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I’ve been on the search for a narrator for ‘Mastering the Virgin’ for some while now, and I’ll tell you that I have found it a difficult task.
I need your help…
About 15 minutes of your time…
After more than a million words of the story of our Triad, I ‘hear’ James and Michael very clearly inside my head, and I’ll never be able to find a narrator who can sound exactly like that.
However, that’s not to say that I can’t find one who’ll deliver a great reading of the book and capture the voices and personalities of ‘The Boys.’
The long and short: I have two readings I’d like you to listen to. They’re about five minutes each, so I’m asking for ten minutes of your time plus a couple of minutes to leave your comments.
The two readings are rather different. Both have fulfilled the criteria I gave for the readings, but two excellent narrators have come up with very different results.
The two sections of text by the way; one for Michael, one for James, are not consecutive from the book. I picked the samples for the overall feel of the text, not for the sheer joy of storytelling 😉
So, please, grab yourself a coffee, listen to the readings and I would love your feedback on what you think of them.
Once I have the right narrator, it will be full steam ahead to produce the complete audio series.
And, as with the ebooks, Part One of ‘Mastering the Virgin’ – ‘Friends’, is planned as a Free Giveaway to allow people to ‘Try Before You Buy’.
I’ve added the text of the reading at the bottom of the page. It’s about 700 words
Here’s the first reading: Narrator Tim Jackson
Here’s the second reading: Narrator Brian Meslar
He’s here again, the tall, dark-haired Dom I saw giving Jeannie a hard time….
Not that she didn’t enjoy it….
I’ve not seen him for a few weeks, but he’s there propping up the bar again with a wine glass in his hand.
He’s barely drinking though….
Watching what’s going on….
Might as well say Hi….
I order a beer, then amble across to lean back against the bar nearby and nod a hello to him. He acknowledges it with a tilt of his glass.
“Not seen you for a couple of weeks.”
“No,” he agrees, sipping his wine, “I don’t live in the area. I travel here on business every so often.”
“Oh? Where’s home then?”
He takes a large mouthful of his wine….
Stressful question?
“Wherever I hang my hat, really.”
Odd reply….
Time to break the ice….
I offer my hand. “Michael Summerford.”
He accepts it with a sharp, business-like tug and a brief smile. “James Alexanders.” There’s a short silence; the kind where strangers are angling for a suitable topic of conversation, then “You’re local yourself, then? Here regularly?” he asks.
“Me? Oh, yes. Born and bred in the area. And yes, I’m here, or at one of the other clubs two or three times a week.”
His brows arch. “No.… um…. regular girlfriend, then? No Mrs Summerford?”
I shake my head. “No, I like to keep things uncomplicated. My life’s too busy for….” I make air commas with two sets of fingers…. “…. relationships.”
“How’s that, then? The too busy part?”
Is he actually interested…? Or just being polite?
“I run my own business. It’s building up nicely, but I work every hour God sends to keep it on the rails. You know how it’s been since the Crash.”
He nods. “Oh, yes, I do know. So, what do you….?”
His question is cut off by the arrival of Chloe.
Chloe and I are old friends, in the ‘Fuck, have fun and leave it at that.’ sense. And she’s a looker, with a good figure that she keeps in trim by working out hard at the gym. And given that I get the benefits, without ‘complications’, I’m happy for her to use my facilities at the Centre.
“Hi, Michael.” she says, sashaying across the dance-floor, wearing her ‘Fuck Me’ smile. “Nice to see you again. Want to play?”
“Oh, I think so. Would you like a drink first?”
“No, I’ve had a couple already. I’m looking for a bit more right now. Or,” she glances at James, “am I interrupting something?”
“Not at all,” he says, forestalling my attempt to disentangle myself and take up Chloe’s offer without embarrassment, “we were just chatting. Go enjoy yourselves.”
His face very straight, he eye-points me at Chloe.
Very decent of you….
*****
Still stretching and yawning, I make a pot of coffee and flip open my laptop to check the morning’s email.
Will it have come?
If I get that contract, I’ve cracked it….
I scroll through quickly, checking first to see if anything has come in from Haswell….
No joy.
I mutter to myself and gulp down some coffee.
All that work.…
If it doesn’t pay off….
