Tag Archive: #editing


The Dangers of Over-Editing…

Filed under: About Writing, Uncategorized — 2 Comments
September 28, 2022

Yesterday I was scrolling through YouTube and ran across something that really caught my eye.

Yes, I’m one of those people who when the Halloween season rolls around, I break out all kinds of horror movies, especially the black and white ones. And I freely admit that I’ve watched this classic gem many times. 

However, it wasn’t the full movie that was being advertised. Instead, this was a 40-minute video about ‘deleted’ scenes from this movie, which immediately caught my attention. Pausing only to grab a cup of tea, I sat down for a good viewing and was not disappointed. Now, I’m not saying that they had actual footage that was left out of the final cut, but what they did have took me completely by surprise.

For those who are less familiar with the old universal black and white monster films, I’ll give you a quick rundown here. This video covered the actors who played Frankenstein’s monster. 

For the first 3 films it was Boris Karloff who had been handpicked by the director James Whale, even though Bela Lugosi was originally intended to play the role. However, Lugosi thought he’d be playing Dr. Frankenstein not the creature, so when they went with Karloff instead, he was not overly disappointed. Now the story arc between these 3 films was pretty well connected. The first movie involved the creature’s creation and subsequently being villainized by villagers because of his appearance and an accidental drowning of a young girl (please keep in mind the creature had the mind of a child for the most part and didn’t understand that tossing a little girl into the water who did not know how to swim was a mistake).  Then he was hunted by the villagers and his creator and left to die in a fire.

The second movie took right up where the first left off with the creature surviving and wandering the woods where he seeks companionship and after saving a young woman from drowning, he is again hunted by villagers. Eventually he makes friends with a blind hermit who teaches him to talk and be happy, only to have this taken away as well by frightened angry people. By the end of the film he and another mad doctor force Dr. Frankenstein to make him a mate, who rejects him. The creature then proceeds to try and destroy himself. saying he and his ‘bride’ belong dead, not among the living.

So you see a real continuity in the character throughout these films. Good editing really helps the stories feel cohesive. In the 3rd film the monster no longer speaks, but it is clear he suffered more damage from the explosion and has only one friend, Igor the hunchback who is a wicked creature himself and takes advantage of the monster being easily guided or misguided in this case. 

In the 4th movie Igor is still leading the monster (now played by Lon Chaney Jr as Karloff felt he was too old to handle the physical demands of playing the monster), continuing to rely on the creature’s needy nature for a friend, to do bad things. Yet, at points, the creature shows kind and compassion side. At one point when he’s wandered off on his own, he helps a little girl retrieve her balloon from a tall building. Later in the film, after locating one of the sons of the original Dr. Frankenstein, Igor convinces the man to correct his father’s mistake by giving the creature a new brain. Young Dr. Frankenstein agrees and plans to use the brain of a recently killed colleague. Only Igor interferes by working with the doctor’s assistance to have his own brain placed inside the monster’s indestructible body. The result is the monster is now able to speak, in Igor’s voice, and is cleverer and more dangerous than ever before. However, there is a problem, due to a mismatch in their chemistry, and the Igor/creature becomes blind and lashes out starting another fire that seemingly destroys all within the building.

So up to this point we have a good continuity with explanations throughout the series of films. However, the next movie “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” is where it all goes downhill as far as continuity is concerned. In this movie, the creature is not able to speak anymore for some reason. Also, the way Bela Lugosi (who finally got another chance to play the creature, as Lon Chaney was playing the Wolf Man of course in the film) moves about the sets one would think that maybe the monster may still be blind? Neither of these facts are explained in the movie and of course another scientist is introduced who goes ahead and tries to put the monster back to full strength, with the intention of then siphoning off the lifeforce of both the creature and the wolf man to put an end to each of them. Of course, angry villagers blow up a dam nearby while the two monsters are battling it out inside the lab thus apparently destroying both once again… until the 5th movie. 

Yet for years I asked myself, why the sudden change in continuity? What happened? Well yesterday, I got my answers, which brings me back to the deleted scenes video. Those answers, which I’m about to share has left me more than a little sad for what happened in the studio’s editing room.

