GPOY... Me, Russil Tamsen.

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...

This is a panoramic shot of most of Dear Aunt Gertrude, my comedy improv troupe. I'm sporting the orange tie to the left, to the left.

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...

Quirky little flash fiction by Niven aka monkeyerror, as narrated by Russil Tamsen. 5 mins. Original text here.

It's about a bored chick whose day at home is interrupted by a perp on the run, breaking and entering. She nearly fractures his arm using furniture in self defense, but as the two get to know each other he turns out to be as harmless as wet noodles.

Whoa, dude, I think that guy was Spiccoli's brother.

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!

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!

A charming flash fiction from certainwaters; all the various voices performed by Russil Tamsen. Original text here.

It sounds like a medieval Persian fairy tale with a bit of Doctor Who stirred in (minus the time travel). The gal at the center of it all is like Merida from Pixar's Brave, except she escapes not into the forest but into a bizarre solitary sickness... 

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!

Second Story Window, a short story by Gibson Grand, narrated by Russil Tamsen. 6 mins. Original here. It's a night of awkward teenage blues when a fat boy and a homely girl are the only ones not hooking up at a basement party... She is soon blossoming into a beauty. To his chagrin, she will catch him peeping when she is bathing. They will manage to become friends anyway, but there will still be an elephant in the room... 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!

Cor Blimey! This is a rollercoaster of a monologue performed by Russil Tamsen. It was written by one of our illustrious Tumblrites, Laura J. Blake. So much fun in one disaster! 7 mins. Original text here.

In the piece, a jilted, pent up Londoner struggles to apologize for decking the ex's new beau, but eventually he loses his self-restraint and goes ballistic  - while the answering machine records every stammer and twitch. Somewhere between Simon Pegg and Jason Statham. I could have done it all flat and deadpan, true, but I decided on a climactic shape instead. 7 mins. :)

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!

Waves of Loyalty:  the final novel in a trilogy from the prolific pen of Susie Harrison.  The book is available on Amazon, and the complete audiobook (including this chapter) will be released on Audible.  Excerpt narrated by Russil Tamsen, 13 mins. In this chapter, a thirty something army field tech, Jesse, briefly relates his life journey so far. From learning to swim to fishing in the stream behind his house with his high school best pal but archrival for girls’ attentions - especially for the heart of Sandi. Jesse doesn’t get the girl but his flame never goes out either. He marries another gal who soon dies young of cancer. He goes into a tailspin, and is only pulled out by a tech job that flies him to warzones around the world with Black Water consulting...

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 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!