Okay, so there's this has-been porn star named Angel Dare who gets tied up and thrown in a trunk, see? —Left in a parking lot in the San Fernando Valley to die.
What gives? Little Miss Angel only showed up for a film shoot where everything went VERY wrong.
But Miss Dare's enemies are in for a surprise. Our plucky heroine gets out of that Honda trunk like Houdini, and is determined to find WHO screwed her over and MAKE THEM PAY.
That's the opening of a new audiobook, "Money Shot," that I just recorded for Audible.com's British Empire division!
It was my first time reading a book— this one by the Edgar-nominee Christa Faust— where I was the "actress" rather than the author!
It was fun to play all the characters, from mobsters to anorexic crackheads-- with feeling! Now YOU can do me the great favor of listening and telling me how I performed! If you like fast sleazy pulp mysteries, I am sure you will enjoy it.
After my three-day recording session in London, I did an interview with AudibleUK to talk about the "behind-the-scenes" of voice actors and "playing porn star."
1. What do you like about Money Shot?
It's an ex-porn star turned Avenging Aphrodite... all without the help of a plastic surgeon.
2. What do you think of Angel Dare as a heroine?
She's part of a lively scene of new pulp-noir protagonists who shake up the usual scenario of private-dicks-with-a-chip-on-their-shoulders... in this case, setting the mystery in the San Fernando Valley porn biz, with a woman who both calls and delivers the shots.
3. What do you think you bring to the narration?
I'm an honoured member in the elite "X-Rated Hall of Fame, 4th Estate Division"-- seriously, I have the plaque! I covered the porn business since its pre-VHS, 35mm days, so I know the turf well.
4. What is it that you love about hard boiled/ noir crime fiction?
My audiobook dream would be to recreate "Red Harvest" by Dashiel Hammett with all the bells and whistles - one of the most devastating portraits of American violence and perverted justice ever written. It's our bloody version of existential angst, and I was raised on it!
5. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
Movie star, ballerina, Joan of Arc, Studs Terkel, braless hussy!
6. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Both my parents happily quoted poetry on long car rides, sang every lyric ever written, edited and taught languages all their lives. The apple fell real close!
7. How did you find the narrating experience different from your own shows?
I had to discipline myself - I wanted to go off the reservation! I'm going to host one of my own In Bed With Susie Bright shows next month, where I'll talk about my own experiences with "true crime" in the porn biz, and how they stack up with Angel Dare's! That will be fun.
8. Do you do any exercises to warm up your voice before a reading?
Ha! When I was a teenager and got my first acting job, we had a director who made us enunciate, at the top of our lungs: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins, my sin, my soul, Lo-Leeee-TAAAA!" Seriously, I just do everything I can to prepare the text beforehand, and then protect my vocal cords. My secret weapons: ibuprofen and pear juice.
9. What do you like about listening to books rather than reading?
Oh, the theatre of it! In the right hands, it's as much of a creative production as any stage show. I worked with producer Stefan Rudnicki on 15 editions of The Best American Erotica series, and we went over every story and actor like it was our Oscar moment... I know how much goes into these productions when you're working with the best people.
10. What are you listening to on your iPod right now?
Books? "Hardtime," Jean Smart reading one of Sara Paretsky's "V.I. Warshawski" novels.
Music: Tune-yards!
