Author Archive

I’m happy to announce that I will be recording my first audiobook, a very cool, edgy, hip book called “Blood Angel” by Justine Musk. It will be digitally published through Crossroad Press on iTunes, Audible and several other mainstream channels. I’m very excited to be working on this project and am really enjoying reading the book at the moment. I’m encouraged to see such great reviews of it on Amazon and can only hope that the audio version I’ll be performing will deserve reviews that are just as positive.

Since I’ve been given permission to discuss the book as I’m working on it, I’ll have periodic updates here on the blog and also on my facebook business page, Arielle Audio. If voicing commercials is a sprint, recording an audiobook is compared to a voice over marathon. I look forward to sharing some of the interesting terrain of my 26.2 miles on the way to my largest, most unique and challenging voiceover project so far!

I was the kid in school who LOVED being picked to read the textbook out loud for the class. Seriously, in my head it was the spotlight on me, as I read page 192 in World Civ, and please please when I get to the bottom of the page, have the teacher tell me to continue reading. I can remember feeling like I was performing for an audience. My speedy sight-reading came in handy for the various instruments I played, too, and it was something that I knew I was good at, but never thought it would amount to anything professionally.

Now I’ve really turned my voiceover focus toward narrating audiobooks. That is, I’m reconfiguring gear, and doing lots of practicing and marketing in order to make publishers and producers aware of me, and surely to get myself ready in all aspects to voice any books that I may be assigned. I have found the optimal outlet for that handy sight-reading skill. Reading the book in advance is ideal, but even a 10th time going through any script, you’re still performing it on the fly, in the moment, and you have to know the nuances and curves in the story as you go so you can choose a better performance. The ability to sight-read and see ahead without jumping ahead in the performance, or letting what is about to happen bleed through into your read leading up to it and ruin the moment – that’s the balancing act.

It’s reassuring to be able to look into my past and see the spark – reading aloud to my classmates – that over time and through much introspection, training with experts and practice on my own has become a huge flame for audiobook narration.

Obviously I’ve neglected my blog. If it was a kid, it’d be taken away and I wouldn’t even get visitation. Sorry, those of you who have added this to your RSS feed, but I do think that over this summer I’ll be able to be a bit more diligent about SOME kind of update.

I have a lot of things I wanted to write about:
Audiobook Publishers’ Association Conference in NYC
B&H – ah yes, a sweet, sweet candy shop for anyone even remotely techie
Book Expo America (a few days later)
A personal trip to North Carolina and a week later a couples’ trip to Vegas (and my first time there!)
A shift is coming

So, I’ll be brief on most of these but want to get something posted, so I’ll start with my NY trip.

APAC was the single most amazing conference I’ve attended directly related to my career. I haven’t been to VOICE in LA yet, I think I’ll plan for next year, but otherwise APAC was phenomenal. The workshops were great, but several time slots were double-booked so I had to choose which ones to attend. Oh man, to have a little mini-me running around to those other workshops just to absorb it all! However, in lieu of a mini-me, I have great friends and we’ve shared notes on all the workshops. Specifically, there’s 4 of us from Pat Fraley’s Audiobook workshop called the Billion Dollar Read in ‘09 (he’s offering another one in LA in July, if you’re considering it then jump on this!) and we’ve stuck together, encouraging, critiquing, sharing, and it’s just more evidence that people in the voice over industry are selfless givers. These awesome ladies are Rachel Fulginiti, Heather Henderson and Amy Rubinate. Together, when our powers are combined– ok no… just when we all reunited at APAC, we called our group the Fraley Four! That group has been my mirror in voice overs, showing me bits of myself and reassuring me that I’m in the right place and doing the right things. The workshops at APAC were eye-opening, networking and getting to actually talk to people who can use you on a book was an incredible opportunity, and between some very open and kind publishers and the awesome people I knew I’d see and the new ones I met, the best part was still the people. Oh please, stop rolling your eyes, I mean it!!

