In a nutshell, due to loads of positive feedback (not the microphone kind) after my performance reading from White Feathers at the Listowel Writers Week open mike, where I had to wait my turn for a brief slot and then allow myself to be possessed by the unlovely Mrs Humphrey Ward in the middle of her rant, I have decided to podcast readings from the book.
(This is due to the dearth of Irish literary festivals to which I have been invited to read or speak. I can either sit and wait my turn like a good girl, or I can make a ****ing podcast instead and get on with it!)
God Only Knows (How All This Stuff Works)
So, not knowing much about podcasts and realising I needed some equipment, I received an early birthday present from my beloved in the shape of a Blue Yeti USB Microphone. This is a very large microphone shaped in a very not-safe-for-work fashion. It also came with some software, and I had some fun with it. But God Almighty, you’d need to have a degree in engineering to know what’s going on. I did a brief vocal test with the tag end of God Only Knows which didn’t sound too bad.
Imelda’s Piece
Less successful were my attempts to record myself playing the piano. Of course I am not trying to record piano, I am trying to record my voice 🙂 but this piece, Chopin’s Waltz 69 no. 1, was always one I kept in mind for a character in White Feathers, Eva’s ailing sister Imelda. I had a whole big chunk of Imelda’s time in Switzerland written down, which never saw the light of day, but that piece was being played and it’s always the piece I have in mind for that character, and I feel a certain yearning to it. But unfortunately even with plugins to make it recital setting, the piano quality isn’t what I’d like. Still, here is the first page of it, played somewhat inexpertly by yours truly on a Yamaha Clavinova 🙂
Susan Lanigan - WWI Historical Fiction 
Congratulations Susan. You are so right to take matters into your own hands. And if you think I can help in any way – give me a shout.
Wish I could play the piano as well as you.
YES. There’s a big long blogpost somewhere out there about what one should do to get noticed by festivals. But given my publishers have been working hard on my behalf already and I’ve emailed some of the festivals myself and got no reply, and the dogs in the street know that certain people don’t have to bypass all these moving goalposts…I’m done embarrassing myself banging on a closed door.
Thanks for your kind comments on my piano playing. I greatly fear they are misplaced but I put the notes together in the right order which is something 🙂