Karen R Savage – Page 9 – Professional Voice Talent, Amateur Actor and Knitter

Project updates

On Friday, 16 September, 2011

The third Valonia book is finally officially published on Iambik (yay!). No word yet when we’ll get access to the last book in the series.

I was offered another series via ACX called the Summer Chronicles. I finished the first of those, Phantom Universe just last week. It’s currently in post-processing. The second, Forsaken Harbor, is due to be published at the end of this month, so I guess I’ll get to start working on it some time after that.

In the meantime, I’ve got a bit of a break and I’ve been able to concentrate on my poor, neglected LibriVox projects. I’ve finished my SFFAudio challenge book, The Big Time. Just finished cataloging it this morning. My Spanish solo, Angelina is moving along nicely. I hope to finish it before I have to start working on other stuff again (seriously, this poor thing has been going since 2008; it keeps getting pushed aside in favour of other projects). And as I was so close to finishing The Big Time, I decided to start my next English solo. I’m doing the next available Anne book, Anne’s House of Dreams. Next available as opposed to next in the series, because, unfortunately, Anne of Windy Poplars is still in copyright, which is a total bummer, because it’s my favourite. 🙁

I finished my latest project for Ignatius, Poor Banished Children, back in August, but my contact had some vacation time, so I haven’t heard when it’s due to be published. I’ve been offered a novella called Song at the Scaffold to read next. It’s set during the Reign of Terror. Should be interesting.

I’ve lots of knitting updates too, but I’ll keep those for a separate post, or this will be enormous.

Starting a trend

By kruthie73

On Wednesday, 10 August, 2011

In random

I got a flat on my scooter this morning. It was a very disconcerting, wobbly feeling. One of my officemates suggested that, as one doesn’t carry a spare on a scooter, I should mod my helmet with a long bolt and a wingnut and start carrying one up there. I’ll be making heads turn. Oh, yeah!

Concentration

By kruthie73

On Friday, 10 June, 2011

In work

Something I’ve noticed during this conference: I’ve been retaining more information from the sessions where I’ve knitted than the ones where I tried to take notes (too many distractions available when taking notes on a machine w/internet access).

Conference week

By kruthie73

On Wednesday, 8 June, 2011

In knitting, work

At Open Repositories 2011 this week. Looking forward to meeting other repository managers and learning what is upcoming in the newest version of Dspace.

The conference is taking place in Austin, on UT campus. Didn’t think about it till I got here, but the yarn of the knitting project I brought with me (Easy Baby Aran) is pretty much UT orange, which should be anathema to a green & gold Baylor Bear like me.

New collection

By kruthie73

On Wednesday, 18 May, 2011

In audiobooks, work

Iambik’s first SciFi collection has been released. It contains the first two books in the Chronicles of Valonia series: The Jewels of Valonia, and The Golden Casket and the Spectres of Light.

Really tired tonight. Haven’t slept well the last couple of nights because I’ve been really stressed about a couple of day-job projects that I had to finish upgrading/migrating yesterday and today. Now that they’ve both been successfully completed, I feel like I’m sort of coming out of shock. I feel all wibbly-wobbly (but not timey-wimey). Early night, I think.

I could have danced all night…

By kruthie73

On Monday, 2 May, 2011

In audiobooks, librivox, public domain, theatre

Just two more weeks of rehearsals for My Fair Lady. I’m feeling pretty confident at this point; nowhere near as panicky as in past musicals (so far I’ve only woken up with a start at 4am once). The set is pretty much complete (it helps that it was a nice, simple one); most people are off-book; props are pretty much done; I haven’t been paying much attention to costumes, as I already have mine, but hopefully they’re close to done too.

I’ve recently finished three more audiobooks. I just finished Sense and Sensibility for LibriVox. I finished a critical edition of Mansfield Park for Ignatius about two months ago, but my contact was on maternity leave, so it’s only just been published. I also published the main text of it (with a bit of editing to make sure it conformed to the absolutely-for-sure-public-domain version on gutenberg) on LV. And I’ve just finished the second book in the Chronicles of Valonia series for Iambik. The first two books in the series (The Jewels of Valonia and The Golden Casket and the Spectres of Light) will be released in Iambik’s first SciFi collection. Will post a link once the collection is published.

