And if you love the eBook leave us some feedback, we’re hard at work at also getting it up on to the iBookstore, with more exciting products coming soon!

Adjective/Adverb List

Wry                                 Calm                          Perky

Honest                            Open                         Cut-to-the-chase

Sarcastic                        Happy                      Clipped

Giddy                              Haughty                   Innocent

Secretive                       Emotional               Bored

Inquisitive                    Playful                         Cool

Sexy                                 Witty                         Crazed

Earnest                            Angry                       Grounded

Trustworthy                 Confident                   Relaxed

As you go through each word on the list, be really honest with yourself when deciding if it fits your voice naturally. Right now the focus is not on whether or not you can sound a certain way if you push it, but how you normally sound without pushing. Happy hunting!

We are so proud of our recent 2010 NABE Pinnacle Book Award for Voice-Over Voice Actor for “How To.” The North American Bookdealers Exchange offer Pinnacle Awards for independent publishers throughout the US who present outstanding achievement in various categories.

We’re also extremely proud of our Winning Award in the “Young-Adult Educational” category of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards. The NIEA award finalists and winners in various categories for independently published books, so we’re quite pleased to be the Winning book in our category.

Getting an award is always both flattering and appreciated, since it’s always nice to know others think highly of whatever you’ve spent such time & energy working on. Go VOVA!!

Montreal, Canada at Fantastia Film Festival, VO talk and book signing, July 17 & 18

San Diego, CA in July, ComicCon JUly 22-25, see ComicCon Schedule for details

More stops to be announced soon for California, and possibly Texas, and Florida.

We’re also in various local stores throughout the United States, so stop by Barnes & Noble or Borders to pick-up/request your copy today, order online via Amazon or our website too!

We will add details and more cities as soon as they are confirmed, so check back to get more details!

Coming soon:

Los Angeles, CA

In the meantime, need reviews on Amazon.com which YOU can help us with! So if you’ve read the book, we’d love for you to review it for us, CLICK HERE and write your VOVA Amazon review. Thank you

Below is a list of places we’ve visted and done book signings or voice-over talks! Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

LONDON, ENGLAND, c/o London Expo Saturday/Sunday May 29/30, at Excel London, E16 1XL

DUBLIN, IRELAND Saturday June 5th from 12 noon – 2:30 pm at at Forbidden Planet Dublin, 5-6 Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, Super Happy Tokyo Love, 8p-10p Sat March 8, Royal T, 8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA90232

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA – CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS, our apologies!!

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, c/o Supanova Con Saturday & Sunday April 10 & 11, RNA Showgrounds

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, c/o Supanova Con Saturday & Sunday April 17 & 18, Melbourne Showgrounds

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
The Comic Outpost, 12:30-2:30, Sat. March 13th, 2381 Ocean Ave, SF, CA 94127

LAS VEGAS, NV
Alternate Reality Comics, 3:00-5:00pm, Sat. February 20th, 4800 S. Maryland Pkwy, LV, NV 89119

Use the following list and begin to narrow down particular qualities that a few famous folks have, as well as those of some people you come in contact with daily.

Exercise – Other People’s Qualities

Drew Barrymore

Samuel L. Jackson

Michael Jordan

Christopher Walken

Angelina Jolie

Barack Obama

George Clooney

Lucy Liu

The radio dj

A friend

A family member

______________

Adjective/Adverb List

Wry                                       Calm                                      Perky

Honest                                 Open                                     Cut-to-the-chase

Sarcastic                             Happy                                  Clipped

Giddy                                    Haughty                                Innocent

Secretive                            Emotional                              Bored

Inquisitive                           Playful                                   Cool

Sexy                                       Witty                                    Crazed

Earnest                                Angry                                    Grounded

Trustworthy                        Confident                             Relaxed

Start with the first word on our list: wry. Think about what it means to you. Who is someone you think is wry? What are the qualities you associate with wry? What pictures or images come to mind when you think of that word? As they come to you, jot them down.

