When I was little one of my favorite activities was listening to my record player tell me the story as I “read” along in my book. Later, all through school, I loved having the teacher read to the class. One of my favorite memories is sitting in Peter Taylor’s writing class -- a hot classroom at the University of Virginia, and hearing Peter read a Frank O’Connor story in his wonderful southern accent.
So I must confess it’s a total puzzle why I don’t listen to audiobooks. I should love them. I love them in principle. I’ve even signed up for Audible. But I don’t do it, and honestly, I don’t know why.
Then came a call for an audio story, and my friend Jackie (Miss Sound Savvy Genius) and I decided to “do” a story. I read my story “Night Patrol,” set in the trenches in World War I, and Jackie put in the sounds that went with the story. It was so much fun. Of course, before we got going we had to find the booms made by Big Bertha, and the whizzes made by the short range howitzers. We had to find the sounds of men marching on cobble stones and slogging through mud. Our most wonderful find though was the sound of a rifle bolt going into the breech. We were ecstatic at that sound and kept smiling every time we heard it.
Coordinating the sounds with my reading was a bit of a challenge but we got the hang of it after three practice runs. The end of the story is the end of this post -- I’m back in love with the audio story. I’ll post a new World War I story, “Actions in the Field,” next week. It’s in the current issue of the ANTIOCH REVIEW. The story will definitely have artillery sounds and maybe some mooing cows. Why cows at the front? You’ll have to give a listen to answer that question. Stay tuned to hear it!
So I must confess it’s a total puzzle why I don’t listen to audiobooks. I should love them. I love them in principle. I’ve even signed up for Audible. But I don’t do it, and honestly, I don’t know why.
Then came a call for an audio story, and my friend Jackie (Miss Sound Savvy Genius) and I decided to “do” a story. I read my story “Night Patrol,” set in the trenches in World War I, and Jackie put in the sounds that went with the story. It was so much fun. Of course, before we got going we had to find the booms made by Big Bertha, and the whizzes made by the short range howitzers. We had to find the sounds of men marching on cobble stones and slogging through mud. Our most wonderful find though was the sound of a rifle bolt going into the breech. We were ecstatic at that sound and kept smiling every time we heard it.
Coordinating the sounds with my reading was a bit of a challenge but we got the hang of it after three practice runs. The end of the story is the end of this post -- I’m back in love with the audio story. I’ll post a new World War I story, “Actions in the Field,” next week. It’s in the current issue of the ANTIOCH REVIEW. The story will definitely have artillery sounds and maybe some mooing cows. Why cows at the front? You’ll have to give a listen to answer that question. Stay tuned to hear it!