Narration - Moon Cup, by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

It's not poetry! At long last I narrated another story for StarShipSofa! This one is by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, who I had the pleasure of meeting for coffee in Paris. She sent my son a hand-knit Cthulhu later!

The women will definitely appreciate this story, as it asks the question of what happens to the blood and delves into calamity as well. The assistant editor of StarShipSofa, apologized for giving me the story, if it was too icky (my words). I assured him that, since I am also a woman, I could, in fact relate to the ick, no need to apologize!

Moon Cup by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley 

Narrations and Interviews

It's an eventful day, y'all!

I just found out that my second professional narration is up on Audible! For those who don't know, Audible.com is the major provider of audio books.

Size Matters is an Erotic Fantasy set in Chris Lester's Urban Fantasy world Metamor City written by Nobilis Reed. I've listened to a lot of the Metamor City podcast and it's a fascinating listen. I've done several narrations for Nobilis Reed. He's a good and patient employer. So it was a yes-yes opportunity. Nobilis didn't tell me until after he'd finished production on it that he was submitting it to Audible. I couldn't be more thrilled. This means that I have a bit of an in as I set myself up as an Audiobook Exchange Narrator. The audiobook costs $6.95 or £4.99 (on Audible.co.uk). 

* * *

The next big thing for today is that my most recent article on Amazing Stories has come out. I interviewed Elizabeth Barrette and it will appear in 2 parts. Today in Part 1 you'll hear 2 full poems plus Elizabeth and I talk about her myriad writing activities, her inspiration and process as a poet. She has some advice for new poets on attitude, publishing and submitting as well. Enjoy! 

Interview - Elizabeth Barrette, Poet and Wordsmith

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Narration - The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic - 1942, by Kim Stanley Robinson

At long last, I have another narration up on StarShipSofa No. 249. It is a very moving story by the imminent Science Fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. This isn't actually a Science Fiction story - at least not as far as I can tell. I'm not actually sure why Tony wanted this story for StarShipSofa, except that any story by KS Robinson would be a good draw for the podcast and I think that is the idea for this month of August with 2 new podcasts he's plugging.

Anyway back to the story. It is ostensibly about the political climate in Berlin in 1942 and what happened to and in the Berlin Philharmonic at the time. The Timpanist's very personal story is intertwined with descriptions of  his relationship to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The Symphony is a character in this story and all the "action" takes place during the course of the Berlin Philharmonic's performance of it on Hitler's birthday in 1942. There are some chilling moments as well as some very emotional moments. It is a rare story which gives a positive light to some "ordinary" and extraordinary people who did their best in a bleak time in which there seemed no hope. I almost wish it were in German so that all my German friends could listen to it. Germans as a people still struggle with how to come to terms with the events of WWII and they come down very hard on themselves as a general rule. For the most part this is the correct attitude, but there's always a flip side and this is one of them. It's powerful stuff. I used the actual recording of the symphony from that very night. Not much just about 60 seconds or so of it, but the timing is just perfect with the story...

Go listen to it: The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic - 1942, by Kim Stanley Robinson Tony's intro and the segment about the cover art for the month of August isn't long, but if you'd rather skip straight to the story it begins at the 5'15" minute mark. It's about 45 minutes long.

I'd love to hear what you think about the story and/or my narration. You can post here or at StarShipSofa's Forum Episode Feedback page or FaceBook page.

