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Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

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Archives for 2013

Advice to the Love-Shorn Recorded for Going Public Project

27 December 2013

Advice to the Love Shorn, where celebrity characters dish about their relationships!

Today’s topic: How a Heroine Can Beat Up Thugs Without Emasculating Her Man

Author Melissa F. Miller, who writes the Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller series for which I narrate the audiobooks, recently posted this blurb on Facebook:
The always-entertaining Barbara Silkstone invites Sasha, of all people, to give relationship advice on her blog: 

http://barbswire-ebooksandmore.blogspot.com/p/advice-to-love-shorn.html

Luckily, the recipient of said advice is also a fictional character. 🙂

When I read this delightful interview between 2 heroines, I thought the audiobook narrators of these 2 series should get in on the fun and bring our characters to life!

Meiissa loved the idea and gave me permission to narrate her words, so I contacted Nicole Colburn, narrator of the Wendy Darlin Tomb Raider series. Nicole and author Barbara Silkstone also were very enthusiastic about Nicole voicing Wendy’s parts. My husband, director, and fellow narrator Drew Commins plays the emcee, Kraft Masterson.

The Wendy Darlin Tomb Raider series written by Barbara Silkstone and narrated by Nicole Colburn is available at Audible at this link.

The Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller series written by Melissa F. Miller and narrated by Karen Commins is available on Audible at this link.


 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Going Public, Narrators, Recordings Tagged With: audiobook, Barbara Silkstone, characters, Drew Commins, interview, Melissa F. Miller, Nicole Colburn, Sasha McCandless, Wendy Darlin

TDIMH — Place Your Order With the Universe

20 November 2013

My continuing series of my past journal entries — This Date in My History

 

Wednesday 20 Nov., 2002 9:35pm on my sofa in front of the fire

 

Today’s word is disappointment.

 

I was disappointed to wake up and realize it’s only Wednesday; the preceding 2 days seemed long enough to be a week. I was disappointed to learn we did not win the lottery last night, and I have to go to work. I’m disappointed that my headache came back today.

 

The biggest disappointment, though, were the calls from [a potential client] telling me that he wouldn’t use me for the commercial after all. The regular talent will be back in town tomorrow, so, of course, she gets the gig.

 

I did make 2 follow up calls, and I sent 5-6 follow up emails. I guess I’ll just have to make my own luck. I like the quote yesterday in my 28 Days marketing book:

 

When doing business with the Universe, remember you must place an order if you want to get a delivery.

 

I think I’ve placed my order many, many times, so I keep wondering when it will be filled. I have to trust that things will happen in their own good time and when I’m ready. (I think I’m ready now if that makes a difference!)

 

Today’s Take-aways

 

These aren’t so much take-aways from the entry I copied as things I’ve learned about the Laws of Attraction and Creation since I wrote it.

 

1. “You can’t achieve victory if you’re constantly talking defeat.”  — Joel Osteen

“What you think about expands” — Wayne Dyer

 

We all have disappointments in life. Dwelling on them will only ensure that the Universe serves up more disappointments to us. I wrote a blog entry titled Think/Write/Speak what you WANT into Being that goes into greater detail about changing your thoughts to a more positive pattern.

 

2. When we place our order to the Universe, we don’t know WHEN or HOW it will materialize. We waste valuable energy worrying about the WHEN or HOW. Instead of concerning ourselves with those two unknowable things, it’s important to continue taking steps and doing our best each day toward our dreams. When the Universe is free to deliver our order in the time and way that is best for us, the outcome will be better than we could have thought possible!

 

Filed Under: Away From the Mic, Law of Attraction, Narrators, This Date in My History, Voice-Over Tagged With: disappointment, Joel Osteen, Law of Attraction, Law of Creation, Wayne Dyer

The Ole Miss Hotty Toddy Cheer

14 November 2013

A friend’s daughter has recently started college. She’s living on campus, which is something I didn’t do. In fact, she traveled around to universities in several states to pick the right campus for her.

 

I only applied to one college and commuted here in Atlanta. While I got a great education and never regretted my choice, hearing about this girl’s experiences both in picking and living at college have made me think about things I may have missed in my college years.

 

One thing I missed was going to football games. My college didn’t have a football team. I had played piccolo in high school marching band and would have enjoyed playing in the band on college football Saturdays.

