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Learn professional tips from narrator Johnny Heller. I’m continuing my spotlight on just how voice actors gain their behind-the-mic skills in this second part of an every-Wednesday visit with the best in the business, following Paul Ruben last week. Here’s Johnny…

Who is the audience for your workshops & why do you have the expertise to conduct the sessions?
The audience for my workshops consists mostly of actors who are interested in getting into the audiobook narration industry. That being said, I find there are lots of people without an official “actor” background who are also keen to attend and learn about the business.

My expertise comes from having recorded nearly 400 titles and in almost every genre. I’ve won 2 Audies and been nominated 5 times and I’ve been awarded 18 Earphone Awards from AudioFile magazine, 3 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards and been named one of the 50 top narrators of the century. I’ve taught voice-over and audiobook workshops in New York, Chicago and LA for many years….really more than I want to think about!

What range of previous training do you find in participants?
Many participants have a decent bit of training and/or experience in theater, commercial or voice-over work. Some have a resume and some have just taken some classes. A great number have zero background in the industry but are avid listeners. Many are librarians or business people anxious for a 2nd or new career.

Still others, sadly, just think it sounds like fun and seems easy… only half of that is true.

What skills do you focus on and why will this knowledge advance a participant’s career in audiobooks?
First I need to say that I take students where they are. I don’t place expectations on them. Everyone is different and everyone comes to me as they are — trained -untrained; skilled- unskilled… If they want a career in the business and they lack requisite skills, I work with them on finding ways to improve and begin training toward a career. If they are great and ready and need only some tweaking — I tweak. As a matter of fact, I tweak all the time! I used to be a closet tweaker but then we got a place without closets and I had to come out.

I focus all the time on one thing and from it comes everything else and I think Paul Ruben and I are on the same page on this — the author’s truth. The simple fact of the matter is that the actor must – at every moment – do one single job — he/she must be a conduit for the author. Every thing that seems wrong or off in a reading comes from the actor missing the truth the author is stating.

Sounds simple but it’s not. I like to think that I help the actor get in touch with this simple idea. From it, we find choices in style and character and pacing and …well – everything.

How does the changing world of audiobook creation – digital technology, home studios, economics – impact the focus of your workshops?
It doesn’t change much. I still teach an audiobook workshop and it’s still about the performance. However we do discuss the business. Who hires you? How do you find work? Do you need a home studio? How do you learn about building or buying one and what equipment will you neeed? How do you market yourself? How do you use social media? How much money should you expect? How do you get started? Etc….

Are there any other fun and interesting facts about narrator training that you’d like to share?
My workshops are fun for the most part. I tend to say funny things here and there and many students have gotten work after they’ve been with me. I can get off on tangents – which is both bad and good I suppose. I welcome questions throughout the day. We spend most of our time working on mic.

Once important point is that students need to bring some copy with them. Bring a few pages of copy from 3 or so genres that you think you would be good at. Students need to understand (and they quickly do!) that we may spend quite a bit of time on just one page. I’m not interested in hearing the story til the end — I need the student to make choices that would make me want to listen to the whole book. There are lots of stops and starts and that’s how the learning takes place.

One of the most important things I think I can fairly say about my workshops is that I find the right way to get through to each student. Some students need only to hear me start saying something before it registers with them; others need to see me working with another student to understand how it relates to them and still others need to hear it a different way to “get it.”

I don’t promise demos to my students since I don’t believe that every student is necessarily ready to make a competitive demo. And I will tell them the truth. Having said that, if you are ready to make one after my workshop or if you’re not ready but still want to make one – I will help — for an additional fee and I do offer a “demo discount.”

I found that when I told some students in the past that they ought to work more before making a demo or that they simply weren’t ready – they did it anyway. If they’re gonna blow their loot, they may as well hand it to me and at least I can minimize some of the damage!

Do you have any upcoming sessions? How can an interested person register?

I will be teaching a one-day workshop through John Florian’s Voice Over Xtra on Saturday Sept 29 as well. For that, contact John at [email protected]. I’m also available for one-on-one sessions through EDGE STUDO. Contact them at: [email protected]

Thanks, Johnny, for sharing your expertise with us. It’s always good to hang out with a high school pal. Yes, it’s true – Johnny and I both went to the same high school in the Chicago suburbs – except that I am older, and moved on the year before he entered good old Glenbard East. You can catch more of Johnny’s sense of humor on the Abbreviated Audio blog.

Next Wednesday, we’ll hear more about voice acting and audiobooks from one of the most respected members of the Voice and Speech Trainers of America, Pat Fraley. Be sure to stop in!

Daughter of Smoke & Bone and A Tale of Two Cities plus Batgirl equals listening & viewing awesomeness.

This week’s SYNC audiobooks, available to download for free August 2 – August 8:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone. By Laini Taylor. Read by Khristine Hvam. Published by Hachette Audio.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages–not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she?

A Tale of Two Cities. By Charles Dickens. Read by Simon Prebble. Published by Blackstone Audio.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .” Set before and during the French Revolution, a French aristocrat and an English lawyer compete in their love for Lucie in the menacing shadow of the guillotine.

And for all librarians everywhere, the totally awesome pilot for the sadly unmade Batgirl series. I admit to an addiction to the TV series as a kid, and strongly suspect I’m not the only librarian-by-day that was inspired in my career by Barbara Gordon!

Thanks to Random House Library Services for the link!

I am a bit of a late-comer when it comes to audio books. Audio is a way of consuming that just seemed too passive to me. After all, I can read more quickly than I can listen. Frequent, long car rides with young children changed my mind, and I found myself listening to some classic children's titles with my girls. When I received my copy of Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love at a Random House preview a while back, I tucked it into my purse to bring home.

