As you may know by now, my first novel, Kings of the Dead was picked up a few months back by audible.com for distribution as an audio-book. Some of the questions I was asked included, will you be doing the narration, and do you get to choose who does the narration? Well, the answer to both of those was no, I had no say in the process and it all fell into Audible’s more than capable hands. After a time, the audiobook was ready for release, and I got my hands on it, and to say the least, I was very pleased with the narration.

Narrated by a gentleman by the name of Marc Vietor, I was able to see Kings of the Dead come to life in a way I had personally not been able to experience. To have someone not just read the book to you, but to do so by bringing emotion and further depth to the characters I created was an emotional experience for me. I quickly located Marc Vietor and inquired as to whether he would be willing to submit to a brief interview about his job and processes. Not only did he reply, but he was happy to comply with my interview request.

And with that, here is my interview with Marc Vietor, narrator of Kings of the Dead:

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me Marc, I am sure my most dedicated fans would love to learn a little more about you. So, I  would like to start by asking you to take a moment and introduce yourself to my readers, basically tell them who you are and maybe a little about your background?

I’m an actor and director living in New York on the Upper West side.  I came to New York from California to attend drama school at Juilliard and have remained here.  I grew up in San Francisco and then came back east to go to college at Yale and grad school at Juilliard.  I work mostly on stage.  I’ve appeared on and off Broadway and in a few TV shows, including “Law And Order”.  I’ve also appeared on the Onion News Network online.

What was it that got you into providing narrations for audio books?

I auditioned for an audiobook company – Audible.com – about five years ago and have been recording fairly steadily ever since.  When I was growing up in California, my parents only allowed me to watch TV on the weekends, so I spent a lot of time listening to the radio.  I developed a love of radio plays and narrated stories that I’m sure helped me with my narrating now.

Is there any one particular book out there that you would consider to be highlight of your career if given the opportunity to narrate?

I would love to narrate a comic novel, something by David Sedaris or David Foster Wallace.  I recently narrated a fantastic book called 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

With Kings of the Dead being part of the zombie genre, I have to ask, are you a zombie fan, or was reading Kings just another job? (And no offense taken if it was just a job)

I am a huge fan of the zombie genre, which I know has been on the rise for a few years.  In general I am a big fan of horror and fantasy – generally leaning more toward horror.  I loved reading Kings Of The Dead not only because it was well written and full of classic zombie adventure – including a cool back story for the rise of the zombies –  but also because the characters were more three-dimensional than most zombie books and emotions run high.

What is your favorite book genre?

I love sci-fi,  fantasy and horror to read aloud.  I usually read nonfiction when I’m reading for myself.

How do you prepare yourself for narrating a book?

I read the book through once, then I go through it a second time with colored pens, marking up and distinguishing the characters.  Each character has a different color and is recorded in a book – a “bible” that I use to keep track of the voices of each character.  This is helpful if  I’m doing a series and have to re-create a character from an earlier book.

How long does it take you to narrate an audio book on average? I know the final running time on Kings was close to 7 hours, but having done some audio work myself, I know the actual recording time was much greater than 7 hours.

My narrating speed is slightly above average.  It usually takes me an hour to record forty minutes of a book.  This is slightly higher than the desired standard for narrators which is 2:1. Of course certain books are more challenging than others and can sometimes take longer.

With Kings of the Dead, it seemed to me like you really captured the emotions I was trying to express with my writing. Is there anything you look to, or use for motivation when trying to capture the moment as presented by the writers?

I generally try to lose myself in the characters as much as possible, which is why I don’t start working on “acting” the book until after I’ve read it through twice and have an idea of how the characters express themselves.  I don’t use any particular acting techniques, and I don’t use my own experiences as much as I try to imagine someone else’s.

Do you have anything scheduled for the future that you would like to share with us? (Stage, film, TV, notable books?)

My next project is going to ba a play here in New York, but I will probably also be narrating a new book as well.  Unfortunately I don’t have any say in which books I get to narrate.  Sometimes I audition for them and other times they are assigned to me.  I tend to get books that have many characters and which require a variety of dialects, like detective novels, fantasy adventures, sci-fi and horror.

Again, thank you for the great narration. It was truly interesting to have someone read my work to me. I originally wrote Kings of the Dead in 2009 and pushed it out as a self-published author. After a year of sales, Permuted Press came to me and asked me if I would like to sign a contract, all I would need to do is extend the book. So after adding an additional 30% to the original story, and all of the edits and rewrites, I have been through my own book multiple times. So to be able to sit back and have someone read it to me? Well, I have to tell you, it was a little more than emotional in a couple of spots.