BEA was overwhelming. It was a book lover’s dream, and a strategic nightmare to navigate in the 6 hours I had until we had to head to the airport. The Javitz Center was filled with people from all walks of the publishing industry – from librarians, book club members and authors to presidents of publishing companies and the top tiers of management who were there to make distribution deals. It was totally nutty but Rachel and I were able to get around to quite a few independent publishers to tell them about our collective of narrators. A few seemed pretty interested, thankfully the ones whose books and general topics we were most interested in. We’ll see if there’s any love connections that form from BEA down the road. It was a great side-conference to attend on exhibitor day, but much like APAC, I could have used a 2nd day to take it all in.

I just skipped over the other fantastic thing I enjoyed while in New York: B&H Photo/Video. The best thing to me was the mic room. I was able to spend some time with 2 well-trained sets of ears, Tony Willson and unfortunately I don’t have the woman’s name handy, but they were awesome. I tried out many mics and we all agreed that while I came in expecting the Neumann TLM 103 to be a perfect fit for my voice, it was actually the TLM 102 that brought out all the best aspects of my voice, and gave me enough options to play around with distance and warmth. That’s been my new standard mic since I came home, and my poor RE20 has been stored in its case until I need it. It’ll still be the mic I use on the road, since it travels so well, but for daily use I can’t bear to take my new 102 off my mic stand. :)

I spent 5 days in or traveling to and from New York and Andy met with photo editors in NYC, so he was no slacker on this trip, and while he had to go home (he shot the midweek wedding of our talented massage therapist, Amy and her new husband Nick) I flew to North Carolina to see family and friends. It’s only fair, he was just in North Carolina a week or two earlier to shoot another wedding, so this trip would be just me and slightly less running around than last time I was there.

I’m doing some targeted advertising right now to build up other aspects of my business, and still finishing my follow-ups from APAC and BEA. I’m happy to be working on projects for new clients and to also have continued work from clients I’ve worked with for a while. I’ve gotten some good feedback from my contacts so far from APAC, which is very encouraging. I’m busy, but it’s that good kind of sustainable, manageable busy and I can fit a blog post in here or there. My personal life is busy with an attempt to shift my waking hours to accommodate for a grueling early yoga class, adding in some volunteer work to my day and Andy and I are grilling anything we can think of with our new outdoor grill.

I feel like we’re embarking on another big change or shift. I’m not sure what it is but I think I’ve turned a corner in the balance between my business, Andy’s business and my full time job doing voice and production work. I know, with all this going on, doesn’t it sound busy enough without a 40 hr/week job, too? Maybe it’ll be the addition of audiobooks and more station imaging to tip me towards going 100% freelance, maybe Andy’s wedding or commercial business will get too busy for him to handle without getting extra help in a bigger capacity. Who knows. As of yesterday, I’ve been in Phoenix for 3 years now, and I sense a positive shift is on its way. While change can be scary, I’m not closing any doors but I’m just watching for new ones to open. This blog post has been in my mind a lot lately.

I’ve just updated my website with a new page – Audiobooks! Currently I have 2 demos posted, more will be posted within the next week or so. Demo #1 is a short, all-purpose voice demo that spans a few audiobook categories. Demo #2 is a short reading from a book by Walt Morey called “Year of the Black Pony.” When I started reading this, the writing just fit like a glove to my reading style. I have a longer excerpt that I may put in its place, since YA is my genre of choice within audiobooks.

Speaking of, I’m excited to be attending the Audiobook Publishers Association Conference as well as Book Expo America in a few weeks. It’ll be my first time back to New York in about 5 years, and I’m hoping to squeeze a show (or even The Daily Show) into my schedule while I’m in town. I’m really looking forward to reconnecting with some awesome women I met in an audiobook workshop last year as well as making new connections at both conferences.

Who has 2 thumbs and hasn’t posted a blog in over 2 months? This gal. (The visual works much better in person.) The short version of what I’ve been up to can be found on my facebook page. It’s great to be busy, it’s just harder to make blogging part of my routine when it’s currently not. Looks like I’m due for a final goals tally, and to create a new list of some kind moving forward. I suppose that means I’ll have another blog post soon!

In the meantime, I’m going to feature a few things I’ve found recently that I wanted to share and figured someone else may find interesting.