In other news, I'm still working on The Rhysling Award Showcase edition of Poetry Planet. It'll probably come out in 2 weeks time because Tony appears to be on vacation. Either that or he's sleeping at the desk. :-)

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List of Podcast appearances

OK, I've been at this awhile but it's only just occurring to me that I should start an (as yet incomplete) running list of my podcast appearances complete with links, etc. Here it is with the most recent first:

• -- Poetry Planet No. 7: "2012 Rhysling Award Showcase", StarShipSofa No. 256
• -- Main Fiction: The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942 by Kim Stanley Robinson, StarShipSofa No. 249
• -- Poetry Planet No. 6: "Moon Imaginings" StarShipSofa No. 245
• -- Poetry Planet No. 5b: "Time Travel - Part 2" StarShipSofa No. 229
• -- Short Fiction: "Urchins, While Swimming", by Cathryn M. Valente PodCastle No. 198
• -- Short Fiction: "Unwoven", Tim Waggoner, Tales to Terrify No. 5
• -- Poetry Planet No. 5a: "Time Travel - Part 1" StarShipSofa No. 223
• -- Poetry Planet No. 4: "Coming Home" StarShipSofa No. 208
• -- Poetry Planet No. 3: "Rhysling Award Showcase", StarShipSofa No. 202
• -- Poetry Planet No. 2: "First Contact", StarShipSofa No. 192
• -- Poetry Planet No. 1: "Introduction", StarShipSofa No. 184
• -- Fiction: Kingspeaker by Marie Brennan, Podcastle No. 122
• -- Music: Theme Music for Blood and Chrome Podcast
• -- Transcriber Editorial: StarShipSofa No. 130
• -- Fiction: Love Among the Talus by Elizabeth Bear, Podcastle No. 96
• -- Poetry: Clone Assassin by Lyn C. A Gardner, StarShipSofa No. 102
• -- Fiction: Daughter of Botu by Eugie Foster, Podcastle No. 63
• -- Flash Fiction: A Hand and Honor by Brenda Cooper, StarShipSofa No. 91
• -- Main Fiction: Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Cafe and Taxidermy by Jeff Carlson, StarShipSofa No. 88
• -- Main Fiction: Vinegar Peace, Or the Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage by Michael Bishop, StarShipSofa No. 82
• -- Nebula Nominee: - 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss By Kij Johnson, StarShipSofa No. 72
• -- Poetry: Three Poems - Marble People, Chess People and Gargoyle People by Bruce Boston, StarShipsofa No. 71
• -- Sofanauts: No. 5 May 16, 2009
• -- Poetry: If Cold Is A War by Ann K Schwader, StarShipSofa No. 70
• -- Poetry: Time Trapped by Ann K Schwader, StarShipSofa No. 69
• -- Fiction: Room Service by Donna George Storey, Nobilis Erotica No. 113
• -- Poetry: Our Fallen Do Not Fall by Ann K Schwader, StarShipSofa No. 61
• -- Poetry: On Any Given Midnight by Ann K Schwader, StarShipSofa No. 60
• -- Poetry: Fifty Cents by Mark Rich, StarShipSofa No. 57
• -- Music: Silent Night, Diane à 3, StarShipSofa No. 56
• -- Fiction: Ancestor Money by Maureen McHugh, Podcastle No. 36
• -- Main Fiction: A View From A Height by Joan D. Vinge, StarShipSofa No. 54
• -- Poetry: An Eccentric In Orbit by Laurel Winter, StarShipSofa No. 53
• -- Poetry: King’s Men by Samantha Henderson, StarShipSofa No. 47
• -- Poetry: Fairytale Graveyard by Mikal Trimm, StarShipSofa No. 42
• -- Poetry: Judy Resnick by Laurel Winter, StarShipSofa No. 40
• -- Main Fiction: Tideline by Elizabeth Bea, StarShipSofa No. 39 
• -- Flash Fiction: Moon Over Baton Rouge by Atalanta Pendragonne, StarShipSofa No. 36
• -- Poetry: Goodbye Is Meaningless by Mark Rich, StarShipSofa No. 33 
• -- Poetry: Goodbye Is Meaningless by Laurel Winter StarShipSofa No. 32
• -- Poetry: How To Make Love To A Shark by Laurel Winter StarShipSofa No. 30 
• -- Poetry: Time Travel Verb Tenses by Laurel Winter StarShipSofa No. 29 
• -- Poetry: They Arrived by Mark Rich, StarShipSofa No. 27
• -- Poetry: Godlet by Laurel Winter StarShipSofa No. 26
• -- Main Fiction: Sledge Makers Daughter by Alastair Reynolds StarShipSofa No. 17
• -- Main Fiction: Lightling Out by Ken MacLeod StarShipSofa No. 16
• -- Main Fiction: Infinity Syrup by Laurel Winter StarShipSofa No. 10
• 
  

