Talking with Lauren Fortgang and a GIVEAWAY! (giveaway closed)

Lauren Fortgang has been narrating romance audiobooks since 2007. Now with close to 60 unabridged romance titles to her name, Lauren definitely understands the art of narrating romance.

I met Lauren when in NYC last May while attending the Audio Publishers Association Conference. I’ve wanted to introduce her formally to our AudioGals audience since. We’re adding her to our official Narrator Friend list today – she now has a page at AudioGals complete with bio and contact information that is dedicated to her romance narrations.

And since Lauren and I finalized our talk, there’s been some big audio news we simply must mention. Lauren’s narration of Laura Antoniou’s The Killer Wore Leather has been named an Audie finalist in the Erotica category. Congratulations Lauren!

 

The Giveaway

As part of our talk with Lauren today, we are running a giveaway. You’ll find the entry form at the bottom of the page. Two entrants will win their choice of a Lauren Fortgang audiobook through Audible courtesy of AudioGals. It’s simple – just enter by midnight (CST) Monday, March 3rd. No comments are necessary for entry although we’d love to hear your thoughts in the discussion area. You may only enter once. We’ll contact you the morning of the 4th so watch your emails as we must have acknowledgement of your win within 24 hours. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll select another winner. Bloggers and reviewers, we welcome your entry. The giveaway is limited to availability of your chosen Audible title in your geographical area.

 

Talking with Lauren

Lea: Welcome to AudioGals Lauren! Thanks for joining us today as our newest Narrator Friend.

Lauren :  Thanks, Lea!  I’m excited to meet your listeners.

Lea: We met at the bloggers/narrators breakfast last year when attending the Audio Publisher’s Association Conference. I still recall you introducing yourself to another narrator. You mentioned that you narrate romance. I already knew that yet I loved you identifying yourself as such!

How many years have you narrated audiobooks and what drew you into the profession?

Lauren:  Ha!  Well, there’s no escaping my vocal inclination towards romance.  It’s the niche that found me…

I’ve narrated since 2007 and was introduced to the profession by my longtime actor friend, Gabra Zackman, a fabulous narrator (romance and otherwise).

Like most narrators, I studied theater, as the skill-sets are largely related.

Regarding the draw of audiobooks, of course, as actors, we often struggle to find work that feels associated with our chosen profession, and end up making sacrifices in order to be able to pursue more “actory” goals.  Having the opportunity to try my hand at audiobooks allowed me to add a branch to my career tree, and has come to represent a big piece of how I identify myself creatively and also in how I support myself.  The two don’t always go hand in hand, so this is something I’m very grateful for.

I can’t speak for all performers, but for many of us, a big indication of “success” is the notion we can fully sustain ourselves with work found in our preferred field.  My offshoot into audiobooks has allowed for me to consider myself a “professional” actor or a working actor, which is a real privilege.

Ultimately, I consider what I do as a performer “storytelling”.  Obviously audiobooks is a great opportunity to do just that.  Not to mention, I love reading.

Lea: I can’t help but notice that you have narrated a lot of Harlequin titles. It looks as though your first was in 2007 and the latest in January, 2014. How did you get your start with Harlequin?

Lauren:  Ah, as I said, it’s the niche of the business that found me! Audible is the first company I started narrating for and they produce the Harlequin titles.  I suppose there’s a quality to my voice that producers think lends itself to that particular genre.  I’m a bit of a ragamuffin, so it certainly can’t be that anyone finds me particularly dashing!

Lea: How many romances have you narrated to date? Do you find some more challenging than others? If so, what makes an audiobook challenging?

Lauren: Oh, I have no idea how many!  I have recorded over 300 titles to date, with just over a hundred of those being unabridged audiobooks, and the remainder being segments for monthly programming.  I’d say at least half, if not more, of my book titles are romance.

I suppose each book has its own set of challenges.  Accents and characterization can be tricky for the 30-70 characters that can pop up in any book, of course.  I’m of the school that going too broad with voices can be distracting, but others really dive in.  It’s a fine line and not all listeners prefer the same things.  Not all books want for the same style.

