Coach's Corner with Robin Miles (#2): Full BONUS Episode!

Continuing the conversation with storied audiobook narrator, director, and coach Robin Miles.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Let me tell you a story.
I tell you what.
I am going to hop up and justlike shake off the one that we
just did and grab a cup of water.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I put myself in a physically vulnerable position.
To put myself in the depth ofthe vulnerability I need to be
in to read this book.
No, shut up Now this time.
Take your time and see what youdiscover in the rhythm of the
writing.
It's warm and squishy and itjust radiates love.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Warm and squishy and radiates love.
How could it get better thanthat?
Now I'm kind of thinking likemaybe Robin will be my first
three guests.
Maybe I just recorded threemonths worth of these coaching
things because I want to use allof these.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
There's also the value of the juxtaposition,
because doing speakeasy afterStorm Crow is a tremendous
change of who am I.
Same format, first person, butway different.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I tell you what .
I am going to hop up and justlike shake off the one that we
just did and grab a cup of waterand I'll be back in like three
minutes.
All right, I'm going to do thesame.
Hey, welcome back to the no manNarrator.
I'm your host, emily, wishingyou a very happy Thanksgiving
today with this extra bonusepisode of the Coaches Corner
with legendary audiobooknarrator Robin Miles.

(01:34):
Robin and I had so much to sayon our call last week that we
ran far over time, which, luckyfor you, means there is a whole
lot more to dive into in thisextra episode.
But before we do, though, Ijust want to tell you a little
more about that writer's retreatthat I was at last week with a
handful of other narrators.
So a couple months ago, therewas an audiobook producer who
had an author client who saidhey, I've had so much fun

(01:57):
working with you and goingthrough the whole audiobook
production process and I justlove what narrators do so much
that I want to do a littlesomething to give back to the
narrator community.
Are any of your narratorfriends writers?
So this producer, erin, sharedwith a bunch of us narrators
that an author would like tohost some of us at a free
writer's retreat at her home,and would anyone like to go Now?

(02:18):
I am pretty much always downwith an interesting opportunity
like this, so I immediatelyRSVP'd yes, and I even actually
just been telling my husbandabout a funny idea for a book.
I thought someone should write.
So I was like, why not?
So I went ahead and said yes,even though I have to admit that
somewhere in the back of mymind was this thought of like?
Isn't this like a plot of ahorror novel that I've heard
before, where some fancystranger invites a bunch of

(02:40):
people to their home for agetaway?
And anyway, it was not.
I'm happy to announce the plotof a horror novel.
We ended up spending this weekat the home of author Dakota
LaCoy, which was absolutelyincredible.
She lives in this beautifulhome that she and her family
have.
It's on a lake in the mountainsof South Carolina.

(03:00):
It was warm enough to goswimming.
We took the boat out.
We had fires every night on herback deck with these furry
blankets she keeps everywhere.
There was pumpkin bread forbreakfast every day.
It was absolutely incredible.
So we spent this week doingthese workshop sessions where we
learned about things likecharacter building and how to
map out plot points for yournovel and how to craft
compelling sentences and justall of these things that I won't

(03:22):
give too much away of, becauseDakota does host these retreats
every so often.
So if you're a budding writerwho would like to learn more
about that, you can certainlyreach out to her.
And in the meantime, if you area romance reader, dakota does
specialize in the romance genreand she hosts a romance reader
roundup on Clubhouse theClubhouse app every second and
fourth Tuesday of the month at 9pm Eastern.

(03:45):
So if you are interested inthat, or finding out when her
next retreat might be, or evengetting a peek at her latest
series to come out, which isabsolutely adorable it's called
the Bradford Brothers of HonkyTonk, texas.
There are seven books and she'sjust put so much care and
thought into crafting literallyeverything about this series,
from the cover art to the bookslayout and just the way that she

(04:08):
even features her audiobooknarrator and these little
interview spots on her website.
It's really cool.
She puts so much time andthought and care into everything
.
If you're interested in any ofthat, you can check everything
out at dakotolacoycom.
That's D-A-K-O-T-A-L-A-C-O-Ycom, and I really hope that you

(04:29):
will take a look at that andenjoy everything she's been
putting together for heraudiences.
Now I don't want to keep youwaiting on the rest of our
audiobook talk here.
So, without any further ado, Irepresent to you the lovely
Robin Miles as we dive into justa little bit more of the
coach's corner.
Okay, I am back.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm coming back in with my ginger juice, my ginger
juice.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
I also find that I have very different physicality
between my narrating self and mychatting self.
I know that when I get in thebooth I need to probably do a
little yoga or something rightbeforehand and really pay
attention to my posture and feelwhere my neck is and how tight

(05:19):
my jaw is and blow through mylips a little bit.
I get so interested in whatwe're discussing and in how
we're looking at it that I getmy chest closes off a little bit
because I'm leaning forward andthen when I try to go back into
the material, I have to openmyself back up.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's because your body is so intuitive.
You've moved into left brainI'm thinking about and analyzing
and picking apart and then yougot to jump back into your right
side.
That's what it sounds like tome.
And okay, you know those days,right, you know those days.
You get up in the morning.

(05:57):
There's bad stuff happeningmaybe in the world, things going
on in your own life, whateverthose trying things that we live
through.
They bind us up.
Sometimes it tenses your body.
Shoulders go up and then you goin the booth.
I've had this happen a coupleof times where the experience of

(06:18):
the characters is so deeplypersonal and you have to just
kick open all your emotionalgates.
But you need to keep some ofthose barriers up to just sort
of protect self a bit and I'llgo in and I'll start reading and
I feel the tension and I go.
This is not it.
So I just stop and I take myhands and I put them face up on

(06:43):
my knees.
I'll open my knees a little bit, sit up straight, open my body,
let my belly fall open, and Iwill look at the text and just
begin to read it and breathe.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Totally different experience.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Totally different experience.
Your body will start to respondto the opening when you open up
your neck.
I mean, think about it yourneck is the kill spot.
If you're a wild animal, twoanimals are fighting in the wild
.
One wants to give up.
What does it do?
It exposes its neck and goesokay, I give up.
Here it is.
And then the other one usuallywalks away, unless, of course,
it's predator prey and one'sgoing to eat the other one.

