To Posterity -- and Beyond! » Fiction

Unshaggy Dog Stories

Cori — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:33:33 +0000

It’s been a while, but I’ve got a new entry in the LibriVox catalogue besides short poetry readings. The History of Pompey the Little by Francis Coventry is a collaboratively-read canine saga, with a parade of interesting characters and wide range of social situations. I contributed three chapters and it seemed like the Dog Hero was rather forgotten about, in the fun of telling about his newest owners, but since I’m not a huge dog-person, that was fine with me. I’m not sure if the other chapters go this way, I’ve not listened to the finished work yet.

Download audio file (pompeythelittle_19_coventry.mp3)
(Book 2, Chapter 1 — 9:03. Download the other two chapters, or the entire book, from: http://librivox.org/the-history-of-pompey-the-little-by-francis-coventry/)

What Katy Did Next and language-learning at LibriVox

Cori — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:48:06 +0000

My first release of the New Year – a chapter contributed to What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge. I nabbed the section on her visit to England, and although it made me a little cross in places (we Brits have NOT “forgotten” Jane Austen, and I’m not sure there’s ever been a time we had … ) it’s a fun read overall. Plus, her plan in visiting literary landmarks of London is a splendid idea.

Download audio file (whatkatydidnext_05_coolidge.mp3)
(24:26)

There’s also a new podcast out … I was sent an interesting contribution for the 2009-retrospective by Nicholas, which inspired me to do an entire show on the subject of actively developing resources for language-learning at LibriVox. It’s already a great place to find lots of recordings in many different languages, often by native speakers with varied accents, to help ‘train the ear’. However, we’ve also been working on Primers, Grammars and other intructional material, in several languages, to help people learn. The podcast includes an introduction to the subject, a perspective from Leni who’s recording a Portuguese primer, some samples from different books — and most splendidly, the slight downside of recording books over 100 years old … you’ll be learning how to ask your coachman how long the horses will need to rest, and how to request sealing wax and a light (for sending your postal cards!) Availle quotes from a German/English text, what a hoot!

Lest that put people off, Leni also mentioned this, and notes that most of the book she’s working on is as good today as it was when it was written — even in places you wouldn’t expect!

Download audio file (librivox_community_podcast_110.mp3)
(20:21)

Back to Graustark, podcasts and blog-meta

Cori — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:19:03 +0000

So, another volume from the histories of that fictitious country, Graustark, has been released. No strange accents snuck into this one (in a previous volume, an otherwise innocent-looking character came out of my mouth with a deep, gentle Transylvanian lilt, which oddly, wasn’t inappropriate, but was a huge surprise since I hadn’t planned it in any way.) I only contributed one chapter this time, though, who knows what might have happened with more.

Download audio file (beverlyofgraustark_04_mccutcheon.mp3)
(17m 24s)
Chapter 04 – The Ragged Retinue

http://librivox.org/beverly-of-graustark-by-george-barr-mccutcheon/

I’ve been recording a few other collaborative chapters, but nothing else has popped out into the catalogue yet. Mainly, though, I’ve working on a podcast duo — one looking back at 2009 (completed & released) and one looking forward to 2010 (due this Thursday). Hoping to receive a few more contributions for the 2010 one, since it’s a little short as it stands. The request-post is in the forum here, if you’re interested.

Finally, apologies to people subscribed to the RSS feed here, if old posts popped up all day yesterday marked as new! I had a big clearout of catagories, added some logical new ones, and did some behind-the-scenes tidying and planning. In 2010, I’m intending to write here more often, about the process of making audiobooks at home, LibriVoxing generally, and about the public domain. (And hopefully not use that as a way of procrastinating over producing actual audio, too!)

October recordings

Cori — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:12:13 +0000

This month, I have catalogued a book, some collaborative contributions, and — finally, more pirates!

I’ve been working on my solo recording of Anna Sewell’s “Autobiography of a Horse”, Black Beauty, all summer, as its short chapters and positive attitude were a pleasant change from the intense modern non-fiction book I was recording for Audible (not yet released.) Black Beauty was catalogued at the start of the month, and is averaging 30 downloads a day, which isn’t bad going for a book which has previously been recorded for LibriVox.

Listen to Chapter 1 here:
Download audio file (blackbeauty_01_sewell.mp3)
5:03min (128kbps)

Then there was a poem which I found for the LibriVox Weekly Poetry reading. This is more of a challenge than you’d think; finding a shortish poem, by an author who died more than 70 years ago (to maximise the countries in which their work is in the public domain) and which is in some way interesting for multiple readers to try recording, and hopefully, that then has differences in the interpretations that’ll appeal to listeners. Down the Bayou by Mary Ashley Townsend fits many of these criteria, to my mind. I did find I had to check I knew how to say “bayou” correctly, but once I’d done that, I was away! (Along with 11 others. :)
Download audio file (downthebayou_townsend_cs.mp3)
1:15min (128kbps)

There are three other poems, pending cataloguing … that should happen shortly, since both collections are nearly full. I’ve not read poetry for a while, so it’s been really nice to come back to it.

And finally, lady pirates! Yes, my long-ago-read chapter on the “Adventures And Heroism Of Mary Read” has now been entered into the catalogue, and you can hear it as part of The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms (Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers)! Or here:

Download audio file (piratesownbook_26_ellms.mp3)
10:04min (128kbps)

I have a few other things very close to finishing … this will have been a super-productive month, all in all!

