Valia Lind Writes : Interview

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Get to know Laura Darrell, the Narrator for Falling by Design Audiobook! (Plus a GIVEAWAY)

Hey lovelies,

So today I'm super excited to have Laura Darrell on the blog talking about her work! I LOVED having her read Falling by Design!!! Once I heard her audition, I couldn't wait for the rest of the book. I asked her if she'd be willing to answer a few questions for us and she said YES! Stick around till the end of the post! There's a giveaway :) Now, onto the questions.

1. Hi. Tell us a little about yourself.

  So I'm a professional actress, voice-over artist, and audiobook narrator, living in NYC, although I also have a base in Los Angeles. I was born and raised in a small town outside of Portland, Maine. I split my undergrad between Tisch, NYU and USC in LA. I love traveling, food (all cuisines), reading, and I'm also transitioning into being a vegetarian!

2. What got you into voice acting?

I got into audiobook narrating through a voice and speech teacher of mine at Tisch, NYU who thought it would be a good fit for me; I think because I have very clear diction and I love reading. Haha:) She recommended me to Audible and the rest is history!

3. What is your favorite part about your job?

  Well, I suppose I can't reiterate it enough but I think my favorite part of it is that I love reading and I love talking! Hah! I'm happiest when I'm lost in a good story. I used to read children's books aloud to younger kids in lower grades in grade school as part of a reading program setup there and I really enjoyed it. There's something really freeing about setting up camp in a dark booth and only being able to use your voice to tell a story. It's a lot of fun.

4. What is the hardest part about your job?

  One of the hardest parts is that you have to somehow vocally distinguish many, many characters and you only have one voice! So you really have to explore your entire range, accents, pace/speed, and various speech patterns that you can use to distinguish 15-30 characters.

5. Are there any actors who inspire you?

  I really love Cate Blanchett, Kathy Bates, Glen Close, Cherry Jones...For guys I like Michael C Hall, Sean Astin, Leonardo Dicaprio, Daniel Day Lewis, Tom Hanks...

6. Any funny anecdotes about your job you can share?

  Funny anecdote...Well the microphone in most recording studios is very sensitive so let's just say any little noise, intentional or not, gets magnified pretty intensely in there; makes for some good times with the engineer! Hah!

7. What was the best part about recording Falling by Design?

  I love your voice as a writer and the dry, sarcastic humor that I found throughout. It was a fun, easy read that flew by. The characters made me laugh a lot.

8. How did you prepare for the job?

  Preparation usually involves reading the book as many times as I can and then highlighting the different characters so I can really differentiate them in my mind and start assigning vocal choices to them. I make sure I'm hydrated, I'm wearing comfortable clothing, and then I do the work!

9. Any other interesting tidbit about you or you job you'd like to share?

  Well, I really enjoyed working on your book and I hope people love it as much as I did! If people want to follow me I can be found on facebook.com/thelauradarrell or twitter.com/lauradarrell or my website is www.lauradarrell.com! Till the next time!