The host of the video explains that a copy of the original script, which was used in the film, has been on the internet for some time and held all the answers to my questions. In the original shooting of the movie, the monster (played by Bela Lugosi) DID speak! Also, he was still talking in the Igor voice. Furthermore, he was still blind as well, which explained by Bela moved the way he did (as if he couldn’t see properly) throughout most of the movie.

There were also some great dialogues between the monster and Lawrence Talbot (the Wolf Man), sharing their thoughts and feelings, as well as each other’s desires. The monster, wanted to be restored to full strength hoping he’d get his eyesight back, as well as planning to make others fear him and leave him alone, or allow him to take power over entire villages, cities, even countries. Again, we see the sinister intellect and drive of Igor’s brain at work. And as I said before, they find a doctor who is supposed to help them both. Lying to the creature, he promises to bring him back to full strength while planning to actually the lifeforce out of both to destroy the creature and to allow Talbot to end his curse of lycanthropy.

Sounds like the original cut was great, right? So what happened? 

The test audiences loved the film, the story, the action… but they had one little problem. That problem was Lugosi’s accent. Folks thought it was kind of weird to hear the Frankenstein monster talking in a Hungarian accent. So, the studio panicked and went back to re-edit the movie removing all of Bela’s dialogue. Even in the scenes that remained we can see his lips moving as if he were talking, but instead of reshooting all his scenes they either cut or simply removed his part of the soundtrack.

This to me was a grave mistake. As I’d said earlier, growing up I felt a serious disconnect between the “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” and all the earlier films, so it was clearly apparent to others. Yet, because it was the first time in movie history two legendary creatures crossed paths in the same film, it did quite well at the box office, spawning 2 more films in the Frankenstein series, with the creature continuing to be mute and less sympathetic for the most part. 

Still that interruption in the continuity of the Frankenstein films, is very jarring, I have heard this many times especially coming from viewers in modern day who watch them all and left wondering what happened to the monster’s personality and ability to speak.

And of course, the culprit was too much editing! A danger that every person who is writing a series must be careful of. Your readers want continuity, as well as unanswered questions and plot points from earlier books. The audience becomes invested in those characters and situations, so they want to see things get resolved at some point in the books and definitely before series is brought to an end. 

So, we must be extremely careful when it comes to those edits. Whether you’re doing the editing or have hired someone else, remember to think long and hard about what’s being suggested you cut or change. Yes, it may slow down the process of getting the book published, but your readers are counting on you to deliver a solid tale that fits in nicely with the rest of your series. Because believe me, if you don’t, the same word of mouth that helps bring more readers to your work, can also drive new customers away. 

That’s all for today. Take care and keep writing and recording my friends.

BONUS THOUGHTS:

For those who have never watched the original Universal Frankenstein Films here the titles in order:   

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)    BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939)
GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)
HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944)
HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) – in spite of the title, this is considered part of the franchise since it     directly follows the events of House of Frankenstein. It is also considered the final film in the series.

And for anyone who wishes to check out the YouTube Video with the ‘Deleted Scenes’ here is the link:

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“The Bridge” Reconstruction In Full Swing…

Filed under: About Writing, Uncategorized — Leave a comment
January 16, 2022

With the holidays over and all audio recording projects edited and out there, Helen and I have finally had time to settle down and work on rewriting the first book in our Para-Earths series “The Bridge”. As you know from previous entries, the last ‘edited’ files that we published got corrupted without our knowledge, so when I found out I took it down from all sites (which is why you cannot find it now). But rest assured work has begun and some ‘technical’ changes are being made to the new edition which will be released next year 2023. Originally I planned on re-releasing it this year as a special 10th anniversary edition, only to discover that while I put a 2012 copyright year in the original version, it never actually reached Amazon or any of the other outlets until 2013.  So to keep with calling it the 10th Anniversary edition, we all have to wait a little longer.


However, I’m not actually bothered by this delay. Because reworking the book, I’m discovering a lot of things I’d forgotten that were in the book itself.    

Yes, I know that sounds hard to believe, but when you’ve gotten a couple of other books under your belt, plus you’ve been providing voices for other books, some details kind of fall into the dark corners of your memory. So I’m actually kind of grateful for the opportunity to see the story with fresh eyes after so much time has passed. This time I’m trying to look at the book from a reader’s perspective, instead of as one of the authors and really see some of the errors that were made the first time around, in addition to the corruptions of the file itself.


