Klickitat PUD

Mikael Naramore’s narration studio gives him a space to be creative and bring story characters to life. Small Sound Booth With Big Impact By Jeanie Senior says Mikael, whose business is called Mikael Naramore turned Terrestrial Media. his enjoyment of storytelling On an average work day, audiobook Buy a Morin audiobook and Mikael’s narrator Mikael Naramore sits inside a name has equal billing on the cover. into a career closet-sized sound booth dimly lit by a He grew up in Nashville “where computer screen, an iPad and a small everybody is in the music business” and lamp, and brings the written word to started out as a recording engineer. life. He remembers a first-grade field trip As he reads and records the text of to Music Row, where he got hooked on a science fiction book by J.S. Morin, the smell and sounds of a recording stu- the characters and their voices—male dio. A friendly sound engineer let the and female, young and old, aliens and a students listen to the recording he was grouchy wizard—become real. His nar- working on. It was Dolly Parton and ration sweeps listeners into the story. Kenny Rogers performing “Islands in “It’s a great way to make a living,” the Stream.”

4 JANUARY 2019 Mikael’s work earned him an Audio Publishers Association award in 2017. engineered about 1,000 books and nine hours to almost 12 hours. works as an audiobook director. He works for publishers and inde- Mikael earned an industry honor in pendent authors, and mostly gets jobs 2017, when he won an Audie Award— through emails or phone calls. the Audio Publishers Association’s Amazon has a site where audiobook version of an Emmy. narrators can look for work, but Mikael For the past three years, a large share says he has been busy enough that he of the audiobooks he has narrated have doesn’t need the service. been by Morin—a rising star whose titles “It’s taken me years to get to this include the popular Black Ocean series. point,” he says. Influenced by Nashville, Mikael says Mikael says Morin’s books remind him of He cautions that he works in a cycli- he wanted to be a musician. But he also Firefly, Fox’s quirky sci-fi space Western cal business. Although audiobooks are a wanted to have a family, he says. The series. Although the network canceled growing phenomenon—recording dou- music industry has changed to such a Firefly 15 years ago after just one season, ble-digit sales—print book and ebook degree it’s like taking a vow of poverty it has a massive cult following. sales have been shrinking. Industry to work toward success. “It was a perfect TV show,” he says. analysts point to audiobooks’ portability In 2001, after college, he interned Science fiction and fantasy are his and convenience as a reason for that. at Brilliance Audio in Grand Haven, favorite category to narrate. In his White Salmon studio, there are Michigan, not far from where his family “It’s a lot of fun,” Mikael says. “What’s photos of Mikael’s wife, Leslie, and their lived. Mikael was quickly promoted to great about it is you generally can invent two sons, as well as an array of music sound engineer and director. Brilliance, accents.” editing equipment. There are guitars, a now owned by Amazon, is a major pro- Apart from imaginary alien-speak, collection of vinyl records and a restored ducer of audiobooks. Mikael has a keen interest in accents, upright piano that belonged to an uncle That was the starting place for his which are important in his profession. who was a professional musician. career as a narrator. Mikael has nar- In a day, Mikael says he can record Mikael continues to write and record rated more than 300 titles, ranging and engineer about three finished hours music, and is an aquarium enthusiast. from romance novels to mysteries to of narration. Morin audiobooks, for As a volunteer, he maintains the aquar- nonfiction. He also has directed and example, generally run from just under ium at Whitson Elementary School. n

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