 

A big advantage to being an audiobook narrator is that I can vicariously live through other people, even when they are fictional characters. For instance, in the fun, cozy Dixie Diva mysteries,  Trinket Truevine, the first person narrator, and her cousin/best friend Bitty Hollandale went to Ole Miss. In fact, the latest book in the series Divas and Dead Rebels revolves around a dead professor on campus.

 

In one scene, the ladies attend a tailgating party at The Grove. I decided to make a video of that scene for an audiobook trailer and was thrilled to do the Hotty Toddy cheer for Ole Miss right along with some students!

 

 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Book Trailers, Narrators, Observations, Videos, Voice-Over Tagged With: audiobook, college football, Dixie Divas, Hotty Toddy, narrator, Ole Miss, trailer

“Dear Elected Official” Recorded for Going Public Project

4 October 2013

Before transitioning to fulltime voiceover and audiobook narration at the beginning of last year, I worked an entire other career with the federal government.

 

As a federal employee for over 3 decades, I was used to hearing about the bickering and being subjected to the whims of Congress. The federal government runs on an October-September fiscal year. Every summer, we would wonder when the Agency budget would be passed so that we could make our budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. Even simple things like supply orders to get more printer paper could not be submitted without funding.

 

Government shutdowns were threatened many times over the course of my long career. The news people say a 3-week shutdown occurred in the ’90s, but my friends and I don’t remember being out of work for 3 weeks. We only remember being furloughed for a few days, so we think our Agency appropriations bill was finalized ahead of others.

 

If you’ll pardon a tangent, let me just say that everyone I knew worked extremely hard and undertook their tasks with seriousness and great efficiency. Those who say that government employees are lazy and inefficient have never worked there! Most of the government employees have college or even advanced degrees and are doing highly specialized work.

 

Furthermore, the American public does not understand that the term non-essential employee does NOT mean that the employee does not have an important, necessary, and valuable job to do. (As the Washington Post reported last week, the term has cut deep into the morale of the federal workforce, which has been repeatedly trampled on by Congress: over 3 years of frozen pay, limited hiring ability, and numerous furlough days this year due to the Sequester.) It is really an old term used to indicate exceptions in the event of a furlough due to financial reasons or those who must report during an emergency. I saw a comment from a manager at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who is furloughed during the shutdown. He noted that your views of how essential his job is might depend on your proximity to a nuclear facility.

 

Anyway, while we eventually did get paid for the period we were unable to work during a shutdown, we had no guarantee of payment. We were always fearful that we wouldn’t be paid. We also wouldn’t know when we would be called back to work. It’s not like you would go on a vacation when a shutdown loomed. By the way, almost ONE MILLION people across the country are furloughed this week. The longer the shutdown lasts, the bigger the hit to the US economy from all those workers who are not getting paid and therefore not spending money.

 

In addition, even the threat of a shut down meant a tremendous loss of productivity, which is a complete waste of tax dollars. You can’t go about your day as normal if you think you have to shutter the operations for an undetermined period of time. I was in IT, and we had to take extra measures (which used more tax dollars) to do things like run back-up tapes early and ship them off-site before the regularly scheduled day. The fact that Congress invariably would pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) at 11:59pm on the deadline day would make you all too aware of your position as a pawn in their game.

 

To continue with our civics lesson, both branches of Congress have to enact a budget. However, they have not done so in recent years, instead passing successive CRs to keep the government operational.

 

Congress could pass a CR this time just like it has many, MANY times in the past, but certain factions in the House are insisting that the Affordable Care Act  (ACA) be defunded before agreeing to pass the CR. The ACA is a law, not a negotiation point in the budget process. If they want to change or repeal the law, they should follow established procedures like they have tried to do over 40 other times for this one law. The Supreme Court has even declared this law to be constitutional, yet some people are as obsessed over this one law as my dog is over chasing chipmunks.

 

Even before I left the government, I endured numerous rounds of these politically-created crises, though none seemed quite as contentious and divisive as this one. I didn’t voice my opinions to my Congress people for a few reasons:

 

1) I didn’t think I could make a difference.

2) I didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize my job.

3) Just thinking about Congress not doing THE MAIN THING it is supposed to do gives me a headache.

