Ladies And Gentlemen: As Promised, A Second Chapter Reading From David Blanton's Online Novel, Casual

Chapter 5 of the new sci-fi novel, Engineer Your Perfect Child, by Bett Correa, as narrated by Russil Tamsen. 10 mins. Original on Amazon here. 

In this chapter, two gangleaders - a gruff hero and a slippery materialist - bump heads in a futuristic strip club in Lima, Peru. Pedro is prying to find out what happened to several street kids he mentors who have been mysteriously kidnapped and returned brain-dead. 

This also happens to be the third book I've personally edited. The author said about this reading, and I quote: "This is SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE IT!!" One exclamation point is quite sufficient, says my inner book editor.

All rights reserved. Russil Tamsen: narrator, comic improv actor, book editor, and author of 21 ebooks. Please visit my ebookstore at QuirkEbooks.com and follow audiobooknarrator. Know a piece of Tumblr fiction that deserves a great reader? Run it by me!

The Cleanup, excerpted from a novel by Ravi Kotecha, narrated by Russil Tamsen.  13 mins.  Written version here. A couple of young dudes from India - runaways from an earlier chapter - have inserted themselves into the business of smuggling guns and opium. They are now wandering around the rutted back tracks of Afghanistan, haggling and trying to spend as much of their arms trade money as possible buying up as much opium as their rickety vehicles can carry.  Wow, this was a vocal actor’s challenge. Jumping between several Indian and Arabic voicings, phew!  I love picturing these exotic locales… And it’s a nerve-wracking tale too: we’re just waiting for the shoe to drop, for their hubris to catch up with them! That, however, would be part of a later chapter. I initially voiced the narrator as an Indian, but later decided to go with my regular voice. It’s a tough call when the narrator is first person, but it seemed like too much Indian the other way. What do you think?

All rights reserved. Russil Tamsen: narrator, comic improv actor, book editor, and author of 21 ebooks. Please visit my ebookstore at QuirkEbooks.com and follow audiobooknarrator. Know a piece of Tumblr fiction that deserves a great reader? Run it by me!

An audience member at a recent fiction open mic suggested that I ought to apply my talent for character voices to the presumably exciting field of prank phone calls. I wasn't quite sure how to take that...

http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Engineer-Your-Perfect-Child-Audiobook/B00FWXU8JI

So excited! I stepped up from doing all those short story audiobooklets for theTumblr writing community to my first full length recording of a novel! Did about 30 character voices too! I am a pro now. :-)

At The Whisky Girl, a flash fiction by Scott Syx aka cheshirecatgrins, read by Russil Tamsen. 4:21 mins. Original text here. 

An unlikely romantic encounter between a pair of drinkers starts at a noisy night club. The two grapple cautiously on the perilous road to intimacy - their respective emotional baggages casting long shadows along the way...

This piece said noir to me (although updated). So I said noir back! 

All rights reserved. Russil Tamsen: narrator, comic improv actor, book editor, and author of 21 ebooks. Please visit my ebookstore at QuirkEbooks.com and follow audiobooknarrator. Know a piece of Tumblr fiction that deserves a great reader? Run it by me!

Back in March of this year a well-established author approached me to do an audio book for her. I had done erotica narrations before; this one was a bit of a stretch for me, being a gay erotic romance. Came out pretty well, actually! Lots of fun character voicings. Even some steamy humor, all fresh out of the oven and for sale! Pass along 2 your gay pals...

Chilly film noir, a monologue written by Eric Boyd that was published in issue nine of The Fourth River.  It's called Anything For Johnny. Performed by Russil Tamsen. 10 minutes. Original text here.

Today we have a serious drama, just in case you were thinking I could only do goofy! We follow an inmate through the last bitter moments of his incarceration, his release from jail, and his first disappointing moments of freedom. It's rough for a guy having to start over with empty pockets in the middle of winter, but he's got one thing going for him: at least one Jamaican thinks he looks like Johnny Depp. 

[Funny thing: my gf thinks I look like Depp also, but it 's probably her rose-colored classes talking.]  All rights reserved. Russil Tamsen: narrator, comic improv actor, book editor, and author of 21 ebooks. Please visit my ebookstore at QuirkEbooks.com and follow audiobooknarrator. Know a piece of Tumblr fiction that deserves a great reader? Run it by me!

A riotous short story by Cate Doherty, given the radio theater narration by Russil Tamsen. 8 mins. Original text here.

A couple of biddies of a certain age are chatting or maybe knitting over afternoon tea, sharing the latest gossip. Marian has to relay to her friend Maggie the whopper of a story told to her by a crazy neighbor. About being kidnapped by angry fairies of the field! (And every word true, don't ya know.)

Erin go bragh, and let's have a wee bit o' fun toying with an Irish accent, shall we? Well now. A real challenge for a narrator, this one! And great fun.

All rights reserved. Russil Tamsen: narrator, comic improv actor, book editor, and author of 21 ebooks. Please visit my ebookstore at QuirkEbooks.com and follow audiobooknarrator. Know a piece of Tumblr fiction that deserves a great reader? Run it by me!

The Future of Poop, comic monologue penned by Peter Bradley, performed by Russil Tamsen. Original here. 6 mins.

This was just too fucking funny for me to pass up! The conceit is simple: earthlings in the future invent time travel technology... and use it as a waste disposal chute. We in the past, specifically our bodies, are the hapless recipients of future waste. (It's probably going to happen, too, right?) There's only one way to solve this problem.

All rights reserved. Russil Tamsen: narrator, comic improv actor, book editor, and author of 21 ebooks. Please visit my ebookstore at QuirkEbooks.com and follow audiobooknarrator. Know a piece of Tumblr fiction that deserves a great reader? Run it by me!

Yay!  I finally have a decent video of me performing! This is me reading fiction at L Train. The piece is David Sautter's detective story "People Just Disappear", and this took place during the first Fiction, Live! evening which I also emceed. Videography by Jeff Handy.