Imagine turning on the radio on Halloween in 1938 expecting to hear a radio drama but instead it is a news broadcast announcing that Martians had invaded New Jersey, and they were incinerating people with heat-rays! Police stations, newspapers and radio stations were inundated with calls from terrified people (Schwartz). The Mercury Theater on the […]
Author: kmatthes
Kathy Matthes is an online college teacher at three online colleges where she teaches various writing classes. She has her Masters of Professional Writing (MPW) and MSED degrees from the University of Southern California. She also produces audio stories with film music and sound effects for her stories2music project.
A New Genre of Audio Story
“Given the positive impact of music on film, one might wonder whether similar results would be found when combining specially-composed music with a fiction text” – Alicia Strong In her article “The Rise of Fiction Podcasts,” When Apple launched its new iTunes podcast app in 2005, it enabled radio shows such as This American Life, […]
Gender Bias in Audiobook Narration
Do you prefer a male audiobook narrator? Do you prefer a female audiobook narrator? Whitney Johnson: “I’m a female author, so why did I want a man to narrate my audiobook?” The Dilemma “I have been very public in my advocacy for women and girls. But something strange happened when my […]
Interview with Dr. Emma Rodero
You can also listen to the interview on the s2m podcasts. Dr. Emma Rodero agreed to do an interview about audiobooks for a feature article assignment for my Multimedia Writing/Reporting class at Palomar College. The feature article was posted on the blog as “We’re All Ears for Full-Cast Audiobooks.” She has graciously agreed to allow […]
Interview with William Dufris
You can also listen to this interview on the s2m podcast. William Dufris agreed to do an interview about audiobooks for a feature article assignment for my Multimedia Writing/Reporting class at Palomar College. The feature article was posted on the blog as “We’re All Ears for Full-Cast Audiobooks.” He has graciously agreed to allow me […]
Interview with Michele Cobb
Michele Cobb, Executive Director of the Audiobook Publishers Association, agreed to do an interview about audiobooks for a feature article assignment for my Multimedia Writing/Reporting class at Palomar College. The feature article was posted on the s2m blog as “We’re All Ears for Full-Cast Audiobooks.” She has graciously agreed to allow me to post her […]
We’re All Ears for Full-Cast Audiobooks!
You’ve seen them. They’re everywhere . . . people with ear buds. You see them on the street, on the subway, on the bus, at the gym, at the park, at the beach, and in the library. They appear to be in a trance, listening so intently that they are oblivious to the world around […]
Thank you, Mr. Foley!
This is also available in an s2m podcast with additional information and examples. “Jack Donovan Foley was born in Yorkville, New York, on April 12, 1891. He was a grandson of Irish immigrants and grew up in the Seagate section of Coney Island,” according to Martin Chalakoski. Little did he know that he would invent a […]
Where’s the Music?
By now, it should be clear that stories2music audio stories would not be what they are without the film music. It is an integral part of the storytelling. Part of this has to do with the type of music being used. The short, orchestral film music somehow works perfectly with the stories. But where did […]
Can Music Guide a Story?
Since 2011, when I created my first stories2music story, I have watched my production process evolve. When I first started out, I was teaching myself how to use the sound editing software, Audacity, so there was a lot of trial and error and experimentation. The one constant, however, was the uncanny “coincidence” of how the […]