For example, when I think of wry I imagine someone who cuts-to-the-chase, makes no-bones-about what they are saying but does it in a very tongue-and-cheek kind-of-way. Someone who is wry almost seems to be smirking as they tell you the facts; I can picture a weary mom telling me about a trying to keep her kids’ clothes clean with a wry, “What are you gonna do? I love them, but they just get so darn dirty.”

Find a fairly busy spot, like a mall, a zoo, a crowded lobby, café, etc, sit yourself down, and observe. Listen to how different people talk, take note of their pauses, inflections, their unique affectations and things you find interesting about them. Without appearing creepy, you might even pay attention to their mouths to see if there’s something specific they’re doing to create sounds.

If you think it might help, bring a note pad along so you can take notes on things you want to remember. Consider also bringing your quality check list with you so you can quantify for yourself the characteristics of the voices you’re hearing. In case you haven’t built a quality list yet, here are some examples to start with. Use them as a jumping-off point and add your own!

Calm              Pointed              Sincere           Flustered
Agitated         Loving                Hypnotic         Polite
Warm             Shrill                   Distant            Brash

See how many different qualities a particular person’s voice might have: perhaps they have a calm, sincere, loving, polite voice, or maybe their voice is pointed and agitated. Mix and match to best describe the voice you are listening to, or add any qualities you become aware of that aren’t yet on your list.

Happy people listening!

Here’s a simple exercise you can almost anywhere and on your own time: Pick three things to read. Any bit of written media will work. Start small if you want. A pamphlet, a matchbook, a newspaper article, a newspaper ad, a comic book, a shopping list, someone’s blog, anything. Over the course of the day, collect those three things. Now – and this is where it gets tricky – read them. Out loud.

Read each one at least once through, and if you’ve got time and you’re enjoying yourself, read them through again. See if each time through differs for you. See how the writings may be different from each other. Is one a story? Is one just trying to sell a product? Is one using a story to try and sell a product? Is one just a list of numbers on a receipt? If you’re having fun, give a different “character” to each one, or even switch it up within the writings. You may not feel a change after doing this exercise, but trust us, it gets your brain and mouth working in all the right ways.

Most importantly, as long as you’re reading out loud there is no wrong way to do this exercise. Unless of course you’re a monk who had, until this exercise, taken a vow of silence. Or if you’re in a library where they frown on doing anything out loud.

Have fun!

Start with what you like. For example, if you really like the show Naruto, you might search and find out that in the United States, Naruto is licensed by a company called Viz. A little more looking (with your friend Google) might turn up that the English dub for Naruto is recorded at Studiopolis. Voila! You now have a production company to add to your hit list when you have a demo to mail out! With commercials, you might have to be a little more investigative, but there are resources (such as adforum.com) out there that can help you find the ad agency who produced the commercial and who’s associated with the promotion of that product.

So, for this exercise, pick an area to start with: animation, video games, or commercials. Now choose three of your favorite shows/movies, video games or commercials. Begin to do a little Internet legwork. Find out who the production company is, and in the case of commercials, the ad agency who commissioned the spot. Try and discover if the company/agency casts their projects in-house, or if they have a relationship with a separate casting company. In some cases, you may even find that the same studio/ad agency produced more than one of your selections, then you know they’re definitely somebody you want to target.

There is plenty of information available on the Web, and a little digging could turn up e-mail addresses or maybe phone numbers that you could use to contact the company and find out who might be best to send your reel to. Start a file and keep the info you find for future reference.

Good hunting!

Start standing. Simply notice your breath. Now, exhale all the air in your lungs and hop/jump up into the air as you inhale as much air as you can. Then as you land begin counting aloud, “one-two-three-four…” up as high as you can on that breath. When you’ve emptied your lungs of air once more, jump up as you inhale as much as you can, and then land and begin counting out loud again. See if you can’t get a few numbers higher than the first time, speaking as you exhale, or “on your breath.”

Do this several times. Try to see if you can best your initial count by 10. Do this every day and you should begin to notice that you have better breath control and increased lung capacity. This will help sustain and protect your voice as you speak “on your breath.”

** If at any point during this exercise you begin to feel dizzy, or otherwise uncomfortable, stop immediately. As with any other exercise, consult a physician before engaging in a new or unfamiliar activity.