Saturday Story - November 14th, 2020

 Saturday Story - November 14th, 2020

Danielle Goetz was depressed.  At 227 pounds and 5 foot 4 inches, she was a blimp.  Her self-image had gone into the toilet.  She had a job - actually an interesting job, but even that was wearing her down.

Her job was a free-lance voice actor for Hachette Book Group.  She had a quiet home studio with excellent recording devices.  The large screen computer monitor presented the text she was reading at a reasonable pace.  The job paid well, and she was sought out to read some of the bestselling books that Hachette acquired.  

The job had a few requirements.  She had to read and annotate the printed version of the book twice before she was to record it as an audiobook.  The annotations were to accent key words as she read the book out loud.  A “sing-song” voice was just not appropriate for an audiobook.  For most of her work, she was the only voice actor and thus had to cover more than one speaker.  She was good, to make males sound like males, kids sound like kids, throw in a British, French, or Spanish word (as the author had written), and accents that sounded authentic like a Southern Belle, Bostonian, or other regional dialects.   

She was not allowed to have a cough or sneeze online when she recorded it.  There was a ‘kill switch on her recording device. She tried to read an entire book in two days so her voice was fairly consistent.  

She loved her work and poured herself into it. Unfortunately, she poured a lot of things into herself - junk food, sugar-laden sodas, snacks, and much more.  In her marathon recording sessions, she might finish a six-pack of soda (generally Diet Coke), a bag of peanut-butter M and M’s, and a bag of Reese's Pieces. When she finished reading a chapter, she hit the kill switch with her knee, took a big swig (or two) or diet Coke, and a couple of handfuls of the M&M or Reese’s Pieces.  

But, her life and her work were killing her.  227 pounds on a 32-year-old body was leading to diabetes.  She didn’t have a social life.  In college, she had been a theater major and had leading roles.  She had dates and even sexual partners, but college ended.  She tried for several parts on Broadway in New York, but with every rejection, another five pounds went on.  When a friend sent her the Hachette job information, she prepped hard and got a job - reading and recording third-level novels - that somehow became second-level novels when she read them. Her big break was reading and recording the latest book by Lisa Jewell.  It seemed like the whole world was reading audiobooks where Danielle Goetz was the narrator.   

But voice actors can lead pretty quiet lives outside of the books they record.  In Danielle’s case, there were maybe five people at Hachette who knew her by face, although most of the acquisitions team knew her by voice.  Most of her college friends knew her as the fat girl who recorded books.  And, her family knew her as Danielle - the success story of the family - and the girl who didn’t take care of herself.

Her mother worried about her.  She was a runaway train - headed for D and D - that is diabetes and disaster.   

Danielle also worried about herself.  She had taken markers and colored on the bathroom mirror so she didn’t have to see her blimpness.  She had a two-bedroom apartment in a nice quiet retirement community in Aurora Illinois.  Her bedroom was a perpetual mess.  Her bed was a ‘staging center’ with clothes from yesterday, the day before and last week piled on top.  She kept one side open for sleeping.  Her closet wasn’t much different, except there were hangers on the floor and empty hangers on the rods.  But, she hardly had to leave her house.

The second bedroom was her studio and it was immaculate.  Her computer system was close to the ‘state-of-the-art’ for a voice actor.  All her recording was backed up on her computer hard drive, then once a week, recordings over two weeks old were moved to an external hard drive and then once a month those recordings were moved to cloud storage.  Finished recordings were sent encrypted upon completion to the New York office of Hachette.  On fairly rare occasions, Danelle was asked to re-record parts of the audiobooks for clarity.  She had a side table next to her computer desk that was used for the sodas and snacks.  If anything, that side table was the only less than perfect item in the room, but Danielle took care to clean before and after her marathon recording sessions.

*****

With each new audiobook she made, her fame grew, although to a small select group within the publishing and audiobook world.  Danielle’s name only appeared twice on each audiobook.  Once in the introduction, where she said “This book is recorded by Danielle Goetz”, and likewise at the end “This book was recorded by Danielle Goetz.  

Authors request Danielle when their publishers suggested that the author’s book be recorded so it could be sold or rented on Audible (Amazon.com’s audiobook subsidiary). It seemed like people were listening to audiobooks on their commute to work, at the gym, and at home.  Where people might not want to spend 3 or more hours turning pages, they didn’t mind spending that time listening to an audiobook while they did something else.  

*****

As the demand for her vocal skills increased, so did her weight.  More time in the recording room meant more sodas and snacks - and less time even thinking about exercise and nutrition.

Hachette Publishing, realizing that Danielle was in demand, signed her to a contract so she wouldn’t freelance for other audiobook publishers and gave her an almost unheard of offer of $10,000 per book.  Each audiobook took about a week to read - between the early reading and highlighting in the manuscript, so Danielle could understand the story; to the second thorough reading to get the nuances, to two or three days of recording.  In fifty weeks a year, Danielle could make about half-a-million dollars as a voice actress.  

And, the pounds slowly added on.

