IvanEwert.com

So! The good news I mentioned on Facebook yesterday comes in two flavors.

1. Writing: At GenCon this year, I spoke with the esteemed Jennifer Brozek about returning to the online magazine The Edge of Propinquity in 2011. We agreed that my current serial, Solstice, hadn’t reached the level of  my previous story, Vorare; and that while I wasn’t interested in revisiting Vorare, we agreed that Solstice’s time had come.

   I spent the next two weeks brainstorming and scribbling frantically. I wanted to get a story down that hit my sweet spots: Weird suburbia, rural horror, the Midwestern seasons, the new age, arts and crafts, obsessive characters and boundary issues. I wanted characters who were sympathetic but vastly flawed, characters with more distinct voices and more careful research put into their development and worlds. I wanted an outline that would let me start working well in advance of my due dates and plan for photos, images, foreshadowing and more polishing than I’ve done in the past for any serial work.

   I pitched Jennifer on Friday and received a thumbs-up on Sunday afternoon that made a good day great. I am tremendously excited about this new story and its world, and will be sharing it aggressively in the lead-up to 2011 and throughout that year.

   I hope you’ll come along – it’s going to be a fantastic ride.

2. Acting: My friend and colleague Diane Baia’s excellent play, The Wisdom of Serpents, has been picked up by Northwestern University to repeat her staged reading. I will be repeating my role as Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, which is an absolute plum for me. Historical Emperors with a dash of snark? JA, BITTE.

   I’m also elated for Diane, as one of the world’s foremost scholars on the life of Hildegard von Bingen will be taking part in the performance as well. Quite a feather in the cap of any writer, to be sure!

   This will take place on October 17 at Northwestern University. More details will, of course, be forthcoming.

I took a class a few weeks back with Voices For All, a company based in New York which runs introductory and master classes for would-be voiceover artists. Part of the class involved being taped for review by the instructor, after which the company contacts you with a review of your (short) performance.

I felt like I did pretty well. There was an older gent there who blew me out of the water with his golden tones, and a woman of some years who had a natural voice for soothing sales, but after them I felt like I was definitely in the running. I got the evaluation the other day.

They agreed that I’d done well, suggesting that my voice could be marketed as real, down-to-earth, trustworthy and sincere. They felt my emotional connection to characterization was good, that I took direction well and that I could probably read parts from ages 25 – 55. Inflection seemed to be an issue, which I can understand and appreciate hearing from a professional. They felt I might be best marketed to political ads, insurance and banking concerns, or high-end auto sales in the commercial realm; to museum guides and documentary voiceovers in narration.

There’s a master class taking place in January which I’m considering attending, but the cost is steep. I don’t doubt that it’s worth it – but it’s enough to make me consider whether I might be able to get similar results by working a bit harder on my own. I have a number of friends who work in the video or documentary industry, and it seems by contacting them I should be able to get some coaching and engineering assistance.

That’s the main trick to this whole thing, I believe; making certain that I’m moving forward in the right direction *and* under my own power. People have to be able to act on terms that are different from those they’re shepherded toward, because, well … we know what happens to the sheep.