I spent about four hours yesterday (Wednesday, May 2, 2012) recording and then tweaking an audio excerpt from my debut novel, The Foolish and the Weak, book one in the Age of Restoration series.
I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while, but the catalyst, the reason for doing it now, stems from Twitter conversations held with KJ Waters, aka @kamajowa.
She recorded a couple of things over at audioboo.fm (you can hear a sampling here, if you haven’t already) and was trying to get me to do the same. Nothing like a little peer pressure, even in my 40s. 
My book excerpt comes from the last few pages of Chapter 13. Paz, her brother, Thomas, and their mother, Paloma, are with Brad Cantwell, a young man Paz thought she liked, but at this juncture she isn’t sure she does. They’re in an abandoned home in Florida, it’s nighttime, and Brad has just gone out to investigate a noise they heard coming from the backyard, leaving the other three inside, alone and unarmed.
Those of you who have watched the book’s trailer, Who is… Paz Kirkegaard? will probably notice some similarities between what I’ve chosen to record, and the trailer itself. The trailer is a composite of elements from the book compressed into a single scene, but it does take location cues from this actual spot in The Foolish and the Weak.
For those interested in the behind the scenes, I recorded the excerpt using GarageBand on a MacPro running Lion. The atmosphere is supplied by pre-composed music in GarageBand’s cinematic category titled “No Escape” (I thought it apropos), which I pieced together between its short and long versions. The sound effects are also from GarageBand. I used a Blue Yeti mic with stereo input to record my voice.
I enjoy working with sound and would have loved to live in the day when radio shows thrilled and entertained the masses. That said, it’s only a hobby, and my capabilities and resources are limited. I could list all the defects and errors in this excerpt, but I’ll spare you the time. I do believe it’s good enough to share.
I’ve tested and retested the audio in both Safari and Internet Explorer. It seemed to work on every machine I tried, so hopefully it works for you. Click the link to start, or you can right mouse click to open up your media player.
And now, without further ado, I present to you, a four-minute theatrical reading of: The Foolish and the Weak.
Enjoy!
