gypsygirl

I've picked up three new projects on ACX recently. The first is the Maggy Thorsen murder mystery series by Sandra Balzo. I'm starting with the first book in the series, Uncommon Grounds. The finished book is due in April.

Also due in April is Poison in the Blood by M. G. Scarsbrook. This is a fictionalized memoir of Lucrezia Borgia. I've done the first chapter so far. It promises suspense, murder, romance. Should be an interesting read.

The last project, which is due in June, is Gunnora's Dragons by Carol Dennis. I haven't finished pre-reading it yet (the other two have been getting preference, as they're due earlier), but I'm enjoying it so far. As the title would imply, it's a fantasy novel.

I'm still working on my two extant LibriVox solos: Ten From Infinity (for the SFFAudio Challenge); and Navidad en las Montañas.

In knitting, I've started a new lace shawl. This is my second, and my first in laceweight yarn (my previous shawl was done in fingering weight yarn, which is thicker and therefore easier for a first try). I'm doing the Skywalker Shawl by Laura Nelkin. I came across it when looking at online classes on Craftsy. Even though I've worked with lace a fair bit, I thought I'd try the Mastering Lace Shawls class, because I've never really learned how to do a provisional cast on, and I've always gotten tangled up when trying them. I still got tangled up this time, but I managed to get past that point. Perhaps I'll practice again with a thicker working yarn, instead of laceweight.

We finished Gaslight last weekend. It went really well. The reviewer from the paper practically raved (for him), so I was quite pleased. The audiences also seemed to enjoy it. I was really lucky in the people who came to audition. I lost my leading man three weeks before opening night and had to re-cast, but even then, I was able to get someone really good, who worked his tail off to get all those lines learned. I really doubt the audiences had any idea (unless they were related to the theatre and heard about it through the grapevine) that he'd joined the production over a month after the rest of the cast. Chicago's coming up in a couple of months. I'm thinking of auditioning for it.

Just about six weeks ago one of my cousins had twin baby girls, Maisie and Annabelle. I only found out he and his wife were pregnant about a month earlier. He's not the best letter/email writer. Anyway, I've been knitting steadily since I first found out. I decided to make them each a pair of the Hello Kitty pants. I had enough yarn left from the first pair to make two more, if I did the smallest size, though I ended up having to swap the order of the two pinks in the second pair, so I'd have enough of the dark pink to finish. I also made them each one of the Baby Arans.

I took a break from Maisie and Annie's gifts to make something for a co-worker in time for her baby shower. The pattern is called the Eloise Cardigan. It's quite sweet and girly.

I've joined a stitchers group at work. Not just knitters; crocheters, quilters, cross-stitchers, any kind of fiber art. Anyway, we're making a basket for a silent auction and my contribution to it is a couple of pot-holders. They're done in double-knitting, so each side is a mirror image of the other.

I'm making another attempt at socks. My first attempt was a bit of a failure. I used a yarn with a bit of elastic in it. Since I knit at a pretty high tension, it made for very tight stitches and I gave up after the first few rounds. This time I picked a regular yarn, and things are going much better.

I just finished cataloging Anne's House of Dreams at LibriVox. It's a little sad to think that there's only one more book in the series that I can record (Rainbow Valley). My next LV project is called Ten From Infinity by Paul W. Fairman. It's my 6th SFFAudio Challenge book.

I've also just finished Song at the Scaffold by Gertrud Von le Fort for Ignatius Press. It'll be my last Ignatius recording. They've decided not to continue producing audiobooks.

I'm directing my first mainstage show at the WCT (the other shows I've directed have been fundraisers, not part of the main lineup), Angel Street, which is the American title of the play Gaslight (made into a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer). It's been pretty chaotic so far. In the past the show in this slot would have had auditions and maybe a first read-through before the holidays, but wouldn't have started rehearsals till after. This year, the board changed the schedule. The show goes up at the end of January instead of February, so not only am I having to schedule around the holidays, I'm also having to schedule around the two Christmas productions. Ack! At least I was able to get a good cast together.

It's Iambik Audio's first anniversary, and they're celebrating with an audiobook giveaway. Go have a look!

Nunca te olvidaré, Angelina.

After more than three years of working on it, I finally finished recording Angelina by Rafael Delgado! Woot! The last few chapters still need to be proof-listened, but I hope to be able to catalog the sucker some time next week. My next Spanish solo (started this morning), is the much shorter La Navidad en las Montañas (Christmas in the Mountains) by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (only 11 chapters in this, as opposed to 65 in Angelina).

