Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

Actually, so much of the writing life is fun–researching topics you’re interested in; spending day after day in Fictionland while you ignore the rest of the noisy, demanding world; writing characters you want to be or want to fall in love with or at least want to hang out with for as long as you can–the list is long, but I’d rather get on to something else.

And that’s the collaborative parts.

We write in our caves, just us and the stories, and then some day we come out into the light and see what’s going on. We pass off the manuscripts to our agents, who then send them to our editors, and then there’s a whole long process of back and forth, honing and enriching, trying to make the story as good as it can possibly be. And that’s fun at times, but it’s also agony, because of course secretly in your heart you wish everyone would agree right away that the manuscript is perfect–or really, you’re perfect–and all we need is to change two words in the whole thing and we’re there! Never happens!

But already you’re involved in the collaborative process with other creative people, and it just feels so good. People whose talents might be similar or totally different from your own are paying attention to your work and helping you make it better.

And now I’m on to another phase in the collaborative process: the audio book.

Not every novel gets made into an audio book as well, and so I’m always so pleased when that can happen. And this time around it’s FAT CAT, which comes out this October. Because audio books take so much less time to produce than a paper book, we’re just beginning the process of recording now, even though the audio book will come out the same day as the hardback.

The producer of the audio book has selected the actress he wants to read the book for the recording. I’ve listened to her demo reel from another book she read, and she’s fantastic! I’m so excited. More on her later.

I also get to be on the audio book. I’ll be undergoing my own recording in a few weeks as I interview a Special Guest for the Special Features part of the audio book. Last time I did that, for EVOLUTION, ME & OTHER FREAKS OF NATURE, I was a total nervous wreck, which usually ends up giving me a lisp. Maybe no one else can hear it on the recording, but I sure can.

But that was a first for me, and I’m hoping this time around I won’t be so nervous or so weird. I’m really looking forward to the interview I’m going to be doing, and I’ll tell you more about that later, too.

And last but not least on the Fun List, the music for the audio book has been composed by my very own brother, who is a professional musician. Yesterday he and I spent four hours knocking around the melody, him on guitar, me on piano. That’s right, I’m going to get to play the piano on my own audio book! That gives me such a thrill it’s not even legal.

But all of those activities and joys fall under that same category of collaboration with creative, talented people. Musicians, actors, producers, editors, agents–everybody does what they do so well, and it’s just a blast to be part of a group like that, watching and learning. I feel very, very fortunate.

Bottom line for all you writers, aspiring or published: These are the perks. This is part of the reason why sitting at our desks for upteen hours a day, week after week, month into month really is a good use of our lives and time. Because even though it’s not fun every minute of every day, it sure is fun a big portion of the time, and why shouldn’t we enjoy as much of the fun as we can?

Recording starts later this month. I’ll give you a full report from the front lines. I’m doing that because I’d want to read about it if it were someone other than me, so I’m hoping you feel the same way.

Now off to work on edits for the new manuscript I just finished. Then I can get back to the fun stuff.

Technorati Tags: Audio Books, Books, Publishing, Writing

Posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 1:01 pm under Writing . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Tagged: Audio Books, Books, Publishing, Writing. Comment, or trackback.