I think most writers look back on their earlier work (especially when it’s part of an ongoing series) with a mix of pride as well as thoughts like, “Ooo… I could’ve done a better job on that section…” or “Gee, that idea was good at the time but I wound up fleshing it out so much more in later years…” And that’s where Helen and I are at, especially me since I did the majority of the actual writing at the time. Simply put, the more you write, the more your style matures and that’s something you will be seeing in this 10th Anniversary edition.


Mind you, we’re not rewriting every single word or scene. But we will be making adjustments and possibly making certain areas ‘cleaner’ for you the readers. It will also make things easier for me and Helen when we start the audio recording part of the project.  

Yes, you read that right, we’re going to be releasing an Audible version of “The Bridge” as part of the 10th Anniversary release.

And for those who are Audible fans, yes this means that the rest of the Para-Earths Series will also be getting turned into Audiobooks as well. How soon? That depends on a couple of factors. The first being: getting Helen used to the microphone and software to the point she feels more satisfied with her voice performances. I think she’s pretty good, but like any artist, she’s her own worst critic. Secondly, I’m also considering enlisting the help of a few other vocal talents to help fill some of the character slots. While I have and impressive repertoire of  voices I can do (at last count I made a list of over 100 voices, and the list is still growing), and Helen is slowly coming on board, there are limits to what we can do really effectively on our own.

But getting back to the topic of  “The Bridge”, being reminded of all that had taken place in this first story, I’m discovering new pathways to take the upcoming books in the series. You see, part of the reason things have slowed down on “The Door” so much is, I keep finding myself hitting pockets of writer’s block that I haven’t been able to fully get around. And now I think part of the reason for all that writer’s block has been a part of my brain has been telling me I need to go back to the original source material to find the correct path forward. 

So this ‘rewrite’ is actually serving more than one purpose, and I feel much more at ease with the whole thing. I don’t see it as much as ‘correcting mistakes’, but a chance to polish the book that made brought the entire series to life, as well as finding how to keep the series growing and be consistent.

That’s all for now. So until next time, take care, stay safe, and keep writing and recording my friends.

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Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends…

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June 13, 2021

Our first novel in the Para-Earth Series, is going to get a complete rewrite! 

Yes, you are reading that correctly. You’re eyes are not playing tricks on you. I know earlier this year I said I was going to try and clean up “The Bridge”, but the further I got into reading it, the more I saw just how messed up it had gotten.
But before I go further, a little history lesson.


“The Bridge” was the first book I ever released, so naturally there were a lot of rookie mistakes made in it, which were pointed out to me early on in the reviews (even though those same reviews gave it 4 and 5 stars). But I couldn’t ignore the fact that there were problems with my baby. I call it that, because I did all the writing and did not credit my wife for all the help she gave me in developing the story. So I tried going back and fixing the errors only to wind up with mixed results.


A third attempt was made, which still seemed plagued with problems. Finally, a few years ago, my editor and I went back to the beginning together and went cover to cover fixing everything wrong we could find. At that point, I also added Helen’s name onto the cover to give her the proper credit she deserved because she too had a hand in the revision. With this new ‘clean’ copy I submitted the new file to Createspace and all was well in the land… NOT!

At about this same time was when Createspace was absorbed by Amazon and the files of all books put out by Createspace were moved to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Now keep in mind Createspace had 2-3 different files already for “The Bridge” and unfortunately, not only did the most recent ‘clean’ file not be the one that was moved over to KDP, the formatting went (as the late great Terry Pratchett would say) Wahooney-shaped. 


Alas I only found out about this problem late last year when I decided it was time to start putting all of our Para-Earth Books onto Audible. Naturally, I chose the first book in the series to narrate and begin this process. I barely got through the Prologue before I realized what had happened and proceeded to beat a rhythm of despair using my head and my desk.

Naturally, I had backed up the last ‘clean’ copy of the book, and went in search of it, so I could upload that version onto KDP. Alas, when my last desktop began to breath its last, my efforts to transfer files that had been in MS Word 97 did not convert into the latest version cleanly and were totally unusable. Even my trusty trick of using memory sticks failed me, as the stick in question somehow managed to latch onto a stray magnet (the retracted metal end of the stick was the part that found the magnet) and everything on it was totally lost.


