So far, I’ve been I was inspired by one of our guest speakers to create a sound exploration of a book – kind of like a different and unique way of dramatising an audiobook. As I was researching and deciding which book I wanted to do, I came across my all-time favourite self-help book, You are a Badass; How to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life by Jen Sincero. The book is a guide on all aspects in life that you can change and uplift from relationships with yourself and relationships with others, money, careers to dealing with the way you think about your life. Sincero includes life quotes from known and successful life mentors in the world (e.g. Dalai Lama), her own experiences and scenarios to help explain what she is talking about and includes a numbered ‘how to’ template at the end of each chapter. I had ideas to bring this alive, even though the audiobook for this was already out. Then I thought, I think I much prefer the idea of exploring sound and how much more I could push the boat and a non-fiction book might limit me creatively, not mention Jen Sincero’s book is very successful and is a part of an American publishing company so the commission rights might also be a problem.

The Second book I chose was a novel written by a Nigerian-American author Tomi Adeyemi called Children of Blood and Bone. The book follows story about two teenage girls, one who grew up in the monarchy and the other who grew up in an old tribe who the generations before had magic but where then wiped out by the monarchy. The story takes place in the fantasy land of Orïsha, loosely based on West African cosmology. I thought as I have friends who come from an African background who could help me voice act this book and I love the traditional African music. I wanted to make this book become dramatise as I thought it would be more fun.

Then while I was at work, there was an author that came on a show to promote her new book called The Greater Freedom; Life as a Middle Eastern Woman outside the stereotypes by Alya Mooro. She writes about her experiences growing up in two cultures as an Egyptian and as Briton. Mooro and her family moved to London when she was at the age of eight years old. I liked the book as I can related to her story and the stories of the other similar women she interviewed for her book.

I took the book to Aasiya and we spoke about it, and I explained how I found a cheap flight to Morocco where my grandma lives and I wanted to get real sound atmosphere from Morocco like the call for prayer, sounds from the markets etc to represent the Egypt side of Alya Mooro’s story. Aasiya then suggested that it would be a wasted opportunity to go all the way to Morocco just for audio and that I should look at doing a half self-reflection journey, half – documentary about my own upbringing coming from morocco myself and focus it on an issue e.g. feminism and that way I can still use the book as a reference and sound exploration for creativity.

So I’m currently planning that, and coming up with a structure that will suit me best. Watch this space…