I’ve started working on Poor Banished Children now; and I’m about a third of the way through my SFFAudio challenge book, The Big Time. I’ve also picked up my poor, neglected Spanish solo, Angelina, again. And now that I’ve started reading it again, I’ve remembered why I lost interest in the first place. Although the story is interesting so far, the author doesn’t seem to have ever heard of the rule in writing, “don’t use a big word when a simple one will do”. His prose is flowery, verbose, long-winded, and simply not meant to be read aloud. He gives me fifty fits every time I sit down to read a chapter. He also spends a lot of time in long descriptions of places and events that have nothing to do with the plot (JRR Tolkien has nothing on this guy).

Housekeeper, not flower-girl

By kruthie73

On Friday, 25 March, 2011

In theatre

I got cast as Mrs Pearce in My Fair Lady. I can live with that, especially since the person who did get cast as Eliza was the only person at call backs who didn’t make me cringe inwardly at least once on accents. And the director has said I can use whatever accent I like for Mrs P. She’s totally going to be Welsh! 🙂 I wanted to do Welsh for Mrs Clackett in Noises Off, but the director nixed it, so I’m excited that I get to try it out this time.

I might get to re-use the costume I made for Trial by Jury, which I introduced in the persona of Queen Victoria. It’s plain and black, with just a bit of lace at the neck, so it might work for a housekeeper. I’m offering it to the costumer anyway so she can decide. What I say is, it’s one less thing to have to make, which, with a large cast, is an important point.

I don’t like the time change

By kruthie73

On Thursday, 17 March, 2011

In audiobooks, random

I don’t like taking the dog for her walk until it starts getting light. Last week, I was able to take her out around 6:15am, which meant I could get to work between 7 and 7:30 and get off work around 4 (yay!). This week, I’m back to having to wait until after 7 to take her out, which means I’m getting to work later, and off work later (boo!).

The only good thing that’s come out of the change so far is that, as I’m still waking up around 5:30, I’ve got extra time in the mornings, so I’ve been able to get some recording done before work, while the house is quiet. 🙂

Auditions for My Fair Lady on Monday. I’m trying out for Eliza. I can reach all the notes, and I can beat the pants off anyone else auditioning on accents, but we shall see. I tend to get cast in very minor roles or in the chorus in most musicals (twice in non-singing roles!)

Iambik releases Crime Collection 1

By kruthie73

On Friday, 11 March, 2011

In audiobooks

Iambik finally released the collection that contains my book Getting Sassy. There was a bit of delay while they reworked the site’s look and functionality. There’s currently a blip in that my book is marked as $0.00, though it shows the full price ($6.99) once in the shopping cart.

The press release.

Updates

By kruthie73

On Tuesday, 8 March, 2011

In audiobooks, friends

So the new housemates have two dogs. Their own is a beagle, a little less than a year old. He’s a sweet little guy. The other dog they’re fostering for the landlady, whose daughter wanted a largish dog, but they don’t have room for it where they’re living on campus. She’s a husky mix, and she’s very sweet with people, and gets along with most dogs, but wouldn’t you know it, the one dog she hated on sight was my poor Lucy! (we think it’s a dominant females thing) 🙁

Finished another two books recently. One for Iambik called Getting Sassy by D. C. Brod. It’s for their new Crime collection, which they’re supposed to be releasing any day now. It was lots of fun to read. It’s a sort of mix of crime, thriller and comedy. The other book I just finished was a critical edition of Mansfield Park for Ignatius Press. It’s the full text of MP plus an additional ten or twelve sections of modern criticisms, and some contemporary opinions that Jane Austen collected of the novel.

Up next I’m starting a children’s series for Iambik called The Chronicles of Valonia by Katie Paterson. They’re Arthurian legend, which I’ve been partial to since I took a lit class in college that covered everything from Mallory’s Mort D’Arthur through Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon. Ignatius has given me a book called Poor Banished Children by Fiorella de Maria. I’m about a quarter of the way through my pre-read of it, but it promises to be very interesting. It’s set in the sixteenth century, and begins with a shipwreck off the coasts of Cornwall. The only survivor found is a young woman dressed as a boy. She’s taken in, gravely ill, by the local gentry and is found to speak Latin. She asks for a priest (dangerous, because this is after the dissolution of the monasteries) to give her final confession, starting from her early childhood. Still working on Sense and Sensibility for LV, though it fell a little by the wayside while I finished the last two, as I had definite deadlines for them. My next LV book will be The Big Time by Fritz Leiber, which I’m doing for the 5th Annual SFFAudio Challenge.