Thanks again for the kind words, Tony.  I loved reading your book and I’m delighted that you felt that I did it justice.  Have a great Christmas!

Thanks again for the narration and the interview Marc. If you would like to find more of Marc work, you can find a list of his narrations on Audible.com

And of course, Kings of the Dead can be found here.

If you have ever read one of the many interviews I have done over the past couple of years, you would have read that I have been a fan of the zombie genre for close to 30 years now. I grew up watching the movies and continue to do just that. One aspect of the zombie genre that I did not click with until somewhere around 2003 or 2004 was the literary side. Yes, you read that write, a zombie writer that did not read his first zombie book until sometime in the last decade.

Come on, you have to admit, there was not a whole lot available for us back in the “old” days. If there had been the selection we have available to us these days, I would have likely been reading a lot more of the genre before that time.

When I did discover the literary side, I found two books and immediately ordered them both from Amazon. Autumn by David Moody, and Monster Island by David Wellington. I remember very distinctly breaking into Autumn first and becoming hooked not only on the universe that David had created, but also on Davids particular style of writing. I wanted more, and I acquired more (including first editions of the next two books The City, and Purification) over time.

To say I have been a fan of David Moody and his work for several years now would surely not be a stretch of the truth. And yes, before anyone asks, I am a fan of David Wellington and his work as well, but this blog post is about Mr. Moody and his latest release, Autumn:Disintegration

Several weeks ago, I had a chance to watch the movie version of Autumn, and I immediately sent a tweet to David. I had followed him for a while but never really communicated with him. Anyway, I tweeted David and said I had just watched Autumn, and I was sorry the filmmakers had done to his book what they had done, and that as soon as I win the lotto, I will gladly buy back his film rights and do the movie right this time.

I got a response from David, and I thought that was pretty damn cool.

A short while later, I was able to get my name in the hat for a free copy of Disintegration, and I thought that was pretty damn cool as well.

Then a few days later, a friend of mine posted a link to an interview done with David where he not only mentioned my publisher, Permuted Press, but he also mentioned me and two other Permuted authors by name, and I about passed out. It’s not that I am some bleeding fanboy that can’t hold myself together, it’s that someone I respect, respects me enough to have mentioned me. Hell yeah that was cool.

So, I received my copy of Autumn: Disintegration, and just finished it this evening.  As I started the book, I was thrust immediately back into the Autumn universe with little to no introduction to the who’s, the how’s, the what’s, the when’s, and the why’s. This was clearly another tale in the Autumn series and not intended to be a stand alone novel. No sir, this one was written for the fans of the series and the writing shows it.

David dives deeper into his descriptions of the bloated and putrified decaying corpses that cover the landscape, sometimes quite literally, than he has in the past. If you have a weak stomach, too bad, Moody has little compassion for that concern in his readers as he pushes the envelope wide open for how much bile he can bring to the back of your throat with his descriptions of the corpses. I’m not kidding you, there are times you can almost smell it he has described it so well.

I don’t think highly of reviews that spoil the hell out of a well written tome, so all I will say is the book starts with a group of survivors that find themselves forced out of their stronghold because of their activity, only to find themselves in the stronghold of another group of survivors. Only thing is, this group of survivors has chosen a different tact of survival, that being silence, potential starvation and simply trying to outlast the dead.

Honestly, if I told you any more than that, it would result in nothing more than spoiling it. Seriously, just do yourself a favor, and go pick up a copy of this book.

For David, in case you come across this blog post, I have one question for you: When did you ever find yourself face down in eighteen inches of putrified corpses? I only ask because you wrote about it so well, you could only know from experience, and that’s just nasty.

Oh, and one more thing David, thank you. Thank you for being an inspiration, your respect, and for the Autumn universe.

Tony Faville

David Moody’s Autumn: Disintegration on Amazon

I can’t really lie to you, those words have very few sincere meanings for me these days. To me it just means a simplified turkey dinner with my wife at home.

I have no family in the immediate area, although my wife does have family that lives a little over 100 miles North from us, but in spite of having been down here in Portland for the past 12 years there has never once been an invitation of any sort around the holidays.