(07:19):
But if they're fighting fordominance, one gives up and
nobody gets killed.
That's an extremely vulnerablepart of a mammal's body.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
I deal with a lot of throat chakra area, tension,
kind of things I have neverthought about.
I always thought of the bellyas being the vulnerable spot,
and it is.
But the neck is what you'resaying it's the kill spot, it's
the most vulnerable.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
You just tear that carotid artery and you're done,
and you're done.
Or crush the windpipe.
Yeah, I put myself in aphysically vulnerable position.
My knees are fallen open, sothere's the sexuality unguarded,
and I put my wrists up on myknees, which is again opening
across the chest.
That's the heart, and I don'twant to compress my neck, so I

(08:09):
keep my eyes fairly level andthen I just begin to breathe,
and I do zen breathing.
So it's like you concentratemore on the out breath and just
let the breath come in.
I don't pull it in In just amoment and I'll do that maybe 15

(08:30):
times.
By the end of that 15th breath,I've centered again and I have
the courage to put myself in thedepth of the vulnerability I
need to be in to read this book.
But that's what I that's mylike.
It's the can opener for me, thecan opener that opens the lid
of my can when it's lamb shod.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
That's what this is going to be called.
This exercise is forever nowknown as the can opener.
Did someone teach you this ordid you just sort of Into it
this and come up with it?

Speaker 2 (08:58):
I just kept finding like I wanted to be more
vulnerable, and so I was justlike how can I get more open?
Open my knees and open my chestand the wrists upward like that
, with palms open.
It's like giving and receivingposition You're ready to give
and you're ready to receive, andif you do that with your body,

(09:20):
it sends a signal to your heartand your mind and it follows.
It's like I was in Udahoggan'sclass when I was a young actress
.
No, shut up.
That's how old I am, love.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
You were taught by Udahoggan.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
It was so cool.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yes, yes, Because I was like in like a Udahoggan
class, but that's not the samething.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
We had her.
Oh my God, Robin.
What was her like?
Phenomenal for many reasons.
One, her sense ofprofessionalism and craft, the
way she approached work, Goingthrough all of the exercises
that are in the book.
She was writing the secondedition while we were in her

(10:07):
class and a couple of times whenclass would end early.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Which one Respect for acting or a challenge for the
actor.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Respect for acting was the one that had been
written first, and she wrote anew edition of it, and so she
would sometimes read us achapter.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
You like workshoppedUdahoggan's book with her.
It was really exciting, you'relike even cooler than I already
knew.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Wow, I never consider myself cool, but if you do,
I'll take it, you totally are.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
I mean, I'm a huge nerd so maybe don't listen to me
, but I think you are.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
From the Jersey Shore .
I'm not sure how cool I couldbe, but one of the things that
she would always say is younever, as an actor, you don't
try to cry.
What you're actually trying todo is what you do when you start
crying is you try to control itor stop it?

Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, and you get that sort of like hot feeling in
your face and in your throat.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, but what are the things that your body does
when you're trying not to cry?
Just sort of observe.
The next time you have a tearymoment, you get choked up and
you try to hold it in.
And she was right.
When you do the things you dowhen you are crying to stop it,
your body starts crying.

(11:22):
It's like it goes I'mconstricting in my throat.
I must be crying.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
And the tears just come out to match what you're
doing.
It's like making me misty-eyed,just to sort of like half blink
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah.
So I never try to cry and I wasnever very good at that to
begin with when I was a youngactress.
You know, you're doing yourcheck off play, right, you're
playing Masha, and then you seein the script it goes she cries.
I would always go, oh shit,because I can't make that stuff
up.
I can't pretend to cry, I justcan't.
Some people can.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
I'm amazed by it, because I never have been able
to either.
It's like you're saying, it'slike it's a nuanced set of
things, but I can't manufacturethe tears myself.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Uh-uh, nope, can't do it.
So if I don't find an organicway to get myself there, it
ain't happening.
So that oodahoggan note wasgold.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Let me ask you this this is not even audio book
related, but have you ever hadan experience on stage where you
like like this is one of myfavorite parts about performing
life theater is that, dependingon just how you're feeling that
day, or have the audience's vibe, or what your fellow actor
throws at you on stage, thatmight be slightly different
because of what they're doingthat day?
Like, have you ever had a spotwhere you had gone through the

(12:37):
scene a bunch of times and it'sone of these things where she
cries, but you always are kindof like I have to get myself to
that spot, but then one day itjust hit you like a wall of
tears.
Yes, how did you handle thatafterward?
How did you have thatexperience?
Find yourself literally sobbingand then just continue in this

(12:58):
whole new emotional state thatyou're not used to doing the
rest of the scene in.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
I find that emotions that are heightened like that
are like a wave, and one of thethings that I do when something
like that happens is I just letthe wave wash over me and it'll
push me back a step.
But I'm confident that if I justlet it, if I don't fight it too

(13:23):
too hard, like I just let itwash over me and keep going when
the tide's coming in, it's hardsometimes to get into the water
.
You have to time it so that itwashes over and then it's like a
little bit calm and that's whenyou walk in.
Well, if a wave is washing overyou, you can't make it go away,
you can't make it disappear.
You have to just sort of absorbthe energy of it and realize

(13:45):
that you'll just keep movingforward as soon as it's kind of
passed.
Now the thing that I findhappens is, especially with
actors, we'll have somethinglike that, like a real, true
emotion washes up on our shoreand it feels so good to be doing
this thing that we've trainedto do, that we try and hold onto
it.
And that's the problem youcan't hold onto it, you have to

(14:11):
just let it flow.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
That makes so much sense.
I know that feeling of wavesthat you're talking about.
I think that is a pretty commonemotional experience, that they
sort of roll and then they'verecede, and then they roll and
then they recede, and if youbreathe your way through it.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Life is everything.
Breathe your way through it,and because we have a thousand
dollar microphone in front ofour face, you know you really
can't skip the breaths.
I have a request I want to hearyou do Speakeasy.
Yeah, we went through it realfast.
We did Just through the opening, but now this time, take your

(14:52):
time and see what you discoverin the rhythm of the writing.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
And you have mentioned a couple times about
the difference in thecharacter's voice because of the
time, yeah, yeah.
So with something like this, Iwould usually play around with
it a whole bunch over the courseof several days or like a week,
find a cadence and I don't evenknow how to describe what I'm
thinking of here Like a set ofvowels that works like placement

(15:20):
in my mouth and like not tryingto find the placement but just
talking enough to kind of findhow To let it fall into that
place.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, yeah, I get you .
That's a great way to go aboutit.
If the voice of this charactersounds like someone that you
knew or saw, like oh, this is mygreat aunt.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
You know I'm thinking more just like movies I've seen
of the 1920s.
But I know that there's areally good chance.
I'm not going to do that, welloff the cuff.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Don't worry about the judgment, just invest in the
investigation of it.
Gotcha, okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh, here's a question for part one Panther Sweat
Check in.
Are those an announcerdifferent voice, that's just
separate from the character oris she saying those?

