Dear Perkins School,
Thank you for giving a change to talk about the audio production of our book. I hope you enjoyed the presentation as much as we did.
If you want to contact the hero of this story, Madeleine Barker, you can reach here: https://madeleinebarker.me/contact
On the 15th of November, Amy and I will be doing a presentation on the audio production of In the Wake of the Willows for the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library (library for the Perkins School for the Blind). We are honored to have this opportunity to share our work. This program will give the students and alumni of the School a chance to go behind the scenes of the production of an audiobook and listen to some entertaining clips from the auditions and the snippets from the book.
My latest article is in Northern Woodlands magazine. It is about a fly fishing retreat for men with cancer that I attended (as a reporter) last year. This is one of the most important articles I have ever written and has raised the visibility of this free resource for men thus afflicted. I was very gratified to hear that my article has increased the number of men applying for this retreat: https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/solace-maine
Supposedly “Informational Fiction” presents facts and information within a fictional story. Would In the Wake of the Willows qualify? I think so since the natural history and locations are all accurate, if whimsical, and possibly displaced in time; that pesky Carolina wren and the persnickety mockingbird were rare in Rickie’s day, but their behavior is correct.
BTW, there is a sequel in the works to In the Wake of the Willows. It has been tentatively named The Following Sea. It will feature adventures on the Elizabeth Islands, smuggling, shipwrecks, secret codes, ruthless croquet, and even some ontology by Mr. Rat and his daughter. It would also appear that Toady has reverted to his bad old ways as we assumed he would,…or is he being framed by someone who wants to discredit him?
Northern Woodlands magazine just published a major article I wrote about Emily Dickinson, bobolinks, and grasslands. The article is making waves, some amber. It can be read here along with an auxiliary article and comments:
https://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/bobolink-dickinson
Print and Audio Production In the Wake of Willows
Join us on July 27th at the 6:30 at the Dedee Shattuck Gallery for a program on the production of the print and, especially, the audio version of our book. Listen to wiseacre mockingbirds, blowhard toads, impish chipmunks, Cockney otters, snarky literary agents, conspiratorial weasels, badgers with a brogue, and sweet singing water rats tell their story in this entertaining and amusing audio/visual presentation.
In 2020 we began a quest to find a narrator for the characters in the audio version of In the Wake of the Willows. Follow our search for the perfect voice for our little friends along The River. Join us and listen to audition tapes from some talented student actresses from a very special theater arts department. Get to hear the winner of the auditions, Madeleine Barker, a young lady of a thousand voices, and listen to amusing clips from her recordings.
Discount coupons for purchasing the book at Partner’s Village Store will be available at the event.
Here is an audio version of the Lightning Jitterbug done by the fabulous Madeleine Barker with the latest sound improvement by Joel Thibideau.
If you want to hear more clips from the marvelous Maddy Barker, we will be doing a presentation of her work on the book at the Dartmouth Library on Thursday night and again the following Thursday at the Westport library. Details in the previous blog post here: https://willowslink.wordpress.com/2022/06/12/adventures-in-sound-the-making-of-the-audio-book/
Join us on Thursday, June 16, at the North Dartmouth library or June 23 at the Westport library, for an entertaining and amusing back stage look at the process of creating the audio version of In the Wake of the Willows. Listen to various actresses and the eventual winner doing auditions for the book plus some unpublished clips from the snarky Advanced Praise.
This took place on May 14 and was a great success. Thank you all for coming out and special thanks goes out to our friends, Haggis McBadger, Baroness Raquel Toad, Crassus Weasel, Rev Cotton Mather III, Portly Otter III, Marten Fisher, and my beloved agent, Noelle A. Vail of the Sisyphus Literary Agency.
We are excited to report “In the Wake of the Willows” is officially being considered for The Thurber Prize for American Humor, one of the highest and only major recognitions of humor writing in the United States.
Yes, the authors share the same last name, and a distant familial connection. While Fred’s writing style beautifully compliments that of Kenneth Graham, his humor and whit are so very Thurber.
Don’t forget your daily dose of the chuckles. It’s good for your soul.
– AT
In the Wake of the Willows 