Because Sometimes Only Hearing is Believing
I’m featuring sounds from my recent audiobook projects, just for fun, and I hope that this feature of my narration work will resonate with authors and listeners. Here are some of the others. This will be the final entry for now, as I think I’ve accomplished my goal.
Many times my FX are drawn from a marvelous website called Freesound.org. I cut, slice and alter them using effects found in the Audacity tool (also free to download and use). Sometimes I create the sound myself, using my voice or things to hand.
Featured Sound: “Gente Theme Music”
Audible/ACX actively discourages you from putting music into the audiobook. I get it– the copyright issues are a potential nightmare. Fortunately I’ve spent time around music all my life, and even more fortunately, my miracle daughter is quite simply one of the most talented musicians (along with my lovely wife) I’ve ever known.
As Gilbert Stack’s Legionnaire series brought him into the Jeweled Hills I could see a need to distinguish between the three, count ’em, three feuding cultures he was plunged among. The Gente were clearly reminiscent of aspects of Hispanic culture: passionate, cultured, short-tempered in matters of honor. I checked with Gil of course and he enthusiastically supported my efforts. So I searched for some kind of “theme music” that fit the criteria I had:
- Conjured an image of the Hispanic culture
- Was legal for me to use
I did not have to search far. Genna was just preparing a piece for her recital, where she played the flute along with David Bozenhard who played Spanish guitar!
Here’s the sound, “Theme of the Gente” (actually Entre Act by Jacques Ibert). It’s worth hearing the whole thing (less than three and a half minutes):
How It Sounded
There are several passages here that I’ve excerpted to introduce a setting such as the house of a Don or a conversation between Gente officers. The key with music is the rights, as I said. Since this piece was composed more than a century ago, the rights to any digital performance (this recording was made for my daughter’s recital) lies with the musicians. I obtained their kind permission and off we go.
How It Looks
The Gente people live in a hilly, cut-up region of the world which creates a series of smaller city-states somewhat like the squabbling neighbors of ancient Greece. I picture the hills of California in the days of Zorro. The Mask of Zorro is one of the most entertaining of all the versions in my opinion.
You can hear this music starting with Book 3 of the Legionnaire series available on Audible. If you read the books on Amazon, you’ll just have to imagine the music.
Remember, with audiobooks only hearing is believing!
What I thought to call Judgement’s Tale when I began chronicling in 2007 was a whopping big yarn. That much, I knew. But as I reeled out the story of Solemn, Treaman, Pol, Anteris, Gareth and many more I started to worry a little. How many pages could one book hold? I made the decision to split the tale into two still-hefty novels, published the first half of the story using the title Judgement’s Tale, and then began working on the conclusion.
much less refuse, back in 2012. She has guided my publication efforts since then and I have zero complaints. She excels in cover design and remarked from the beginning that the orange-toned original covers of JT and EoK were not fully satisfactory. I kind of liked them, but then I love any present I get. And I’ll always suspect that this newest project of hers came about at least partly because she just wanted to create a new cover.
THAT is a map of the Lands, I can tell you! And it should be in the current copy when it hits paperback.
Treaman lives for the thrill of adventure. Guiding a group of enterprising companions, he’d put his life on the line for any of them. But when the adventurers become lost in a land tainted by the growing curse of Despair, he fears his leader’s mission is destined to end in failure and death.