An Earful
I spent last week isolated in a soundproof booth, and it was glorious.
My phone was off and the only information I had to pay attention to was the text of The Addiction Inoculation on the iPad in front of me and the voices in my ears: the producer in my left and the director in my right.
My director, the absolute legend May Wuthrich, phoned in from her home near New York City, and my incredibly talented producer, Mary Catherine Jones of Voice Over Vermont sat just outside the recording booth at her monitors, keeping an eye on my levels, sound quality, and positioning.
Mary Catherine has some kind of crazy producer bat ears: at one point, I shifted the iPad over a few inches so I could alleviate a crick in my neck and as soon as I started narrating, she said, “Did you move the iPad? I can hear your voice refracting off the screen.”
Readers, she could not see into the booth.
I’ve always been a fan of audiobooks, but in the past decade or so, they have have been my constant companions and my favorite way to escape from the world. My favorite narrators are familiar friends, with the power to calm my nerves (Davina Porter and David Sedaris), get me amped up to write (Stephen King), envelop me up in a mystery or thriller (Steven Weber), or lift my heart up out of the dumps (Teddy Hamilton, Tanya Eby, Xe Sands, Joshilyn Jackson).
My brain is wired for sound, I think. I can tell you precisely where I was when I had to sit and compose myself at the end of Chanel Miller’s brilliant memoir Know My Name (in the woods, burning brush by the fallen pine) or when Lulu Miller finally explained Why Fish Don’t Exist (uprooting raspberry canes in the backyard of my former house in New Hampshire).
Audiobooks live on in my head as mental landmarks for the places I’ve been, the things I’ve learned, and the stories I’ve loved, the words more crystalline and defined than those consumed as ink on the page.
Consequently, I take my narration responsibilities very seriously.
I am so excited for The Addiction Inoculation to go out into the world on April 6, when I finally get to tell you the story of my own alcoholism and recovery, when you get to meet Georgia, Mark, Jeremy, Celeste and Brian, and learn all about how to keep kids safe and healthy while preventing substance use disorder. It’s all there: all the books and studies and experiences and interviews that alternately freaked me out and gave me hope.
So much of me is in this work, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
In the meantime, here’s a three-minute audio sample from chapter two. This is NOT the aforementioned professional recording, just a reading I did on my own this morning, complete with loud breaths, pug snores, and all the errant bangs and thumps that happen my house.
If you like it, I hope you will consider pre-ordering the book in either audio or print!