Cozy Fantasy Audiobooks

INTERVIEW WITH DORRIE SACKS

Lead Narrator

Dorrie, you do such a great job bringing When Life Gives You Legends to life! Tell us your secrets. How did you get into the headspace for so many wildly different characters? 

Luna, thank you so much for your kind words! I absolutely loved bringing this colorful cast of characters to life. To get into this headspace of uniquely capturing so many different personalities, I like to think about my favorite anime and cartoons before I record. I’m a huge animation nerd, and one thing I love to do before starting any anime is to look at the character designs and figure out what their voices would sound like in my head. The anime, Frieren, comes to mind. There’s a character named Fern who is tall, cute, and holds a very serious expression on her face, so I immediately imagined her with a deep, soft voice that rarely yells.

With a fantasy like Legends, I can already picture what all of these people would look like, even without reference — Tulip: a pop princess, Calina: a punk rebel, and of course, Tilda: a wise barmaid who is done with everyone’s junk. The way you wrote these characters made it a breeze for me to learn exactly who they are, and it made it super fun too. I’m so glad I was able to do them justice!

Did you have a favorite character, either one you related to most or one you most enjoyed bringing to life? Tell us about that. 

Although this character was voiced by the talented Jeff Hays, not me, my favorite character has to be Durgan. I’m a sucker for the characters who keep everyone laughing despite holding so many dark memories inside. His friendship with Tilda and relationship with Pat warmed my cold little heart. He knows how lucky he is to have them in his life, and that he enriches theirs just the same. I want nothing but the best for him and his bar!

As for a character I brought to life whom I love, it’s Tilda, of course. I am also a short person who is 100% done with most of humanity! She is exactly what I’m going to be like in 20 years and I can’t wait.

Because I’m a bit of a diva, I had one very specific request for this book: that Tulip Thunderhoof be a cross between Britney Spears and My Little Pony. How on earth did you actually manage to accomplish that? 

Listen, from one diva to another, I get it. When you told me Tulip Thunderhoof was a crossover of Britney and MLP, all I could think was, “Say no more. I got you.” I don’t leave my apartment without a full face of makeup, Chappell Roan and Lady Gaga are my icons, and I swoon when I see a woman with a fabulous outfit out in public. I love a bubblegum pop princess, so Tulip gave me this wonderful opportunity to channel the princess inside of me (and maybe outside of me a bit too). I got so caught up in it, in fact, that I would do things like check my nails while reading her lines. I think it helped!

Did you have a favorite scene or moment to narrate? Tell us which one and why it stood out to you. 

There were so many great, actionable moments, like the hilarious kobold scene, of course, or the tense final scene of the book. My favorite moment to narrate, however, is actually one that might surprise you! It was the scene where Tilda and Calina shared a sweet moment by the campfire the night before those final scenes. I really enjoy the quiet moments between action scenes, and this one humanized both characters in big ways. I truly felt the pain they shared over having lost someone so important to them, while also feeling my heart breaking over the fact that Tilda was keeping Calina in the dark about that person’s identity. I also have a bit of a soft spot for Calina. She’s young and lost, but also very determined; and although Tilda is a flawed mentor, she really just wants to look out for her at the end of the day. I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship continues to grow!

Aaron Morton partnered with you for the majority of the male voices. This was his first time narrating a feature-length production (and not just lending his musical talents to Soundbooth Theater’s audiobooks), how was it to work with him? And what do you think he added to the book to make it extra special? 

Aaron is the man! He could have easily fooled me if this was his first time in the booth! He did an amazing job, and I really didn’t even need to give him too much direction. He came prepared and it’s obvious listening to his voice work that he had a lot of fun too. The fun is what is most important. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy, since all of his characters were so different from each other! He kicked butt though, managing to perfectly capture everything from Rurik’s shyness, to Gaaron’s charming whimsy. I hope this inspires Aaron to do more voice work in the future! Well, as long as he credits you, me, and Emily as inspirations when he gets his first award. 😛

And lastly, what is your go-to character build for Dungeons & Dragons? Are there any characters from Legends that you would enjoy bridging to life in a tabletop gaming session?

Oh, I love this question. My D&D build is a character I created named Lafayette, and he is so precious to me. He’s a half-elf Warlock with an archfey patron; but he’s not exactly what you would call inspiring. He’s very shy and clumsy, and often gets his adventuring parties into a lot of trouble, since he’s a bit of a scaredy-cat. I could go into extensive detail about his lore right now, but I will save you all the sanity!

I would love to be able to play as Calina for a Legends tabletop session! I love her attitude, and I used to want to do archery as a teen, so this would fulfill so many fantasies for me. Although I’ve only been in a few games of D&D, I have never tried playing as a non-magic user before, so this could be a fun challenge for me.

I am absolutely obsessed with Dorrie and her amazing performance for When Life Gives You Legends. I hope you enjoyed getting to know her a little better. 

And if you'd like to learn more about me, Soundbooth Theater also asked me a few questions for their blog. Click the button to check it out!