Five on Friday: Katherine Kellgren

We had such a beautiful week here in Northeast Ohio and now the weather is turning on us and we're headed back to the usual cold of fall. But it's Friday and that's always reason to celebrate, right? I hope you have some great plans - and great books - for the weekend.

I'm preparing for Murder and Mayhem in Muskego. In addition to my interview with Robert Crais, I'll be moderating a panel on Friday night. I have a feeling there will be much laughter at the Muskego Library with this panel! I hope to see some of you there.

If you haven't entered to win tickets to see To Kill a Mockingbird in the theater on November 15th, be sure to click over and enter. I've seen the movie many times but this will be the first time I'll get to see it on the big screen. I can. not. wait!

But let's get to the fun for Friday! I have such a special guest joining us today. Earlier this week I was part of the audiobook blog tour for Invisible Murder. Katherine Kellgren is the fabulous narrator of both Invisible Murder and the previous Nina Borg mystery, The Boy in the Suitcase. I think too often we take for granted the important role a great narrator plays in our enjoyment of an audiobook. And in addition, we so rarely see the faces of those who narrate. We know their voices well, but they could walk right up to us on the street and we wouldn't recognize them.

Today I am thrilled to help you put a face with that most talented voice. And after reading about Katy to prepare for this post, I'm so intrigued I'm going to see if I can talk her into doing a full interview later. What a fascinating woman. First of all, I couldn't believe she was born in New York. Her amazing dialects in the Nina Borg novels had me convinced she was Danish, with an incredible talent for Hungarian.

I loved the fact that the first audiobook she ever recorded was for her father. He had Parkinson's Disease which made reading very difficult. I experienced that with a friend's father who started to love audiobooks for the same reason. Anyway...Katy recorded--on a tape recorder--her dad's choice of a Freeman Wills Crofts novel. That's just amazing to me. O.k. well, let me not rattle off her bio so we'll have fun things to talk about in that interview!

I will tell you Katherine has narrated over 175 books and has won gads of awards for her work, including an Audie Award for Best Solo Narration. It is my pleasure to introduce Katherine Kellgren:

1. The best gift I ever received was:

My engagement ring from my husband - or come to think of it, my husband himself!

2. A skill I’ve always wanted to have, but don’t is:

The ability to record a book without doing too much time-consuming prep. For instance, one of the things I do when prepping a book (after reading it at home) is going through the text and marking all the dialogue for each character in an individual color of highlighter pen. This helps me attack each voice during a rapid-fire exchange with more confidence and to differentiate the characters, but it does take a bit of time. Many narrators can work brilliantly with dialogue without taking this step - I'm very jealous of them!

3. If I won the lottery tomorrow, the first thing I would do would be:

Buy an apartment in New York and a house in Primrose Hill in London.

4.  When I’m feeling under the weather, I….

If I'm feeling too ill to be able to concentrate on reading, I curl up in front of some serious comfort tv. My last really sick day involved a Downton Abbey marathon...

And the #1 item on my bucket list right now is

A trip to Greece. I've spent so much time looking at the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum over the years, and I'd love to see the ones in the Acropolis Museum - not to mention the Parthenon itself. I've also always longed to see the ancient amphitheatre at Epidaurus.

Katy informed me that this picture she sent is of her "feeling blissful on a recent trip to London at one of my old haunts, The London Library." I'd be feeling rather blissful there as well, I think. And I have to say, whatever Katy does to prepare for dialogue works amazingly. If you haven't experienced one of her narrations I encourage you to do so. She's recorded quite an array of books, so I'm sure you can find something to suit your desires. And don't forget that you can enter to win a copy of her narration of Invisible Murder!

And I hope you're as intrigued with Katy as I am. If you are, you can hang out with her on Facebook or Twitter. And like I said, I'm hoping I can convince her to come back here as well. How delightful she is and how thrilled I am that she joined us today!

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy reading and happy listening.