Speaker 2 (16:14):
No, she's saying them .

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, I think that, as I started, I'm going to just
keep trying to kind of feel itcoming into the place, so it's
probably going to sound a littleall over the place.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Explore and I'm not interested in judging an
exploration.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Part one Panther Sweat.
Check in, check in.
There's this ragamuff in cityout east, do you follow?
Sitting pretty with a river oneach arm, lit up in her gladdest
rags in 1624.
I'll tell you, she's seen itall, boy howdy, the deep down

(16:57):
and the high up, champagne andsyphilis, pearls and puke.
Oh, she's a cynical doll.
Nothing new to her, don't youbelieve it?
Treat her right and she'll openup to you.
As innocent as Eden and twiceas naked.
She's got secrets.
Sure, who doesn't Pour me asnort and I'll spill?

(17:20):
Mister, got me a meal and I'llshow you the goods.
If you go looking for it.
Just about halfway uptown andhalfway downtown there's this
hotel, stuck like a pin all theway through the world, up on the
roof of the Artemisia.
It's heaven in a handbag Greengrass and golden chickens laying

(17:41):
golden eggs under the.
Oh, sorry, you're going to haveto tell me that word again.
Telephonograph, yeah, okay, howam I doing?
Good?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Again, we're not judging the exploration, this is
just exploration Okay, gotcha,where should I go back?
To Up on the roof Like line 17,up on the roof.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Up on the roof of the Artemisia.
It's heaven.
In a handbag, green grass andgolden chickens laying golden
eggs under the telephonographwires 500 if there's one.
They got Chinese ducks thecolor of nose powder.
12 she goats descended straightdown from the girl who gave her
tit to a titan.

(18:21):
A couple of Jersey cows givingmilk as sweet as maple syrup.
Bees like gold buttons closingup the clouds.
Sheep just bursting out.
Fleece that spins better thansilk Ever got drunk on a tomato,
hopped up on cucumbers.
Well then, you never ate out ofthe garden.

(18:43):
On top of the Artemisia, and Iswear, up there in the sky, they
got a little black bear as tameas a kitten.
I hear Telly goes by Rutherfordand learned himself to growl.
I love you.
That's how you know it's heaven.
The goats don't eat the sugarpeas and the ducks don't fly off

(19:03):
, and even the fellow with theclaws knows about love.
Should I keep going there?
Should we go?
Oh yeah, no, keep going, keepgoing.
Okay Again.
Ooh, I haven't read the rest ofthis, though.
I stopped there.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
I always have to muck around in the mud for a while
before it takes me where itwants to go.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Okay, now, this is actually just a complete cold
read, though, because I haven'tread past that right.
Well then, you won't want torush All right, nope Down inside
the Artemisia.
It's this mortal coil all over.
Many delights on every floorSays hotel on the neon, but most
folks live down there on thepermanent, or what does that

(19:44):
mean?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Most folks live there on the permanent.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
They're permanent residents like a residents hotel
Gotcha All right Says hotel onthe neon, but most folks live
there on the permanent or aspermanent as anything could be
in a city that had eat itselfjust to grow another block.
So girls on nine, jasmine onfour, starlets malls and Debs on
seven, abortionists andpoisoners and bankers all

(20:09):
shuffling together on three andthe real heavy sugar up high
Baseball players and bootleggersand bought cops who never
busted a joint of who since theemit.
What is that?

Speaker 2 (20:23):
You know it's funny, I have that written down
somewhere, but it's I don't haveit like with me today.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
I'm going to guess that joint of I think a Jew is
actually a speakeasy.
Yeah, and it's like what is iswho and the amendment joint of
the day Could be, and I thinkit's the place.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
It's the speakeasy where people are drinking that
has not recently been busted bythe cops.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, I just look up real quick.
I just want to know who is you.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
The only way means you in French yeah, and I think
the amendment is prohibition,yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Um all right, when would you like me to start again
?

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Let's do line 27 down inside, down inside.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Down inside the Artemisia it's this mortal coil.
All over Earthly.
Delights on every floor sayshotel on the neon, but most
folks live there on thepermanent or as permanent as
anything could be in a city thathad eat itself just to grow
another block.
Showgirls on nine, jasmine onfour, starlets malls and debbs

(21:33):
on seven.
Abortionists and poisoners andbankers all shuffling together
on three and the real heavysugar up high baseball players
and bootleggers and bought copswho never busted a joint of who.
Since the amendment All thedoors stand double wide to wedge
in pianos, card tables, bathtubstills, real bodysoppers and

(21:58):
down dirty desks bouncing andshaking those red halls.
Rushing composers on rollyskates, outfielders, toot and
saxophones, tenors, practice andarchery on big buck, glass eyed
deer heads, riders shimmying inbare feet, poor lambs.
But the rent and the drink theydo come before the shine and

(22:19):
the shoes.
Some damned body rolled out agolf course in the East ballroom
, flattened out that green withan iron like it was Pan's own
shirt front.
Ain't nothing out there in thecity.
Some fool didn't drag inthrough the service entrance.
Everybody said one of thesedays the moon COD come rolling
in like.
I don't know what that meanseither.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Cash on delivery.
Cod Cash on delivery.
Okay, so you don't pay for ituntil it arrives at your door.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Gotcha.
Everybody said one of thesedays the moon and COD come
rolling in like a dining table,cod up on her side, boys, mind
the chandeliers.
You never saw girls like thoseglitter jeans with their
sequined crowns.
You never saw boys like thosevelvet fellas getting their edge

(23:04):
.
Neither.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Nice, nice, nice, nice.
See, your instincts are takingyou to the right place.
Do you feel how, all of asudden, you're starting to get
into a little bit of a pattern?

Speaker 1 (23:13):
But I do, and I also feel like I'm falling into a
southern accent.
Is that not happening?

Speaker 2 (23:19):
I don't think it's necessarily southern.
When I first read this, one ofthe things that came to mind was
May West as a ragamuffin cityout east.
Yeah, pretty with a river oneach arm, lit up in a gladus
drag since 1624.
She'll tell you she's seen itall, boy Howdy, you know like

(23:40):
that, that smart, and she'ssarcastic as hell.
Yeah, and that's what I.
One of the things I love aboutthis is the sarcasm is written
into her character in the text,especially like when you got to
that line and I think it reallystarted to open that part of it
up.

(24:01):
You said Eve went door to doorwith her apple Not a soul in the
autumn ease, it would notgrabbed it, planted a kiss on
old mama fig leaf and had thatshiny red temptation turned into
the applejack and you put avase in it and did it with an
anaw.
You know what I mean.
So there's some, there's a lotof attitude in this.
She's playful and she's fromanother era.

