Alexander J. Masters on the I SPY SOMETHING series

Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get started in narrating/producing audio books? How many audio books have you narrated?

 

 

I was active in theater when I was very young and was performing on stage until I was about 18, at which point I became more interested in the written word and its potential for being the most raw and concept-based artistic expression. As a result, I received my degree in literature with the intent to write fiction. While at university, I met my now wife, who is Croatian, and upon graduating, moved to Zagreb to live with her. Now, Croatia has about a 30% domestic unemployment rate, so the odds of finding work as a foreigner are not favorable. This led me to start looking into online freelancing opportunities. I began picking up jobs as an editor and applied to a few voice-acting gigs because of my earlier interest in theater. After a time, I discovered that not only was I getting more jobs as a voice-actor, but the pay was significantly higher. I started with advertisements and English learning programs, and even voiced a few video game characters, but because of my love for literature, I was mostly looking for work with more narrative substance. At this point, I’ve been working in the field for about two years and have produced eight audiobooks.

 

How much acting is involved in narrating a story?

 Quite a lot, actually. I think listeners can always tell the difference between a narrator who is performing a cold read (has never seen or read over the text before the recording) and a narrator who has read the text at least once, analyzed and developed the characters, and rehearsed the lines thoroughly before entering the recording process. Characterization is particularly important when the story is told through a first-person perspective, as with The I Spy Stories, because the narrative is driven almost solely though the thoughts and opinions of the protagonist, so if the narrator does not fully understand—and to some extent identify with the motivations, desires, and flaws of protagonist, the result can be unnatural, which, considering the narrator’s job is to breathe life into the characters s/he portrays, could potentially compromise the believability of the story as a whole.

 You narrated all three of the I Spy stories. Mark is probably one of my most cold-blooded and ruthless characters. You did a wonderful job of humanizing him. What feelings or emotions were you focused on conveying with your voice? Did you consciously change his voice as the stories progressed?

 

First of all, thank you very much! Mark is a fascinating character: I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that I would consider him cold-blood necessarily, but it is certainly one of the facades that he has come to assume as a result of his profession’s perspective on the expendability of human life. He is incredibly disillusioned because of this perspective, though in many ways has a greater understanding of people’s motivations. This level of experience in the human condition leads him to be constantly disappointed when his expectations of people do not match the reality. On the other hand, he is quite often correct in his assessments of people, which over time has given him a bit of a superiority complex.

 

As the narrative opens, Mark is essentially a broken man: isolated and alone, exhausted and both mentally and physically wounded from his last mission. The last time he had any warmth or joy in his life was when he was with Steven, who, he rightly assumes, has moved on. He has to physically remove himself from the situation that is causing him to act cold-bloodedly before he can regain his humanity, which means turning back to that point at which his warmth and joy was derived, Steven. He does so only to find that, on the surface, Steven no longer wants to fulfill this role for him, though even so, Mark’s hopefulness does not altogether falter.

 

As the love between them begins to spark back up again, we see Mark coming out of his damaged state and gradually he becomes more and more alive. At this point, we realize that Mark is not ruthless at all, but rather a consummate romantic and optimist who had lost his love and thus, his human side. As he begins to put himself back together with the aid of Steven, he becomes more confident and realized. My goal with Mark was to covey this transition from broken and despondent to fulfilled and content.

 

What character was the most fun to narrate? Why?

 

Mark, no contest. His observations and comments are priceless and filled with wit and poignancy. He is the most complicated and flawed character in the stories, and because of this, the most fun to narrate.

 

Which character was the most difficult to narrate? Why?

 

It’s a toss-up between Anoushesh and Lena. To begin with, I’m never truly satisfied with my portrayal of female characters, and add to that cultural distinctions and foreign accents, and the product is about ten different takes on every line they say until the result is something that I can live with.

 

Was there a particular scene you think you read especially well? Or that you particularly enjoyed reading?

 

My favorite parts were when Mark was either getting in someone’s face or responding to someone’s stupidity. The party scene from I Spy Something Christmas was the most fun because I really got to play with the characters of the guests until I got them stereotyped and boring enough for the purposes of the story. I think my favorite line was when an old codger at the party says to Mark, “So Steven tells us you used to be a civil servant…in my day, that was code for spook,” and Mark responds without missing a beat, “Really? In my day it was code for civil servant.” Brilliant.

 

Readers have remarked on how beautifully you read the moments of intimacy between the characters. How awkward is it to read erotic scenes aloud?

 

Now, bearing in mind that when I’m reading these erotic scenes, I’m sitting alone in a small, dimly lit, padded room, essentially having sex with myself, it’s actually not as awkward as one might think. You do your best to set the mood for yourself—maybe light a few candles and have a glass of wine, and then you just get right into it. All of these things considered (or not, if you don’t want that spectacular mental image), the only thing that’s actually difficult or slightly awkward is the amount of takes and re-takes it requires to get a realistic and natural-sounding moan.

 

What’s the most satisfying or rewarding part of narrating/producing an audio book?

 

As trite as it may sound, the most satisfying part is when the project is drawing to a close and all of the various parts are coming into a sort of cohesion. As far as rewarding, it’s really a great feeling to look at the number of sales on a project and see the ratings and reviews left by people who enjoyed it.

 

Do you ever find yourself wishing the author hadn’t taken the story in a particular direction? Or is narrating a much more detached process?

 

While it can be difficult to stay detached when you are invested in a story for a greater amount of time, I do try not to impugn the judgment of the author. That being said, it’s only natural as a reader to imagine alternate directions that the author could have taken, but I don’t think I ever explicitly ‘wish’ they had taken the story in a different direction.

 

Where can readers/listeners find out more about you and your work?

 

As of now, my resume is still fairly short and I’ve not done much as far as self-promotion. A few of my other projects can be found on Audible, though for the most part, my work is featured on my clients’ individual websites. I do, however, have a working profile and portfolio with some of my other projects here: https://www.odesk.com/users/~01876d163e747c9671