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StarShipSofa Stories Vol. 1

If you are reading this blog, you must know that I have a not-so-secret love of Speculative Fiction. I even narrate Science Fiction and Fantasy stories for podcasts, most notably StarShipSofa and Podcastle. If you don't care about Science Fiction or any of that you can skip this post. :-)

StarShipSofa is where I got my start narrating and is a podcast I listen to religiously. It's a place to hear fantastic short fiction from the genre as well as Science Fact, History of the Genre segments, poetry, Film, book and graphic novel reviews, and much more. Tony C. Smith has been producing the StarShipSofa Aural Delights show for nearly 100 episodes now. And to celebrate he's putting out a print collection of a selection of stories which have aired on the show. I had the honor of narrating 3 of the selected stories. Here's what Tony says about the project:

"StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1 is only a few days away from going on sale. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover art, designed by Skeet.

"Skeet’s brief was to create a picture that would pay homage to the 50s SF pulp magazines. I think he’s produced an amazing piece of work.

"Get ready for the 16th September when the book will be available to buy in print form. There will also be a new website and free eBook released on that day.

"I hope you think it captures the style and feel of the SF Golden Years?"

I'll post again when it's actually available and I hope you will consider purchasing a copy. All monies go toward supporting Tony's efforts in producing the StarShipSofa.

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Narration on PodCastle! Daughter of Botu, by Eugie Foster

We are interrupting our regularly scheduled broadcast....

Just wanted to let you know before it gets old, that one of my major narration projects has just gone live over at the main fantasy podcast magazine - Podcastle.

It's called Daughter of Botu, by Eugie Foster. Eugie Foster is an wonderful writer living in Atlanta and you may have heard any number of her stories in online podcast magazines such as EscapePod, ClonePod, PseudoPod and Drabblecast. You can read more about her and her over 100 publications at her website.

Daughter of Botu, an eastern story of whimsy, can be found in Eugie's short story collection, "Returning My Sister's Face: And other Eastern Stories of Whimsy and Malice" (follow the link to Amazon.com). It also received honorable mention in "The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection", edited by Gardner Dozois. It's the story of a young "rabbit", a Daughter of Botu, who meets, falls in love with and marries a local prince. At court, in human form, her life changes drastically, and not necessarily for the good.

I really enjoyed narrating this story. It has a fairy tale quality with delightful, distinct characters.

Enjoy!

Narration: Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy, by Jeff Carlson

I've just been told that my narration of Jeff Carlson's story "Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy will be available on StarShipSofa from tomorrow (Wed. 10 June, 2009). This was a fun one to do, especially because it made me think of my brother and his family who live in Montana, where this story takes place. If you get a chance, pop over to the website and download the show. I'm sure the whole show will be worth listening to. And if you like it, go show your appreciation over at the StarShipSofa's Forums. Tony always starts a new thread for each new Aural Delights show. This one will be No. 88.

Enjoy!

Also, M & I are going to Italy tomorrow for about a week. We'll be spending a few days at the seaside near Pisa with the In-laws, including M's sister and boyfriend. Then on Saturday we're attending a wedding (a former colleague of M's in Karlsruhe) in Siena. Then a few more days near Florence. It'll be nice to have some warm weather and sun.

Feedback: Michael Bishop feature on StarShipSofa

A few weeks ago the StarShipSofa ran a shorter than normal Aural Delights show which featured SF writer Michael Bishop (No. 82). I did the narration for the main fiction story, Vinegar Peace - or the Wrong-Way, Used-Adult Orphanage.