(24:22):
And the more you were reading,the more you started to develop
a speech pattern that came rightout of what the author wrote in
the text.
So I spend so much time onopening chapters because that
helps me find the footprintthat's going to carry me through
the rest of the book.
Or it's like a tow rope for askier.
You know it's pulling you upthe hill.

(24:43):
Once you're up the hill youjust got to ski down.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Robin, I look at this and I legit and like and like.
We can't necessarily do that.
Well, I want to know, I want toknow if you've ever done this
with anything with an audiobookLike I.
Look at this and I see amonologue.
Like I see a monologue thatrequires marking out beat
changes and looking up stuff.
Like I, this would be somethingthat if I were doing theater,

(25:07):
this would take me like daysjust to look through and work
through this and it reads like amonologue.
It does, but we don't usuallyhave the opportunity to spend as
much time as we would onsomething.
Have you ever had somethingwhere you feel like this section
or this chapter or whatever islike so vital and important or

(25:28):
such a lynchpin or such anintroduction that, like you
actually treated it like youwould?
Oh, I rehearse it Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
I had one of those books.
You know you get one.
It doesn't happen a lot, butyou get one of those books and
you turn the page and you go.
There's no punctuation.
The entire page has nopunctuation.
There's no period.
Oh my God.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Well, I'm glad to say I've never had that experience.
It sounds like a nightmare.
It sounds like a literal theactors nightmare is being on
stage with no lines, that youdon't remember what you're
saying.
That to me is the audiobooknarrator's night.
You turn the page.
There's no punctuation.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
There's no punctuation.
Well, I have to now plot my way.
How did these thoughts come outof this person and this, oh
okay, cause and effect, I see.
Oh, of course she said thatafter that, because that follows
.
And then, oh right, we'retaking a completely new tack
here.
Hash, I make a hash mark, right, okay?
So something catches my head,my mind, my attention and sends

(26:28):
me off into another way.
So I just put in the thing thatcatches my attention so that it
effectively does it for me.
Do you know what I mean?
So I'm always trying to embedit into like some kind of
organic experience, like reading, reading, reading, look up,
look out the window.
And then she said to her motherI'll never do that again.

(26:49):
And then I realized that I haveto take it off of looking out
the window, which stimulates thenext thought.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
You know who I'm going to have to remember to ask
this question to, if I everhave him on the show is?
I think Sean Pratt narratedInfinite Jest by David Foster
Wallace and I QC'd it and Iremember that there's like David
Foster Wallace has sentencesthat go on for like pages, If
I'm remembering this right, ifI'm remembering this right.

(27:17):
So I want to ask him to and see.
One of the things I love aboutgetting to talk to different
people is it's kind of what wewere talking about before Like
you can have one emotion andeveryone's going to express it
in a different way.
There's so many different waysto skin this cat and I would be
so interested to see if heremembers when he was reading
that book, like what he did tomake sentences that were three
pages long Make sense.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
It's hard.
I know it's really hard whenyou get into complex text.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Do you ever mark like ?
Do you have a like a?
Okay, so the first audio bookthat I ever got, katie Kellgren
had said let me know if you needany help with anything.
And I got this book.
It was a young adult book, Idon't even remember what it was,
but it had a bunch of differentcharacters and she kind of
walked me through a veryextensive set of tools that she

(28:10):
used to mark her scripts withdifferent characters, and I
don't mean the characters in thein the book, I mean like
different sets of markings thatshe would use, how she used her
color system, how she would useunderlines, how she would use
circles, how she like all these.
What, what do you use toapproach anything like that?
Do you have like a codifiedsystem, or is there something

(28:31):
that you share with others orI'm interested to hear about
that?
I do.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
And I always teach it to my my classes, my students,
but with the caveat that youhave to treat your script in a
way that you easily respond toit.
So I remember doing a book thatthe two communities that were
in, constantly in scenes witheach other were Afri Connors,

(29:03):
you know, and so I had thatcommunity and then they were in
dialogue with Cosa speakersclick language speakers and how
do you approach a dialect likethat that doesn't even have like
a sonic translation intoEnglish?
Well, you have to learn thesounds that don't occur in

(29:24):
English, that do in theirlanguage, which means you've got
to be able to do well.
You have to know what consonantis a substitute for what sound
Like the X is.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
I know that.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
And I have a South African speaker who's a friend
of mine and, as she said,there's like a voiced and an
unvoiced.
So instead of just three clicksounds, there's actually kind of
six.
But the big I said largegesture that's different for the
two and that's Afri Connorstends to be very tight in the
jewel, very tight, and so youdon't have much space between

(30:01):
your molars.
And then if you want to doSouth Africa, you have a dropped
jaw, more of a dropped jaw andmore of an opening for somebody
who is doing Cosa or Cosaactually.
So going from those two jawpositions back and forth was
really challenging.

(30:22):
So the only way I could do itwas to use my IPA symbols and to
draw the symbols over thesounds.
That changed that.
I wanted to make sure I didn'tget wrong.
So in the dialogue I had towrite it in, but the symbols
above the words.
Now that has meaning for me.
If you haven't studied IPA,you're going to have to come up
with a way to remind yourselfevery time you get to an ah

(30:45):
sound to do eh, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
And I want to speak to this for a moment just
because, like, okay, one of thethings that bothers me most like
in the world and life is whenpeople get gatekeeper about
stuff and people are discouragedfrom kind of even starting to
try because they feel likethere's way too much, I'll never
understand, it'll never be goodenough.
And I want to stop for a momenthere to ask how important do

(31:15):
you think it is for people toknow IPA, to be able to start in
audiobooks?

