"The Mound Builder Myth" Audio Book Now Available

11/6/2020

My recent book The Mound Builder Myth is now available in audio book format, narrated by Charles Henderson Norman. The audio edition runs eleven hours and eight minutes. The publisher did not share the audio version with me, so I have only heard the brief sample available through Audible.com. Not being an aficionado of audio books, I cannot say whether this is typical of the narration of others. I would have preferred a more emotional reading with a greater range of vocal intonation, to match the dramatic rhythm with which I wrote. But that is just me.

In other news, I completed my review of the edited manuscript of Legends of the Pyramids and returned it to the publisher for typesetting. I also wrote a new overview for my James Dean/flying saucer book proposal and am waiting for my agent's office to finish their review to see if I hit the mark for a more personal and passionate case for the book. I hope to hear back on final changes this weekend.

26 Comments

Nerd11135

11/6/2020 08:35:10 pm

[narrated by Charles Henderson Norman]

This dude?
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Rock-Charles-Henderson-Norman/dp/1500544876

The Rooster

11/7/2020 10:15:37 pm

Sounds fine

Yer good to go!

❤️👍

Kent

11/8/2020 01:09:24 am

Off topic and a little late but... Michael Heiser on Coast to Coast AM Saturday Nov. 7 discussing the book of Enoch.

Resolved: Frozen turkey dinners should lose the blahshed potatoes and double up on the delicious stuffing. In general form, stovetop stuffing is always and everywhere better than instant mashed potatoes which absent duress should always be eschewed.

The Rooster

11/9/2020 02:14:18 pm

"In general form, stovetop stuffing is always and everywhere better than instant mashed potatoes..."

Sometimes?

The truth is precisely that simple.

❤️

Doc rock

11/8/2020 01:01:11 pm

I've listened to a few audiobooks. Could have been better but also could have been much worse.

Would have been kinda cool and ironic to have the narration done in AIE.

Chief Obvious

11/12/2020 10:27:45 am

Don't you mean NAE? Too much firewater and you forget that it is 2020 and not 1920.

Doc rock

11/14/2020 01:57:27 pm

If the staff and readership of Indian Country Today, the Congress of American Indians, the various authors who have published on NAI, and the Indians in 6 different states that I have rubbed elbows with aren't losing any sleep over the term Indian then neither am I. I will leave that to the Uber PC crowd, urban Indians who have never set foot on a rez or settlement, and the kiddie table types.

I will say yes to a little firewater on a wet chilly day, though.

Clint Knapp

11/9/2020 12:26:04 am

I've only listened to the sample, but I'll toss one of my spare credits at the book in the name of science.

I've been an Audible member for years, and while Mr. Norman's recording is a bit on the dry side it's definitely not the worst performance I've heard. That goes to one of the narrators of the Parker novels who delivered such a bland and uninteresting narration that it was difficult to even tell characters apart.

If I had to guess from Mr. Norman's previous audiobook recordings (which appear to be mostly nonfiction of a spiritual leaning) and his Amazon author's bio, he probably read the book on his own and liked it enough to pitch the recording to your publisher. Might be worth reaching out to get more of the story.

Either way, congratulations on breaking in (albeit inadvertently) into another media form. Audible's a great resource for those of us who lack the time in the day to just sit and read like we used to. I tend to listen to more than I read physical books these days just because of my schedule, and this could be a solid way to get your material out to a wider audience.

For now, at least, anyone with History as a suggested category is seeing your work under the New Releases listing, and that's good exposure no matter how the overall narration feels.

11 hours is a decent runtime, too. Puts you soundly between (in my Audible library anyway) the average Pratchett or Vonnegut novel at about six to eight hours and Stephen King's low end of about 14 for something like Cujo.

The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, for an absurd comparison, runs just shy of 52 hours.

Maybe in the future you can work with your publisher/s to get a narrative tone more akin to your intention, or as a last resort just do the audiobook version in your own voice- as many authors do at least in the Audible Originals recordings.