 

Since I am now a freelance voice talent, one of these reasons is no longer valid. I still may get headaches and not be able to make a difference, but I’ve decided I will be silent no longer!

 

As I was adding my comments to the Facebook page for Saxby Chambliss, one of my US Senators from Georgia, I found this letter from The American Taxpayer in a previous response and recorded it for the Going Public Project.

 

No matter how you voted or what you think about the current issue, we can all find common ground over the fact that taxpayers pay the salaries of those in Congress. Perhaps it’s time we taxpayers start looking for people who can work together to get the job done. If you agree, please share this message and recording with your networks.

 

I have always focused this blog on the topics of voiceover, audiobooks, and marketing. I promise to get back to those topics in my next article and truly appreciate your indulgence in reading my only political post in over 7 years of writing this blog.

 

Just remember:

“United we stand, divided we fall”

— Aesop

 

 

 

Filed Under: Away From the Mic, Going Public, Narrators, Recordings, Voice-Over Tagged With: ACA, Affordable Care Act, audiobook, Congress, Continuing Resolution, CR, Going Public Project, narrator, Saxby Chambliss

FAMILY LIMITATION Recorded for Banned Book Week 2013

26 September 2013

Earlier this week, Xe Sands, fellow audiobook narrator and founder of the Going Public Project, posted about Banned Books Week, which this year is 22-28 September. She said that Going Public would have a special posting tomorrow, 27 September, of banned books.

 

Excited by this idea, I spent a few hours searching through lists of banned books on numerous web sites to find something I wanted to record. I was amazed to see the broad range of banned and challenged books, including a long list of classical titles. People complain about and attempt to censor material for a variety of reasons.

 

Many of these books are still under copyright, so I can’t record them. However, I found a historic and significant pamphlet that is directly connected to my life today:  Margaret A. Sanger’s FAMILY LIMITATION, first published in 1914.

 

You see, I am child-free by choice. I am grateful to live in a time period where I not only can make that choice but have immediate access to information about birth control and appropriate medical care.

 

If I had lived 100 years ago, though, it would have been extremely difficult for me to learn how I could prevent pregnancy. In my research, I learned about the Comstock Law of 1873. The Comstock Law (the Federal Anti-Obscenity Act) banned the mailing of material considered to be “lewd”. “indecent”, “filthy”, or “obscene”. It also forbade distribution of birth control information.

 

My research led me to a fascinating blog devoted to Margaret Sanger’s work and papers. In this interesting article, I learned Sanger was a nurse in the NY slums who believed that women had a right to know about their reproductive health. She first published her pamphlet in 1914.

 

The next year, her husband was jailed for distributing this pamphlet which describes and advocates various methods of contraception. Sanger fled the country to avoid prosecution. When she returned, she started the American Birth Control League, which merged with other groups to become Planned Parenthood.

 

In 2012, the Library of Congress included Sanger’s pamphlet in its exhibit of Books that Shaped America. This exhibit featured 88 works that shaped American life and thought.

 

For these reasons, I am very proud to present the entire recording of the FAMILY LIMITATION pamphlet (sixth edition, published in 1917) by Margaret A. Sanger in celebration of Banned Books Week.

 

 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Narrators, Podcasts, Recordings Tagged With: audiobook narrator, Banned Books Week, birth control, Comstock Law of 1873, Family Limitation, Going Public Project, Margaret Sanger, women's reproductive health, Xe Sands

Mainstream Media Articles on Audiobook Boom

10 September 2013

Mainstream journalists have recently learned what I’ve known for years — Audiobooks are cool! Listed below are several extensive articles from recent months about the public’s increasing demand for audiobooks that you may have missed:

On 8/23/13, one author detailed her experience in recording her book in The Atlantic. The responses to her Goodreads post publicizing the article were quite illuminating.

Reading by ear: Audiobook fans multitask while listening to spoken word in the Detroit Free Press 9/8/13 (also appeared in USA Today)

The New Explosion in Audio Books in the Wall Street Journal 8/1/13

How Amazon Became the King of Audiobooks in The Atlantic 7/16/13

Actors Today Don’t Just Read for the Part. Reading IS the Part in the New York Times 6/29/13

 

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Narrators Tagged With: Amazon, audiobooks, NY Times, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal

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