Speaker 2 (31:24):
To start in audiobooks.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
You don't need to know any IPA in terms of that's
what I thought you were going tosay.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
What I do find, though, is it's tremendously
helpful for well, two thingsGetting it consistent, a and B.
Being able to share what isthat sound with your editor,
because if your editor issupposed to catch when you slip,

(31:53):
but the editor can't hear thedifference between an, uh and a,
yeah, they're not going tocatch when you slip and I slip,
I slip, you know I slip, and Ido this all the time.
I teach accents and I slipBecause you're in the experience
, you have headphones on, butyou're in it, and staying
consistent with the emotion andthe actions and the drive and

(32:14):
the who am I takes precedenceover any accent that you do.
I think, if you're on your gameand you're doing things with
truth, you can't get away withegregious stuff.
You can't but, um, make me careabout that character and get
anchored down, and there's a lotof forgiveness that comes with

(32:38):
that.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
All right, can you just read me a little bit of
this in that May West voiceagain?
Oh sure, this is the kind ofthing where, like it was nice to
get feedback from you that whatI was doing was starting to
work, but I don't know what Idid.
Like I could feel it, but Idon't know what it sounded like
and I'm not really sure how todo it again.
So like if I were working onthis at home and this were my

(32:59):
book and I were just doing it, Iwould be going back and re
listening to myself to kind offeel that out.
I also, as I've mentionedearlier, that I would take like
a few days beforehand that I'dkind of get this, the feel of it
and all of that, and I wouldn'teven really start until I had
that.
But since we're doing this kindof on the fly, I have no idea
what I did.
That worked and I reallyenjoyed hearing you do the May

(33:23):
West thing and I kind of want tosee if I hear a little bit of
that, if it'll kind of like kickme back into it.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
OK, I will plop into this.
You never saw girls like thoseglittered chains with their
sequined crowns.
You never saw boys like thosevelvet fellas getting their edge
, neither.
If Eve went door to door withher apple, not a soul in the
autumn easier wouldn't havegrabbed it, planet a kiss on old

(33:49):
mama fig leaf and had thatshiny red temptation turned into
the applejack of good and evilwithin an hour.
And down below oh baby, it'sdark down there in the
underworld.
Oh baby, it's dark down therein the underworld.
So to me that's like it feelssomewhere like it's influenced

(34:12):
by May West, although the otherthing is that influences me, I
know in this is CatherineHepburn, uh-huh, but a
misbehaving Catherine Hepburn,snarky and an underworld
Catherine Hepburn.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, that would be so cool to get a chance to just
like watch some of her moviesbefore I jump into this, but I'm
going to give it another shot.
Uh, part one Panther sweatCheck in.
There's this ragamuffin cityout east you follow, Sitting
pretty with a river on each arm,lit up in her gladdest rags

(34:49):
since 1624.
She'll tell you she's seen itall Boy howdy, the deep down and
the high up, champagne andsyphilis, pearls and puke, good,
good.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
I just want to mention one thing.
It's an observation that thisauthor does like to use
alliteration yes, pearls andpuke.
And then there's another onethat comes up later.
It's like B, b, b yeah, it'sbaseball players and bootleggers
and bought cops who neverbusted a joint.
Um, it's just allow yourself tohave a little fun with it.

(35:24):
Okay, you know, that's all, um.
And then the other thing iswhat was I going to say?
I didn't write it down.
Oh, yes, um.
One of the other things that Iplay with sometimes is I want to
heighten the intimacy, uh-huh.
So I take my microphone and Imove it back a few inches and
then I lean forward into themicrophone as if I'm talking
right into somebody's ear.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Okay, I'm going to see if I can do that.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
And that gives it a different feeling, but without
you having to jump through hoops.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
I kind of feel like I'm almost tightening my throat
to try to make it.
Oh no, no, we don't want thatBaller, yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Just just move the mic, Okay, About four, five
inches forward.
Then lean forward as if the twoof you are on chairs right and
you want to reach their ear.
So you lean in and you'rereally just talking right at
their lobe of their ear.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
All right Park 1.
Yes, panther, sweat, check in.
There's this ragamuffin cityout east.
You follow, sitting pretty witha river on each arm, lit up in
her gladdest rags since 1624.
She'll tell you she's seen itall, boy howdy the deep down and

(36:33):
the high up, champagne andsyphilis, pearls and puke.
Oh, she's a cynical doll.
Nothing new to her, don't youbelieve it?
Treat her right and she'll openup to you.
As innocent as Eden and twiceas naked.
She's got secrets.
Sure, who doesn't Pour me asnort and I'll spill Mr Spot, me

(36:58):
a meal and I'll show you thegoods If you go looking for it.
Just about halfway uptown andhalfway downtown there's this
hotel stuck like a pin all theway through the world, up on the
roof of the Artemisia.
It's heaven in a handbag greengrass.
And okay, I need to stopbecause I feel like I'm playing

(37:18):
a caricature instead of havingany actual intention.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Right, you have to have a reason for speaking, yeah
, otherwise I mean, that's whythat first person idea of
anchoring into.
Why do I need to talk aboutthis for 10 hours?
This feels to me like aninsider's view of this hotel,
and this hotel is for badlybehaved people, people who don't
follow the rules.
So you're part of that crowdand you're kind of helping to

(37:44):
welcome me in.
I had one note, second line ofthat paragraph.
You say, if you go looking forit, just about halfway uptown
and halfway downtown there'sthis hotel.
And you really framed the wordhotel because you're introducing
a vision, an image or somethinginto it.
Now, right, there's this hotel,stuck like a pin all the way

(38:06):
through the world, but youhaven't told us the name of it
yet.
So now you are up on the roofof the Artemisia.
It's heaven in a handbag.
So, that thing you mentionedbefore hotel.
This equals hotel, and nowyou've introduced the name of it
.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Can you tell me what it means, stuck like a pin all
the way through the world?
I don't understand what I'msaying there.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Well, I can't say that I understand it in the way
it was meant, but what I seewhen I talk about it is it's
anchored down into a planet,okay, like a hotel, that's just,
and it ain't going nowherebecause it's anchored.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Okay, I guess, because it's got all this stuff
going on in the basement.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I'm not sure she's explained it yet.
She gives you that quality, butthen she goes on to talk about
stuff.
Yeah, and she talks about thesethings that are essentially
magical, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Oh, I get it.
Okay, all right.
So Artemisia, the top is heaven, the inside is the mortal coil,
normal earthly delights, andthen the basement is where the
Bosch painting yeah, the Boschpainting.
Okay, all right, I get it Allright.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
So they're all things that aren't possible.
Yeah, they got Chinese ducksthe color of nose powder, two
sheep, 12 sheikots, descendedstraight down from the girl who
gave her tit to a tit Likethat's not actually possible.
And you ever get drunk on atomato, hopped up on cucumbers
Should I say tomato?
Well then, you never ate out ofit, it's all good, it's all I

(39:43):
just did that, because I knowthat I did that last time, okay,
well then you never ate out ofthe garden on top of the
Artemisia and I saw up there inthe sky they got a little black
bass, james and kitten.
So there's all these magicalthings that can't really be.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yeah.
I tell you it goes bymotherhood and learn themselves
to growl.
I love you, that's how.
You know what to say I just Ifeel so far removed from the
voice.
I'm trying to put it into.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well, the thing is it's not meant to convince you
to do it the way I did.
I'm just saying for me, I justlike the way you did it so much,
Robin.
I just think that it was helpfulto me to have somebody that was
iconic from this era, that feltlike that could be this person,

(40:32):
and then I could just start toplay around with that person.
But really still, it comes backto the who am I of that
character?
She's snarky, she drops lots ofhints, really independent.
There's certain qualities thatjust sort of come out through

(40:54):
how she talks about, what shetalks about, and I make sure
that I really take them on aspart of who she is.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, Just saying this is also.
It's like the language is so,it's like you're saying like
half of this stuff can't happenand the language is so like
stylized.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Very.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah.
So I think if I were having toperform this, this would be a
book that would take me a lot ofwork.
This would be not somethingthat I could just go on instinct
.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
This isn't you will be able to go on instinct.
But I think, process wise, ifyou first take your time, read
it through, read through theopening again, but don't rush.
And then I just practice thispart one until you figure out
where does this lady live, wheredoes this character live?