In the course of working on the narration I had the chance to correspond with Mike and learned that his internet connection is too slow to stream the podcast or download it, so I offered to burn him a CD of the show and send it when it came out. He must have listened to the show the minute he'd opened the envelope, because I received the loveliest of thank you emails I think I've ever gotten. It made me get teary. Here is an excerpt:

Dear Diane,

Your recording of "Vinegar Peace," along with your letter, arrived yesterday, not long after I'd sent you an e-mail. Please know that everything arrived intact and that we are heartily grateful to you for your thoughtfulness and generosity in providing us with a CD of your narration of the story and my introduction, a CD that also contains lead-in music, Tony Smith's extraordinarily kind remarks about the "privilege" of presenting the story, and a sensitive reading of "Jamie's Hair" by Jim Wilson (a.k.a. Dale Manley).

If you would, I'd appreciate your telling Tony Smith how much this episode of "StarShipSofa" (or "Audio Delights"?) means to us and to apologize to him for my not getting back to him sooner with a positive response to every aspect of the program. ... In any case, a bravo to everyone for every aspect of this show and to the artist who did the powerful online cover for it.

Diane, your reading is pitch perfect, as is your singing of the lullaby "All the Pretty Horses" -- I really like the way that, at a certain point, your narration resumes over the singing -- and your rendition of the "hymn" "Bold Gory." These touches, along with your credible impersonations of various characters throughout, animate and lend what seems to me heartfelt emotional depth to the piece. Thank you so much.

...

In any case, Diane, I have no doubt at all that you were the right person to narrate "Vinegar Peace." Bless you.

Sincerely,

Mike

I am grateful for his kind words.

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Michael Bishop featured on StarShipSofa (I narrated the main fiction)

I narrated Vinegar Peace, a SF story written by Michael Bishop for his son Jamie Bishop who died two years ago at the Virginia Tech shootings.

" "Vinegar Peace" grew from this disaster and from a grief that I can't imagine ever laying totally aside. Jeri and I mourn Jamie's loss every day in some private way, and we think continually of all the other parents and loved ones of the slain and injured who will carry a similar burden with them until they die. We think, too, of the parents and loved ones of the dead and wounded from the United States' optional war in Iraq, who long for their dead and who pray for their injured with an intensity not a whit different from our own. How ironic that our son died on American soil. How sad the wasted potential and disfigured lives resulting from violence everywhere. And forgive me the inadequacy of these remarks. Clearly, I wrote a story because I could not address either my outrage or my grief in any other way." - Michael Bishop

StarShipSofa - http://www.starshipsofa.com - is very honoured and humbled to be allowed to bring this story to a wider audience. I know I speak for the SF community when I say our hearts and prayers go out to Mike and Jeri and all the families who have to live with this grief every day.

Narrations on StarShipSofa

Recently, I reported having done a lot of work lately on narrations for the StarShipSofa. Many of those stories haven't aired yet, but these are the ones that have:

Poetry by Ann K. Schwader - In Aural Delights Episodes #69 and #70 toward the beginning of the shows you can hear "Time Trapped" and "If Cold is a War" respectively.

Bruce Boston "People" poems - This is a small collection of 3 poems which are loosely related, entitled, Chess People, Marble People and Gargoyle People. On my suggestion Tony interspersed them throughout the show. I thought, since they have similar structures, listeners might get more out of them if they could hear them in one show. Normally Tony would have only included one per show. Feedback on the Forums was positive!

Aural Delights Episode #71

The good ship StarShipSofa undertook the massive task of publishing in audio all the Nebula Award Nominees in the Short form category. You can hear the one I narrated - "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson in Aural Delights #72 This is a nice story, and not so out there that folks who don't like Science Fiction or Fantasy much might actually enjoy. It's about 30 minutes long, so not a whole lot of investment!

