After trying with a hired actress I decided to record the audiobook myself. Was this a good decision? Maybe yes, maybe no. My voice goes horse almost immediately. I have some funny vocal idiosyncrasies—a tendency to go quiet at the end of a sentence, to prolong some of my words, to speak too slowly. But despite all this, I think the chapters come alive in my own voice. I hear my mother, my father, my uncle—and Mia. Her voice, both in her letters and in the stories she told me, does come alive.
I recorded at a studio in Denver, where we have spent the last four months helping care for our grandson. I had to wear a mask on the way in and out, as did the audio-engineers. They took my temperature before each session with one of those thermometers you point and shoot. (always under 98 degrees.) The owner’s tiny dog always freaked out when I arrived and wouldn’t calm down until I took off my bike helmet and my mask.
I’d put on my headphones and set up the book, take a look at Mick and his friends, and settle in.
There were some glitches and some lost files that haven’t been located yet. The talented Georgia Sparling, who edited the podcast with Tony Eprile, is doing a final pass. It’s coming together.