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May 2009
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After a bit of server swapping and downtime. The NIN Historian site is back and updated: http://www.theninhotline.net/nin_histori
posted by Neil
Yesterday I had a breakfast with many librarians, then signed was interviewed in front of a crowd by Roger Sutton from Hornbook, signed for happy librarian-folk for three hours, then napped and went off to dinner with the Newbery Award Committee, the sort of dinner where you have each different course at a different table, and talk to everyone. Then I signed books for them (and for a few stray Printz Committee judges, who crept in).This morning was Dim Sum with Jill Thompson for breakfast (Here is Jill. People always want to know where she got that bag, and she made it herself. I told her she should take orders for them for a ridiculous amount of money.) Then with Elyse Marshall, ace HarperChildren's publicist, to a local studio where I was interviewed for Barnes and Noble, then recorded some paragraphs from Kipling's The Jungle Book, Ray Bradbury's story "Homecoming" and James Thurber's The 13 Clocks. I loved doing them -- B&N will pick one sequence and have it animated and put up online. Was fascinated by how different the voice of the narrator was in each case -- the voice of the book, and that reminded me that I had not yet answered this, and had meant to: Neil ~ Thank you for many hours of entertainment, whether I'm reading your works, or you are! My daughter is finding that chapter books are a good thing, and wants me to read them to her. I'm glad to do so, but I'm looking for some suggestions from a masterful book reader (you) to a very coarse book reader (me). How do you keep the character voices straight in your head? I suppose it helps that you know the words particularly well since you wrote them, but any tips or suggestions? Any other pointers for engaging the listener? I know my daughter doesn't mind (she still wants me to read, after all!), but I'd like to be better for her and for me. Thanks and keep up the superb work, both here on the blog and in the offline printed universe! BRIAN Let's see. Character voices are more or less easy: I sort of cast them in my head as I go. What's the person like? Who do they remind me of? I'm appalling at doing accents, but not bad at doing people. And mostly you're not even doing impressions, just general brush strokes. How does a person sound? Well, you hold them in your head and generally sound like that. When dealing with a larger than life story I'll sometimes go for a larger than life cast in my head: In (for example) The 13 Clocks, in my head, when I read it aloud, I tend to cast Marty Feldman as the Golux, and Peter Sellers (doing his Laurence Olivier in Richard the Third impression) as the evil Duke. It's hard though, in a big book with a lot of characters, some of whom may nip off-stage for seven or eight chapters at a time. Do your best, and have a picture in your head. Borrow from your life. Steal voices shamelessly. Most important, just do the voices (including the voice of the Book, which may not be your voice exactly, but should be close enough to it that it won't be a strain), and do not be shy. Even at your worst, you're doing better than you would if you didn't do the voices, and kids are a mostly uncritical audience, especially if you do it with confidence. Read it as if you're telling a story. Read it as if you're interested and you care. And, the biggest and most important one, vary the tune. I heard a young writer reading some of his own work in public a few weeks ago, and every sentence had exactly the same tune, the sime rising and falling cadences. They all ended on the same note. The beat that ran through the whole passage did not change from first to last. It was hypnotically dull. Listen to people read who are good at it. BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 4 (here's the Radio 4 Readings website)are a great source of an ever-changing series of books and stories, fiction and non-fiction, all read aloud and read aloud well. Listen to the tune, where voices go up or down. Listen to what makes a reader speed up or slow down -- listen to what keeps you interested and where you lose interest. And do it as they do -- change the tune, change the pace, keep interested and it will keep interesting. But mostly my advice is this: just do it. Enthusiasm and willingness to do it counts for most of it, and you learn by doing it and get better from doing it. I've been reading in front of audiences now for almost 20 years. I've got significantly better in that time, mostly because I've done it so much. You learn as you go. You get better as you go. Practice makes if not perfect then at least pretty decent. And that's all. Except to wish Roz Kaveney happy birthday.  Labels: audio books, reading things aloud
alright, well, after a late night setup session, FM Revolver is now on Facebook. I had a shit ton of fun setting that up, so if you're so inclined, hit it up. I'll be posting album and show updates there along with blog information and news. Finncon is fini. Parris and I have just staggereed back to our hotel room from the dead reindeer party. The party is still going strong and we would love to have stayed longer... till sunset, at least... but we have to be up early tomorrow to catch a ferry to Estonia, where I'll be doing a signing in Tallinn. Then the next day it's back across the sea to Helsinki again, just long enough to set off for Turku, where I've got another signing. Current Mood:
 happySo who should I run into at the top of the Art Museum steps yesterday beating people with the remnants of a cardboard tube? Current Mood:
 accomplishedThis week Reza found her love for Curious George on PBS. Not sure how it happened but now she keeps asking for it. She can't pronounce George as well, she calls him something that sounds like "Jo-Ridge".
