Listen to me. I mean, literally, listen to me 🎧
My first published vocal work marries my arts and healthcare backgrounds
Listen to me. I mean, literally, you can listen to me…
I’m excited to share my first published vocal work that marries my arts and healthcare backgrounds - the audiobook version of Every Storm Runs Out of Rain - voiced by yours truly!
It’s available on Audible, Spotify, Apple Books and nearly 30 other audiobook outlets. So if you’re an avid audiobook or podcast consumer, this is the perfect auditory read for summer.
Read on to get an insider’s view of my vocal experience.
Tales of a Voice Major, and a bit about Vocal Fry
Many years ago, I remember talking to my church choir director about being a voice major at Northwestern University’s School of Music. As an alto in a highly competitive school, I got humbled pretty quickly.*
I also had terrible stage fright. Not a good combo.
*Case in point: Tony-award winning Heather Headley was a freshman when I was a junior, and SNL’s Ana Gasteyer a few years ahead of me at NU.I said to my choir director something to the effect of: Well, I may not be famous on the radio, but if I can sing jingles for a living, I’d be happy.
Turns out I never did make it to the radio as an artist nor a jingle singer. But, a few decades later I’ve finally published my first vocal work.
I loved every minute of it.
Even told myself: Dang, if I could make a real living out of voicing audio books, this would be the life!
Alas, with so much AI innovation, it’s unlikely I’ll make my millions voicing audiobooks for a living. Nevertheless, it was an incredible experience.
I leaned back on my vocal training of breathing from the diaphragm, doing vocal warm-ups to get the cords going, remembering to breathe into my head cavity, and push the breath out over my vocal cords to keep the flow and cadence going, instead of falling into chest voice or, worse…vocal fry.
C’mon you all know vocal fry.
It’s the “oh. mah. gawd.” voice that comes out of people and you want to give them a lozenge.
For me, it’s Chris Collinsworth - for someone who now uses his voice for living, you’d think he’d hire a vocal coach (for all I know maybe he does have one). His fry is the absolute worst and it hurts my ears every time he calls a football game. Worse still if he’s calling my beloved Buffalo Bills 🦬.
Ask my family — they can probably imitate my highly irritated and despairing sigh:
😩 Oh no! We got Chris Collinsworth! 😩
But I digress.
My point here is that I finally got to marry my two worlds of the arts and healthcare in one project. Voicing my own book.
I loved every minute and now you can too.
Inside Scoop!
When you give it a listen, you’ll notice there are unique “author” asides that I threw in reacting to voicing my own written words or reflecting on hindsight with more hindsight.
For example, it was eerie to read aloud my passage on the January 6th siege on the Capitol, in the month of February 2025 with all the uncertainty of the economy, especially the impact of federal cuts to HHS, CDC and important research grants at academic institutions across our country.
If you really stick with it - you’ll get to hear me sing a few bars. 🎶
“Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free…”
A brass quintet played that Shaker tune as our wedding party walked down the aisle for our wedding more than 20 years ago. In my book, those words inspired my reaction to the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines - bringing simple, life-saving medicine to get us back to our freedom from masks and lock-downs.
You’ll thank me for the earworm later.
Gratitude & Silver Linings
As you can imagine, voicing this book brought me unexpected joy. It felt so great to use my voice again in a performing way.
True, I love public speaking and have had the honor of delivering several talks related to my book. But voicing an audiobook is as close to releasing an album as I’ve gotten.
The young girl who loved to write and the young girl who wanted to sing, finally made her dream come true.
A dream that would not have happened had my professional career not taken a pivot 20 years ago into higher education and healthcare.
It’s the unexpected that stretches you and leads you to where you are meant to be.
Without that pivot, I would not have become Vice President of Marketing at Emory Healthcare. Nor would I have had the opportunity to lead my team, successfully, through two infectious disease crises: Ebola and COVID-19. And, write a book about my experience and leadership lessons.
While the pandemic changed our world forever, it came with many silver linings. Those of you who’ve read my book (or will listen to it!) know a few of mine already.
Voicing this audiobook is a beautiful shining silver lining - a metaphorical silver thread connecting my arts and healthcare worlds.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Thank you,
Amy
I’m Amy Moudy Comeau, author of Every Storm Runs Out Of Rain: Leading A Health Care Marketing Team Through A Global Pandemic. Subscribe to my Substack: Authentically Authoring Amy to follow my journey as a new author, recovering health care marketer and living life with authenticity. Book me to speak or consult by emailing me at amymoudycomeau@gmail.com.