Dawn Harvey is the actress who won our open audition for the legendary bestseller, Sex and the Single Girl, beating out dozens of other remarkable auditions.
I listened to them all, from legendary Hollywood actresses to the beguiling newcomers. Dawn just captured my ears.
Dawn lives.. in Calgary, Alberta. I never woulda guessed! Helen Gurley Brown's classic is her fifth audiobook, quite a coup. She is so candid about what goes into audiobook acting— any of you interested in audiobook drama and broadcasting will be fascinated.
I asked Dawn if we could talk about her career in audiobooks, acting, and her take on Helen Gurley Brown. I also confided to her that I went through puberty in Edmonton, to her north.
What do you think of Sex and the Single Girl and HGB's legacy?
I love what HGB did for the women's movement. I love that she had such radical ideas for the early sixties!-- and brave enough to put her opinions out there, despite the repercussions.
Have you ever read any dating advice? Do you have any Dawn-approved tips for us?
My daddy used to say, "It's just as easy to love a rich man as a poor man." I do find they're a bit harder to meet, however.
I am currently single and would like to find my soul mate. To me, the most important thing about a relationship is that you have to be great friends. You have to want the best for your partner and they have to want the best for you.
I have girl friends that I’ve had for thirty years. We don't do things to hurt each other and we help each other whenever it is needed. Your relationship with your partner should be marked by the same traits.
What about SASG makes any sense today?
Some of it is just laugh-out-loud funny. While discussing relationships between single women and married men, HGB says:
It seems to me that the solution is not to rule out married men, but to keep them as pets.
She is so forthright in this book about things that had to have been taboo topics for women at the time. She advises women to enjoy and cherish their single status rather than focusing so much on finding a man and getting married. Things will happen in time when they happen— and then you'll find yourself at times envying your single friends just as your married friends at times now envy you.
She's telling single girls to live in the moment, experiment in relationships and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy— with or without sex.
She says, that if you don't sleep with your potential husband before marrying him, you're whacko. Obviously, that was an unconventional position in 1962!
HGB had a huge gay following. Why do you think gay men loved her so?
She discusses homosexuality [her word in the book] as though it is a fact of life and not an abomination…. again, remarkable for the time.
I'm sure people have told you, many times, you have a sexy, seductive voice. Do you think it came without bidding, or did you "practice"?
I didn’t practice - this is just my voice. But with my deep timbre, I can manipulate it to sound like I should be doing 1-900 calls.
I did smoke for almost 25 years. When I was in my teens, an older actor told me that if I ever made it in the acting world it would be because of my voice or my eyes. Maybe my voice just turned him on...
How did you get your start?
I started singing when I started talking.
Then, in high school, I became a drama geek and finished three years of high school drama in a year and a half. In grade 11, I took a law course which I really loved.
I was torn between going into acting or law. I ended up doing both! Stage, screen, VO [voice-over acting, narration]— and legal work in the oil and gas industry.
In 2009, I decided that I had denied myself long enough - I began a five year mission to go into acting and voicing full-time. I'm halfway through that plan and working 14 hour days, 7 days a week, in order to keep all of the balls in the air. My audiobook career is now taking off; and I have a lead role in a television series called Poker Girls.
What would be your dream audiobook to record?
My current audiobook goal is to be the go-to female narrator for both John Grisham (I AM a lawyer, after all) and Stephen King (I AM his number one fan, after all)! I want to say bye-bye to oil and gas very soon!
How do you prepare yourself for a reading? Do you have a protocol?
The first thing I do is read the book, cover to cover, to get a feel for the characters and the story.
I then go through the book again and start making my spreadsheets which set out information about the characters including any personal characteristics described in the book by the narrator, the character himself and anyone else in the book that interacts with or talks about the character.
When I have all of that information gathered, I then complete a matrix on each character that addresses voice characteristics for each. From those characteristics, I come up with each characters's voice. Then, I'm ready to begin actually recording
How long can you read for any stretch?
When I was a kid, all of my report cards said "Dawn is a good student but she talks too much!" So far, I haven't hit the limit of how long I can read. I take my laptop down into my booth and start working.
I get totally lost in the reading. I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to figure out I could do this for a living as I've been listening to audiobooks for years.
What equipment do you use for narration?
My recording software is Twisted Wave and I record on an Apple lap top. My audio interface is an Apogee One and my mic an AT 4040. I read the text using my iPad. I edit on a desktop Mac using Rokit 5 speakers.
Yes, I have drunk all of the Apple kool-aid. It is better than a PC for doing audio and video work and so it has taken over my world.
What's been the most fun you've had so far with an audiobook recording?
SATSG will be my fifth audiobook. So, although I'm trained as an actor, I'm still pretty green at this. My first book, Outer Diverse by Nina Munteanu, was challenging due to the presence of over 30 different characters representing 20 different alien species and a vocabulary of over 100 different, newly invented words.
I'm really anxious to find out what my heroine is up to in book 2!
Any time you ever felt like throwing in the towel?
I felt like throwing in the towel about last year. Between my day job and acting/voicing, I work 12-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week.
However, I love acting and voicing and if I quit, I know I'd never forgive myself. Also, so many people almost quit right before their "big break" comes so I felt that my time was probably just around the corner and I should keep going.
And here I am, a few months later, a recurring character in a television series and voicing SATSG. So, so, so glad I continued to work hard to follow my dreams!
Any advice for aspiring VO cuties?
Set goals, make progress every day, even if it's just baby steps. It's really as simple as that. And track that progress. Record what you have done every day. When you look back at the end of the week, you'll be surprised how much you have done and will be energized for the next week.
Get involved with your VO peeps online. It's a great, huge community and so welcoming. Get training and go to conventions. Volunteer to read at libraries, old folks homes, organizations in your home town that do reading for the blind and illiterate. Output = input. Keep putting yourself out there and opportunities will eventually come back to you.
Be genuine. Be helpful. Care about and help other people.
I am excited, and humbled to have been chosen to voice this work. I want my work to honor HGB’s memory. I will be happy with nothing less!
(Oh, and Susie, you have my deepest sympathies for the time you had to spend in Edmonton - LOL)
