Sometimes when I'm not paying attention, someone enters my life in a profound way.
“He’s your narrator,” Loved-One whispered to me, bringing me back to the here and now. “He’s got the perfect voice to be Eldie Craine.”
[tweetthis]I’m telling you, sometimes, when I’m not paying attention, God tugs at my sleeve, or pokes me in the ribs, and sends me in the right direction.[/tweetthis]
It turned out that not only is Bud the perfect narrator for A Ship of Pearl, but his son, Joe, has a studio. I got a chance to watch Bud and Joe in action. It’s incredible how much work goes into creating an audio book. Websites and blogs might tell you that you can do it yourself, and that might be true for some authors. After watching Joe and Bud in action, I can tell you that for me, this is a project best left to the professionals.
Here’s a little sample:
I thought you might like to know a little bit about the man behind the voice. Bud’s a super-interesting guy.
Tell me a little about your roots, Bud. I am a city kid at heart, who grew up on the south side of Chicago and then married a suburban girl, entirely changing my perspective on life. My wife, Marty, and I moved to the suburbs shortly after our marriage 46 years ago, where we raised our three children. I have known the grit of city life and the comfort of suburbia, the demands of the corporate world and the challanges of entrepreneurship.
Tell me a little bit about how you got interested in narrating. As a child I always enjoyed having the opportunity to read aloud in class, and as an adult I was most comfortable on stage, speaking to an audience. When the opportunity to do narration presented itself, I knew it would be something that I would greatly enjoy.
What was your biggest challenge? As a narrator, my biggest challenge was finding the the voice and the pace of the character, so the the story might come to life for the listener.
How can someone else do the same thing? If you have a genuine love for engaging your audience, and for storytelling, you already have the basic ingredients of the recipe.
What else should we know about you? I have an affinity for dogs, especially German Shepherd dogs; In fact, I’m a bit of a ‘dog whisperer’. I enjoy being physically active, including all types of motorsports, and my avocation has always been carpentry and woodworking. (You will hear Bud’s love of dogs when Eldie gets Mitzie, I mean Butch. And Butch is a German Shepherd, too!)
Do you remember your first day of school? What was it like? Yes, I hated it. It was kindergarten and the teacher wanted all the kids to sit cross-legged on the floor in a circle. I have never been physically able to sit cross-legged. So I was sent to sit in the corner facing the wall for “refusing” to do as the other kids did. I cried all day.
What were you like in high school? In high school I felt most at home with the rough crowd, the kids who smoked cigarettes in the school washroom and hung around on street corners or in the park at night.
What advice do you have for someone who has the same background/childhood/career as you? Just be who you are; Just try to be the best version of you that you can be.
