Michele Carpenter

New Coloring Page: Christoffer and the Fish Lady

January 24, 2018 By Keira Gillett

Hello my Fiercelings!

If you’ve been wondering about the lady in the water under the dwarf palace, you’re going to love filling in Michele Carpenter’s latest coloring page.

Can you remember which dwarf kingdom Zaria and her friends rescued Hart from?

To print, click on the image to view at full size.

Send you’re finished drawings to hello@keiragillett.com because I’d love to see them!

If you want to create coloring pages for others to do send me those too, and your original fan art. Hearing from you absolutely makes my day. 😀

Much Love and Happy Readings,

Keira

Live Action Book Trailer: Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well

November 2, 2017 By Keira Gillett

Hello my fiercelings!

Boy, are you ever in for a treat. You’re going to love it.

From the amazingly talented Michele Carpenter, I give you the live action book trailer for Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well.

Isn’t it phenomenal? I’m so excited I could pop!

Thank you to the wonderfully talented individuals who helped to create this new aspect of my world. I’m thrilled to pieces and can’t express in words how much this means to me.

Recap: Suntree Viera Library Book Reading and Signing on Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well

August 22, 2017 By Keira Gillett

Thank you everyone who came out last Saturday for my book reading at the Suntree Viera Library! It was so nice to run into new and longtime fans. Some fun things I got to try out this time was my new table display for my book business cards, my new banner, and my Seriously Fierce scale necklaces. What do you think? Aren’t they fabulous?

If you missed the event, here’s a recap and rewind. You can watch my reading of chapter two from the book here:

Highlights from the Q&A + Transcript:

Audience: Do you work with Eoghan Kerrigan, as if he was like a police artist, so that this is actually what you’re imagining when you’re writing?

Me: I wouldn’t say he works like he’s a police artist. He doesn’t pick my brain to quite that extent. He gets documents (and the book itself) that have all the characters pulled out so that he has their descriptions. For the especially important characters, we do a series of mock-ups, and I pick the ones that feel more like my character. In that way we do what you’re talking about.

So if it’s a hooked nose, or a sharp pointed nose… he knows the details of how they’re described. He’ll take the information and interpret it. It’s as fun for me to see how what I’m saying from my mind and how I’m picturing it to how he interprets it. Some of them are really close, and some are so much better than how I pictured. They’re fabulous and I love working with him.

Audience: Good, good, because when you’re reading you’re always picturing in your mind, and if you got the illustrations as a visual clue for what they look like, instead of us going off on a tangent. It’s nice to know what they look like.

Me: What’s also fun that gives you another dimension of how the characters look is if you hear the audio book and how Michele’s does it, because she interprets how the voices are going to sound. In this book, there’s a bunch of trolls, and she has to go back and remember how the returning trolls sound. They were described as having voices, deep, and guttural, and grumbling, and so she has a variety of voices.

Now we have teenage trolls this time, who are all about the same age as the kids. There’s older trolls, conniving trolls, silly trolls, so they all have a variety of sounds and when she whips them out one right after the other, “I’m like how do you do that?” because it’s hard enough for me to do even Nori’s voice, and she’s not a troll, but a high pitched female.

Audience: So you have to remember which voice you’re doing?

Me: Yes, but she does a fabulous job with them and I feel it gives you a different dimension to how you picture the characters too. If a troll talks like this (deep) you’re going to picture him very (muscular) versus talking like this “Hello” (higher pitched). She also does the brownie voices and they get very squeaky, so you kind of get an idea of height and breadth simply based on how she does the voices. It’s really cool actually.

Audience: Who is Svein?

Me: He’s… well, I don’t want to say a throwaway character, because you never know when someone comes back, but he’s a character who’s just hanging around by the airport, when the kids go up and fly, and he knew Geirr. So he’s kind of like a copilot and tour guide. He’s like the older representative to convey to the inspectors and everybody at the scene after the crash that Geirr is an excellent pilot and knows what he’s doing. He’s there to be a witness to say that the plane didn’t crash because Geirr is a bad pilot, but to say the plane crashed because of something else, which is important because otherwise poor Geirr might never fly again.

I’ll wrap up by saying thank you again to everyone for making it out to see me. I had a blast!

Video + Recap: Midnight Release Party for Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well

July 9, 2017 By Keira Gillett

Michele Carpenter and I had an absolute blast hosting the live event midnight release party on Facebook for Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well. We had lots of comments as we went which was so much fun! Thank you guys for making it so special. If you missed it you can watch the replay here:

There’s still some time to enter the scavenger hunt contest. Be sure you take the time to do so! The winner gets a signed copy of Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well. Contest closes 7/9/17 at 10 PM EST. This contest is open internationally, and your entry can be posted to Instagram or the Zaria Fierce FB page with the hashtag #zariafierceparty

It should look something like this:

Good luck! As for the other prize, the Zaria Fierce necklace, congratulations again to Megan for winning the Zaria Fierce book bingo!