I quickly pulled down “The Bridge” from every outlet starting with KDP and it has remained missing in action ever since. Since then I finally got around to trying to re-edit the book only to find the deeper I went the more screwed up things had become. So yesterday after spending two hours trying to mark errors in the latest printed version, I came to realize that my writing style had changed drastically as well and I was finding it harder and harder to read the story. Finally, I set the book aside and thought about rewriting the entire book from the beginning. But I spoke with Helen about it last night before I did anything. Her thoughts mirrored my own. 

Now before I go further, let me point out that Helen is a much more experienced writer than I am. She was writing short stories years before I tried my hand, and she got damn close several times to being published. In each case, the editors where like “We love your style… but this story isn’t quite us. Please send us more…”  Which was quite encouraging. But this was around the same time that Kindle, Nook, and other e-readers were taking the world by storm and many of the magazines that wanted to see more from her wound up folding and being lost to history.


But it was her writing experience and expertise, as well as sharp ideas that helped me to develop and shape “The Bridge” in the first place. At the time she hadn’t wanted her name on the book, but after work began on “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” I finally convinced her to help write parts of it that her name finally appeared on one of the books. After that she and I began talking about how much she had truly contributed to both “The Bridge” and “The Ship”, and she felt some credit was due her on those as well. So I happily added her name to the covers of both. 


Now with the decision made to rewrite “The Bridge” she suggested that she have more of a hand in the rewriting process and I readily agreed. Since we are aiming to release it next year, which will be the 10th anniversary of the book’s original release, we may be adding a few scenes and dialogue in some sections. The book itself will resemble the original in almost all respects, while being a more “clean and polished” version, with a few additions which will make this 10th Anniversary Edition something special. 


I also want to point out that anyone who already had a copy of “The Bridge” in your Kindle will have the 10th Anniversary Edition replacing it without any cost to you. If you don’t get it, let us know and we will make sure you get the new version absolutely free! This isn’t money-grab situation, this is correcting mistakes that I’ve tried repeatedly to fix.  


And as I’ve mentioned before, there will be an audio version of the 10th Anniversary Edition being released and made available on Audible, Amazon, Itunes (which includes Apple).


So there’s much work to do, but I’ll try to keep posting as regularly as possible. Until then, take care everyone and keep writing.

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Our First Big News For 2021: “Forever Haunted” Is Now Available on Audible

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March 5, 2021

Sorry for the long delay in posting here, but as you’re about to find out we’ve been VERY busy.

First off I am proud to announce Helen’s 2nd solo book “Forever Haunted” is now live on audio at both Audible and Amazon for just $17.46 or 1 Audible Credit. Once again I am the voice of her main character Rafael Jones (along with every other character). This is my 2nd full audiobook narration and I’m thrilled to help bring her characters to life once more. And yes I am still “Chief, Cook, and Bottlewasher” for the audio. The recording and editing process took longer than I’d hoped, but I learned some new tricks (through trial and error) that I will be sharing with you all in future posts. I’ve gotten things down to a checklist I keep on hand for myself of how to edit the audios for pacing speed, volume, pauses, etc. which I did not do the first time when I recorded “Forever’s Too Long”.  And with the amount of time that passed between that audiobook and this one, I forgot a lot of editing techniques/tricks that I had to relearn and change. 


Again, I will be sharing a number of those tips and tricks with you in the very near future.  In the meantime here is some more about the new Audiobook:


Bookcover Blurb:Life isn’t easy, but it’s easier than adjusting to being dead. Rafael Jones is still learning about his new diet, powers, and limitations when he’s asked to certify that a house isn’t haunted. But when it turns out to have the ghost of a murdered flapper, his new mission is to locate the missing gangster who killed her, the magic mirror that helped the killer disappear, protect his client, and stop a new string of murders.Magic and mystery collide in the summer of 1947, and our detective is digging up answers to questions going back as far as the end of WWI.


Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Haunted-Detective-Book/dp/B08XZRC84S/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Audible Link: https://www.audible.com/pd/Forever-Haunted-Audiobook/B08XZQ7TCW?qid=1615055966&sr=1-2&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_2&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=Y853QBMXKK8YE0H638Z6

And of course, here is an audio sample:

In addition to getting “Forever Haunted” edited and sent to Audible, I have already begun recording her the third book in her ever-growing series, titled “Forever in Deep”

I’m pleased to say I’m already about 1/3rd of the way through with the recordings, and most of it is already edited. Lord, am I so glad I wrote down those editing notes to myself, it goes much quicker now, but that’s something that comes with experience.


