Monday, April 26, 2021

Gracie & Zeus Live the Dream – it’s a hilarious romp! it’s a mystery! it’s a celebration of NA brains! and it was super fun to narrate :D

 This book has been an absolute blast to narrate 😀  Full of fun voices that get to be played (largely) very broad; full of neuroatypical brains – which I also have in my skull; is full of musicians, which I am as well; and a mystery that’s just so weird you’re going WHY ARE YOU INTERRUPTING MY PERFECTLY GOOD BOOK??

…which is, indeed, what the characters are saying 😀

Recording Gracie & Zeus – or as I have said the book the entire time, so this will forever be how I refer to it, Zeus and Gracie – was bracketed by my 2 Covid Moderna mRNA vaccine injections. 

This was Not The Plan.  I had a plan!  A perfectly good one!

I had no idea I would be eligible in group 1b…but turns out cancer is one of the qualifying factors.  ‘How much cancer do i need to be having??’ I asked the pharmacist. ‘Is there an AMOUNT of cancer I gotta have?’  He laughed and stuck me with a needle.

I had a nice schedule laid out for myself in which I would record Zeus & Gracie over the course of 3-4 weeks, starting in last week or so of March, understanding the due date to be May 1st.  Looots of buffer – that’s how you live when you have chronic illness. 

That last two weeks of March, I and other family members caught the flu. (i had to put off my 1st Moderna because of the flu! i was miffed!) 

Okay, two weeks down.

But hey – the scheduling gods smiled on me so I could reschedule my vaccine right away!  Yay!  I should have realized my mistake in advance because (as has been noted) I have a non-standard-issue immune system, and it freaked right out.  (also having had covid helped I’m sure – immune system was like oh HELL no!).

Yeah, two more weeks down.

QUICK! RECORD RECORD RECORD!  At this point my plan was to have most of the book done before my second Moderna vaccine, on the assumption that I would have a week or so of misery and would be moving slowly at the finish.  The Moderna vaccines are a month apart, and a month was more than I needed to do a really polished job – with 2 weeks after that point in which to wrap up if needed, though I’d probably be feeling crappy.  I can edit while feeling crappy!  just, yk, not perform 😀

So! such a good plan 🙂  I’m learning to be organized!  I’ve got Notion, I’m figuring out how to be scheduled, I’m figuring out how to do books a little at a time rather than wiping myself out in surges!  Lookin’ good!

….two days before vaccine #2, I get a kind email from the publisher asking how the audio is coming along, as the due date for completion was, in fact, that day.

….um….

a thing that I thought I was doing right! I had a date on my calendar and everything – I thought I knew the due-date!  Note to self – double check this next time.

Okay, I was within a stone’s throw – doing much better than I had even thought I would – and could be done before my second vaccine; since the second vaccine was sure to knock me on my ass for a week or more, if the due date was ‘yesterday please,’ I’d be best off pushing really hard and getting done just a couple days later than the official date.  I’d be tired, but I’d be dealing with a known state of health pre-2nd-vaccine rather than the ???? of post-2nd-vaccine.

so that, indeed, I did.  This is exactly what I was trying not to do, of course!  I had paced myself!  I was careful of my health and being really On for recording and editing so they’d be both high quality and time efficient.  I’m always able to be narratively On – but efficient, that’s where my prior lack of system is what I’m learning to re-design.

I worked until 4am the night before my second vaccine and got done editing and fully proofing in time to zonk out, in time to wake up and get poked in the arm! whoo!

And I was so so miserable the past week LOL

But Zeus & Gracie was as absolute HOOT and I had the best time recording it 🙂  It’s a romp, it’s a mystery, it’s a celebration of neuro-atypical brains, life, points of view, actual literal behaviour (not too many books CELEBRATE!), it has elements of romance, it’s got an acid rave, it’s got kidnapping, it’s got murder[attempts!], and it’s full of people who you absolutely will recognize as, “I’ve known someone Just Like That!”

And while it wasn’t easy on my body, it gave the audiobook that intense all-at-once hyperfocus that has its own energy, too 😀

I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did