Hey there- I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had begun work on a new audiobook project for Crossroad Press called Heart of a Dragon.

I’m proud and pleased to announce that it’s now published and available! Get your copy today.

The story is an urban fantasy centered around David DeChance, a sorcerous jack of all trades who fears that the local biker gangs have more going on than turf wars when he learns that a voodoo priestess named Anya Cabrera may be using one of the gangs to create an inhuman army. While their first target is the Dragons, another local biker gang, Cabrera has deeper and darker ambitions. Old Martinez, a sometime rival of DeChance, may hold the key to the salvation of the Dragons and the city in a young artist. A boy who dreams of dragons, and then paints them- except his paintings are more than pigment and canvas…

My first major audio book work, Heart of a Dragon, was just released by Crossroad Press today. I’m very excited about it, as you can imagine! I wrote up a blog post on my commercial site.

As a first step this was a huge one for me and I can’t even describe how pleased I am about it. Some have said that audiobooks are a lot of work, and they’re right (boy, are they ever right). But it’s very rewarding to see it get published and now I’m looking forward to the next one!

My personal thanks to Jeffrey Kafer, the producer and all around good guy behind Springbrook Audio and David Niall Wilson, the author of Heart of a Dragon and another all around good guy. Both were patient and very supportive of a guy who was feeling his way around some of this stuff- without them I wouldn’t have gotten it done, nor would I be so ready to take on the next one!

We had the… 3rd? I think meeting of the PSVAC today. While there were only four of us this time, it was a great meeting. We had some great discussions of breath technique from Carrie Standish, a professionally trained opera singer. We also discussed editing techniques in depth and shared some great tips for long-form narration and audiobook recording.

I had a great time and I’m really looking forward to the next one. It’s actually a really gratifying feeling to know that this is not just helping me out but is a big help to others as well- I’ve gotten some great feedback about how nice it is to have this resource and I have nothing but high hopes for the future of the PSVAC.

Greetings, programs! OK, Tron reference out of the way. Bob Souer recently updated his blogroll and has shamed me into remembering that not only did he link my blog from his, I have not updated my blogroll in some time, so I’m taking steps to rectify that!

I’m going to make this a regular thing. There’s a lot of blogs I read and I’ll share them with you as I find them. It’s actually pretty neat how many voice-related blogs are out there and how many people are really avid about sharing good advice.

The new additions

Bob Souer’s blog, entitled The Voiceover Boblog, is always a fun read. Bob’s been doing this business for a REALLY long time and it shows. Wise, witty and down to earth, Bob’s blog is something every VO artist should have in their feedlist.

Dan Friedman has a blog over at soundadvicevo.com in which he comments about the VO industry from the perspective of an audio engineer- although he’s also a voice talent in his own right. He’s also the author of a book getting a lot of attention in the VO world called Sound Advice – The Book.

Bobbin Beam has a blog. Alliteration for the win. Bobbin is a fount of information about VO and consistently finds interesting stuff to read, and lots of great advice for both the aspiring and established voice actor.

George Washington III has a blog called eVOlutionary steps which is insightful, thoughtful and very content-rich. Nice long entries you can read with a cup of coffee and get some good information out of.

Mercedes Rose is quite possibly the most positive person I have ever met. She has a great blog full of no-nonsense advice for the stage, screen and voice actor. With her take no prisoners approach and frank delivery, you’ll always find something useful there.

Stay tuned for more great blogs!

I was having a lot of trouble with my previous hosting provider, which caused my site to be unavailable from time to time- not a good thing! So, if you ran into trouble accessing the site, that’s a thing of the past and I thank you for your patience!

Scott Burns was kind enough to adjust my demo for me based on some feedback and discussion. It’s a bit longer at 70 seconds, but the flow is better and I think it much more effectively showcases my voice.

Give it a listen, or hop over to the Demos page and listen to the full pieces used in the reel.

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Corey "Vox Man" Snow

This site has been a great place for me to discuss my work to become a professional voiceover artist. As part of that effort I’ve been working quietly on a commercial site for my voiceover talents and I’m pleased to be able to say that it’s now “open for business”. Take a look at VoxMan.net, give a listen to the demos and check out the blog.

Now hire me!

I am extremely grateful to everyone who’s helped me out with feedback and suggestions on the design.

And what about this site?

Not to worry- I’m going to continue blogging here, where I can be a little less formal and have more fun while I talk about voice acting and my continuing journey in this fun and fascinating field. My commercial site has a blog also, which I use to discuss my projects and such but this is and will always be my personal and informal place to get things off my chest, share insights and frustrations, you know- the usual.

I’m pleased that I was recently tapped to do the audiobook version of David Niall Wilson’s book Heart of a Dragon, by Crossroad Press. It’s an urban fantasy with some horror elements and a great read. I’m really enjoying doing the audio version of it.

As I told David when I first read it I was surprised I hadn’t seen any of his work before now (an error I intend to rectify, by the way!) as I’m a major fan of urban fantasy and gothic horror. I even produced a horror stage play back in 1999, which is not something everyone can say!

I’ll post more updates once the audiobook version is getting closer to completion- in the meantime, read the ebook version!

Had a good idea this morning, and plan to put it into action shortly. Character studies!

See, I’ve had a challenge with my audiobook demos and work. I can do male voices passingly well, and can narrate like nobody’s business. However, my female characters really need some work, and I also want to be able to have a “stable” of character voices I can implement on demand.

With that in mind, I’m going to spend part of this afternoon behind the mic recording the same piece of copy in various character voices, working on getting each one consistent, different and (the hard bit, I think) believable.

I’ll see about putting up some excerpts, and I’m looking forward to the exercise.

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, but there’s good reason for it! I’ve been working on a new web site, which I hope to “launch” officially very soon. I also cut a commercial demo reel last week, which should be through post-production shortly.

And of course there was a meeting of the PSVAC, which went very well! It continues to grow, and we’re all as pleased as punch at the return on the time and energy investment we’ve put in.

I’ve also been neglecting my blogroll – bad Corey! I added J.C. Dunn’s blog today, and look for more to be added soon, I have a bunch of blogs I read but haven’t linked here yet.

Speaking of Mr. Dunn, he posted an interesting piece today- A list of “must-have” items for any studio. If you do voice work, go read it, because it’s exactly right. I have another piece to add to his list that I consider invaluable: A dog clicker.

Ostensibly a training tool for dogs, it’s just a little plastic geegaw with a metal piece inside that you can “click” with your thumb. It makes a very sharp snapping noise. When I’m recording long-form pieces, I keep it in my hand or nearby, and if I make a mistake during the read, I pause briefly and click it twice, pause again and pick it up.

The dog clicker "snaps" are very obvious.

 Later, when it’s time to edit, I can instantly locate those places I need to make changes, removing the stumbles or whatever. For a keychain widget, it’s invaluable!

Another piece of equipment I’m finding more and more valuable as time goes on is my iPad. I hate working with printed copy as every time I change pages there’s rustling and so forth. What I’ve taken to doing these days is saving the copy as a PDF file and sending it to my iPad. Using an app like Cloud Readers you can even annotate the document with a stylus. A stylus is about 15 dollars at a computer store and worth having.

Now I just set the iPad on my copy stand and any page turns are utterly silent. Bliss.

Me with the iPad on the copy stand

Your Turn

What do you consider the “must-have” items in your studio?