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SCOTT BRICK PRESENTS: Interviewing Richard Matheson, the Full Voicebank Interview, AudioFile on CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE, a Shout-out by Slate.com, My Wikipedia Page, and Talking a Little Baseball Or, an audiobook narrator says, “Share the Experience is finally underway, so it’s time for a break!” and takes a short breather to update everyone on what else is going on

Scott — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:39:23 +0000

Richard Matheson (R) and Scott (Photo by Richard Parsons)

Greetings everyone, Scott here. To those of you who’ve been reading up on the Share the Experience contest, my thanks for all your input and support. It’s been extraordinarily exciting to see the contest go from just an idea to a done deal. I’m extremely grateful to the Audio Publishers Association, and all our participating publishers/judges. No way this could happen without them. As you may know, this past Wednesday saw us smash a champagne bottle across the bow of the contest, and we’re eagerly awaiting these next few weeks, to see just what kind of response we’ll get. Best of luck to everyone. We’ll post the results here as soon as humanly possible (meaning on or about July 10, as detailed on the contest page).

Now, to all of you who subscribe to this site for our commercial enterprises, the Brick By Brick Audiobooks we’ve been putting out this past year, thank you for your patience as I’ve taken time off from my production schedule to see this 10th year anniversary contest come to life. There are more audiobooks on the way soon, many, many more, and we’ll be getting back to them in the very near future. In the meantime, I thought I’d update you all on some recent events, some web postings I thought you might be interested in.

First off, I got a rare and treasured opportunity recently to interview my absolute favorite author of all time: Richard Matheson. Never heard of him? Crawl out from under your rock! He’s the author of a staggering array of classic tales, many of which have been turned into terrific films: I AM LEGEND, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, HELL HOUSE, THE NIGHT STALKER, STIR OF ECHOES, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, and my personal favorite, SOMEWHERE IN TIME. When you meet him, you can’t help but stare at the man’s head, just marveling at how many amazing tales came out of there, y’know? He also wrote episodes of the original STAR TREK, plus a cool dozen of the best TWILIGHT ZONEs of all time, including the classic William Shatner vehicle, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Well, I wrote up a print version of the interview for this month’s AudioFile Magazine, who also posted an audio supplement. It’s an edited version of the complete hour-long interview, maybe 15 minutes long, just the first part of what will ultimately be a much longer audio interview that’ll be posted here on this site in the near future. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Second, I was interviewed by Tracy Pattin of Voicebank recently, who also posted four audio supplements (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). This was a great deal of fun — most interviews I do are done on the phone, but Tracy stopped by my house and we sat down in the studio, then just proceeded to chat about all sorts of audiobook-related topics. We posted the first part of the interview here on the site when it came out, but if you’re looking for the whole thing, you’ll find all four parts here.

Next, AudioFile also posted a roundtable interview, featuring myself, Simon Vance and Katherine Kellgren, all fellow citizens of the planet Arrakis in the DUNE series. Brian Price conducted this interview to commemorate the final installment in Frank Herbert’s original DUNE saga, CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE. You can also watch the three of us, as well as the great Euan Morton who plays Paul Atreides, in a video shot that same day. For my fellow DUNE geeks, er, enthusiasts, there’s a rare glimpse of Frank Herbert’s pronunciation notes for the series, unearthed from my ever-expanding DUNE Glossary and shown onscreen for your viewing pleasure.

If you’re a sports fan, you might enjoy a fun interview I did with Ron Kaplan for his website, Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf. An extremely knowledgeable baseball fan, Ron sought me out after listening to some of the baseball-themed audiobooks I’ve done these past few years, including biographies of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, the terrific look of the Oakland Athletics’ visionary leader Billy Bean in MONEYBALL, as well as the expose of Barry Bonds’ shameful exploits in GAME OF SHADOWS, the book that blew the lid off the Balco steroid scandal. Ron’s a very cool guy and a great interviewer. The thing I recall most clearly is not wanting the conversation to end.

(Of course, you can check out all of these and more on my Press page.)

I’ll also point you to Slate.com, where, during a recent discussion (or gabfest, as they like to call them), a listener recommended a few titles I’ve done that’re available on audible.com: THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA and UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN. It’s primarily a political discussion, but I appreciate the mention about halfway through and wanted to give hosts Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz my thanks for the shout-out.

Lastly, if you haven’t seen it yet, I have been graced with a Wikipedia page. Since it’s Wikipedia, we don’t update it, although we try to check it once in a while for accuracy’s sake. All I can say is, if you’re a Wiki person, please be kind.

Okay, that’s about it. I hope you’ll stay tuned to this spot for some cool announcements we’ve got coming up. There’s another charitable venture I’ve got in the works, and it’s something I could actually use a little help with, in terms of advice and suggestions, so I’ll be asking people to respond in a small online poll. I hope you’ll take a few moments and participate if you can, I’m hoping it’ll make a difference in the lives of students across the country.

