Vibrant world

[pbray]

The narrator of the upcoming audio book emailed me to request pronunciation assistance, commenting that I had created a specific and vibrant world. I'm pretty sure that's a code phrase that means fantasy novels with invented languages are a freaking pain in the ass :-)

In any case, I'll be putting together a pronunciation guide for him to use. And once again having to face the fact that the villains in this story sound an awful lot like Silver-rats when read aloud.

Could be worse. As I recall, buried in the Devlin series is a minor character whose name I pronounced differently each time I read it aloud. When it comes time for that one, I'm thinking dealer's choice will be the correct answer.

Comments

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Ha!

My books are going to be audiobooks in the UK, apparently (hey, maybe in North America too at some point...), and I'm already freaking out a bit about pronunciation assistance, since they are (i.e., book 1 is, and books 2 and 3 will be) full of place names and personal names and bits of dialogue in Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Why did I ever think that was a good idea?!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

:-) These are the valuable lessons that you learn after you've become a published author, so you'll never ever make that mistake again.

There's always the option of punting and letting the narrator decide how things are pronounced, which some authors have done. I'd like a little more control over the process, so I'll be recording the key words and phrases and sending as an MP3.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally should have made up new languages instead of using real ones that real people actually speak. (Plus, I will have to choose from among the bewildering variety of ways you can pronounce Latin. What was I thinking?!) It seemed like a good idea at the time...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

"It seemed like a good idea at the time..." is the basis for all literary careers :-)

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

And this is why, I am sure, HBO uses linguistics experts for GoT.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah.

Reminds me of the story of the Harry Dresden audio books-- Butcher intended the name Marcone to rhyme with Capone, as in Al Capone. But when James Marsters was narrating the audio books, he pronounced the e, as in Marconi. Oops.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I always pronounce it as Butcher would - but I have never heard the audio books - my coworker assures me they are worth listening to just for the Toot Toot impression.

I would do it as you do because I am forever making up pronunciations to things.