I do have a daughter, that is married and living her own life, and this holiday, among many other holidays and personal celebrations, tend to be marred by the status of our relationship. My daughter was poisoned by her mother over the years to the point that I have been able to be a part of her life for just a few of the past 17 years. Fact is, I have not even seen her in over 3 years now, not a record length of time in our tenuous relationship, but certainly growing worse with every passing day.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter and miss her with every beat of my heart, but after the past 17 years I do my best to live without hope that things will change. It has been my experience that living in hope that maybe this thanksgiving, or this birthday, or this random day will be the day she finally grows up and sees me for the man I am instead of the man her mother has told her I am, is nothing more than a heartwrenching unrequited wait.

So, my wish out there for those of you with children that love you, is to treasure every single moment you have. To never lose sight of things and let anger destroy the relationship you have. To be thankful for every precious minute you have with your child, for you never know when, or how they will be taken from you.

Have a happy thanksgving.

Tony Faville

Born from the first zombie dream that ever woke me up without a smile on my face, and nurtured by the inspiration from my experiences at ZomBCon last weekend.

Yes, you read that right, I am currently writing a new novel and at the rate I am going, I expect to have the initial draft completed by the end of November. Allowing time for a rewrite, edit, and another potential rewrite, it should be done sometime after the first of the year. I will be running it by Permuted Press, but just because they published one of mine, does not mean they will publish the next one. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I will be focusing on writing, so that gives you time to get out there and read all of the other books available from Permuted Press.

Go! Do it! Now!

Thank you!

Tony

As you already know, I was invited by my publisher, Permuted Press, to attend ZomBCon in Seattle, Washington this past weekend. As Julius Caesar said in 47 B.C., Veni, Vidi, Vici.

I tend to think I had a little better time than old Julius did.

What happened? Well, let me tell you in a rather roundabout way.

Friday morning I arrived in Seattle and hooked up with my publisher, woke his ass up would be a more appropriate way of putting it. Shortly after checking into the hotel we moved the books from my vehicle to what we assumed would be our table. While riding up in the elevator, I realized the gentleman standing in the corner was none other than JARLATH CONROY, McDermott from Day of the Dead 1985. After politely introducing myself and shaking his hand, we got the boxes situated and moved on from there. While waiting to speak to someone, I recognized another person, and again politely introduced myself to JUDITH O’DEA, Barbara from Night of the Living Dead, 1968.

Heading down the elevator, I again ran into someone else I recognized, my dear friend ROBERT ELROD, a wonderful artist and all around hell of a guy. We eventually got the tables all straightened out as the Permuted Press authors started to trickle in…people such as PETER CLINES, BOWIE IBARRA, JASON HORNSBY, CRAIG DILOUIE, DL SNELL, the lovely and amazingly talented ELOISE KNAPP (seriously, the girl reeks of talent, be prepared to follow her pending meteoric rise) and TIM LONG. As we set up, I realized that I would be sitting next to JUDITH O’DEA for the entire weekend. My inner fanboy was clawing his way out of my chest….but only long enough for me to break the ice further with her and talked to her. Little did I know, I would spend the next three days being able to talk to her about anything that happened to come to mind. She was incredibly warm, gracious, inviting and friendly, something we discussed at length. I eventually gave her a copy of my book and she in turn gave me a signed photo. When she asked me why I chose the picture I did (a full color of her sitting in a makeup chair), instead of one of the more iconic scenes, I could not lie to her and told her because she looked beautiful in it. Yeah, sue me, I’m a flirt and she is an amazing lady.

I also met TOM SAVINI in the hotel lobby. Now, to be fair, I have heard horror stories about SAVINI. I don’t know if it’s just my approach, but he was very friendly with me, and responded very graciously to what I had to say.

Anyway, long story short, the rest of the day was spent talking to the wonderful attendees of the show, the hard working Volunteer Horde, my fellow authors that made me feel as if I were sitting at a table with a group of family or friends instead of the relative strangers we all were, and the multitude of celebrities passing by our table.

I took an opportunity that day to talk to JOHN AMPLAS from Day of the Dead, Martin, Knightriders, etc, MICHAEL GORNICK from Dawn of the Dead, DAVID EMGE, Flyboy in Dawn of the Dead 1978, and the even more beautiful now than she was 26 years ago, LORI CARDILLE, Sarah from Day of the Dead 1985. I actually spent a lot of time talking to her and based on her interest, I gave her a copy of my book. She offered me a signed photo and wrote a beautiful note to me. Then she reached under her table and pulled out a small book, signed it, and gave it to me. It was a tale of her survival from years of abuse as a child. I did not realize until the next morning what it was when I read it. (Saturday I went back to her table and talked to her about being a survivor myself, as she hugged me she told me I was her brother and that she loved me. Yeah, I know, WAY personal, but WAY cool to me.)

