Today we’d like to introduce you to Alice Dodd
Alice, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 27 years (wow, that time flew by!) I moved here fresh out of graduate school with my wife and we dove into the world of theater, film and television. We wrote plays that she directed and produced, and I starred in, which was a lot of fun. I had a nice run of acting on film and television, but with the pandemic and the strikes, work had dried up. I was looking for a way to keep myself busy, when my wife saw something on social media about creating audiobooks for Audible, Amazon’s audiobook site. I love reading and I’ve always been told that I have a wonderful voice, so I started investigating. I gathered equipment and taught myself to master and edit. Audiobook narrating has been a fantastic discovery and I’ve really fallen in love with it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are some sacrifices I have to make in order to run my little studio. The main one is that I have to get up at three or 4 o’clock in the morning to record! Los Angeles is a pretty noisy place, even with all of my soundproofing. I use the morning hours to record, and once the lawnmowers and sirens and helicopters start up, I move into the mastering and editing phase. Recording is the fun and easy part; doing all the technical work to turn it into a professional audiobook takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work directly with authors to turn their published works into audiobooks. I do all my own narrating, editing, and mastering. When I’m finished with an audiobook it is ready to sell on Amazon. So far, my biggest challenge and the work I’m most proud of is producing a trilogy. Tracking characters as they age and their voices change was fascinating. I had to develop a multitude of characters and be able to consistently voice them throughout three books. I’m often asked to voice obscure dialects and phrases in other languages, which takes research and practice. And because I’m working to a deadline, all my prep work has to be swift and efficient.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Something the pandemic taught me was that I could be isolated in a house with my family and thoroughly enjoy it!
My wife and I have two girls, and when we had to rely only on one another for entertainment, I was amazed at how much fun we could have. We played cutthroat board games, sang and danced around the kitchen, and always made each other laugh. I depend on my family to keep life interesting.
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