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Listen to What I Write: An Audio Book From Me
2/6/07
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Tuesday, February 6, 2007
2:38:00 PM EST
Hearing Nothing at the moment
As most of you know, when I'm not hanging around here I have another career as a science fiction writer, making up stories with aliens and soldiers and such. In that guise, last week my story "The Sagan Diary" was published as a short (about 100 page) book. It's about a soldier named Jane Sagan, who is one of the major characters in my novels Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades (and also my upcoming novel The Last Colony). In those books she's not the "point-of-view" character, and I thought it would be interesting to write something that would get her view of the universe and let her speak for herself. So in "The Sagan Diary" she does, looking back on her life after the events of The Ghost Brigades, as she is (literally) about to start a new life with the man she loves.
One of the things I thought would be fun would be to do an audio version of story, in which the chapters of the book are read by different women. To that end I asked several women writers of my acquaintance if they'd speak for Jane Sagan: I asked Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ellen Kushner, Karen Meisner, Cherie Priest and Helen Smith. Happily for me (and for you) they said yes.
Now I'm going to share those readings with you folks, for those of you who are curious what my writing outside of AOL Journals sounds like. It helps if you've read my novels, but I think you can enjoy it by itself as long as you know that Jane Sagan is a member of an elite and genetically-designed Special Forces, the members of whom are all born as adults, and who use a computer inside their heads (a "BrainPal") to communicate. Anything else you need to know is hinted at in the story preface.
The story is broken up into a preface and eight chapters; each chapter is available in low-bandwidth (32kbps mp3) and high-bandwidth (variable rate but usually >300kpbs mp3) versions. Use the low-bandwidth versions if you're on dial-up.
Here is a table of contents for the audio version, with links to the files.
Preface to "The Sagan Diary" -- This chapter is actually not from the point of view of Jane Sagan; it's from the POV of a military data analyst who has some very pointed grievances concerning the data she has to work with. This chapter will especially be useful for those of you who have not quite gotten through The Ghost Brigades. This chapter is read by Mary Robinette Kowal. (Low | High)
Chapter One: Words -- "These words are my life. Representation of time and counterfeit of emotion, record of loss and celebration of gain." The story now shifts to Jane, where it will remain. Read by Mary Robinette Kowal (Low | High)
Chapter Two: Killing -- "I am not Death. I am killing; I am the verb, I am the action, I am the performance. I am the movement that cuts the spine; I am the mass which pulps the brain. I am the headsnap ejecting consciousness into the air." Read by Elizabeth Bear (Low | High)
Chapter Three: Speaking -- "Let me speak your name... and in doing so affirm you in your tangible skin, with vibration and waves and exhalation" Read by Karen Meisner (Low | High)
Chapter Four: Friendship -- "I rose early the day I killed my friend. I knew that when I killed him I would have to be ready... and for that I needed to prepare myself." Read by Ellen Kushner (Low | High)
Chapter Five: Age -- "When you were born all you could do was cry. When I was born I woke to a whisper, giving me a name and telling me to come away from my cradle." Read by Helen Smith (Low | High)
Chapter Six: Sex -- "I am intent on your face, and the movement of your lips, and the memory of how those lips feel when they are on me." Read by Cherie Priest. Note that this chapter contains adult language and themes; it's about sex, after all. (Low | High)
Chapter Seven: Fear -- "Fear enters the room and sits down in a chair and with a polite smile asks to open negotiations. Fear is small and hard and patient, and duplicitous, because in asking to negotiate it knows I cannot refuse." Read by Mary Robinette Kowal (Low | High)
Chapter Eight: Endings -- "It is time to come to the end of things and to the beginning." Read by Mary Robinette Kowal (Low | High)
Let me take a moment to thank Ellen, Bear, Karen, Mary, Cherie and Helen for their work on this. This is everything I hoped it would be. I hope you enjoy it too. Feel free to let people know it's here -- I'd like for this to get around.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
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2:38:00 PM EST
Hearing Nothing at the moment
Listen to What I Write: An Audio Book From Me
As most of you know, when I'm not hanging around here I have another career as a science fiction writer, making up stories with aliens and soldiers and such. In that guise, last week my story "The Sagan Diary" was published as a short (about 100 page) book. It's about a soldier named Jane Sagan, who is one of the major characters in my novels Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades (and also my upcoming novel The Last Colony). In those books she's not the "point-of-view" character, and I thought it would be interesting to write something that would get her view of the universe and let her speak for herself. So in "The Sagan Diary" she does, looking back on her life after the events of The Ghost Brigades, as she is (literally) about to start a new life with the man she loves. One of the things I thought would be fun would be to do an audio version of story, in which the chapters of the book are read by different women. To that end I asked several women writers of my acquaintance if they'd speak for Jane Sagan: I asked Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ellen Kushner, Karen Meisner, Cherie Priest and Helen Smith. Happily for me (and for you) they said yes.