In the meantime, I’m heading back to the studio. Contest or no, I’ve got five titles to record in June, and only so many hours in the day. As always, thanks for listening.

Scott Brick

SCOTT BRICK PRESENTS: IT’S ALIVE! FRANKENSTEIN – THE ORIGINAL 1818 TEXT – IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD OR HARDCOPY SALEOr, An Audiobook Narrator Ponders Recording The Greatest Movie Quotes Of All Time On Audio

Scott — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:55:29 +0000

Want Scott to narrate this blog to you?

Right-click here to download this Brickcast.

Click here to hear Scott read from FRANKENSTEIN and buy the hard copy or digital download (both with bonus features)

First off, for those of you expecting to see DREAMER OF DUNE go on sale today, as previously advertised, we’ve unfortunately run into a few snags on this title. However, rather than take a month off from our promised “New book every month” production schedule, we thought we’d bring you one of the greatest books of all time, and what is considered by many to be not only the first fully-realized gothic horror novel, but one of the earliest examples of science fiction novels as well. FRANKENSTEIN, the original 1818 text by Mary Shelley, was the very first title we had to read in my Science Fiction Literature class at UCLA, and getting to narrate it after all these years was absolutely terrific.

Given that it had been over twenty years since I last read it, however, I found I had forgotten a good deal of the story, or at least its finer points. Like most Americans, my primary memories of FRANKENSTEIN come from James Whale’s classic 1931 film from Universal Studios, starring Boris Karloff. As such, there was a part of me that was greatly anticipating narrating the scene that contained the defining moment of the film for most moviegoers: the moment when Victor Frankenstein’s manic genius bubbles over, when he screams out those immortal words, “It’s alive, it’s ALIVE…!”

It’s funny, but over the years I’ve been given the chance to record quite a few novels that had already or would soon be turned into films. THE FIRM, THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK II, IN COLD BLOOD and THE ROAD TO PERDITION all come to mind. There’ve been venerable science fiction titles like THE TIME MACHINE, THE INVISIBLE MAN, I, ROBOT, FAHRENHEIT 451, BLADE RUNNER, and even DUNE (twice: once for Macmillan Audio and another time for Books On Tape). Sometimes I’ll record books like MYSTIC RIVER and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON only to see them become films just a few years later. Because of this, there’s never been any temptation to lean towards any particular actor while narrating it, or deliver any particular line any particular way, as there’s nothing recognizable in the text at that point. It’s only when you’re recording a book AFTER you’ve seen the movie that you have to decide: Okay, do I read this line like so-and-so did in the movie, or do I try to make it my own…?

Click here to hear Scott read from FRANKENSTEIN

and buy the hard copy or digital download (both with bonus features)

I think the first time I ever faced this dilemma was when recording HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad several years back. Although I’d never read the novel at that point, I was well aware that it served as the inspiration for APOCALYPSE NOW, and lo and behold, a few of the lines appeared in the film exactly as written in the book. So, when the moment came for Brando’s character in the novel to say the line, “The horror, the horror,” well, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it like he did. I’m not a mimic, and unless I was doing the entire book in his voice or mannerisms, I couldn’t get away with doing that one line in that style. So I just got breathy and delivered it as I thought the scene called for, and I’m sure if you’re in the right mood when listening to it you might hear a few echoes of Brando, but it would probably be partly due to expectation on your part rather than my delivery.

Of course, things were a little different when I was asked to narrate SIDEWAYS by Rex Pickett. The movie had already come out, and in this instance, the book was so very similar to what people saw on the screen that I actually employed a mild bit of mimicry while recording it. As I’ve said before, I won’t ever try to do an impression of a specific actor while doing a book, but I will try and keep a particular actor’s voice in my head so I can duplicate their cadence and tempo. In a book like SIDEWAYS, that seemed more than enough. So, when it came time for that one particular scene, I got to do my best Paul Giamatti impression when wailing, “I’m not drinking any freakin’ merlot!” Only, of course, I didn’t say “freakin’,” I said the Queen Mother of all Curse Words. You know the one I’m talking about.

(Funny story, we were working from various early versions of the manuscript and were marrying them together while recording, so we wound up doing that line, and only that line, as a pickup afterward. Which was really funny, considering I drove over to the studio, sat down in the chair, got myself comfortable, waited for the okay from our producer, then yelled “I’m not drinking any freakin’ merlot!” at the top of my lungs, only to then hear, “Okay, I think we got it, that’s a wrap.” Easiest day of work I’ve ever had.)

There have been other times where lines, immediately recognizable to moviegoing audiences, have come across my microphone, and made me wonder, “How the hell…?” Just a few months ago, in fact, I narrated THE GRADUATE by Charles Webb. Yep, you’re already ahead of me, aren’t you? And c’mon, can you actually imagine hearing anyone say “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me,” without thinking of Dustin Hoffman? Or even, “Elaine, Elaine!” Nope, not a chance. I couldn’t help it, I sounded as much like Hoffman as I possibly could. In that circumstance, it would just be wrong NOT to.

