Yvette Keller's Blog, page 29

Adventures in Narration

Everyone around me was so supportive and curious about my first job as an audiobook narrator that I wrote many facebookposts and journalentries about the day-to-day process. For launching my new website, I decided to gather them all together hereand share the ups-and-downs.

May 09, 2016 1:15pm

So, when I was doing over voice and video production for my last employer, we turned the closet in my office into a recording booth.I got laid off, so I decommissioned it.

Now I’m planning to rec...

Time Traveling Again

In two weeks, for the third year in a row, I will be returning to the Oregon Caves Chateau for my favorite time travel event of the year. Please enjoy this re-post of my 2014 article describing my first experience with the Oregon Regency Society.

A Time Traveller’s Note
By Madame Bessey

My Dear Friend,

The date is 1814, and my incomparable location: the Oregon Caves Chateau. I have had an utterly joyful holiday at the Oregon Regency Society Annual Retreat. I feel quite gloomy that my v...

My Writing Influences

Every writer I’ve ever read has no doubt influenced me in ways I can’t imagine, but when I’m asked what writers have influenced me and why specific images and feelings pop into my head:

The severe, dark-haired Anne Rice in a small room, holding a black oil pencil. The white walls are scribbled with words. I read an Interview With An…author, one time, and Rice talked about how she just loves words. She would write words she loved on the walls around her to create an environment where she cou...

Elect Melissa McCarthy Queen of Everything Already

As a part of the run up to the new Netflix Season Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, here’s my paltry addition to the accoladesbeing showered on Melissa McCarthy (rightfully so!). She was so amazing as Sookie St. James that she instantly became one of those actors where I shout “I LOVE her!” when she’s in a movie trailer or on a poster. She’s a reason to see any film or TV series. Clearly, a lot of people feel that way, and with her recent string of FANTASTIC movies, I’m just so happy w...

When Did You Become A Writer?

I’m trying to write a bio for my “author” page because I have my first publication coming out in October, and something just struck me: At some point in 2016, I became a writer.

I think I’m in FIVE writing groups right now:

Novelists for the Long Haul – remote – read-n-critique (facilitator) MRK Sunday writing hangout – remote – generative & social SB Writer Galz – local – generative & social (facilitator) SB Writers Meetup – local – read-n-critique Wednesday Writers – local – read-n-critiq...

Breathing Required

I can’t breathe.

Running out of air andstruggling with the very loooooooooooong sentences my authors write (and I have to read) prompted me to pay for an elcheapo singing class through my local lifelong learning center. I surmised that if I could go back to the singing basics of breathing, supporting my voice, and using it properly, I would be closer to faster audiobook production.

At the first class, my teacher spent the first 30 minutes basically talking about how frustrated she was with “...

Angel’s Devil (Jake Brand, PI #1)

Angel’s Devil (Jake Brand, PI #1)
by M. Louis

I listened to the audiobook on a long drive. I’m not usually a fan of crime thrillers, but this had enough of a mix between Jake, the main character’s, inner world and the outer world to hold my interest.

I suspect I would not have finished this book if I’d been reading. It has a pretty big cast of flat charactersand a lot of wallowing. The inner dialog between the angel and devil are well intentioned as comic relief, and they work sometimes,...

A Very Good Place To Start

The workshop I spent the most time in at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference (SBWC) was called Story Structure for all Genres. Playwright and author, Dale Griffiths Stamos, provides brief lecture and then conducts interview-style one-on-ones with each author, discussing their overall work.

I’m still very new to writing so it takes only the simplest of ideas to blow my mind. In this case, asking the simplest of questions: What *IS* writing? This answer surprised me by focusing on one way to...

The Time Traveling Fashionista Series

Full disclosure: this series was recommended to me by my 11yr old niece. I’m reading it specifically to discuss with her, and I am not a regular YA reader or audience. That said, this series of three (so far) books are quick, fun, reads that are fresh in their optimism. The series is entertaining without dystopia, dripping drama, or dragging descriptions of self-loathing. For that alone, I applaud the author!

What the author accomplishes well is consistency of a pre-teen voice, capturin...

‘Voice’ in Writing

I’m finally in bed after Day 1 of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Alarm in four hours. You may not get much from me for the next five days. The guest speaker, Rufi Thorpe, was phenomenal. This paraphrase doesn’t do justice to her beautiful, heartfelt presentation about finding your material and voice, but it is so important that I wanted to capture it anyway:

Books are like postcards you send out over the abyss. You have no control over your readership. If you’re sending postcards the...