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See the previous blog for more information about the wondrous journey of Mektoub and his friends. https://gregmarston.net/mektoub-adventure-begins/

Essentially, eight chapters of the book have now been fully recorded and assembled, with Chapter Two available for viewing and listening to on both YouTube and Facebook via the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVKxAF6WLhg

https://www.facebook.com/MektoubsDiary

Whilst this is an amazing project to be involved with and working on right now (not only as a voice-over artist but also as a producer and co-editor), it’s not exactly the “right time” to publicise, market and promote something which is specifically aimed at the “Christmas Market” (see what I did there?).

It’s the Mektoub cast and crew’s intention, however, to build momentum over the coming weeks and months, leading up to, and culminating in, the publishing of the eBook and, in time for the proposed launch on December 1, the AudioBook.

Meanwhile, as of July, a series of short pieces inviting online viewers to “Meet the Characters” will begin to appear on YouTube and Facebook, introducing the interesting and intriguing folk which populate the world of Mektoub’s Magical Lands.

Now, with the involvement of a very gifted illustrator, the characters will begin to come alive visually as well as aurally. For the author, Helen S Michaelsen, this the realisation of a longtime dream, and I can only imagine how wonderful that must feel!

Having personally sourced two of the remaining old original books (that I’ve thus far found) from circa 1935-50, around which the modern story is written, I feel more connected to the tale and its history being passed down three generations within one family than when I first read it as an eBook. In today’s largely throw-away society, perhaps we discard such precious memories all too easily.

The current (and many) media markets call for drama, violence, darkness and vindictiveness.

However, I ask the question “what is wrong with good, old-fashioned warm-and-fuzzy-inducing wholesomeness?”. Perhaps in these times of Covid-19 and social unrest, we could maybe look at going back to basics and question why so much of our world seems more fragmented and, in many ways, frightening every day? 

Perhaps it is a sense of numbness from which the lust for harsher reactions has grown? Is it not better to feel SOMETHING than nothing at all? I think that depends on what the “something” is. In a world that demands instant gratification, perhaps these days of lockdown have given us a window of opportunity to reflect on how this can only accelerate if we don’t apply the brakes once we return to some kind of “normality”…

Meanwhile, I invite you to join the author of “The Call of Mektoub” and me, the narrator, for a little escapism into a world that has been too long forgotten…