So you can imagine, when approaching a book like FRANKENSTEIN, there would be a certain amount of trepidation about encountering “It’s alive, it’s ALIVE…!” After all, the delivery of it by actor Colin Clive isn’t exactly a paragon of realism, y’know?

But imagine my surprise… that line ain’t in the book.

Click here to hear Scott read from FRANKENSTEIN

and buy the hard copy or digital download (both with bonus features)

And I have to say, despite a perverse desire to actually say that line, I loved the way the scene played out – there’s an absolutely perfect reason why it’s not there. This book is absolutely amazing, and trust me, if you’ve never read it, you’ll realize firsthand how good science fiction is supposed to be done. I’m also happy to say that this recording of FRANKENSTEIN is the first of what I hope will be a long line of Brick By Brick books called FIRST EDITIONS. In it, I’ll endeavor to bring to you classics that have stood the test of time, and in such a way that recreates as closely as possible the way they were originally presented. That means there will be no modern translations, no revised texts, no edits whatsoever. What you’ll get will be the author’s original words in their original form.

In the case of FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley’s 1818 text was quite different from the subsequent 1831 edition that ultimately became the standard in print editions today. In the updated version, Victor’s true love Elizabeth became an adopted cousin rather than a distant cousin, so as to avoid any hint of incest. Also, the character of Victor Frankenstein himself was redrawn to be more sleek, more heroic, and less the tragic, deluded man fans of the book first saw upon its debut thirteen years previously. So I’m proud to say this book represents the vision of the author as it originally stood. I hope you enjoy it. And as always, I hope you’ll let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

In the meantime, it’s back to the studio I go, another book calls, and I must answer. And no, one of my favorite movie lines of all time isn’t in this one, but then again, “Bartender, Jobu needs a refill…!” didn’t really spring from a book, y’know?

Thanks for listening,

Scott Brick

WONDERCON UPDATE: BOOTH IS NOW #1221!

Mr. Admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:36:50 +0000

Click here for the full previous post about WonderCon and FIRST EDITION: FRANKENSTEIN

Sorry, last-minute change by the convention and I’m 100 miles from my computer, so no access to the mailing list.

Also, I’m 1/3 of the way thru listening to FRANKENSTEIN — wow. And wait till you see the creepy cover art that Dastardly Dean McCreary has done for us. I dare you to try to sleep with that frightening yet mournful face staring up at you.

That is all. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Den

WONDERCON: SEE SCOTT IN BOOTH #1221! SAY HELLO, BUY AN AUDIOBOOK, GET AN AUTOGRAPH, OR ASK HIM TO DO HIS THREE-MINUTE DUNE! ALL BRICK BY BRICK AUDIOBOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE AS HARDCOPIESAlso, news on FIRST EDITION: FRANKENSTEIN and another Brick interview

Mr. Admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:21:40 +0000

(Actually, that’s the three-minute Hamlet. Sorry, but since Scott so rarely performs it in public we’d almost forgotten which story it was. Which is a great reason to ask him to do it there at the booth, yes? Peer pressure can be a dangerous thing….)

Hey everyone, Scott is slammed with prepping for the northern geek migration known as WonderCon, where he will be selling hardcopy editions of every title Brick By Brick Audiobooks has thus far published – THE PHOENIX LEGACY trilogy, three Thomas Covenant books (LORD FOUL’S BANE, THE ILLEARTH WAR, FATAL REVENANT), and A CHRISTMAS CAROL – as well as our latest arrival: Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN! (And yes, FRANKENSTEIN will be up on the site for your downloading and hardcopy-ordering pleasure early next week.)

Click here to listen to samples from these great books!

(FRANKENSTEIN is coming soon)

FRANKENSTEIN is the first book in BBB’s new FIRST EDITION line, which will focus on those classic pieces of literature that have endured the test of time, and which Scott will narrate using the text of the title’s first edition. “The form in which the author originally intended the story be told,” said Mr. Brick, “is the perfect way to experience it in their original form.” More on that, and the Frank Herbert bio DREAMER OF DUNE (which is still in the works but a bit delayed) to come. Of course, just like all Brick By Brick Audiobooks titles, FIRST EDITION titles will always be unabridged.

And yes, each title put out by Brick By Brick Audiobooks will be available in hardcopy form, in either CD or MP3 CD editions. And whereas it’ll be a little while before we can get them all set up for purchase here on the website, they will all be available at Scott’s booth this weekend at the convention, so stop by and get the very first editions anywhere!

So swing by booth #1221. He’s looking forward to seeing each and every one of you. I’m not just saying that because he’s paying me – I’m saying it because it’s true. Go stop by and you’ll see for yourself.

In other news, we also just added another interview to the Press page: eMusic’s interview with Scott where he talks about how training in theater prepares you for audiobooks, the ins and outs of accents and/or lip balm, and, of course, old-time radio.

That’s about it for now. Keep an eye out for FRANKENSTEIN next week, and thanks for listening!

Den Shewman