I found out recently that one of my cousins is having twin girls this October, so I've started work on two more pairs of the Hello Kitty pants and two different, as yet un-chosen sweaters.

The third Valonia book is finally officially published on Iambik (yay!). No word yet when we'll get access to the last book in the series.

I was offered another series via ACX called the Summer Chronicles. I finished the first of those, Phantom Universe just last week. It's currently in post-processing. The second, Forsaken Harbor, is due to be published at the end of this month, so I guess I'll get to start working on it some time after that.

In the meantime, I've got a bit of a break and I've been able to concentrate on my poor, neglected LibriVox projects. I've finished my SFFAudio challenge book, The Big Time. Just finished cataloging it this morning. My Spanish solo, Angelina is moving along nicely. I hope to finish it before I have to start working on other stuff again (seriously, this poor thing has been going since 2008; it keeps getting pushed aside in favour of other projects). And as I was so close to finishing The Big Time, I decided to start my next English solo. I'm doing the next available Anne book, Anne's House of Dreams. Next available as opposed to next in the series, because, unfortunately, Anne of Windy Poplars is still in copyright, which is a total bummer, because it's my favourite.

I finished my latest project for Ignatius, Poor Banished Children, back in August, but my contact had some vacation time, so I haven't heard when it's due to be published. I've been offered a novella called Song at the Scaffold to read next. It's set during the Reign of Terror. Should be interesting.

I've lots of knitting updates too, but I'll keep those for a separate post, or this will be enormous.

Iambik's first SciFi collection has been released. It contains the first two books in the Chronicles of Valonia series: The Jewels of Valonia, and The Golden Casket and the Spectres of Light.

Really tired tonight. Haven't slept well the last couple of nights because I've been really stressed about a couple of day-job projects that I had to finish upgrading/migrating yesterday and today. Now that they've both been successfully completed, I feel like I'm sort of coming out of shock. I feel all wibbly-wobbly (but not timey-wimey). Early night, I think.

Just two more weeks of rehearsals for My Fair Lady. I'm feeling pretty confident at this point; nowhere near as panicky as in past musicals (so far I've only woken up with a start at 4am once). The set is pretty much complete (it helps that it was a nice, simple one); most people are off-book; props are pretty much done; I haven't been paying much attention to costumes, as I already have mine, but hopefully they're close to done too.

I've recently finished three more audiobooks. I just finished Sense and Sensibility for LibriVox. I finished a critical edition of Mansfield Park for Ignatius about two months ago, but my contact was on maternity leave, so it's only just been published. I also published the main text of it (with a bit of editing to make sure it conformed to the absolutely-for-sure-public-domain version on gutenberg) on LV. And I've just finished the second book in the Chronicles of Valonia series for Iambik. The first two books in the series (The Jewels of Valonia and The Golden Casket and the Spectres of Light) will be released in Iambik's first SciFi collection. Will post a link once the collection is published.

I've started working on Poor Banished Children now; and I'm about a third of the way through my SFFAudio challenge book, The Big Time. I've also picked up my poor, neglected Spanish solo, Angelina, again. And now that I've started reading it again, I've remembered why I lost interest in the first place. Although the story is interesting so far, the author doesn't seem to have ever heard of the rule in writing, "don't use a big word when a simple one will do". His prose is flowery, verbose, long-winded, and simply not meant to be read aloud. He gives me fifty fits every time I sit down to read a chapter. He also spends a lot of time in long descriptions of places and events that have nothing to do with the plot (JRR Tolkien has nothing on this guy).

I don't like taking the dog for her walk until it starts getting light. Last week, I was able to take her out around 6:15am, which meant I could get to work between 7 and 7:30 and get off work around 4 (yay!). This week, I'm back to having to wait until after 7 to take her out, which means I'm getting to work later, and off work later (boo!).

The only good thing that's come out of the change so far is that, as I'm still waking up around 5:30, I've got extra time in the mornings, so I've been able to get some recording done before work, while the house is quiet.

Auditions for My Fair Lady on Monday. I'm trying out for Eliza. I can reach all the notes, and I can beat the pants off anyone else auditioning on accents, but we shall see. I tend to get cast in very minor roles or in the chorus in most musicals (twice in non-singing roles!)

Iambik finally released the collection that contains my book Getting Sassy. There was a bit of delay while they reworked the site's look and functionality. There's currently a blip in that my book is marked as $0.00, though it shows the full price ($6.99) once in the shopping cart.

The press release.