Enjoy!

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StarShipSofa - Aural Delights #61

This week on the StarShipSofa:



Aural Delights No 61 Ken MacLeod

Editorial: The Sofa’s Gadgets by Tony C Smith 02:50

Poem: Our Fallen Do Not Fall by Ann K Schwader, blog 20:20

Flash Fiction: The War At Home by Lewis Shiner 21:30

Fact: Science News by Jim Campanella 29:30

Main Fiction: Jesus Christ Reanimator by Ken MacLeod 47:00

Fact: The Sofa Art Cover by Skeet 01:16:00

New Titles: David Williams Mirrored Heavens 01:24:30

Narrators: Diane Severson, Matthew Wayne Selznick, Fred Himebaugh

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Greetings from Switzerland!

I just wanted to let anyone who doesn`t already know that I have a little story narration (Robowassailing) and a Christmas song (a super-kitschy version of Silent Night) on StarShipSofa's Christmas Show. It aired on 24 December. I hope you aren't yet tired of Christmas stories and songs. If not, head over to http://www.starshipsofa.com and check out my offerings for Christmas Cheer!

Happy New Year!

Bleh

I'm having a Charlie Brown kind of day. Maybe it's been exacerbated by the repeated listenings to A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, but I got two bits of not-happy news in the last two days. It's not exactly bad news but, you know, just not good. Am I taking it too personally? I'll let you be the judge:

1) I blogged last week about the story I narrated coming out on PodCastle. Yesterday I went to Escape Artist's (they produce the podcast) forums online and read the responses to the story. People there say what they want and are not inhibited because I'm not a presence there, like they might be at StarShipSofa. They didn't like my narration. At all. They also didn't much like the story, but that's beside the point. They thought I sounded bored, or simply not emotionally involved. Maybe I wasn't, although I did like the story. One poster thought my accents were inconsistent, and there I'd have to concede the point. I'm not great with accents. I shouldn't try to do them, but in this narration I did - a light southern accent and a pseudo-Asian one. Bad.

2) The other not-happy news is that I didn't make the short list for the First Annual Sofanaught Awards. I can be a bit blasé about this one, because the folks that did make the short list deserve to be on there. But I wanted to be. More than I think I let myself believe.

Now I'm thinking - "Do I suck as a narrator?" I really enjoy doing it and have no delusions that I'm a great one, I can recognize that I need to improve. But you know, it's hard to hear the criticism - expressed outright or not.

That is all.

..................

Your cup runneth over

Yes, yesterday two different narrations I've done came out on two different podcasts:

PodCastle #36: "Ancestor Money" by Maureen McHugh. This is an interesting look at what the afterlife might be like.

StarShipSofa #54: "View from a Height" by Joan D. Vinge. Also on that show is poetry by fellow Wisconsinite Mark Rich, Flash Fiction by my buddy Matthew Sanborn Smith, and a fantastic piece of genre history by our resident historian Amy H. Sturgis.

We are in the 2nd week of nominations for the Sofanaughts Awards at StarShipSofa. Please go and nominate your favorite narrator (me!), fave flash fiction or main fiction piece, and your fave poetry and fact contributor in the first 52 episodes of Aural Delights. You can go to the online poll or go to the forums (register) and post your favorites under one of the threads under "Sofanaughts". In each of the categories, the five entries with the most nominations will be short-listed for the run-off poll at a later date.

Go on! What are you waiting for?

Recent and upcoming narrations

I've been very busy with the new home lately, but I've still been doing the occassional narration for the StarShipSofa. Especially poetry. It's still a total blast and I'm looking forward to doing some more meaty stories soon. 

