“It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.” - Ann Patchett |
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This week's featured NEW RELEASes |
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Narrated by Stella Hunter & Patrick Zeller |
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Narrated by Aiden Snow & Kingsley Rose |
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This week's FEATURED box set |
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This week's FEATURED saleS |
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SFN: Do you remember your first? (audiobook, that is!) |
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PZ: LOL, I do. But I'll never tell. Suffice it to say the farther back you go the less polished the sound. The less overall enjoyable the experience. It's super cringey for me to listen to those early ones now. I'm lucky that a few authors and producers have really enjoyed working with me and kept me around, allowing me to grow tremendously over the years. |
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SFN: Do you split your recording day between multiple projects or do you work through one book before moving on to another? |
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PZ: One at a time if possible. I like to stay in one world at a time unless scheduling conflicts pop up. But I'll usually be prepping one or two while recording another. |
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SFN: What's your favorite part of the narrating process? |
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PZ: Learning something new. I love my routines and rituals but I crave novel experiences. Doing Biographies, History, Science is fantastic for that. Doing Romance has allowed me to play female characters in a way I'd never be able to on camera or even stage. I'm super grateful for that as well. |
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SFN: What is your least favorite word to pronounce in a narration? What is your favorite word to roll around in your mouth? |
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PZ: I love all the words. I hate when I run into a word I've been pronouncing incorrectly my whole life and have to shoe-horn the correct version into my brain. Detritus. Chimera was embarrassing. Chaise lounge was a beast. I still prefer the British pronunciation of some words in certain contexts like Leisure. I think the two pronunciations of patronize should be interchangeable. Fight me. And come on, Gala? I'd heard it pronounced GAL-luh until I was 38 years old when a director of mine pronounced it GAY-luh. He was right. But it still makes me twitch. |
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SFN: Is there a genre you'd like to narrate that you haven't yet? |
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PZ: More history and science, please. It's tough because I know a lot of nonfiction narration is going to go away with the expansion of AI but I just love learning new things. The sweet spot for me is Historical Fiction with a Sci-Fi Romance twist. I've done a few books in Katherine Lowry Logan's Celtic Brooch series. I'm scheduled to record another this Spring with Marnye Young. I always look forward to them. |
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SFN: Do you recall a specific book you connected with viscerally as a young reader or as an adult? |
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PZ: West of Eden by Harry Harrison. It's this wackadoodle prehistoric fantasy series with an amphibious civilization running things on Earth. We and a few other mammalian hominids were still bumbling around with stone tools but savvy and violent enough to start challenging them. I was still pretty young so Tolkien just didn't feel accessible yet. Same with Asimov. I love them now! Harry Potter and Percy Jackson didn't exist yet. I remember it was so captivating and immersive. It was probably the first time I could trust that a book would hold my attention longer than a few pages. That experience allowed me to explore more authors and genres. |
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Looks like Patrick might be a “standing narrator!” Don't miss his performance in this week's featured new release, |
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Congrats to last week's winner, Amy! |
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And if someone forwarded this email to you, we'd love to have you join us! (PSST: IT'S TOTALLY FREE) |
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Missed a previous issue? You can find them all here: |
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Disclaimer: some of the above links may include affilate codes. |
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