Nicole Clarkston recently introduced me to Leena Emsley, who narrated These Dreams for her, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Leena about all things audiobook-related. Please give her a warm welcome!
Hi, Leena! Can you tell us a little about yourself? How did you become an audiobook narrator?
I live in the UK, in the beautiful county of Northumberland. I come from a family of actors. My grandparents performed, my parents met on the stage and I was running around theatres from a young age. I went to drama school, but decided it was more fun as a hobby so devoted all my spare time to it and performed for many years on stages from Edinburgh to Berlin.
I gave up the stage when I had my children and have home schooled for almost 10 years. They are now teenagers and need me less, so I started to look for something I could do from home, and was drawn to find something that allowed me to indulge my old passion. I began doing voluntary audio work, took a training course for voice narrators, and signed up to ACX.
Can you describe the process of narrating a book? I know nothing about how it’s actually done, so any or all details would be fascinating to me. How do you go about differentiating between all the different characters/voices? What preparation is involved? Where do you record the book, etc.?
The first step is to read the book, know the story and get a feel for the characters. If there are particular accents required, I research the accent. In These Dreams there are several Portuguese characters. I was fortunate to have the help of Nicole’s Portuguese friend, Rita, who very kindly recorded phrases for me. She has also very kindly refrained from throwing her hands up in horror at how badly I managed to reproduce them! There is a balance between accuracy and performance. In the end, performance takes precedence, so long as I manage a flavour of the accent.
For characters with similar accents, I rely on their character differences to clue me in to their voices. Well drawn characters jump out the page. Mostly it comes down to intonation. For instance the snake Reginald (spoiler!) just has to have a languid tone, as opposed to his pompous staccato father. I do my best to differentiate between characters, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
I record in a small booth my husband made for me. It does a good job of screening me from most outside noises, though I have to stop for planes, high wind and lawn mowers! I love my little booth. It feels like I enter a new world and I get totally wrapped up in the story.
What did you like best about narrating Nicole’s books?
I love Nicole’s writing! Not a word is wasted, there is pace and drama, her characters are well drawn and you feel their emotions. I am always moved by human compassion, and my favourite moment was when Elizabeth meets Amália. It reduced me to tears and required a pause in recording!
The Earl of Matlock and Lady Catherine were the most fun to narrate. It was great to let rip with the stiff upper lip, starchy accents, and so wonderful that their vulnerabilities were brought out, too.
What are some other books you’ve narrated?
My first book with ACX was Leslie Diamond’s Particular Intentions. It was my introduction to JAFF, and as a Jane Austen fan, I was immediately attracted. I am currently working on her sequel Particular Attachments. They are both Pride and Prejudice variations, with the sequel following Georgiana’s story. I have done several books books by Regina Puckett, as well as a detective story and steam punk adventure.
Thank you so much, Leena! I really enjoyed learning more about audiobook narration, so much so that I think this year might be time for me to give them another try!
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Giveaway
Nicole is generously offering two codes for each of her audiobooks, These Dreams and London Holiday. The codes are for the U.S. and U.K. only. To enter, please leave a comment with your email address, and let us know which book you’d prefer (you can enter for both, but can only win one) and whether you’d like a U.S. or U.K. code. This giveaway will be open through Sunday, January 13, 2019. The winners will be chosen randomly and announced in the comments section of this post. Good luck! And a big thanks to Nicole for setting up the interview with Leena and for the very generous giveaway!
I love audio books 🙂
Thank you for the insightful interview and a chance to win a copy of these lovely novels.
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Thank you for hosting, Anna! Leena is such a talent, I can’t wait to hear what she does next. Thanks to everyone for stopping by!
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Thank you for the interview and the chance to win! It was interesting to learn about the narrator’s point of view. I have read and love Nicole’s works and hope to listen to them sometime soon!
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Your passion for your job really comes through in this interview. Thanks for the insight into narration!
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I love audiobooks, but usually refrain because of the expense. I loved both of Nicole’s books that are up for raffle, so will refrain from buying them until the raffle is over, but I WILL buy the audio for “Particular Intentions.” Leena’s description of her approach to her work is most inspiring.
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I have found listening to audible books while walking daily much to my liking. I have been wanting to reread These Dreams and would love to win an Audible copy. I would not turn down the other book, however. Thanks for this chance to win. This interview on the process was interesting. odara7rox(at)rcn(dot)com
US code please
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Thank you for your insite into audio recording. I would think it would be hard to keep the various characters intonations in your mind. I thoroughly enjoyed both books and would love to win a US audio code for either of them. Thank you for this giveaway. evamedmonds(at)gmail(dot)com
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It is so interesting to hear about a book from someone doing the audio version. A different perspective! I imagine it is a great deal of fun to do, and I certainly admire the skill it takes to bring a story to life.
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I have recently discovered how great audiobooks are as I can listen to them on my way to work and find that it makes my long commute so much more bearable. I would be interested in both but if given a choice, I would prefer London Holiday and would be using a US code. Thank you for the giveaway! jadseah4(at)yahoo
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What a terrific, articulate interview! Audiobook narration is very important in this day and age. I enjoy listening to books on CD in my car, my (often) private sound booth. Both of the books sound delightful, but please enter me for These Dreams, U.S.A..Thank you for hosting this lovely giveaway! I will add it to my blog’s sidebar.
suko95(at)gmail(dot)com.
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Beautiful Narration. I listened to the sample. Lovely!
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Thank you for the lovely comments. I love audio books myself and am constantly ‘plugged in listening while washing dishes, driving, walking, gardening… Good luck with the great give always. I read London Holiday while on holiday myself last summer in Kintyre and loved it:-).
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I loved both Particular Intentions and London Holiday audiobooks, so I’m looking forward to listening to These Dreams (please enter me for a US code) and the release of Particular Attachments.
Thanks for the great interview.
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I used to listen to audio books that were in the public domain, but most of the time they were very disappointing to listen to because the readers had seemingly done no preparation at all, even to reading the material ahead of time. Of course, they weren’t being paid to do it, but I would be embarrassed to put out such a poor product. I love owning books from Audible now, as everything is so professionally done and many of the readers are simply brilliant, more like actors than just readers. I enjoyed your comments, Leena, and look forward to listening to one of your narrations. I would love to be entered for These Dreams, which is one of my favorite JAFF stories.
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I’d love to have this to listen to after reading it so many times.
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no need to enter me, but I really am fascinated by the audiobook narration process. Thanks for the interview.
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I have not been a fan of audiobook but I am going to push myself and listen to one of them this year. I just need to figure out how Audible works cos it’s a different platform compared to Amazon. I think I have a US code for one of the audiobooks mentioned but I forgot which one.
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Thank you to everyone who stopped by to check out Leena’s interview!
The winners of the London Holiday audiobook codes are virginiakohl and darcybennett! The winners of the These Dreams audiobook codes are evamedmonds and KateB! Congratulations! Please check your emails.
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