Ideaboard fashion website: www.polyvore.com

This website aligns nicely with my recent efforts to not look like a stereotypical radio bum. I’m a sale shopper and refuse to pay full price for clothes (audio gear, on the other hand…) So in Phoenix I’m lucky to have Last Chance just a few miles from my house. It’s Nordstrom’s outlet for all sorts of returns in new (or totally trashed) condition, and also items that didn’t sell well but still may be cute from all over the country. There’s a Dillard’s outlet in Tempe and of course the regular discount places that can be hit or miss. So anyway, this outfit “set” I put together on polyvore.com – it’s like $4,000, which is totally ridiculous. I bet I could find all that stuff for under $150, being the resourceful sale shopper that I am. Polyvore looks like it’ll be a little inspiration to get me thinking more about the image I project with my clothes day after day. Every woman knows that when you feel confident in your clothes, it comes through in everything you do, which can only be good for business.

iPhone app: Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

You know what else is good for business? Getting a good night’s sleep. Also, it’s critical if you hope to live a long life, according to an article from CNN.com this week that I can’t find now. To play devil’s advocate, I was thinking that if you DO spend an extra hour a night sleeping that over 60 years it’s 2.5 YEARS you spend asleep! So I’d at least want to have an ROI of more than 2.5 years longevity if I put the planning into getting more sleep. If you’re more concerned about just waking up feeling refreshed and not in the middle of vibrant dreaming deep sleep, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app can be life changing. It uses the accelerometer in your iPhone to gauge your movement while asleep, and based on that, it predicts where you are in your sleep cycle. There’s good science behind this and millions of people worldwide who swear by how helpful it is, myself obviously included. You just plug your phone in overnight, stick it near your pillow and set a wake up time in Sleep Cycle. You’ll be woken up no earlier than 30 minutes before that time, when the app tries to wake you up in your lightest sleep in that 30 minute window. So it catches you before you drift back off into dreaming about Ben-Hur style races against vicious giant rabbits (or work, or whatever you dream about), and you feel soooooo much more refreshed and ready to start your day. That 2nd photo from the app is actually my sleep cycle from last night… I woke up just before 7 and then went right back to sleep before my 7:10 alarm actually went off.
It’s a 99cent app and has been rated 3.5 stars by 2200 people.

Audio gear: Blue Mikey 2

I was talking to an actor/imaging friend about mobile recording gear for in-a-pinch situations. He’s got a great handheld recorder for interviews, client soundbites, even concert audio – but it’s not a great fit for voiceover work for when I take a daytrip to Flagstaff or Sedona, or a weekend trip to Vegas. If I needed to get a quick audition out to my agent, I don’t want to miss that opportunity. So, here’s another iPhone related item, it plugs into the base of your phone but will work with iTouch if you haven’t jumped on board with the phone yet. I haven’t bought this yet, still in search of personal experience from other VO talent about using it. However, I’m totally in love with the idea of something compact, simple and high quality enough for situations where hauling gear isn’t practical.

I’ve also been reading about pairing this mic with an app called VC Audio Pro, which appears to be a bit clunky but is much better than the serious limitations of the 3G standard voice recorder app. The app is $6.99, and Blue Mikey 2 is $99 at Sweetwater.com. I promise that if I get it, I’ll post audio samples so other people can judge for themselves about its quality.

Fun video: Flash mob + Glee =

I don’t believe in making New Year’s resolutions. If you made some this year, how many are you still maintaining and how many did you ditch by Superbowl weekend (be it the food, skipping a routine exercise plan, maxing out on your beer-a-day limit, whatever)… Point being, we all know January 1st is just as arbitrary as any other day, but there’s way more peer pressure involved and what you need to make goals/resolutions work is your own personal motivation, regardless of other people. That’s part of why I made a list of 36 goals to work on over the course of a year. That one year deadline is still a few months away in early April, but here’s a check-in with how I’m doing with them; the ones in bold have had some progress or I felt the need to comment on them:

1. post to my blog at least once a week – Fail!
2. record and donate an audiobook
3. edit new commercial and animation demos - Produced a new commercial demo last fall, didn’t have anything to add to my animation demo, this one’s done. 10/2/09
4. re-record my audiobook demo – Completed 11/27/09.
5. adjust the inputs in my home and work studios for optimal sound – My work studio sound is inferior to my home studio, but also not 100% within my control. I’m going to start bringing a few pieces of my mobile studio gear with me if I can’t get a cleaner sound out of that chain.
6. stick to a realistic workout routine that fits my lifestyle (ongoing, check in every 2 months) – Going well! 26mi bike ride every Saturday, 2 and sometimes 3 days a week at the gym, pretty consistently over the past year, aside from when I had pneumonia.
7. volunteer my time once a month
8. hike Camelback (summit), Squaw Peak (summit), Lookout Mountain (summit), South Mountain (National trail), Cave Creek (Go John trail), Estrella Mountain (Rainbow Valley trail), White Tank Mountains (Goat Camp, Ford Canyon to Mesquite Loop, or Mesquite Canyon to Willow Springs trail) http://www.visitphoenix.com/visitor/index.cfm?action=trails – I’ve got a lot of hiking to start doing…
9. donate blood
10. get back to Raleigh for at least 5 days – Completed September ‘09
11. renew my passport – Meant to do this in 2009, since my husband is an amazing photographer and I could have a flattering passport picture.
12. use my passport – Making grandiose yet vague and unresearched plans
13. plant a garden on the back patio with native plants – So close! Took classes with the Phoenix Permaculture Guild on how to get things to grow in our wacky soil, and it’s going to be planting season again shortly.
14. get more agent representation – I’m going to consider the few producers I work with who have large clients come through their studios to be completion of this, ongoing goal…
15. learn how to use Photojunction
16. reconfigure the layout of my home studio for ease of use
17. improve my technical photography skills – Can you ever really be done on something that is an improvement-based goal? Always striving to improve my skills in whatever I do…
18. organize business and tax paperwork – I’m so good about this, my tax guy loves me because it takes 15 minutes to do our joint married taxes and 2 businesses because I’m queen of spreadsheets.
19. study with a voiceover pro
20. beat GH 80’s (Electric Eye + encore song), GH3 (Battle for your Soul level) and Rock Band 1 (Green Grass and High Tides) on expert guitar
21. give handmade gifts – We gave our close local friends mango chutney and home roasted coffee for Christmas this year.
22. research composting and determine whether it’s something we can do (and if so, start doing it!) – We’ve got a bin, we put stuff in it, sometimes we remember to water it and stab it with a piece of rebar we bought for that purpose (keep it mixed, aerate…) It’s not a fancy schmancy compost bin that spins, but it’s cut down drastically on how much food gets thrown in the trash. We feed our compost bin every 2 days or so with how often we go through biodegradable coffee filters and red pepper cores, etc.
23. find a local farmers’ co-op – Have researched a few but not taken further action
24. get together with other recent newlyweds and hang out/drink beer in our wedding dresses
25. babysit for friends to give them a night off
26. use our National Parks Pass twice to go somewhere besides the Grand Canyon – Hmm… I think this has expired.
27. cook dinner for friends once a month – Good intentions, tough to schedule.
28. create parents’ albums with our wedding photos using Photojunction
29. learn a new craft or take an old hobby up a notch – Yes! I would have to say gardening/compost maintenance type stuff qualifies.
30. spend more time with Andy and our kitties
31. get allergy tested – Turns out, I’m not allergic to much. I also now have a fabulous ENT to keep me working at full capacity with little down time.
32. sign on 2 more radio stations for imaging (voice and/or production)
33. mail letters/photos to out of town friends
34. finish painting throughout the house – I’m going to cross this off now, because it’s very close to being completed.
35. help someone else put together a voice demo - Offered this to a friend, hope to get together to help her with that soon.
36. participate in (or be entered and training for) a triathlon or duathlon – I hate running.

So that’s 16 completed or mostly completed, and 20 to go. It’s also interesting to see how my goals have changed, what’s important now vs what was important to me in my business or personal goals nearly a year ago. My current goals are much more focused and measurable in terms of results, vs having completion goals I’m now looking at number goals. I really do enjoy running my own business, I just hate running (see #36.)