Pulitzer Prize winning writer Susan Sheehan sat in the studio for several days while I recorded the audio version of Just Don’t Fall. This is an article she wrote about the experience. (You can listen to a sample of my audiobook on Audible.)
“In the Moment”
Recorded books have become the modern equivalent of the antique art of storytelling round the fire. On a Monday in November, Josh Sundquist, a handsome, Obama-slim, Roman-nosed young man with sky blue eyes and a punk haircut, starts to read in a soundproof cubicle at Recorded Books, Inc., the world’s largest independent producer of unabridged audio books. The book he will read aloud for between four to six hours a day through Thursday is “Just Don’t Fall,” his account of being told at nine he has cancer, losing his left leg at the hip socket at ten, and skiing in the Turin Paralympics at twenty-one — four years ago. Most of the six hundred books put out annually by Recorded Books are narrated by professional stage actors in its seven studios on the tenth floor of an office building at 12th and Broadway above the Strand, the city’s iconic used book store, but occasionally an author who passes an audition, as Sundquist has, is permitted to read his own memoir. He begins:
“The physical therapist glues two stickers to my back, to the lower part of my back right above my underwear. There are wires coming out of these stickers, wires that will give me an electric shock – not the kind that electrocutes and kills people, no, don’t worry, she says, this is a tiny shock I will barely feel.”
Greg Steinbruner, a professional actor and playwright, who now works as a producer at Recorded Books, is seated in a separate room with a window facing Josh’s windowed cubicle. In front of him are a Furman console, a computer keyboard and screen, and a microphone. Every time Sundquist makes a mistake Read More
Here are a few highlights from a recent interview with Brad Huddleston and Jim Snavely at WBTX.
To watch the full-length interview, including interviews with my parents and brother, please check out Brad’s website.
Just Don’t Fall debuted at #2 on The Washington Post Non-Fiction Bestseller list and #6 on The Denver Post Non-Fiction Bestseller list, meaning that it is now officially a National Bestseller!
Wow!
I am so grateful to all of you who have purchased the book and become such fervent evangelists for it, both in your face-to-face conversations and online, especially on my Facebook page. You are the readers for whom I wrote it, and you are now the reason for its success.
Been doing tons of interviews. A few of my recent favs have included the Bookotron Podcast, Chic Loves Lit, and The Washington Examiner.
My final book signing on Saturday was covered in three newspapers, two radio stations and on two local television stations. Watch the television spots:
A review in The Post! A big moment for me. I cut it out and scanned it:
A great article and interview in the Salt Lake Tribune.
The party was a really amazing experience because of the wide range people who were there–family, high school friends, college friends, even my doctor from fifteen years ago when I had cancer. Everyone.
Usually you have to wait for your wedding or your funeral to assemble a group like that. Luckily, I beat the system by holding a book release party.
The room’s capacity was 150. We exceeded that. Between nine and ten it was so crowded you could barely move.
The first thing they teach you in motivational speaker school is how to turn any piece of furniture into a makeshift stage.
You may recognize both of these guys from their hilarious cameos in my new video, The Amputee Rap.
Left to right, John (my childhood neighbor and now friend here in DC), me (sporting the Mr. Rogers look) and Brad (my roommate since college).
Part 3 in a 3 part series for Penguin Blog
As I explained in my first and second posts, I decided to write my memoir from a child’s perspective. But since the book covers a period of my life from age nine, when I was diagnosed with cancer, to age twenty-one, when I competed in the Paralympics, I also felt that the voice needed to mature along with me as the story progressed.
So I divided the book into four different voices, four different maturity levels. The differences between them are subtle, and deliberately so because I wanted the changes to happen slowly enough that you only notice them in retrospect, like when you look at a photo of yourself from a few years ago and realize that you’ve aged. But behind what I hope is a smooth progression in narration style is a carefully planned set of rules for each voice. Here are the four stages as I outlined them before writing the book: [read the rest on penguin blog]
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