There’s the usual other stuff; a screeching letter from Marlene for more money; she can go to Hell. If she can’t control her spending, it’s not my fault. She’s had all the money I ever agreed or was required to pay her. If she thinks I’m paying any more for her to keep her live-in lover available, she can forget it.
A letter from Georgie about her university fees; invoice attached….
Jeez…. Working for a doctorate now. Well done, Little Girl. I’m so proud of you….
I log on to my bank account to settle the invoice immediately. No need for Georgie to pay the price for her mother’s behaviour….
Two minutes later, the invoice is paid and I stare glumly at the remaining bank balance.
Ah, well. Can’t do much about it other than keep working….
What else has come in?
Advert for Viagra…. Into the junk box….
As if I needed it…
*****
Buy me a coffee?
I don’t like either voice, comes across as very flat and boring. Considering the material they are voicing it irritates me and I just want to turn it off. Prefer reading the story.
I felt that Brian’s take on the British accent was too forced, a little lame no depth to it. Of course I live in the UK so I am biased. Ian’s narration was perfect for me.
I much prefer Tim Jackson’s narration, his version is much smoother with just the deeper voice that suited the characters.
Hi Simone Leigh, I have never been into Audio books. You have now change my mind my pick is Brian Meslar
That’s good to know. I’ll pass it along 🙂
I prefer Brian’s narration. His British accent reminded me of Hugh grant.
Both good. Prefer Brian overall although Tim’s James was very good. Pity you can’t use both!
I enjoyed both but Brian’s voice spoke to a different gutteral response for these characters. They both subtly gave pitch changes to differentiate the dialogue and that’s ok because it keeps you locked in the story very closely.
I preferred the 2nd narrator. I felt he had more inflection in his voice when he changed characters. The first one was a little slow (but I could speed that up) and a bit too monotone.
So Brian would be my pick.
Shouldn’t all the characters have an accent? I don’t “hear” the accent in my head when I’m reading the book. So, I would want to hear it when it is actually preformed. It’s much more enjoyable if the accent fits the characters.
It’s a shame you can’t hire both as I think Brian did the best with the voice of Michael and Tim did well with the voicing for James. That being said, both are excellent. Tim’s voice sounds a bit older and his reading was more narrative, Brian’s reading felt a bit more like he was acting out the story and he had more distinction between the character voices.
Tim Jackson’s voice seems more like Michael Summerfield than James.
I like Michael Breslar’s voice and expressions but I prefer it for Master James voice not Michael Summerford.
For some reason having problem leaving reponse
I like Michael Breslar’s voice and expressions but I prefer it for Master James voice not Michael Summerford.
I like Michael Breslar’s voice and expressions but I prefer it for Master James voice not Michael Summerford.
Tim is my choice. I love that sound.
Tim: Doing Michael his voice starts off and tends to read a bit slow for me and I would most likely set the speed to 1.25. I also found his voice to be a bit older and congenital which felt off with what is being said. However, I enjoyed his portrayal of James. His voice sounded younger and the huskiness added worked. His reading sounded more narrative but with good emotion and inflection.
Brian: So, I love the accent, it captured my attention and I paid closer attention. In fact I didn’t really pay attention to the character differences in the first where this reading they came to life. He nailed the Michael reading (if M has an accent otherwise it might be off putting for some readers) for me. James was a bit off for me but the more he did the voice the better it got so I’m going to assume it was a fast transition between longer character reads. Dialogue is one thing but complete accent changes I would think take longer. His reading was more performance and I felt the characters came to life more.
Overall I preferred Brian. In fact he will be a narrator I would seek out in the future when looking for audiobooks. Tim did well, especially with James, but his voice sounds more narrative based rather than performance. Oh, and Brian did well with the female voice which I’ve seen noted in a lot of audiobook reviews (which looking at reviews can be helpful in seeing what that audience base is looking for if you haven’t already that is).
I like the second one a little better, they are both good
I like the reading by Brian Meslar better. I thought the other guy was too smooth (like he’s trying to be seductive but it isn’t working for me). But, I have to be honest. I’m a sucker for a British accent too – lol. I’m sure whichever you choose, it’ll be great.
I enjoyed Brian’s. They were both good but I love that Scottish accent
I personally like the Michael reading better. His tone fluctuations and expressions in his voice. He just sounded better to me.