Completed the basic recording of The Many Beautiful Worlds of Death audiobook today, and started the process for the balancing and volume levels. The first chapter is, unusually, a song, so I had to sing this today too. More than a song, it's one of the most difficult songs to sing I've ever written! It ranges from G2 to A4 and changes key too, all in 8 short lines.
If I had the opportunity I would perhaps make a few changes to the text, a few. The punctuation needs some changes, as I tended to read this differently to how it was written. I spotted one or two actual mistakes, small words here and there, and there were a few moments of 'I could do better' - but on the whole I still like the book a lot. I'm still proud of it, still think it's one of the best things I've done as an artist, and it's still tragic that the world of literature is oblivious to it. Some parts, like the telephone, bed-side LED clock, and computer references place it firmly in the late 20th or early 21st century, so it's not timeless, but much of it is.
I'm in a flux of emotions. The year I wrote it, 2012, was something of an annus mirabilis for me; that book, The Love Symphony, the Richard Dadd painting and cabinet, and many great artworks as I charged from one thing to another. Can I do the same? I must try twice as hard to better myself.
The year feels special, like a year of change, and I want to push to do better things, the best things, to try to improve and learn, to strive.
Another job done today is the release of a 'complete set' bundle of my games on Steam. There are one or two games not deemed worthy of the $100 release fee; Bool, Firefly, Breakout Velocity, Outliner. There are always more I could add. I could make a better, bigger Yinyang, and could improve most of these games. Almost all of them were made in 2002, another annus mirabilis, in which I founded Bytten, Cornutopia Games, and IndieSFX; the foundations of my first period of growth.
I'll spend tomorrow working on the technical audio for TMBWOD. There are opportunities for special audio effects, but it's a big book, a huge job, perhaps not worth it. The readings did make me feel like an actor, I enjoyed some of the character voices, and inwardly laughed at others; but all are good experience. All showcase myself as an author as well as performer.
If I did more of these I would choose my next most popular books; How To Organise Your Computer Files, and the William Blake poems, which I get nothing for (despite my illustrations, Amazon consider it public domain). There are probably countless version of Blake's poems in audio form, probably read by great actors, but it would again be a showcase of my skills, and something of a legacy if I am lucky.