Jonathan a Mortimer

11/9/2020 11:55:37 am

Ok, I'm probably going to get this very wrong - as a English person of many years I'm rather sensitive to accents, there is some kind of baked in bias that comes through our public service broadcasting where diction, tone and intent are indivisible. So, there are accents that hold authority, accents that imbue a narrative with currency and accents that grate. I know nothing of accents in the US, so I bring less baggage to a 'listen', but some connect and others less so - I'm a couple of hours in to the Mound Builders and the narrative is engaging and informative - but i can't get the image out of my head that its Slim Pickens sitting on a pile of corn sacks reading it to me - and its getting in the way - the accent just doesn't fit with my idea of wisdom being shared - more a tale of being told.
Makes me sound like a snob, but its there - keep expecting to hear "aw-shucks".
I've listened to Mr C. on podcasts, again, no idea what the accent is, but a sense of easy going authority comes through, knowing what one is talking about is a real benefit - would have obviously been preferred if the narration was produced by the author, horrifically difficult job, but it would make all the difference.

The Rooster

11/9/2020 07:43:09 pm

"...but i can't get the image out of my head that its Slim Pickens sitting on a pile of corn sacks reading it to me..."

Okay??? 😅😅😅

That up there has to be the single most badass post I've read here in a long time. Not only does this gentleman squeeze the words "narrative & currency", in to the same sentence?

He's a student of Hee-Haw.

K. Dying of laughter over here. 😅😅❤️

J?

Don't take it personal. It still sounds fine. But, yes. The accent is a little, um, "ironic"(?).

Totally acceptable. I like listening to him. Shake it off. But, it's a good laugh.

What diff does it make to someone that has a physical copy?

❤️

The Rooster

11/9/2020 09:01:46 pm

"Pepperidge Pharms remembers".

😅😅😅

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gXUxLqqmhNs

The Rooster

11/9/2020 09:13:54 pm

K. Hold up.

I have not made myself clear. Because I was too busy being a smart ass. 😅

Jon Nathan?

In terms of accents?

I hang my head to you. What acumen you have?!

You should hear my accent. You'd know exactly where I'm from, and I know you Brits have the same linguistic class system in terms of "accent". Funny? Right?

No one punishes their own kind, quite like their own kind.

❤️🤟

Jonathan a Mortimer

11/11/2020 02:22:07 am

Well, if I'd done my due diligence I'd have found out that Slim's actual name was Louis Burton Lindley Jr and he hailed from California (thank you Wikipedia), not Oklahoma or Texas as one might of assumed - so he was 'in character' throughout his career, indeed to many accounts he kept it up consistently throughout his life, whether there were cameras rolling or not. Very American, living life as a character, very freeing. I wonder why 'Slim', he never was actually thin, always had some girth to him, maybe the choice of name was ironic as well.
Into hour 3 of the narration and its settling in enough to not get in the way so much as it did. Enjoying the tale anyway.

Blazing Saddle

11/13/2020 08:33:26 am

Slim's Father was a farmer from Texas. Slim was raised in a very rural area of central California and got involved in local rodeo at an early age. His persona was much more authentic than someone like John Wayne.

Jason Colavito link

11/11/2020 10:12:35 am

My accent is what they used to call "American Standard" or "broadcast standard." I taught myself to speak that way when I was a teenager because I didn't like my rural accent. It was pretty close to broadcast standard already, but upstate NY has flat vowels and an over-emphasis on final syllables. Ironically, since then broadcasting moved toward more informal accents.

Jonathan a Mortimer

11/11/2020 03:38:58 pm

Very much the same here, it used to be an expectation that one lost ones regional accent in order to appear even and generic, (and therefore unjudgeable - not a real word until I wrote it) I myself have what many Americans would recognise as a Dick Van Dyke accent (North Kent, becoming 'East End' London as it hardens), but I'll sound as polished as the next fellow when I'm in decent company.
Excellent work - hour 4 and totally engrossed.

Cesar

11/9/2020 08:10:10 pm

“I would have preferred a more emotional reading [...] to match the dramatic rhythm with which I wrote”.

“to see if I hit the mark for a more personal and passionate case for the book”.

What is going on here?

Old ice-hearted and implacable Colavito is becoming more emotive? Parenthood?

Jason Colavito link

11/11/2020 10:14:40 am

I have always had a sense of the dramatic, and I have never written a book that I didn't imagine being read with tone, emphasis, and emotion. Pathos, after all, is one of the three pillars of rhetoric.

Cesar

11/11/2020 12:08:54 pm

Ethos: credibility and character.

Pathos: emotional bond with the listeners.

Logos: logical and rational argument.

Thank you for the lesson on rhetoric.