Which, maybe, is the thing that is most frustrating with any narration.  Knowing you can’t get it right for everybody.  I sometimes get completely varied responses to the same book.  Just as every reader of a book might hear a different tone, pace, or vocalization in his or her head, every narrator is going to tell the story a bit differently.  Some are very measured and steady.  Some are really heightened.  I get many lovely reviews, but I always beat myself over the ones where I’ve missed the mark for someone.

Also, and this doesn’t really pertain to romance, if an author is very popular as a public speaker, specifically an author of non-fiction, boy is it hard to win the fans over!  They really just want the author to narrate, which is sometimes not possible.

Lea: I assume you narrate audiobooks full time? If so, when did you make the transition into doing so?

Lauren :  I’ve bobbed up and down a bit between full time entertainment industry work and having to dip back into survival jobs but, yes, I’ve been able to stay steady in this world for about three or four years to date.  It was a cautious transition.  We’re used to being on a rollercoaster of jobs – and the downs aren’t that fun (to say the least) – so there was a period, before I fully cut ties, where I was juggling quite a bit because I wasn’t quite brave enough to let anything go.

What we do as narrators is contracted work, so we are never guaranteed the next job.  It’s a little scary.  But also something were prepared for.  Having a few series and loyal fans helps!

Lea: My introduction to your narrative skill was back in 2007 with Anne Stuart’s Ice Storm . I’ve also listened to Suzanne Brockmann’s Frisco’s Kid, one of Shannon Stacey’s Kowalski Family series, and a couple of books in Victoria Dahl’s Donovan Brothers Brewery series. What are some of your other backlist titles you would like to mention?

Lauren:  Well, let me first say, it makes me nervous to know people listen to books from that long ago!

Voiceover work is one of those few nooks in our field where growing older is a good thing!  I cringe a little when I think of how hard it was early on.  No one really tells you how to narrate for audiobooks.  They recognize you have ability in storytelling (albeit a raw ability) and trust you’ll shape it overtime (and they really do trust you), but there sure is a lot to fine tune along the way.

I feel like I’m just now getting to a place where I’m more comfortable and confident in my narration, but give me a few years, and I’ll probably be cringing again at this period!

That said, I really love the fans that have stuck with me over the course of some of these series.   The positive feedback really helps me work hard to get it right and keep tweaking until my stamina, pace, confidence, characterizations, etc. all start to come together seamlessly.

Some of the past narration I’m most proud of is for YA titles I’ve done.  Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys and The Grisha Trilogy ( Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising on the way….) by Leigh Bardugo are a few I really loved narrating.

The Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep, which is urban fantasy, has been a great series to do.  That’s someplace I really do get to make the characters a lot bigger.  For romance, there were quite a few new installments in the Coltons of Wyoming series this year.  The McCormack Security Agency series got a new installment as well.

Lea: I imagine you just helped our two eventual winners of today’s giveaway choose their title.

Can you give our listeners a look into your life outside of narrating?

Lauren : Oh sure!  I live in NYC and really do a bit of everything.  Brunchy, cocktaily things, certainly.   Theater and film activities for sure.  When I have extra time, I like to take classes in this or that.  Sometimes work related, but I often head out to a painting class or, recently, a terrarium class…complete with tiny little figurines!  I’m a big gamer so I’m usually up for any type of competitive group activity that resembles a game night.  And I also play football weekly on a coed team.  I stay pretty busy!  But I’m a bit of a deal-huntress so I especially like finding activities on the cheap.

After saying all of that, the truth is, I really like hibernating at home, too.  I’ve got a beau and a cat, and we like to keep it cozy.

Lea: What are some of your current or upcoming projects?

Lauren: Next up is Jennifer Brown’s Torn Away, which I’m recording for Hachette.

I just finished recording Kim Church’s debut novel, Byrd, at Audible Studios.  I believe it comes out mid-March.  It’s a really beautiful story and I just loved narrating it.  Kim was so supportive and encouraging, which made me feel especially connected to it.  The writing is a style I really dig personally; very lyrical and solemn.  Very focused on the narrative.

And as I mentioned earlier, I’ve got the final book in the Grisha Trilogy, Ruin and Rising, on the horizon.  I’m very excited to see how it ends and also for the challenge of characters and accents I know Leigh, the author, will be throwing at me.  I’ve already been warned!

Lea: It’s been a true delight to talk with you. Thanks again for spending time with us today!

 

Time to Enter

Contest ended.

 

Lea Hensley