Now I'm going to share those readings with you folks, for those of you who are curious what my writing outside of AOL Journals sounds like. It helps if you've read my novels, but I think you can enjoy it by itself as long as you know that Jane Sagan is a member of an elite and genetically-designed Special Forces, the members of whom are all born as adults, and who use a computer inside their heads (a "BrainPal") to communicate. Anything else you need to know is hinted at in the story preface.
The story is broken up into a preface and eight chapters; each chapter is available in low-bandwidth (32kbps mp3) and high-bandwidth (variable rate but usually >300kpbs mp3) versions. Use the low-bandwidth versions if you're on dial-up.
Here is a table of contents for the audio version, with links to the files.
Preface to "The Sagan Diary" -- This chapter is actually not from the point of view of Jane Sagan; it's from the POV of a military data analyst who has some very pointed grievances concerning the data she has to work with. This chapter will especially be useful for those of you who have not quite gotten through The Ghost Brigades. This chapter is read by Mary Robinette Kowal. (Low | High)
Chapter One: Words -- "These words are my life. Representation of time and counterfeit of emotion, record of loss and celebration of gain." The story now shifts to Jane, where it will remain. Read by Mary Robinette Kowal (Low | High)
Chapter Two: Killing -- "I am not Death. I am killing; I am the verb, I am the action, I am the performance. I am the movement that cuts the spine; I am the mass which pulps the brain. I am the headsnap ejecting consciousness into the air." Read by Elizabeth Bear (Low | High)
Chapter Three: Speaking -- "Let me speak your name... and in doing so affirm you in your tangible skin, with vibration and waves and exhalation" Read by Karen Meisner (Low | High)
Chapter Four: Friendship -- "I rose early the day I killed my friend. I knew that when I killed him I would have to be ready... and for that I needed to prepare myself." Read by Ellen Kushner (Low | High)
Chapter Five: Age -- "When you were born all you could do was cry. When I was born I woke to a whisper, giving me a name and telling me to come away from my cradle." Read by Helen Smith (Low | High)
Chapter Six: Sex -- "I am intent on your face, and the movement of your lips, and the memory of how those lips feel when they are on me." Read by Cherie Priest. Note that this chapter contains adult language and themes; it's about sex, after all. (Low | High)
Chapter Seven: Fear -- "Fear enters the room and sits down in a chair and with a polite smile asks to open negotiations. Fear is small and hard and patient, and duplicitous, because in asking to negotiate it knows I cannot refuse." Read by Mary Robinette Kowal (Low | High)
Chapter Eight: Endings -- "It is time to come to the end of things and to the beginning." Read by Mary Robinette Kowal (Low | High)
Let me take a moment to thank Ellen, Bear, Karen, Mary, Cherie and Helen for their work on this. This is everything I hoped it would be. I hope you enjoy it too. Feel free to let people know it's here -- I'd like for this to get around.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
This entry has 6 comments: (Add your own)
-
"Unless Krissy isn't aware of this audio book... prepare for 'What's wrong with my voice' questions."
I actually asked Krissy if she wanted to participate. She chose not to.
Actually none of this was recorded in-house -- it was done by the readers on various equipment ranging from a laptop microphone to an actual sound studio. Interesting stuff. -
What'd you do for sound effects? Like, when someone blows up a spaceship, does Athena stand in the background and go BOOOM!
I'm assuming you made this in-house somehow. If I'm not correct (I'm not listening to this until BOTH kids are up), forgive the silly mental image I have ofyou hovering over a tape recorder with two coconuts to bang together.
If you ever need a French voice model who occasionally veers off the script if she thinks of something funnier as she's reading it, you know where to find me.
Unless Krissy isn't aware of this audio book... prepare for "What's wrong with my voice" questions. -
What?!? Are you telling me you've got "better" things to do between the hours of, say, midnight and eight in the morning? hahaha...
-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/ -
A lot of whether I do other stuff with the writing is dependent on time, of which I don't have a whole lot. This project, for example, took about a week's worth of work, spread out over a couple of months.
2/7/07 2:48 PM
be well,
Dawn