Jerked awake to what I could have sworn were voices ... in my room. But I was alone. Though my heart did its best to claw its way out of my chest, but whether it was to defend or desert me, I cannot say. We've not been on the best terms for some time now. I think it would leave me if it could. I think I'd let it go if it wouldn't kill me. Then at least the next time I'm called heartless, well, there'd be no point in arguing about it. Why is it, when the specialy surgeon is introduced to the patient's family, they're always "the best"? "Hi, this is Dr. Bob, the neurosurgeon, and he's one of the best." Current Mood:
 drainedI really needed to get out of the house this evening. It was hot, I was having some serious moments of dietary weakness and I needed to get out an exercise. We're kinda laying low on the spendage so Reza and I ditched Mr McCrankypants and took off to the night time zoo again. ( so here you go, some photos ) So. Not only is State Farm currently saying I never paid them for last month, their online bill pay system is down, and no one is answering the phones at my representative's office. I remember when I was a kid, wanting to see "The Search for Noah's Ark", which was playing "FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY!" at the local cinemaplex and that night a hurricane hit the shore of New Jersey cranking 40 mph winds across our suburban neighborhood with even stronger gusts -- Mrs. Ricky, who lived across the street from us lost her garage. My mother watched out the living room window as her garage was uprooted and "walked down the street". My sister and I begged and begged that she take us to the movie. We tried, valiantly, we made it to the car, but the streets proved un-navigable and I never saw the move -- despite the tantilizing AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS that showed ... well, who knows. Current Mood:
accomplishedI am totally stealing this from The mountain of things what get signed slowly abates. I need to have it in the mail today. Current Mood:
accomplishedposted by Neil
I'm in Chicago right now, for ALA: the annual meeting of the American Library Association. I've been to a couple of them before and have always had a marvellous time -- once, with people like Art Spiegelman and Scott McCloud and Colleen Doran explaining to curious librarians what graphic novels were and why they should have them in their libraries, another time getting to visit New Orleans for the first time Post-Katrina, when I went to two dinners with Poppy Z Brite, and one of them was the first time Poppy's husband, chef Chris DeBarr, ever cooked for me*.When I was in Melbourne, five years ago, Poppy was a guest of honour with me, and somewhere back then it was decided that we would be going to Alinea, a Chicago restaurant of remarkable coolness. The years went by and I was never in Chicago for long, and Katrina happened, and once Poppy went back to New Orleans she did not want to leave, but we knew one day it would happen. And tonight it did. Poppy flew up from Chicago and took me to dinner. It was expensive, and, I only discovered at the end of the meal, Poppy was paying. (This is a big public thank you.) The service and friendliness and sense of enjoyment from the Alinea staff was remarkable. I've had, on rare occasions, food that was as good, and, rarely, I've had food that was better, but I do not ever recall any meal that was as much fun to eat. 23 Courses (hmm, very illuminati) of things that melted or popped or squrunched in your mouth in astounding ways. I think my favourite not-actually-putting-something-in-my-mou If anyone reading this is at ALA, I'm doing two signings at the HarperCollins booth 2011, one at 1.00pm on Saturday, the other on 9.00am on Monday (which should have some amusement value). Also a panel on Monday at 1:30pm on the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The rest of the time is filled with interviews, receptions, speeches and such. I'm actually here to receive the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. Which will be presented on Sunday night, and for which I have written (and already recorded) a speech. (Which will be played if I forget how to talk on Sunday night. It's possible.) And I want to thank Harper Collins for indulging me, and keeping up the free version of The Graveyard Book on the mousecircus website all that time. You can still listen to (or watch) me read The Graveyard Book, chapter by chapter, across America, at http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.asp (And to answer a sharp-eyed questioner, yes, there are a couple of changes in the latest printing of The Graveyard Book; I fixed an error in astronomy I'd made, and a misspelled foreign word, and fixed some paragraphs in the acknowledgments that were truncated in the original US edition.) (And that reminds me: yes, I will be at San Diego Comic Con briefly on Friday July 24th, to do a panel with Henry Selick about Coraline, and a one hour signing afterwards. I'll be at the Eisner Awards for a bit that night, then will zoom across town to the Benefit concert that Amanda Palmer and Vermillion Lies are doing for the CBLDF.) *Chris says people have been asking for "The Mezze of Destruction", the code-phrase that tells him they were sent from this blog, at the Green Goddess, and getting special extras -- restaurant Easter Eggs, as it were, and I have been getting happy messages from people who have eaten there who tried it. And, almost needless to say, lived. Right. Bed.  Attn: Londoners Okay, before I go to bed: I just had one of those moments where the universe DOES NOT match up with memories I Know to be true. ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Mood:
 mischievousToday was long, frustrating and confusing and I didn't have time to finish all the damn work that accumulated on my desk, so that means I have shit waiting for me on Monday. I hate that. Current Mood:
 frustrated |
