Ross Ballard II , one of West Virginia’s leading artists, will be giving a presentation at the 2008 WV Book Festival, 10am, Saturday, Oct. 11th, in Parlor B of the
Charleston Civic Center. Through his company, MountainWhispers, he has created a series of masterpieces that he sells as audio books but are really audio “movies,” complete with music, sound effects, and everything but the graphic image put up on the screen. His latest WV project, an audio movie of “Crum” is even better than the original book. His masterpiece to date is the audio movie version of William C. Blizzard’s “When Miners March.” He also plans to release an audio movie version of Ken Hechler’s book, “The Bridge at Remagen.”
His presentation will be the ONLY one I will attend at this year’s WV Book Festival. ( I will also be working at the WVLC booth.) ( Other events of interest include Davitt McAteer talking about his new book, “Monongah 1907″ and Ann Pancake presenting her MTR book, “Strange As This Weather Has Been.”)
Ballard’s press release –
This year’s WV Book Festival in Charleston (Oct.11th) promises to be bigger and better than ever with a number of writing and recording notables being on hand to sign their latest work and talk with fans. Of note to West Virginians with an ear for entertainment is audiobook narrator and History Channel documentarian Ross Ballard.
Besides being a Practictioner Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Ross also owns MounainWhispers.com Audiobooks West Virginia’s only full time audiobook studio in
Martinsburg, WV. His work with several WV authors such as Richard Currey and Lee Maynard have gained him a national following and several favorable articles in publications such as ForeWord Magazine and AudioFile Magazine.
A few months ago Ross’s work ‘ Lost Highway’ was released to an international audience as the 24 hour Feature Presentation on XM Radio’s Memorial Day special. His lively presentation ‘Audiobook Production and Industry Insight’ can be enjoyed in Parlor B at 10am.
Librarians, writers, would-be narrators, and those who’ve noticed the rapid rise in popularity of audiobooks are encouraged to attend. Free WV audiobooks will be given to attendees as they leave the session.
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Personally, I prefer audio books to the conventional printed books, it’s just so much more convenient to listen to a book and have the eyes to do soemthing else. … and when driving it’s defintively safer too
. Since I’ve discovered audio books, I have increased my ‘book consumption’ – can’t really talk about my reading – considerably. Also to have such a large choice that is grwoing every day makes listening to audiobooks fun.