The book is now available in e-book and print with the audio book soon to follow. Thank you again everyone who came out and joined Michele and I. We were so excited and thrilled to celebrate Aleks with you. I look forward to your thoughts on Aleks. Enjoy and happy readings!

Animated: Hart’s Transformation

February 23, 2017 By Keira Gillett

I am truly humbled by the enthusiastic support of Michele Carpenter, the narrator for the Zaria Fierce Trilogy. She loves the books as much as I do and spends her days thinking about them just like me. Today she shared with me an outstanding animation she did of a pivotal scene from the third book in the series. Watch as Hart becomes Henrik!

You will need to be on a computer to view the animation properly.

Be sure to tell her how much you loved her animation project! We may just get more if you do. ?

Thank you so much Michele! I absolutely love it!!!

Blog Tour Stop: Interview with Michele Carpenter for Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword, Part 3

May 4, 2016 By Keira Gillett

Keira Gillett (Author): Greetings everyone! The second book in the trilogy, Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword, features an amazing voice talent, Michele Carpenter. Be sure to check out the other parts of this interview series to read more about what it takes to be a young adult/middle grade narrator. We’ve been having a lot of fun talking about the book and the series, so let’s dive right in. Michele, can you share a sample from your work process?

Michele Carpenter (Narrator): This is 7 minutes of unedited narration. I felt like it was real and sometimes comical, as it shows what narrating is often like for me.

Keira: Were you surprised, scared, disappointed, etc. with any part of the second book?

Michele: Disappointed that Zaria still hasn’t met a mermaid, possibly, lol! Or a unicorn… But what she has encountered isn’t your normal, everyday, frilly fluff like that. She’s meeting ‘real’ creatures from the fairy tale world, like mountain giants and ellefolken ladies. So that’s pretty awesome.

I was scared at the end when Zaria decided to be brave and conquer her fears, and surprised at the outcome of the confrontation through the mirror with…

Keira: Sh! No spoilers! Haha. I’m glad you liked those scenes. Zaria and her friends will meet a water creature in the next book. It won’t be a mermaid though. Who would you cast as Zaria Fierce in a movie? Any ideas for other characters?

Michele: That’s a tough one. Teens grow up too quickly to really pick someone the right age.

Skai Jackson could be pretty great as Zaria. She’s adorable, lovable and talented. It’d be neat to see her with violet eyes.

Maybe Mitchell Hope for Hart…?

Ryan Potter, who played Hiro in Big Hero 6 might make a good Christoffer.

Keira: Ooooo… I like your picks! If Zaria ever becomes a movie franchise, I’ll have to bring you along to help me cast… that is if I get a say. How do you keep track of the voices from book to book?

Michele: Well, reviewing is a big part of it, but sometimes that’s not enough. I started out trying to imitate my previous voices without remembering the heart of why I gave them those voices and it didn’t go so well.

I also have to remember what/who my inspiration for that character was. I often have another character or actor in my head that I was imitating to create someone’s voice. Remembering those really helps.

I have to admit, I really wanted to try to use the voice of the Goblin King, Jerreth, for the voice of Koll, but dog-gone-it, I totally forgot and gave him a different voice. Will he slowly morph into Jerreth in the next book? I can’t say he won’t, lol.

Keira: Well I think you nailed getting the voices to sound the same the second time around and I love your new characters, too, like Granny. She’s fantastic. Do you read the book in full before you record?

Michele: I always prefer to, yes. Do I always read the book in full first? No, I don’t. And it can cause you to run into unpleasant surprises further down the book.

Keira: I bet! That’s why I tried to give you hints as to where I saw some character arcs going from one book to the next. Thank you so much, Michele for talking with us!

New Coloring Page from Michele Carpenter for Zaria Fierce

April 16, 2016 By Keira Gillett

Hi folks! I have a brand new coloring page from Michele Carpenter for the Zaria Fierce Trilogy. It’s gorgeous and I hope you have a lot of fun filling it in. This below drawing is a scene from book one. Do you remember the order of the kids using the tunnel as they escaped?

To print, click on the image to view at full size.

Send you’re finished drawings to hello@keiragillett.com because I’d love to see them!

Blog Tour Stop: Michele Carpenter Interview for Book Two, Part 2

March 11, 2016 By Keira Gillett

Michele Carpenter and I are over at Renee’s Mother Daughter and Son Book Reviews talking about the differences between starting the narration work on a new series and the challenges of continuing a book series. I hope you’ll join us!

