Web Home of Joshua Swanson

Nebula Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi has made a name for himself writing stories set in a bleak near-future following an environmental collapse. A more timely novel could not exist than his latest, Ship Breaker, his first Young Adult offering and possibly his strongest work to date. Narrator Joshua Swanson brings precisely the young, street-wise performance needed to carry this story.

Nailer Lopez is fighting to survive in a devastated world, doing the only work a boy on the verge of manhood can do — “light crew” duty as a ship breaker, salvaging copper wire from the rusting hulks of tankers left wrecked on America’s Gulf Coast. Every day is a struggle to make quota and find the best salvage to stay in the good graces of his crew. There is always the hope of the big score: a pocket of petroleum, precious fuel in an age of exhausted wells, drowned cities, and risen seas, where any energy source is precious.

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When 16-year-old Jace is kicked out of his Chicago home, he shows up—with a swollen, bloody face—on his older brother’s doorstep in Albuquerque. Joshua Swanson depicts Jace’s toughness and frustration with an edge of bitterness that makes sense when the plot reveals his guilt over having “abandoned” his mother at home, where she serves as his father’s punching bag. And there’s something else—shame when he refers to an unresolved relationship with a past girlfriend. The power of story and narration comes in the hero’s tortured struggles to resolve his haunting, brutal past and complex relationships, as well as his own violent tendencies and faltering attempts to make a new future. S.W.Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2010]Young Adult Young Adult • 8.25 hrs. • Unabridged • ©2010Trade Ed. • Listening Library • 2010CD ISBN 9780307579942  $37.00 • Seven CDsDD ISBN   $19.00Library Ed. • Listening Library • 2010CD ISBN 9780307579966  $50.00 • Seven CDs**AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

It’s always mind blowing when I realize that large online retailers have a link for my name!  Recently, thanks to the success of the audiobook “Split” by Swati Avashti that I was blessed to record, I’ve been added to Amazon.  Enjoy the link and here you can find a small sample of some of the audiobooks I’ve been fortunate enough to record.

I was recently approached by a video game producer who wanted me to audition for two characters in a game. One was the lead and the second was just a one-liner and the producer was attempting to use one actor for both parts for budgetary reasons. The fee offered to talent was too low in my opinion and I passed and explained why to the producer. He was kind enough to write back and enlighten me regarding the state of the business for voice actors doing voiceover on video games. The name of the producer has been removed for obvious reasons and I asked permission to blog this dialogue since I thought it educational and valuable to other voice actors who might happen upon it.

This is the initial audition request email:

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