(41:49):
And then, when you startreading the book and you know
you're adding, making choicesabout other characters, it
always stays anchored in thenarrator.
Making sure that the thenarrator is anchored in who you
are is really important.
And then, once you're past acertain point, I find, like once
I'm past maybe the first thirdof the book, I know what I'm

(42:10):
doing.
I've been reading it aloud longenough that whatever rhythm and
pace is in the writing, it's nowin my body.
It's in my body, it's not goingaway.
And if it's a really difficultbook, I try not to be juggling
two things at once becausethey're going to pull me in two
different directions.
So I'd rather like get thisdone, record it, get out of the

(42:33):
way and then move on to the next, so that I'm not caught between
impulses.
It really lets this, the onethat you're concentrating on it,
it gives it the opportunity toI don't know possess you.
Yeah, I guess that's what I'dcall it.
It possesses you and if you'recomfortable enough to give over
to that possession gosh, thatsounds very woo-woo.

(42:56):
If you're willing to give overto the possession of that energy
and that drive and that, who amI?
That's not actually you then itdoes.
Isn't that what we want?
Like yeah, yeah, I'm willing,and you got it.
And you got it, and you don'tever need to question yourself

(43:16):
again once you got it.
I think.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
All right, I'm going to try this one more time, and
I'm not going to pay muchattention to trying to do it in
a certain voice.
I think I'm just going to tryand Well, what is your?

Speaker 2 (43:32):
narrator doing.
I want to paint the picture ofthis place for you.
What is it really like?
You can't imagine it.
Let me tell you.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Well, I'm even trying to imagine where she is and
like in relation to what she'stalking about, and it's telling
that she says out east, becauseI feel like that puts her in a
different place than in the city.
That puts her in a differentplace than I don't know.
It feels like she's I don'tknow.

(44:02):
I think that when I was lookingat it before, I was imagining
her like there with it, butshe's away and talking about it.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Yes.
Yes, she's trying to make thisplace clear for someone who's
never been there.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yes, and it makes me wonder where are they and why is
she making it clear for them?
Do we have any information onthat, or am I?
Do I just make that up?

Speaker 2 (44:25):
I think that's what you have to just sort of make up
or anchor down and againkeeping it simple.
So, sitting in a cafe, sittingin an Irish bar, in a pub, so
why doesn't she just say Boston,new York, whatever, and then
she says, with a river on eacharm, could be Boston, could be

(44:47):
New York because we got theHudson River, east River and the
I was thinking New York, andthen that also changes the
Chicago paint line, because it'snot about Chicago.
I don't know, not at all.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
It's a whole Chicago paint.
It's like of this world but notthis world.
Yes, blood, yes blood.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yes, exactly, and being sure that you know what
the reference means.
And if you can't be sure, thenpick something and commit to it.
Okay, that's the part that.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I'm like I want to look all of these up because I
don't understand at least like20% of them.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, yeah, you got to do that work Also.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
sorry, I have a move around in my chair because it's
squeaking and bothering.
I like to sit with my kneessort of like parallel and with
my feet on the floor in front ofme, but I can't sit for longer
than about 20, 30 minutes.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Without moving.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah, but when I sit cross-legged I can sit for a
really long time, but then thatfeels weird trying to narrate.
So I've now pulled my legs upand I'm sitting cross-legged, so
we'll see if that changesanything.
This is not how I usuallynarrate, but we've been sitting
here for a little bit of time,for a while.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, I would say too knowing, because she switches a
lot and she talks about thingsmetaphorically, right.
So this ragamuffin city,sitting pretty on a river,
she'll tell you she's seen itall.
It's the city and it continues.
Treat her right and she'll openup to you as innocent as Eden
and twice as naked.

(46:14):
And then poor Mia Snortna'sspill, mr Spot, mia meal, and
I'll show you the goods.
She could literally be that,could just be narrator talking
to you, or could she bereferring to the city, because
that's where it starts.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
That's what I was thinking.
She's got secrets?

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Sure she does, paul.
It could be poor her a Snortna,she'll spill Mr Spot Mia meal,
but she doesn't say that unlessshe's like quoting the city
speaking to the guy.
Paul Mia Snortna, spill Mr SpotMia meal and I'll show you the
goods.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Okay, I'm going to try again, probably going to
stop halfway through and be likewait, I just don't get this.
All right, panther sweat, checkin.
There's this ragamuffin city,out east you follow, sitting
pretty with a river on each arm,lit up in her gladdest rags in
1624.
She'll tell you she's seen itall, boy howdy, the deep down

(47:12):
and the high up, champagne andsyphilis, pearls and puke.
Oh, she's a cynical doll.
Nothing new to her, don't youbelieve it?
Treat her right and she'll openup to you as innocent as Eden
and twice as naked.
She's got secrets.
Sure, who doesn't?
For me a Snortna spill, mr SpotMia meal, and I'll show you the

(47:37):
goods If you go looking for it.
Just about halfway uptown andhalfway downtown there's this
hotel, stuck like a pin all theway through the world, up on the
roof of the Artemisia.
It's heaven in a handbag.
Green grass and golden chickenslaying golden eggs under the

(47:59):
telephonic graph wires 500, ifthere's one.
They got Chinese ducks thecolor of nose powder, 12 shea
goats descended straight downfrom the girl who gave her tit
to a titan.
A couple of jersey cows givingmilk as sweet as maple syrup,
bees like gold buttons closingup the clouds, sheep just
bursting out fleece that spinsbetter than silk Ever got drunk

(48:23):
on a tomato, picked up oncucumbers?
Well then, you never ate out ofthe garden.
On top of the Artemisia and Iswear up there in the sky, they
got a little black bear as tameas a kitten.
I hear Telly goes by Rutherfordand learned himself to growl.
I love you.
That's how you know it's heaven.

