, but Erich stuck with me and finished the production which required inventing an amazing array of voices for over 20 characters: girls and boys, women and men, vampires, a donkey, a puppy, three giant birds and one little hen, a caterpillar (yes, that one), lots of monkeys, an impressive array of ghosts, six dead corpses and, of course, the voice of the mad talking book.
If you don't have time to listen to the whole thing, JUST SAMPLE THE VOICES. You will get such a kick out of what Erich was able to do. I don't know how a human being can bend their voice like that. I certainly can't.
Here is Erich's story about his father and the production of this book (he wrote this to me when he returned to recording it):
"Losing my father is easily the hardest thing I’ve had to go through. Right before he passed (he and my mother had happened to be visiting my brother and I in Los Angeles), one of the last things that my father and I did together was listen to Chapter 8. It’s a memory that I will always cherish...whenever I’d finish a chapter I’d also have my parents listen to it to give me any additional performance notes. They called it their "bedtime stories." Anyway, he was such a huge fan of your book that he bought it online and started reading ahead. I don’t believe he ever finished it unfortunately, but I know that he is very much with me and present in spirit as I continue working on it."
So you see, this project is special. Now, don't be a badling and pick up a copy of The Badlings audiobook and give it a listen and tell me what you think and send me your comments for Erich. He is only starting his voice-over career, and any encouraging words you have for him I will pass on, and I'm sure it will give him a huge boost to keep going, because he has a huge talent, and I can't wait to see where it will take him.
Happy listening!
P.S.: More audiobooks to come. I'm having no luck finding talent to record Irkadura. I guess the subject matter scares people off. But I will go ahead and submit Siren Suicides (Second Edition), see if it has any takers. I'll let you know.