Exclusive Interview with Frits Zernike - Narrator of The Haunting Scent of Poppies Audiobook

New audiobook available on Amazon Audible Now

Exciting news for December as the audiobook version of Victoria Williamson’s spooky historical novella, The Haunting Scent of Poppies, is published through Amazon Audible.

The chilling atmosphere of this ghostly story set in December 1918, and the sense of dread and menace woven into the plot has been expertly brought to life by professional narrator Frits Zernike. In an exclusive interview for Silver Thistle Press, Frits shares insights into his narration and recording process, and discusses his experience of working on this project.

Q: As a narrator, what kind of stories are you drawn to and why?

Frits: It’s an interesting question, because on the one hand, as an actor, any narrator is always looking for a story they’re a good fit for. So a story I’m drawn to as a narrator might not be the same as a story I’m drawn to as a reader, and yet there’s considerable overlap.

Regardless of genre, I look for good writing. Language that’s alive usually works in the service of vivid imagination and interesting thought, and that’s what I’m after. If an author’s outlook speaks to me, that’s going to be a voice I can probably inhabit and work toward making my own.

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your narration process, from receiving the initial manuscript, to completing the final audiobook?

Frits: I like to get a hard copy of the book and read it through, usually marking it up as much as I can as I go. I then typically read from a tablet while doing the actual recording, ignoring or forgetting all the annotations I made to the hard copy. I can’t make sense of the scrawl when I look back on them anyway, but the process nevertheless seems to have left some kind of impression on my subconscious.

I do what’s called punch and roll in the actual recording, which simply means you stop the recording if you realize you’ve made a mistake or mispronounced a word or if the neighbor’s dog started barking in the middle of a sentence, go back to where you left off and pick it up from there.

Once I’ve got a chapter or section recorded, I upload that to a post-production house for proofing and mastering - they listen for all the mistakes I’ve made and missed in the moment, then send me a pickup reel of the bits that need re-recording. Finally, in the mastering process they make the final version sound its best.

Q: What did you enjoy most about narrating The Haunting Scent of Poppies? And was there anything you found tricky about narrating the story or voicing any of the characters?

Frits: There’s a very clear rhetorical structure to the prose in the novella, as in the opening scene where Charlie takes in the various stacks of books in the shop; it’s laid out in the form of a list, and that was just a joy to work with. As Charlie enters the bookshop, we enter the world he’s inhabiting, the world of the novella, and it builds up in layers. Narrating it was like painting that world. Finding Charlie’s voice was a lot of fun, too. He’s wily enough to convince whoever he’s talking to of whatever he needs them to believe. Yet for all his amorality, he isn’t hollow, and his tragedy is that by the time he starts to see that there might be more to it all than his callow view of the world allows, it’s too late. Poor Charlie.

Q: And lastly, do you have any upcoming projects that you’re excited about?

Frits: Well, Victoria has mentioned she’d like me to narrate a collection of interrelated stories she’s got coming out with Silver Thistle Press in the spring, and I’m thrilled about that. And there’s a sequel due to a thriller I did last year called Chasing Money that I’m looking forward to in the early part of next year.

A big thank you to Frits Zernike for his interview! Find out more about his narration work and projects on his website: https://www.fritszernike.com

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