(48:46):
The goats don't eat the sugarpeas and the ducks don't fly off
and even the fellow with theclaws knows about love.
Down inside the Artemisia it'sthis mortal coil.
All over earthly delights onevery floor says Hotel on the
Neon, but most folks live thereon the permanent or as permanent

(49:07):
as anything could be in a citythat'd eat itself just to grow
another block.
Showgirls on nine, jasmine onfour, starlets malls and Debs on
seven, abortionists andpoisoners and bankers all
shuffling together on three andthe real heavy sugar up high
baseball players and bootleggersand bought cops who never
busted a joint of who.

(49:27):
Since the amendment All thedoors stand double wide to wedge
in pianos, card tables, bathtubstills, real bodysappas and
down dirty despots bouncing andshaking those red halls, rushing
composers on rolly skates,outfielders tootin' saxophones,
tenors practicing archery on bigbuck, glass eyed deer heads,

(49:50):
riders shimmying in bare feet,poor lambs.
But the rent and the drink theydo come before the shine and
the shoes.
Some damned body rolled out agolf course in the East Ballroom
, flattened that green with aniron like it was Pan's own shirt
front.
Ain't nothin' out there in thecity.
Some fool didn't drag inthrough the service entrance.
She said one of these days themoon COD come rollin' in like a

(50:15):
dining table COD up on her side,boys, mine the chandeliers.
You never saw girls like thoseglittered james with their
sequined crowns.
You never saw boys like thosevelvet fellas gettin' their edge
.
Neither.
If Eve went door to door withher apple, not a soul in the
Artemisia wouldn't have grabbedit, planted a kiss on old mama

(50:35):
fig leaf and had that shiny redtemptation turned into the
applejack of good and evilwithin an hour.
And down below, oh baby, it'sdark down there in the
underworld.
Barrels of strike me dead skirollin' in full and out, empty
stills workin' full time,tricklin' out aqua mortis, like

(50:58):
the fountain of youth meant tocall in all her debts at once.
Every hour some long blackdoosomebergs blows up right into
the basement full of Canadianbust head, mexican tea, or girls
like a matched set of earrings.
Down there in the shadows thedandies got themselves swippin'
pool like a lake of tears,decked out with silver lanterns

(51:21):
on every wall and red silkcabanas full of bathhouse.
Boys felt sibles and pomade andnot a whole lot else.
Those kids will have you opiumor coke on a gold plate before
you know and want it.
Night that pool's gonna looklike a Bosch paintin' you follow
.
The water will fizz black withrunning mascara.

(51:42):
Fifteen minutes in the basementis a lifetime up above, and the
closer you get to the basementthe more you get confused on the
matters of swell and dastard.
Just one little floor up in thegrand green guilt lobby they
fixed a series over turtle soupand pernode In front.

(52:04):
One of them hired heaviest,turned his gun on himself and
sprayed the glass doors withChicago paint the basement do
like her little nightcaps.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Ooh, that was exciting.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
I still have no idea what I was saying for like half
of the last paragraph.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
I didn't know that, though.
Okay cool, I did not know that.
That's neat.
But you see how this almost hasa drive.
She's quick-witted and so itcan't.
I don't think it can be so laidback, otherwise it would start
to feel draggy.
She, a quick-witted person, islike.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Well, and I feel like I feel like if I had more time
to do this again some more, Iwant to open up more again.
I want to do your like wristson knees thing and because I
could feel the more that I wentthrough it and the more that I
was like, oh shoot, this pace is.
It feels almost breakneck and Ican't slow down or else it will
be obvious that I'm stopping tolook ahead.

(53:03):
But I also can't keep like theyou know that thing of like when
you're narrating you're kind oflooking ahead to see what's
coming next at the same time asyou're on.
I call it the read ahead.
You have to do that.
Yeah, this piece has so manytwists and turns that it felt
impossible to do at that speed.
And I was.

(53:23):
I felt like I was about to justlike fall apart.
I can't be as I was goingthrough that.
So it's really cool to hearthat I like made it through
without showing that, but it waslike taking the full capacity
of trying to understand where Iwas about to head with whatever
I was saying.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
It's.
It feels like it's down twolayers into yourself now and
that you may be able to find acouple more layers.
Sure, of course, but even doingthe read ahead, my eyesight
stinks.
So I wear big, thick glasses orcontacts when I work, but when
I have something like this, thatfeels like, okay, this has a

(54:02):
pace.
It's a little faster than mynormal.
The wit is such that if youslow it down, you kind of ruin
the jokes.
All right, what do I need to do?
The answer for me is enlarge mytext.
Oh, like to put it on thescreen and put it in such a way
that I can read bigger chunks ofit more easily.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Oh, that feels like it would make a huge difference
with this.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Now the way I word processed this.
You have it in landscape, don'tyou?

Speaker 1 (54:34):
I do, but I think there's something about it being
in landscape that it's almostlike harder, because the
sentences feel like they go onforever, forever.
They've got weird punctuationall throughout them.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
I would agree with both things.
And when, when I looked at it,I printed out and I went, oh,
this won't do, and I changed itfrom landscape to portrait.
So sometimes the way the wordsare arranged on the page can
make it easier or morechallenging to actually read.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Have you used, have you tried that?
There's like an app now that itwill change the font from sort
of like a blue to a red, fromleft to right, and it's supposed
to make it easier for, I think,people with print disabilities,
like dyslexia, to be able tofollow from left.
It sounds like it would bedisorienting, but when I've
looked at it, it actually makesyou much more easily tell where

(55:30):
the start of the next line isand to keep going with like it's
.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
I'm not aware of it but I do make a lot of my
adjustments in I Annotate and Ijust I take my iPad and I just
kind of hang it off the back ofmy monitor, so it's physically
in the booth while Pro Tools isrunning on my screen.
I've been doing that for yearsand I've just recently started

(55:57):
taking my marked script from IAnnotate, throwing it back up
into Dropbox and thendownloading it onto the studio
computer.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Oh, so you just have it on the screen.
That's what I usually do, andit's just because I never could
kind of situate the iPad or thetablet when you want it.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Yeah, it is.
It's challenging, but I willsay that was a really good read
through the characters becomingmore defined, more clarified,
and I think you get your firstimpressions.
You know, as you read thesescripts and that's the first
thing you go with.

(56:37):
But as you're doing your prepread and you're getting further
into the story, you're learningmore and more about all your
characters, plus, I think, thenarrator as well, and then
you've read the whole thing andyou go back to the beginning and
then you can add the nuances ofthe stuff that you learned as
the book went on back into thepotentiality of that character

(56:57):
at the top.
You know what I mean?
It's like that's one of thethings that's bundled into who
she is.
It's just not going to come outuntil it's at the right point
in the book.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Yeah, all right, robin, are you ready to wrap up,
or?

