Month: July 2011

Living in/near the San Fernando Valley? Looking for something for teens?

Living in/near the San Fernando Valley? Looking for something for teens?

My friend Karen McCarthy has this offering:

Intro to voice over workshop for teens and young adults 12 years and older.

Discounted Private classes at $50 an hour are available for younger students under 12. (This class isn’t quite right for younger kids, they tend to get more out of one on one coaching that’s geared specifically towards their needs.)

The Class will be taught by Voice Actress and Director Karen “K.B.” McCarthy.

Karen also has a background in Video and Film Production along with Acting, Improv Comedy and Standup. Students may know her best from the well known Anime projects “Strawberry Eggs” and “Haibane Renmei.” Recently she directed a couple of Animation projects yet to be released for Ron Gilmore at Indie Go Go, and voiced the villain in an Animated Feature that is scheduled for release next year.

Workshop is two days for 3 hours each day:
Saturday August 6th and August 13th
1pm – 4pm

Special Introductory Rate
$150.00 paid in advance to hold space in class
Class size will be limited to no more than 10 students so sign up early.

All students will get plenty of Microphone time. It’s going to be a blast!

The class will be taught at MJ Lallo’s studio in Burbank. Yes, a real voice studio.
Please Contact Karen to sign up for classes. MJ is supplying the studio, but not selling the class.

An Information package including some scripts and preparation homework will be e-mailed to you upon payment confirmation for the class.

The class will cover some of the basics of working as a voice actor including the differences between working in Animation, Commercial and Anime. It should give you a good idea if Voice Over is for you or your teen.

Anyone under 18 must have parental permission.

Contact Me to sign up for the class:
sillykern2@aol.com
(818) 831-0998

Ghost Story

Ghost Story

One oft-cited recommendation to writers is never to write about ghosts or angels. After all, they’re dead, so where’s the story?

But Jim Butcher with his latest Harry Dresden book, “Ghost Story” proves the exception to the rule.

I read it in a night.

If you haven’t read the Dresden Files, you should start with “Storm Front.”

The down side, of course, is that I now have to wait another year for the next book!

Science catches up with fiction

Science catches up with fiction

I was just reading an article in the June 25th 2011 New Scientist (Number 2818) called The Evolution Machine when I noticed that the engineers were working to replace the STOP codons in the DNA sequence.

In Dragonsblood, I’d hypothetized that part of the cure for the dragon sickness involved replacing the START codon for the dragon’s triple-helixed Pernese Nucleic Acid (PNA).

Nice to see some things come out right. Now, if only someone who get the whole flying-car, FTL starship thing sorted out, we’d be … well, flying!

Albedo One

Albedo One

I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned Albedo One before. It’s the award-winning Irish “magazine of the Fantastic” which has been publishing since 1993 (nearly 20 years).

I’ve had the honour (that’s the Irish/English spelling) of having one of my early stories published by them — Why I Shot My Car — and just recently wrote a wild short piece that came to me in a dream.

Well, I sent it off and they read it and have decided that “Despite the fact that there’s no SF in it, or horror (really) or fantasy, we really liked the story and would love to accept it for a future issue of the magazine.”

So at some point in the future, expect to see the totally non-Pern story, The Terrorist In My Kitchen appear under that august banner.

I’ll let you know the exact date when I get it or you can reward yourself by subscribing to the magazine and getting surprised not only by my piece but also by works from the famous Mike Resnick (who will be the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention Guest of Honor) and a host of other notable and soon-to-be-notable writers.