SID HAIG, Captain Spaulding from House of 1000 Corpses stopped by our table and said, “You guys are a bunch of writers? I can’t even write my own fucking name!”

That evening as she waited for me to come pick her up, my wife waited outside the front of the hotel with our dog and was approached by JENNY SPAIN, Dead Girl from DeadGirl. Since I was kind of directly responsible for Jenny having received an invitation to ZomBCon, she spent some time talking to Heather before inviting her up for a glass of champagne with her and Sean Patrick Flannery. Heather said no, she was waiting for me.

Now, when Heather relayed this to me in the car, I told her, “What the hell is wrong with you?! Go! You can have dinner with me at any time!!”

I do believe that the next time this opportunity arises, I will get a text from Heather telling me to F-Off! I am having a drink with ……. And she is welcome to do so!

Saturday was even more of the same from Friday afternoon. Celebrities, fans, attendees, writers to now include IAIAN MCKINNON (ever met a Scot in a kilt, dread locks, and an amazingly outgoing personality and smile to match? NO? You should!), volunteers, great book sales, camraderie of all sorts, etc, etc, etc. SID HAIG stopped by the table several times throughout the day, typically yelling at us, “You’re writers, why aren’t you writing?!” At the end of the day he returned one more time and said, “Fuck it!” and started acting like he was writing. We asked him what he was doing and he said, “What you should be doing, writing!” We said, “Bullshit, that’s acting!” I laid back in my chair and told him, “This is is writing Sid!” He looked over at me, grinned and said, “Bullshit, this is writing”, and started acting like he was typing on a computer. All told, SID HAIG is a hell of a guy.

BILL MOSELY, Otis from The Devils Rejects walked by and I said hello to him, and told him Otis was the man! He stopped and said, “Just remember one thing, WE ARE FUCKING DEAD!!!” I personally know better than asking when a sequel to The Devils Rejects is coming. =)

JENNY SPAIN stopped by my table quickly, I got to say hello and get my picture taken with her. If you ever see the picture, I am the ugly guy standing next to the incredibly beautiful brunette. I stupidly forgot to get down to her table and get a signed blu-ray of DeadGirl from her. That’s okay, one is on the way.

As I sat there on Saturday afternoon, having the best birthday I have had in years, I hear a voice to my left, calling out to me. I turn to find JUDITH O’DEA sitting there smiling at me just before she broke out and sang Happy Birthday to me. I kid you not. Do you even have to ask if this made my day? My year?

That evening I broke away from the pack and had dinner with my wife, ROBERT ELROD and LYLE PEREZ. Thanks for dinner guys!

Later that night, all of the Permuted authors, and additional friends including the lovely ADRIAN and JONATHAN MABERRY joined us as BOWIE IBARRA hunted down enough glasses to share a toast from a 40oz bottle of Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Again, thank you BOWIE, I can’t wait for the next toast.

Sunday morning it was back to the con for more celebrities, more fans, attendees, book sales, etc. I sent out a Tweet early that morning and said that the first person that mentions my tweet gets a free copy of both of my books. Not only did the lovely TONYA grab my books, but she also bought a copy of each book available from the remaining authors at the table. Sweet!

I chose to get an autographed photo from JARLATH CONROY and ANTONE DILEO that morning, and both men were absolutely friendly and thanking me for helping make the weekend so great. As I waited for my photo with ANTONE, we talked and guess what he told me as he hugged me, thanking me for the photo, he too is a survivor. We stood there talking for several minutes before he hugged me again, and as he rubbed my head, he too told me he loved me and called me a brother. These guys are KILLING ME!

Finally it was time for the Permuted Panel at 1pm. I sold out of my books, headed to my first con panel, and had just too much fun for the next hour. JONATHAN MABERRY said afterwards that he considered it one of the best panels he has attended. Thank you my friend!

It was time to leave so I said my goodbyes to my fellow writers and friends and headed to the car. As I approached the parking garage, JUDITH O’DEA was walking towards me, we wished each other a fond farewell as she clutched my hand and said, “Thank you so much Babe, I look forward to seeing you again.” With one last injection of awesomeness, we climbed into our vehicle and headed south towards home, feeling maybe a little like we were driving away from “home” as we went.

So, that was a good part of the weekend. I am sure I left someone out, but there was something awesome happening almost every minute of every day and that would make it impossible to think of everyone and everything. Just know this, I thank you all, and hanging out with thousands of friends on my birthday made what is usually a dark and drunken day, a whole lot better.

Thank you all for such an amazing experience, see you at the next one!

Tony Faville