I read the first title of Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree when I was on the middle grade Cybils judging committee a couple of years ago. I liked Emma Jean just fine, but I certainly wasn't enamoured with her. She was just a bit too quirky for me. Don't get me wrong, we put it in the collection and actively hand sell it to many of our readers, it just wasn't the book for me.

So imagine my surprise and delight upon listening to the second title of Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love. This was the secret for me. Emma Jean simply must be read aloud.

The Spring Fling dance is right around the corner, and hormones are all a flutter in Emma Jean's school. This is the dance where the girls ask the boys, and this has Emma Jean looking specifically at Will Keeler like never before. She is pleased when she sees him, and is considering asking him to the dance. Colleen, however, is worried that Will (or more specifically Laura Gilroy who has a huge and obvious crush on Will) is going to laugh at her.

Colleen finds herself over-the-moon when she gets a note from a secret admirer in her locker. She wonders about who it could be, and she actually asks Emma Jean to help her solve the riddle. Colleen is happier than she has been in a long time and if finding joy in the little things, and just feels so much more "Colleen-er".

Can Colleen's and Emma Jean's friendship survive another round of Emma Jean's helping? Who actually wrote that note that ended up in Colleen's locker.

Lauren Tarshis has written a not-too-sweet story about changing friendships, shifting family, crushes and the 7th grade. Mamie Gummer is a suburb reader, and her slight changes in voice when it comes to Emma Jean and Colleen are perfect. Her reading made me like Emma Jean as a girl. This shift has me thinking about the power of audio books and the reader.

If anyone has any audio editions to recommend of tween titles that changed their mind about a book, I'd love to hear them!

What a wonderful night! The Booklist Magazine Books for Youth Forum at the American Library Association conference in Anaheim celebrated the very first Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production. Stephanie Zvirin welcomed the standing-room-only audience of 500 or so with the bittersweet announcement that this was her last Forum, as she will be leaving her post as Booklist's Books for Youth Editor after more than 30 years. Sue-Ellen Beauregard, Booklist's Media Editor, served as the event moderator, introducing author & Full Cast Audio's Bruce Coville whose Homeric words proved to be the perfect symbolic Champagne-bottle-smash to set the Odyssey off on its voyage. His ritual shedding of the jacket is now an entrenched part of the finest ALA gala events - as was echoed by Lynn Rutan at the 2008 Printz Award ceremony. Next, I had the honor to thank the awesome members of the Best. Committee. Ever. Those wonderful women made my year as chair of the Odyssey Award the best year ever!

The fantastic ALSC staff coordinated the creation of the Odyssey Honor plaques (equal to the Newbery & Caldecott). I had the privilege to present the Honor recognition to Listen & Live Audio for Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy; Weston Woods for Dooby Dooby Moo; Listening Library for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; HarperChildren's Audio for Skulduggery Pleasant; and Listening Library for Treasure Island.

The highlight of the evening was the standing ovation for 2008 Odyssey Award winner Arnie Cardillo of Live Oak Media as he took the stage to accept the beautiful gold medal for his production of Jazz. He spoke to the audience about the amazing collaboration between author Walter Dean Myers, illustrator Christopher Myers, and the 15-member Live Oak production team that worked for five months to create the 42-minute readalong audiobook. The perfect end to the program were the witty & warm remarks and mesmerizing readings from audiobook narrator extraordinaire Simon Vance, recently honored with the title "Voice of Choice" by Booklist Magazine. Who knew that this was his very first public speaking appearance after over 400 audiobooks & stage, screen, and TV acting career!?! The final touch was an appearance by Harry Potter narrator Jim Dale via recorded DVD, who elicited fan-girl squeals from Odyssey committee members when he gave them his special thanks. When we looked out from the stage and saw Newbery-winning authors sitting on the floor throughout the night, we knew this was a night to remember!

I recorded the event, which will soon be posted as a podcast on the YALSA website. Hopefully, we will also post Jim Dale's video. I'll post links here as soon as possible. I was too busy to take pictures so thanks to goreygirl72 at www.flickr.com for the above image! I will try gather some other pictures & post later.

I'll leave you with this great review of Jazz from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. It declares that Jazz is the best audiobook for Friday night wind-down with the family and includes the great suggestion "Let kids hear the poems and page through illustrations while parents cook dinner and relax with a cocktail."

Penguin Books is exploring the idea that the nonlinearity of information presented on the internet is transforming the way we read - and think. Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin's Digital Publisher, offers the example that teens start reading a web page at the center, with the eye bouncing to segments at the edge of the page when attracted visually. I can attest to the truth of this in my daily observation of my middle school students searching for information via the web. Will some declare that this nonlinear way of reading is not really literary? I think that argument is behind the disdain that has been the reaction to eBooks and the Kindle.

The last few days have been a blur. My sister has come home from living abroad for nearly a year and my best friend has also returned from New Zealand after living there for what she describes as "20 months". I've been wracking my brain in my latest role as "fine artist" rather than illustrator to complete paintings I think might sell at this years Artwalk put on by the Paint Spot on Whyte Ave. Sitting on my parents deck on the farm I grew up on I couldn't help thinking what a crazy great job I have to be able to paint wherever I want...

I have recieved my vendors permit and I'm going to be situated at the Varscona Theatre (or Walterdale??). The event runs from July 13-15 so stop by the farmers market and then come by for a chat (this is Edmonton for those of you who don't know where I live) as I'm right across from it. It'll be a one of a kind event for me because I've never actually sold my art before! This entire time I've been deeply involved in illustration where the client "borrows" the scanned image but I'm quaking in my boots to think of someone taking home one of my paintings! Oh I just hope they do. Otherwise my halls will be lined up like crazy with bright pictures of girls sipping wine.