Melissanthi has a clear, bright voice that is somehow full of light. She is the voice of Thekla, the nun who tells the story of the Byzantine Empress Irini in my four-book series. Melissanthi is a young Greek actress and we are in Athens at a sound studio where Melissanthi is recording my books into audiobook. This book is Poison is a Woman’s Weapon, the second in the series. Six months ago, she recorded the first, Betrothal & Betrayal.
This is historical fiction and has dialogue, so Melissanthi also speaks as other people. She doesn’t change her voice, however. Rather, she modulates the emotion in her voice, so we feel the shift from Thekla to the other voices. It is fascinating to hear her do this, smoothly, hour after hour, four hours a day. She has uploaded the PDF onto an iPad and marked where to take a breath. This also fascinates me, how she plans not to run out of air.
Melissanthi has a British accent on top of a slight Greek accent, which is why I chose her. Americans love British accents, and her Greek accent gives authenticity to the audiobook. The series is, after all, about the Byzantines who lived in what is now Turkey and spoke Greek, thanks to Alexander the Great who forced his conquered people to speak Greek. She pronounces the Greek names and places properly since this is her own history. I needed a Greek actress because Greek history is not easy. Nor is their language. I have struggled with it for years.
I sit on the other side of a glass wall from where Melissanthi sits wearing her headphones, facing a microphone and music stand bearing her iPad. Beside me is Yianni, the sound engineer. His fingers are on his panel of buttons and he is watching the waves of Melissanthi’s voice cross the screen in front of us. My eyes are on my book as I silently read along with her, watching for mis-pronunciations. An odd sense of wonder hovers over me. She is reading the words I wrote.
Yianni’s concentration is total. I marvel at this because he is tired. His work as a sound engineer is mostly concerts and he also plays saxophone in a band. This is late-night work and we start recording at 11:00 in the morning. He doesn’t look tired, though, because Greeks manage late hours well. In this hot climate, dinner starts after 8:30 and entertainment after that, but I can see that he is barely balanced on his feet. Still, his concentration on his equipment is absolute.
Melissanthi has a bad cold this week, a sinus infection. She doesn’t look sick but she has to pause regularly to blow her nose. The sound is magnified. Yianni jokes that he is recording her various nose-blowings and is going to blackmail her when she is famous. She smiles and sips warm mountain tea (tsai tou vounou) with honey that I bought at the cafe bar next to the studio. By some Greek miracle, her voice doesn’t record as nasal. We start again.
“Ksana,” she interrupts abruptly. It means “again.” She doesn’t like how she has read a phrase. She is very strict with herself. “Oxi!” (No) “Eeek! “Aii!” she cries, exclamations that make Yianni stop recording. Yianni has recorded these small shrieks and has put them in a file which he plays at the end of a day. We all laugh, a release of tension, and because they are funny. Melissanthi has an easy laugh.
Yianni is expert at calm. He is easy-going and relaxed and murmurs supporting words when she makes him stop or when I correct her pronunciation. She corrects the phrase and we start again, her focus still strong. Her English vocabulary is expanding enormously, I think, then I discover that she is reading many words properly without the slightest idea of their meaning. Like “wry”. My friend Nellie Karras, who is director of Arhi Drama School in Athens where Melissanthi got her theater training, tells me that Melissanthi is sensing the pronunciation from me as I read along, an intuitive telepathy that actors develop because they must connect with each other on many levels during performances. Melissanthi has a good ear for English but she is surely highly intuitive. She has a degree in Law, which she achieved before becoming an actress. She has done a number of commercials and is rehearsing for two plays. During a break she gets a call from her agent. There is a casting-call for a commercial. She efficiently sets a time.
Yianni smiles. “One day Melissanthi won’t speak to us anymore.”
We all smile. They are a good team.
© 2025. Janet McGiffin, All Rights Reserved.