Blazing a new and unexpected trail

So okay. I haven’t written anything here in a while. For me, that’s a lit-up neon sign. Behind both an iMac and a microphone I am an expressive creative — nothing less. But between my own lack of marketing outreach and making excuses, now it’s time to address this (mind the) gap as I continue on this voice acting journey, wherever it takes me.

As I began plotting and planning a European birthday adventure with my only child, I rather happily let go a bit. Was it worth it? Well. It was an epic trip. But it would have been just as epic (if not moreso) had I had a shitload of work to return to.  

Bottom line: I stopped auditioning. In this business, numbers are everything, especially within the first 5 years. My confidence in doing this as a career dipped as I concentrated on the here and now instead of what might come if I applied myself. It’s easy to imagine people would discover you or seek you out after having successfully narrated a dozen or more books, but that is a fantasy. After all, I’ll never be discovered at Schwab’s in Hollywood and asked to test for a movie.

It’s when I gave a few PowerPoint presentations to writers’ groups that I noticed an undeniable sense of impostor syndrome creeping in. Those presentations turned out to be less enthusiastic and I felt guilty afterward despite my audience’s gracious comments. So it’s a vicious cycle, this dip. And it’s time to dig myself out.

As they say, it’s often when you’re at a low point that you realize just how far you’ve come. No one can convince you that you have (or still have) what it takes. That has to come from within. 

All my life the fates have handed me gifts just when I needed them most. They are only gifts, however, if I choose to perceive them as such. You see, before I headed for points continental, I got a message through social media. A fellow voice actor from one of my Facebook narrators’ group contacted me after listening to my website samples. He wanted me to audition for a part in his audiobook production. CAST me. Like in a play.  I say “production,” because that's what it is. A crazy fun spin on an old classic everyone knows, but with a troupe of actors portraying parts with original music and sound effects mixed in. Like a movie that takes place in your head. 

Here is a better analogy: Remember seeing people in the 1930s and ‘40s staring at huge stand-alone radios that looked like living room furniture, listening to gripping shows like “The Shadow,” “The Lone Ranger,” or “Perry Mason?” I used to laugh when I saw these old clips. They could look anywhere in the room or nowhere at all, but they STARED at the radio, as if characters would jump out at them and occupy a stage in their living room. Studios back then had a behind-the-scenes team of people making sounds into microphones, mimicking what we might see and hear on a movie or TV screen. 

Now? It can all be added digitally, like CGI for film. And this gentleman, who is the same age as I am, is bound and determined to chart new territory in audiobooks — one that cannot be duplicated by artificial intelligence. Praise the lord and pass the condenser mic -- because as exciting as AI is, it cannot take the place of real acting. 

I AM JAZZED. Which is why, after being selected for one of the book’s roles, I am immersing myself in this experience. Yesterday in a ZOOM call I watched an example of how I will be instructed. Unlike a live play (and more like a movie) the director can mess with line deliveries, emotions, narrative wording, and scene captures. Watching how he is doing this is fascinating. This guy is learning as he goes, creating something new and unique. And he is absolutely giddy about it. How can I be any less excited? 

And miraculously, my life as a voice actor goes on. As usual, news at 11.