StarShipSofa story: The End of Oil by Gwyneth Jones

Cori — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:26:30 +0000

Having done a few round-number celebratory podcasts myself, I’m absolutely chuffed to bits to find myself included in someone else’s. Tony C. Smith’s StarShipSofa is a great podcast, full of short and longer-form science fiction stories and articles. It’s been running a show a week for just over two years, now – this is the 100th episode! It’s a long ‘un … I’m only halfway through listening, but it’s most entertaining.

The story I’ve read, End of Oil, is by Gwyneth Jones, and is a neat little piece of speculative fiction. I’m 98% happy with how it’s turned out; just thinking that I should have left even longer pauses in between the acts. They seemed very long when I was recording and editing!

Listen here (hopefully!) Download audio file (StarShipSofa_Aural_Delights_No_100_Special.mp3)
…
(My reading at 14:00, overall it’s 132 mins)

Esther Waters by George Moore – new free audiobook

Cori — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:24:17 +0000

Esther Waters is a book I saw recommended somewhere online a long time ago, bought in hard copy from the dingy basement of a London bookshop a year ago, and have now contributed two chapters to its audiobook incarnation. It’s a realist novel about a housemaid whose virtue is lost – outside the sanctity of marriage – to a roguish young man and the consequences of that action. It’s unusual for the period in that the world doesn’t end with a woman’s fall … things go on, and they are Victorianly grim, but also quite vivid and imaginable. It’s a long listen, at 14 hrs, but I reckon well worth it.

Download individual files or the whole thing in a zipped folder from:
http://librivox.org/esther-waters-by-george-moore/

Listen to me starting off the book:

Download audio file (estherwaters_01_moore.mp3)
(17:07)

From A to Z – a long short-story by Susan Glaspell

Cori — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:26:51 +0000

I recorded this short story more than a year ago now … and it took me almost that long to get around to editing it, since in the raw state it was about 70 mins. Now it’s trimmed to a perfect 49 mins 37 seconds and it’s available for general listening.

Download audio file (shortstory037_fromatoz_cs_64kb.mp3)

There are also some other stories of hers in this collection, although read by a different voice. My story has one of my favourite lines in any literature anywhere:

“The main thing” — his voice sank to an impressive whisper — “is not to infringe the copyright.”

And I don’t believe I did. Rule of Shorter Term, American author, first publishing there.

Download this, and 19 other stories, free at: http://librivox.org/librivox-short-story-collection-vol-37/

Short fantasy fiction – Something Will Turn Up by David Mason

Cori — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:12:51 +0000

So, I read this story for the Sci-Fi Collection ages ago, and then it sat on my computer in an unedited state while I worked on other things. And in the end I got a round tuit … and decided that it really wasn’t science fiction at all, and might fit better as a general fantasy story in the Short Story Collection. It contains one of my splendidly bad attempts at a cod-Californian accent (don’t tell me how bad it is, it was just for fun!) and is a tres random story, all in all.

Download audio file (shortstory036_somethingwillturnup_cs.mp3)
(14:33)

It was catalogued today, and also in that collection is a group reading of a very silly Dickens story, The Lamplighter which I joined in with. I have yet to listen to how it came out — it was recorded on a handheld recording device, sitting in a chilly pub garden in London with some far-flung visiting LibriVoxers and a persistant blackbird. Very good company. :)

Download audio file (shortstory036_lamplighter_var.mp3)
(38:34)

The Moving Picture Girls – that’s a wrap!

Cori — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:42:48 +0000

My newest solo has been released at LibriVox. I needed a bit of light relief after the splendidly wordy William Morris, so the Moving Picture Girls by Laura Lee Hope, seemed like a good choice. It’s set in early 20th century New York city, the home of a burgeoning movie industry, and is a very family-friendly fictional account of how a reputable theatre actor and his two daughters make their way into the business. I particularly like it for its description of how a movie is made and for a perspective on how movies were initially looked down on by “legitimate” actors — this is fictional, but not too far from the truth, I think.

There are no swear words of even the mildest sort, no sex (not even kissing, just some blushing & giggling romance), and the closest we get to violence is a light scuffle in an apartment building. It’s 7 hours of the cleanest fun!

Listen to chapter 1 below, download the book from this page, or visit archive.org to stream the whole thing.
Download audio file (movingpicturegirls_01_hope_64kb.mp3)
12:06min, 64kbps

The Eilithia Project by Marjorie Danser (at Audible)

Cori — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:05:14 +0000

I’ve recently found that my first commercial audiobook recording was released at audible.co.uk in late November — I finished production at the start of November, and was puzzling over what was taking it so long to be made public. Anyway, Hooray!!

It does include the most epic misspelling of my name to date, but hopefully that’ll be sorted out between the publisher and Audible soon. In the meantime, I’m marvelling over how quickly I read in the sample (it’s not a good thing, really, I must work on slowing down just a little) … and loving seeing my hard work available. I’ve never recorded a whole book in such a (relatively) short space of time before, it was quite an experience.

Audible.co.uk link | Audible.com link

I just discovered the audible.com link; same name misspelling, completely different pricing, and a semi-okay review (nice for me, but not going to improve sales overall.) Ah well.

My next commercial recording is completely different – watch this space.