Audiobook Week 2012: My Audiobook Year

Welcome to Day #1 of Audiobook Week here at Going Public!

**UPDATE ON GIVEAWAY – WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN AND NOTIFIED**

Monday through Thursday of this week, I (Xe) will be posting new Going Public content, blog posts, and a giveaway, in conjunction with the wonderful audiobook promotional effort of Jen at Devourer of Books. Need further info on Audiobook Week? Pop over to here and check out all the wonderful content flowing in from bloggers and listeners all over the cyberverse.

Just looking for the Going Public pieces & write-ups? Look for “Going Public #JIAM Audiopalooza” posts in the sidebar.

Monday’s discussion topics: Are you new to audiobooks in the last year? Have you been listening to them forever but discovered something new this year? Favorite titles? New times/places to listen? This is your chance to introduce yourself and your general listening experience.

It’s the concept of discovery over the past year that I’d like to talk about today, after a smidge of introduction.

I am an audiobook narrator and voice artist, with a passion for first-person and literary fiction, and piercing poetry, so my Audiobook Week posts will be a mash-up of my perspective as a listener and narrator.

I have been listening to audiobooks forever, it seems – LOL! My daughter and I began listening to audiobooks years back when we had a long daily commute. We quickly discovered favorites (the narration of Granny Nothing from AudioGO still pops into my mind, along with her hilarious little song) and developed a list of go-to narrators we came to love. We’ve since moved and our commute has ended, so the days of daily listening have sadly passed; however, in the intervening years, I’ve gone pro with my narration, and discovery has taken on a new dimension – especially this past year.

There were many enriching experiences over this past year, but today I’d like to highlight two in particular.  The first was a rediscovery and immersion into poetry, specifically the joy of reading poetry aloud – first, feeling it wash over me during the first read; then feeling it rise up out of a deep, inner place when recording it. Through W. W. Norton’s and Poetry Foundation’s Twitter & Tumblr feeds, and Twitter memes such as #TodaysPoem, my poetry landscape has expanded tremendously this past year, and my love for my college favorites (Lawrence, in particular) has re-emerged and deepened. However professionally produced audio productions of poetry are unfortunately rare.

And while this personal poetry renaissance was happening, I was fortunate to meet the wonderful Robin Sachs. True, I first became aware of Sachs as an actor (Hello. My name is Xe, and I’m a Buffy fangirl). But I actually met Robin as an audiobook narrator.

Putting on my listener hat for a moment…If you haven’t experienced one of Sachs’s narrations, make some room in your to-be-listened pile. Now. He’s an exceptional narrator with a depth and richness to his voice that is hard to match. I’ve listened to several of his narrations and he has made my list of go-to-narrators for the foreseeable future.

But in addition to discovering his work, I’ve been blessed to discover the joy of working with Robin on several projects as well, including two we prepared specifically for the Going Public push in celebration of #JIAM2012. Given the right material, we’ve found that our voices combine to create something that I have to admit is kind of phenomenal.

Take a listen – here’s what we came up with for today (for full background, see this post):

“New Year’s Night” and “Mystery,” by D. H. Lawrence  (read by Robin Sachs & Xe Sands)

(and if you cannot see the player above, please go directly to the SoundCloud page for “New Year’s Night / Mystery”)

Listener hat firmly strapped back on...And in addition to Sachs, I’ve discovered three other narrators who have blown me away with their delivery: Bianca Amato, Dan Stevens, and Bahni Turpin. I’ll offer this caveat though – I haven’t been able to listen to a whole narration by the latter two, but simply cannot wait to remedy that. But Amato? Bliss to listen to.

How about you? What have audiobook discoveries have you made this year? And which of them surprised you most? While you are pondering, let’s chat GIVEAWAY, shall we?

The Triple-threat Giveaway: 1 Audio + 1 Print Book + 1 Custom Piece

Leave a comment on any of my Audiobook Week posts before 8PM PST on Friday, 6/29, and you will be entered to win a gift package including:

• 1 Audiobook of mine, from either Tantor (Mp3 CDs or digital download) or Iambik (download only)
• 1 Print book of your choice from the ARCs below**
• I’ll narrate the poem or short story of your choice (some restrictions on length/content)

…and for each post you comment on, you get your name added into the hat another time. Comment on all five posts, and you’ll have five chances to win! Regrettably, if you are outside the US, I can only offer item #3.

If you’ve got a Twitter handle, please list it in your comment so I can more easily notify you.

Winner will be announced here, and via my and Going Public’s Twitter and Facebook feeds. Winner will have until 5PM PST on Saturday, 6/30 to make their print and audiobook selections (more time can be taken for the custom recorded piece 🙂 ) Please be sure to check one of those sources after the close of the drawing.

**print ARCs to choose from:

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce
• The Beautiful Mystery, by Louise Penny
• Gold, by Chris Cleave
• In Search of Lucy, by Lia Fairchild