Here's a run-down of my recent bits on StarShipSofa:

- Like the First Morning, Cyril Simsa (Flash Fiction) Episode No. 43
- Fairytale Graveyard, Mikal Trimm (poetry) Episode No. 42
- Judy Resnick, Laurel Winter (poetry) Episode No. 40
- Tideline, Elizabeth Bear (Main Fiction) Episode No. 39
- Moon Over Baton Rouge, Atalanta Pendragonne (Flash Fiction) Episode No. 36
- Staying the Course, Mark Rich (poetry) Episode No. 33
- Goodbye is Meaningless, Laurel Winter (poetry) Episode No. 32

You can find the complete listing of Aural Delights segments here: StarShipSofa Aural Delights

Narrations you can look forward to in the future:
- Ancestor Money, Maureen McHugh (Fiction) - on PodCastle
- King's Man, Samantha Henderson (poetry) - on SSS
- Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food and Taxedermy, Jeff Carlson (fiction) - on SSS
- 3 Days in a Border Town, Jeff VanderMeer (Fiction) - on SSS
- View from a Height, Joan D. Vinge (Fiction) - on SSS
- More poetry from Laurel Winter, Mark Rich and Mikal Trimm

Also, I'm creating the role of a succubus on Chris Lester's Metamor City Podcast It's one of the first short stories that he released on his podcast, which he simply narrated himself. Once he's finished with Making the Cut (a full-lenghth novel) he'll go back and remaster the early stories. That's where I come in. :-)

StarShipSofa Round Table

Yes, this is old news. The 2nd StarShipSofa Round Table discussion podcast aired on Wednesday, 16 July 2008. It was Tony Smith, Fred Himebaugh and me discussing the last 2 Aural Delights shows with main fiction by John Varley and Robert Reed. There was a special treat at the end - I sang (unaccompanied and very off-the-cuff) Summertime by Gershwin. It was a request by Tony.

I love the idea of audio books but...

...the reality of accessing them and listening to them (and other digital downloads like music) the way I'd like is another thing entirely. While, personally, I haven't run into any problems regarding DRM (Digital Rights Management) or other download management software and the like, I just read this clear, well-founded article by the owner of Podiobooks.com which led me to a site, where, as an owner of a MacMini and various Apple devices, I'm simply out of luck. Read the article and see if he doesn't have a point.

Singing and Short Stories

So, things are flowing nicely around here. I'm up to 4 pupils now with the possibility of a 5th in a couple of weeks. I'm off to Frankfurt next week for 9 days - I'll be attending a voice seminar with Carol Baggott-Forte and seeing some friends. One of the stories I narrated for the StarShipSofa's BSFA series - Lighting Out, by Ken MacLeod - won the award! Congrats, Ken! I have a couple of more narration projects in the works - Tideline, by Elizabeth Bear (which is up for the Huga Award in the short form category) still needs to be edited and then I'll do my biggest project to date: Three Days in a Border Town, by Jeff VanderMeer. Eventually, I'll get around to doing Storm Constantine's The Green Calling and then I'll be doing a recording of some Dr Who FanFiction (by Jeri Massi). After that? Who knows. Hopefully, I'll also be singing before too long now....

The Sledge-maker's Daughter, by Alastair Reynolds

For those who are interested, My 3rd story recorded for the StarShipSofa (as stated in the title of this post) has been posted to the Sofa's website. It is another of the nominees for the BSFA Award in the Short Story category.

It's a great story about a girl living on the banks of the Tyne river in a far, far future Northern England, which is engulfed in a seeming endless winter. She is given knowledge and a tool with which she is meant to preserve the memory of what happened to the earth and how to protect its people from a threat they don't remember, but which looks as though it might return soon.

Lighting Out, by Ken MacLeod

So, the StarShipSofa has posted the next short story that I've narrated: Lighting Out, by Ken MacLeod. You can go listen to it by clicking on the title of this post.

It's been short-listed for the BSFA award for 2007 and the SSS is releasing each of the 5 stories in audio form, one each day. This is the first of 2 of the nominated stories that I've narrated. It's an interesting far future story, which extrapolates on what life might be like if the internet and computer technology we have today keeps evolving at this rate.