I remember that in Portuguese the orators of old used to say "sofrei o que digo", something like "suffer what I say".

Jonathan a Mortimer

11/12/2020 12:43:58 am

The only drawback of listening to (rather than reading) such a book is the absence of imagery - so I've been Googling away happily to back up the spoken words - the Portsmouth Ohio mound complex is particularly fascinating, the groundworks shown on the Squier Davis maps remind me of the avenues at stonehenge which connect the monument to the river on two sides . Current theory suggests that these avenues at stonehenge may have been processional routes, arriving by river craft, walking to the place of the dead to honour them, then on to the river without retracing ones path. I wondered if the archeology (whatever remains under Portsmouth) suggests any such purpose.

The Rooster

11/12/2020 10:40:06 pm

"Current theory suggests that these avenues at stonehenge may have been processional routes, arriving by river craft, walking to the place of the dead to honour them, then on to the river without retracing ones path."

Yeah. That's the best I can figure as well.

This also explains Nazca.

Pilgrims. On pilgrimages. This is what we were doing, for a real long time? This was the "social network".

I'll never reach a place academically where I'll be able to prove it, or even effectively write it out non-fictionally?

But? Yup. You nailed it.

Folks knew where to walk. Apparently some folks condensed the walking to more staggered grounds.

Imagine? Trying to get from "Ireland" to "Brittany".

😅😅😅

It's the whole point of the whole thing. Human beings, traveling, cuz that's the only entertainment there was. And? The entertainment was connected to "The Heart", because there was no Martin Luther yet.

👍

That's my theory.

Go look at this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ISkPmnSJDGM

(Checked link. Seems to work).

...and then try and, anyone (?) tell me you need an mechanical airship of any sort to appreciate the lines at Nazca.

^^

Yer smart.

❤️

Jonathan a Mortimer

12/6/2020 02:55:02 pm

Your Nazca reference is a good point, the refusal to back track along the same path, and sort of time line where steps are symbolic years and they lead to death.

Jonathan a Mortimer

11/12/2020 02:25:02 am

The only drawback of listening to the spoken version of the book (and not the papery one), is the lack of images, so I've been trawling Google, with subsequent sidetracking. Looking at the Portsmouth Ohio mound in the Squier Davis maps and the linear paths that lead to and from the site, reminded me of Stonehenge which has avenues which, current theory suggests, were processional. Yearly, people would arrive by river craft, feast, walk to the monument then on via another avenue to the river further upstream. I wondered if archeology on the Portsmouth earthworks (what remains under the city) has suggest any such purpose?

Jonathan a Mortimer

11/12/2020 04:09:47 pm

Oh bother, the perils of nighttime posting, thinking you'd pressed delete by mistake and writing the same thing twice. Interesting text variation, must try that again.

Jim

11/12/2020 07:27:40 pm

Hmmm,,, and here I thought you were following Jason's footsteps, reviewing and editing your blog comment.

Anthony G.

12/12/2020 02:50:15 am

"I would have preferred a more emotional reading with a greater range of vocal intonation, to match the dramatic rhythm with which I wrote. But that is just me."

No. That's not just you. I felt the same way when other people would read my poetry. Certain accents don't help. Neither does an monotone emotionless reading. Too much emotion gets in the way too. If the narrator is sobbing through the entire reading, it can take away from the meaning and true emotion of the literary work itself. Other than "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu which I occasionally use to go to sleep, I don't listen to audiobooks. I got that one for free on iTunes. I can't see listening to a book for 11 hours when, I can read it myself in 2 to 3. It's a matter of saving time.

Everyone is asked to prove themselves around here so, I submit the last poem I had published almost 25 years ago.

"An Earful"

I'm not looking for your sympathy
Just a friend to lend an ear
To shout out my fantasies
Explain away my fears

I'm not sure where to start
Let's explore my soul
Every little nick in my heart
As we smoke another bowl

Have you ever gotten drunk, or high
Just to make it through the day
When all the people you love, die
Or move far, far away

Have you ever sat and watched
Lightning streak a darkened sky
Craving only the touch
Of the one who made you cry

Have you ever looked into a mirror
Studied the image inside
Runaway in utter terror
And find a place to hide

Have you ever doubted God
Does he, or she really exist
Scream out loud
As you slice your wrists

Do you know who you are
What you want to be
Emptying your heart
Is the only way to be free