In January 2018, Danielle caught what seemed to be the flu.  She was hoarse and saw her doctor.  The doctor told Danielle that she was pre-diabetic, that severe health issues were just around the corner, and that she needed to cut out the soda and snacks.  

Danielle tried drinking unsweet iced tea and having carrots or celery sticks for a snack, but that didn’t work for her.  

It wasn’t until Hachette arranged for Danielle to read Janelle Rimmer’s best selling “Listen up Women” book as an audiobook that Danielle started to change.

Danielle ‘knew’ that she couldn’t change.  After all, her mother was on the plumb side and two of her aunts were diabetic.  It was genetic.  That was just the way it was.

But, as she read Janelle’s book a glimmer of hope entered her mind.  But getting into Danielle’s brain wasn’t just as easy as reading a book.  She was busy - and she wasn’t like any of the women that Janelle Rimmer had written about - she was thirty-two, fat, single, and content.

She finished that assignment and moved on to her next assignment - a thriller by Rose-Marie Sparks.  But somehow as she read and prepared her audiobook by Rose-Marie Sparks, that the previous book stuck in her head.  

The thriller by Rose-Marie Sparks was followed by a romance novel by Laila Hanti of a romance between an Arab college student and a black student from Philadelphia.  Again, those thoughts from “Listen Up Women” were floating in her head.  Danielle took a long weekend to visit her family near Green Bay Wisconsin for Easter.  

Danielle took her time driving along the Lake Michigan shore.  It was always a toss-up to Danielle whether to take I-43 along Lake Michigan or I-41 inland by Lake Winnebago and Fond du Lac and Oshkosh.  But, today, the skies were blue, the forecast was for highs near 35 with sunny conditions.  

Lake Michigan was still frozen.  There were some ice heaves along the shore.  She was glad she had her prescription sunglasses as the glare from the lake was awe-inspiring, but also head-ache-giving-bright.  She had loaded the Janelle Rimmer “Listen Up Women” on her iPhone and listened as she drove.  She stopped for lunch at Charlie's on the shore just north of Sheboygan - a chicken finger place that had free ice cream cones for dessert.  She loaded up on the ranch and barbecue sauces.  She ate one cone still in the restaurant and took one more cone in the car for the last of her 3.5-hour trip.  

But, as she drove out of Charlie’s parking lot, she felt a pang in her chest.  Was it a heart attack?  Indigestion?  Stress?  But, on her speakers, she was hearing her voice, reading Janelle Rimmer’s book talking about “You can do it” - a chapter on Norma Diaz who lost 86 pounds.  Could she do it?  Could Danielle lose her weight?  

On a sudden pang of guilt, she rolled down her window and threw the last of her second ice cream cone out.  It was kind of a token message that she could do something about her weight and her health.

Easter at the Goetz family was great.  Danielle’s older sister, Tracy, and family were there.  It had been about six months since Danielle had seen Tracy.  It was amazing.  She was down maybe 20 pounds since she had seen her at Thanksgiving.  Her husband, a high school teacher, was also down some weight and they both looked great.  Even their two children seemed to glow with renewed health.  

Danielle caught Tracy alone on Saturday morning before the rest of the family was up.  Danielle directly asked Tracy what she had done to lose the weight.  

Tracy laughed and said, “You won’t believe it”.

Danielle said, “I will - go ahead”.

Tracy got a big grin.  “I listened to you, dear sister, I listened to you”

Danielle was confused, “What do you mean”? 

Tracy said “I listened to Janelle Rimmer’s audiobook - that YOU recorded.  That woke me up.  Cris also listened and we’ve taken that to heart.”

Danielle was flummoxed.  “I was listening to that audiobook on my way up here.  Did that really change you?”

Tracy somberly said “Yes”.  She paused and whispered, “And it could change you, little sister”.

Danielle poured her and Tracy another cup of Saturday morning coffee.  “Tell me more?”

Tracy went on about the diet, but mostly about the lifecycle changes - getting out, walking, moving, and adopting a new attitude towards food and life.

Tracy added, “One of the things that Janelle Rimmer wrote in her book was having an accountability partner.  Dan’s been my accountability partner - and we keep each other honest”.

Tracy looked straight at her younger sister for maybe a minute - looking to see if Danielle was listening. She quietly added, “I would be honored if I could be your accountability partner.”

Danielle wanted to say ‘yes’, but instead said “I’ll think about it”.  

Driving back to Chicago after Easter dinner, Danielle was reflecting if she could lose the weight if she could really change her life.

*****

My story today is about facing the realities of your life.  In the story, Danielle was very successful but was ruining her life and her body.  Could she really change her life? 

I believe LOVE WINS - and that we CAN change our lives (see my next week's topics on change).  We all make up our own minds about what we can and cannot do.  We get to choose who we are and who we are becoming.  

What needs changing in your life?  Have you become stagnant in some areas of your life?  Can you love your spouse more?  Can you be a better version of yourself?  Can you bring healing to your neighbors after this election?  

LOVE WINS!!

HUGS!!

Karen