Michele Carpenter Reads Live from Zaria Fierce

March 10, 2016 By Keira Gillett

Want to watch Zaria’s narrator in action? Take a look! Michele Carpenter went to Bobby Ray Elementary and performed a reading from Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword. How cool is that? I loved watching it and you will, too.

Interview with Michele Carpenter about Zaria Fierce Book Two

January 12, 2016 By Keira Gillett

This is part one of four for a new interview series with Michele Carpenter, the narrator of the Zaria Fierce Trilogy as we discuss the making of Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword.

Keira: When we chatted about the first book we discussed some of your favorite and most fun voices. Are there any new characters in the trilogy that you loved performing?

Michele Carpenter: I loved voicing Bjarke. As Olaf’s cousin, I wanted the two of them to sound reminiscent of one another, but Olaf is evil and Bjarke is kind, so I wanted him to sound trollish and lovable. The results was Yoda-esque. LOL!

I also enjoyed the snooty Fey family. They weren’t completely evil. They were just self-centered and needed to sound like the privileged royalty they believed themselves to be. I felt like I was having dinner on a yacht, with the offspring of the Howells from Gilligan’s Island. Isak was fun.

Keira: I loved how you voiced Lukas and Nori. Those were some snooty sniffs. And of course, Bjarke is just perfect. So, I’ve been terribly curious and I’ll just be nosy about it now – Would you share a picture of your work space? Or work partners/partners in crime?

Michele: My studio, my kids, and some artwork I’m painting on the studio door.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Keira: Oh that’s fun and what adorable kids! Your middle one could play Aleks with his beautiful red hair and dark eyes (at least they look dark in the photo). What do you most want to happen next in the trilogy? Where do you hope book three takes us?

Michele: I really felt–or maybe imagined–a spark of connection between Hart and Zaria. They had a mutual hero/savior experience, in which, both have rescued the other. And probably doubly so, by the time the story ends. I’d love to see something develop between them. I’d like to at least see them become really great friends. On one hand, I hate the idea of losing such an awesome character as Hector in order to gain Hart as a character, but that’s how you set up the mythology of the ellefolken. On the other, I’m really curious how that’s going to play out. Imagining Hector as a tree king is just so hard. So Hart is really going to have some huge shoes to fill! He better be planning something amazing to win us over to him. 😉

Keira: I do love both Hart and Hector. What’s in store for them though will have to wait to book three. Ask me no questions, I tell you no lies. LOL If you could be a character from the books who would you be and why?

Michele: I would want to be Queen Helena…except that I’m not entirely clear on what her life must be like. She seems to have amazing powers and beauty. But is she a prisoner of her own making to the Under Realm? It seems like she’s sacrificed her freedom to guard over the dragons down there. That’s very noble and honorable, but I can’t imagine not having freedom. Madam Brown is another interesting character. She can do pretty cool things, but I’d never be content to live in someone’s backpack until they needed me, LOL! No way.

Keira: Ooo, some very interesting choices. I agree with you about Madam Brown all the way. Unless the backpack was very special I just couldn’t see living in it. What has been your favorite part about collaborating with me on Zaria Fierce?

Michele: The books have definitely been a delight! But I have to say, it’s truly all the little explosions of creativity you and I have together in our conversations that are my favorite. Over the course of this year you have become a very good friend to me. Discussing plans and ideas with you feels like being a part of a fun and artistic ‘think tank’. It’s truly inspiring and your such an uplifting person.

Keira: The feeling is mutual!!! I couldn’t ask for a better friend or collaborator. You’re a great listener! I’ve had a blast bouncing ideas with you. Readers, before you head off, take a few minutes and listen to Michele read from the second book in the Zaria Fierce Trilogy. You’ll have a chance to hear her Bjarke!

If you liked the sample from Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword, be sure to check it out and to tell others about it.

Available in E-book | Print | Audio Book formats.

See if you’re eligible to get a free copy of the audio book here.

Narrator Bio: Michele Carpenter is an artist at heart, with a passion for acting. She and her husband (also a voice actor) often work on projects together and help one another through the journey. Together, they have three kids. Michele’s children love to hear her read stories and beg her to edit her narrations in the same room with them so they can listen too. It’s partially for this reason that Michele has come to feel a personal responsibility to only record books that aren’t inappropriate for children or young adults–at their respective age levels and according to the maturity levels of the books they’re able to read. “We never know how long we have on this earth and I’d rather leave behind a legacy of books that I’m not ashamed to have my friends, family and even future grandchildren, listen to forever.”