Teri's Picks: Jurassic Park

I've decided to start blogging about my experience with audiobooks from narrating to listening, beginning with the listening aspect and what I'm calling "Teri's Picks", where I'll share an audiobook I've enjoyed listening to. My first audiobook pick is JURASSIC PARK (yes, THE Jurassic Park story) narrated by SCOTT BRICK for BRILLIANCE PUBLISHING (and of course, written by Michael Crichton.)

Let me first say that I believe opinions are just that: opinions and mine are certainly exclusive to me. My perspective based on my experiences, hence my opinions. Like audiobook narrating, you either like the narrator or you don't (story aside) and sometimes you chalk it up to their being "the worst narrator ever" (as has been written about myself) not really being able to pinpoint why (maybe the narrator's voice reminds you of someone awful in your present or past or maybe their tone just grates on your nerves...or maybe they are just simply the worst) but it's all your opinion. Another person may listen to that very same story and leave a different remark, touting that narrator as "the best" (again, I have had the pleasure of seeing a couple or three of these.) Whatever the case, you may disagree completely with my perspective about what audiobook's I've listened to or like but please, please, please take it with a grain of salt and do not blame me if you dole out the 9.99 (or higher) for the audiobook only to hate it and want your money back! I tried listening three times to Johnny Depp narrate Keith Richards autobiography after paying 30-something for the CD's and fell asleep every time. Johnny Depp's voice just lulled me to sleep. That's me. Just me. Not blaming Mr. Depp or calling him "the worst narrator ever" because I'm sure there are many, many others out there who listened and loved his narration of Keith Richards life! And, believe me, I wanted my 30-something on the CD's back too!

Now, I happen to also believe that Scott Brick is simply the best narrator around these days and I aspire to be able to communicate an author's story to an audience the way he does. I continue studying (I believe in continuing education no matter what level of success you achieve) technique and skill with my #1 Talent/Teacher PAT FRALEY, where Scott Brick has been co-teaching several audiobook and narration courses, so I decided to finally listen to one of Scott's audiobooks. I listened to several samples through Audible (which I always appreciate being able to do to try to get a feel for whether or not I'm going to be able to listen to hours and hours of a voice I don't wince through, or FALL ASLEEP TO) and decided on Jurassic Park because it was one I knew my 11 year-old son would enjoy listening to as well (and I was pretty sure the content was appropriate for his age.) I keep each audiobook MP3 in my car (my Honda Element is equipped to read MP3 discs) and my son and I listen every time we get in the car to go anywhere, so sometimes we listen to the same story for a couple of weeks if we're just riding around town. I got Jurassic Park just before driving us out to Grand Haven, MI to narrate a title for Brilliance Audio, so we were able to finish it during the 6 hour drive up (it's about 15 hours total.)

Scott Brick didn't disappoint. He is a master story teller and creates just the right nuanced tone for each character's voice, including the narrator's voice. Scott really puts himself there in every moment. I felt like he was leading us through Jurassic Park while experiencing the emotions as the character's went through them in the story. If you want a familiar, yet way more in-depth than the movie version, story appropriate for (mine anyway) middle school aged and up family members that's long enough for a good sized road trip, then I highly recommend Scott Brick narrating Jurassic Park. Also, the Audie Award judges thought enough of his performance to nominate him for Best Male Narrator for this year's Audie Awards, the Oscars of the Audiobook Publishing world.

And that's that. My first blog. My first audiobook pick.

I'm not sure what my next blog will be but I'm leaning towards something to do with my narrating experience, and vacillating between audiobook recommendations and narrating. There's so much to cover in the narrating world though and I need to pinpoint a starting position (getting started, home studio set up, first narrations, latest narrations, good ones, bad ones, education, volunteering, career, performing and on and on into the other performance based career I'm linked to acting!) I'll figure it out and get something down.

Thanks for checking this out and thanks for listening to audiobooks.

Oh, by the way, I have another in-fun kind of blog called MY IDIOT MOM, told in fun from the perspective of my kid about the idiotic things his mom does (but he loves her anyway) if you're interested. Also, I have some videos posted on my You Tube Channel TCLARKVOMAMA from when I taught voice-over covering basics on voice over skills and techniques at the microphone, if that speaks to you as well. Just sharing the fun. Thanks.