I’ve also been busy with getting the 2nd draft of “The Pass” (my collaboration with Rich Caminiti) to the final stages. I have only to insert a few scenes into it, and that will be going out to beta-readers for inspection and comments. Once we’ve heard back from them, we will begin the 3rd and final draft, with hopes for an October release later this year.


“But what about the Para-Earths Series?” I hear some of you ask. Well, work has been continuing on both “The Door” and “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties”.  Admittedly, the work has been slow on both of them, but they are still happening. I’m also in the process of getting some of the completed novels prepared for audio recording so they can join the ranks of Audible. But of course, everything takes time and there are only so many hours in the day. And of course with m Fibromyalgia, I have only so many “spoons” to work with in a day. So I ask that you all please be patient. I might be recruiting a couple of more voices for the Para-Earth books to make them more of an ensemble cast recording, but we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s why I’ve been so slack on getting new postings up. The narrator work takes a lot of time and energy, but I have already been approached more than once about voiceover work for other people, which would be paying jobs for me. Which would be most welcome. I do hope that my audio narrations will lead to bigger things like some voiceover work for animations, podcasts, or streaming series. One never knows. But time will tell.


And now I must get back to writing and recording. So until next time, which I promise won’t be too long, stay safe and keep recording and writing my friends.

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A Time For Reflection and Plotting the Year Ahead

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January 3, 2021


Happy New Year everyone! Yes, I know it was a couple of days ago, but I’m still wishing you all the best for this new year. 


Like most people, I’m taking a look back at 2020 and what I managed to accomplish in spite of all the chaos we’ve experienced with this Pandemic. Helen and I have been extremely cautious to avoid getting it since both of us have conditions which would likely land us in the hospital if we were to catch Covid – 19. And here in California where we are, the ICU’s are currently filled and overflowing. 


Mind you, I’ve been working full-time for the county in spite of the situation. So I haven’t had extra time to work on personal projects as much as one might expect. Still, I did manage to get a number of projects completed in 2020. 


For starts, I managed to get my first audiobook narration out on Audible

Amazon Link: Forever’s Too Long (Audible)I also created my 2nd and 3rd book trailers (both for Helen’s “Forever Detective Series”),

Link: Forever Haunted TrailerLink: Forever In Deep TrailerI painted the cover for her book “Forever In Deep”

Amazon Link: Forever In Deep

On another front, my high school friend Richard Caminiti and I completed the first draft of our long-distance collaborative novel, “The Pass. This dark fantasy piece, that takes place during the Civil War will hopefully be available for sale later this year in either late September, or early October.

I also managed to finish recording Helen’s second solo novel “Forever Haunted”.

 I am currently completing final edits of the recordings, and will be submitting them to Audacity for review. Once approved, it will be available on Audible, so stay tuned.

Finally, I got myself an account on Instagram. My goals are to network and entertain, as well as help promote our books and projects. If you’d like to follow me over there, here’s my link:

https://www.instagram.com/allankrummenacker/

So what are my plans for 2021?

Well, for starters, finishing the final edits and getting the audio files for “Forever Haunted” submitted to ACX for approval of course. I’ve re-edited nine of the 18 chapters, as well as the opening and closing credits.

Once I’ve got those out of the way, I’ll start recording “Forever In Deep”.I would also like to complete the 2nd draft of “The Pass” no later than February 28th, so we can get it sent out to the beta-readers Rich has already lined up. After we hear back from everyone, then we can get the final draft set up as well as add the pen and ink art that our wonderful Illustrator Gabrielle Callan has been putting together for the book.

As the year progresses, I’d also like to finish recording the remaining chapters of  my “A Christmas Carol” project for release on YouTube in December. I still have to edit the current files, as well as add more soundtrack layers for sound effects and other touches, as well as locate more public domain, and non-copyrighted images for the video.

I of course wish to have completed 1st drafts of “The Door” (the direct sequel to “The Bridge”) as well as “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties” (which is a direct sequel to “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home).

There will also be book cover art that will require my attention for Helen’s 4th solo novel “Forever Festive”, “The Door”,  and “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties”

Helen and I are also considering trying our hands at some podcasting, focusing mostly on writing, recording audios at home, and other creative endeavors.