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Oh, I am, I am definitely ready, I'm crispy now
.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
All right, sounds good.
Well, thank you so much fordoing this, and I just
absolutely love talking to you.
I never want to stop, asevidenced by the fact that we've
now been doing this for hours,and 15 minutes is how long my
thing has been recorded.
So if that does and we justcaught up for like three hours
last week so if that doesn'ttell you how fun it is to talk

(57:37):
to Robin Miles, I don't knowwhat to do.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Well, I had a good time too.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Just before we wrap up.
Obviously this whole entirething has been such a delight
because you are an excellent andlong time coach of audio book
narration, so the email thatpeople can go to is ourmiles at
voxpertisecom.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
It's voice, vo or voiceover, vox for voice or vo
expertise.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
And what kinds of coaching do you do, like what
would someone come to you for,and how would that be structured
?

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Audio book technique coaching, a diagnostic.
Sometimes I'll do like I'm anarrator and I'm not booking as
much as I ought to be.
Maybe I want to know what couldI do to change that Accent
coaching I do do that, althoughI don't do every accent.
I don't do Australian, I don'tdo New Zealander.
That's just not in my backpocket.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
That is so surprising to me.
I just always think of you asthe accent queen.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Those two for me are really challenging.
And Welsh.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Oh, God, that's hard for me.
You're going to have to listento the upcoming episodes because
Catherine Latrell is going tobe live teaching me.
I can't remember the exactorder that we have, but Welsh is
on the table.
So yeah, but obviously I'm notgoing to learn these complete
dialects in like an hour.

(59:02):
We're just going to do kind ofan overview of how she would
approach teaching them and thenI'm going to practice a little
bit.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
The other thing I do is just straight up acting
coaching.
So if someone's working on ascript or they have an audition,
I've coached a lot of peopleauditioning for drama schools
like conservatories Productioncoaching, meaning somebody's
doing a production of the redand brown water and they need a
Louisiana accent.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
I had no idea that you did that.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
And then the other one would be people who need to
pitch, people who need to speakbetter, more concisely, with
more power, with more confidence.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
So, basically, you are obviously a wonderful coach
for audiobook stuff, but I thinkwhat we're learning here is
that if you are a theatricalactor or an audiobook lover and
listener who has no intention toever perform, but has any sort
of reason that they need to bedoing public speaking, you might
still be a really good fit forthem for something.
And then I think, the very lastthing that I will ask you about

(01:00:06):
, what is your pick for yourroad trip playlist?

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
This is so easy Sarah Bareilles, brave, and it's tied
with I Choose you.
Both Sarah Bareilles songs,great drive on Brave, great
drumming underneath it, so itmakes you want to move in your
seat, but it also keepsreinforcing for me to be wholly
your own person.

(01:00:31):
So it's kind of like a littletherapy session in a song.
Love it.
And then the other one is IChoose you, which was actually
my wedding song, second Marriage, and my friend who is a backup
singer in Vegas, michelleJohnson, who is so fierce, she
sang it at our Zoom weddingbecause it was during the

(01:00:53):
pandemic.
I love that song.
It's warm and squishy and itjust radiates love.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Warm and squishy and radiates love.
How could it get better thanthat?
All right, well, robin, I justabsolutely adore you.
I am so, so glad that we got todo this, and I am even more
glad that you were like I'mgoing to have to save that until
next time, because that meansthere's going to be a next time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
There'll be a next time.
No, I so enjoy spending timewith you, so anytime we can,
whether the mic is running ornot.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Absolutely yes.
I don't need pro tools to enjoyyou.
That's awesome, all right.
Well, thank you so much foryour time and I hope you have a
great day.
Thanks you too, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Bye, that was so much fun.
I'm so glad that I could sharethat most excellent of coaching
with all of you.
Let's just do a littlebreakdown of some of the great
takeaways from this conversation.
Number one the can opener greatexercise for opening your body
up when you're feeling a littleclosed off.
Number two waves of emotion.
Wow, what a great way to thinkabout this in art and in life.
Just let your emotions rollover you like waves.

(01:02:01):
Sometimes they're going to feellike they'll knock you down,
but they always eventuallyrecede.
Number three no judgment.
Don't judge yourself whenyou're working.
It only shuts you down fromdoing your best.
Number four punctuation is yourfriend.
Notice it, use it, be gratefulfor it.
Number five alliteration isawesome.
Have fun with frequent firstletters and phrases.
Number six play around with yourmic, see if it feels better to

(01:02:22):
lean in or lean out.
You might not always keep whatyou're doing, but it could
really inform the way that youwant to work.
Number seven you're allowed tobe a beginner.
Look, a background in acting isgoing to be really helpful, and
if you want to expand your edgeor have a really great career,
you're probably going to wantcoaching.
But you are allowed to just bea beginner figuring things out
on their own.

(01:02:42):
Because you want to give it atry, have some fun with it.
Number eight first things first.
If you're a narrator within aspecially difficult project
coming up, consider schedulingthat as your only project until
it's done and really let it takehold of you instead of trying
to focus on a few things at atime.
Number nine change your script,not the words, but the size or
the layout on your iPad or yourscreen.
It's just a really simple wayto make this work easier on

(01:03:04):
yourself, if you haven't thoughtof it before.
And finally, number 10, robinis available at rmiles at
voxpertisecom for audiobookcoaching, theatrical audition
coaching, dialect and accentwork and public speaking for
non-acting clients.
I really hope you enjoyed thisextra bonus episode and will
visit our show page on Apple orSpotify to leave a good review

(01:03:26):
or, even better, to share a linkto the episode with a friend or
on social media.
This is the best way for morenarrators or audiobook lovers to
find out about the show andknow to give it a listen.
And now I hope that you willplease go eat some turkey and
get some rest and have anamazing rest of your day with
family.
This podcast was created, hostedand produced by me, emily, for

(01:03:47):
Imperium Productions, expandingthe universe of storytelling.
Special thanks, of course, toRobin Miles for giving her time
to be on the show, to our ownpodcast house band comprised of
Jake and Mr Stewart, whorecorded the show's theme music
for us, and to our sponsor,second Skin Automotive, who
contributed to the soundtreatment of the mobile studio
and is actually having aThanksgiving sale right now.

(01:04:08):
So anything on their website,secondskinaudiocom, is 20% off
with code BF20.
That's B as in black and F asin Friday 20, and that's going
on through November 26th.
Happy Thanksgiving, it'swonderful to have you here.
So thanks for listening andI'll see you on Down the Road.