I have dozens of other ideas, but I’m trying to keep things within the realm of actually getting done this year, without killing myself. I’m still working full-time at the county. Currently I’m alternating one week in the office with the public (which is nerve-wracking because of the pandemic) and then one week home telecommuting. So, trying to keep a balance of what’s doable as opposed to moaning about what I can’t get to, is really tricky at times.

And of course, I will be posting more here about my audio adventures, including more bloopers, as well as sharing thoughts on writing.

There’s a lot on the agenda as you can see, so we hope you’ll stick with us. And as always, keeping writing everyone.

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A Thousand Pardons My Friends…

Filed under: Coming Soon, Personal, Uncategorized — 6 Comments
December 4, 2020

 Greetings one and all.  Sorry for the silence, but as you can guess I’ve been really busy on audio and writing projects.  Sadly, one of those projects will not come to light until this time next year. This would be the one I last posted about, namely “A Christmas Carol”. Between trying to get the audiobook version of “Forever Haunted” completed, as well as a lengthy short story (I know that sounds weird, a short story being lengthy) over on our other blog “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition”, as well as trying to deal with work and prepping for the holidays, time has not been very available for me. 

So I’m planning on releasing my reading/performance of Mr. Dicken’s classic for December 2021. It will be complete with voices and sound effects, along with royalty-free and public domain imagery from the internet. At the moment it seems to be coming in at a length of 5+ hours which is why I will be releasing it in staves (chapters) as Mr. Dickens wrote it. In addition, I may produce a complete audio of the performance to be made available on CD or as an MP3 download. But that’s all next year.

For now, I’m dealing with new shutdowns here in Santa Cruz, California (due to Covid – 19) which has hampered a number of other efforts Helen and I had planned. As well as other work related issues which have left us both rather tired at times. 

Helen also had to scale back on releasing her 4th novel in her “Forever Detective Series”, to next year as well, since it too is Christmas related. However, she did complete a short story that will be posted soon over on her blog theforeverdetective.com. We intend to also create an audio for that story which will also be published shortly for your enjoyment.

I’ll be sharing some new audio recording experiences here on this blog, starting in January. I’ll be focusing on editing and more recording techniques, so you know what to keep an eye out for.

I’ll post here again as soon as I have something to say, or just to wish you all Happy Holidays.

In the meantime, if you want a ghost story set around Christmas here is a link to the one I’ve created over on “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition”. To date there are two installments with more to come. I’ll leave the links for those right here and hopefully you’ll get a chance to check it out. Enjoy… and until next time, keep writing my friends.

LINKS FOR “Lisa’s Private Thoughts – December 24th 2017, My Christmas Ghost Story”

Part I: https://thevampyreblogs.blog/2020/11/28/lisas-private-thoughts-december-24th-2017-my-christmas-ghost-story-part-i/

Part II: https://thevampyreblogs.blog/2020/12/04/lisas-private-thoughts-december-24th-2017-my-christmas-ghost-story-part-ii/

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Blooper Reel Time

Filed under: About Writing, Uncategorized — 2 Comments
August 23, 2020

As you all know, I’ve been busy recording audiobooks at home. I’ve already gotten “Forever’s Too Long”, my wife Helen’s first solo novel, published on Audible where it received a 5-star review. So of course I was eager to turn another of her books into audio as well.  So I began recording her second book “Forever Haunted”. 

Now having shared on this blog all the technical aspects that I use to record the books, I thought it might be fun to share one or two… um… a few? Oh hell, I make a LOT of mistakes and I run into some other ‘obstacles’ that I thought might help prepare you all for some of what you might encounter. 

So, here’s the first (of what I suspect will be a growing library) of my blooper outtakes…

Now remember folks, “We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical…” Sorry, I’m slipping into the “Outer Limits” show.

Anyway, you get the idea. We control how we edit our work. We can re-record, adjust the quality of the recording, cut out the ‘oops’ moments, etc. You can make a hundred mistakes, and yet still end up with a really clean product that people will enjoy.

And remember, “Never give up and never surrender….” oh, great now I’ve slipped into “Galaxy Quest”.

Keep writing and recording my friends. And yes, there will be more about the technical aspects of recording will be coming soon.

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