Happy 2019, everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas (man, that seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?) and a great New Years celebration!

For those of you who may have been following my newsletters for a few years, you know I usually have a January Newsletter recap of what I got up to in the past year. It's an important exercise for me, as it reminds me of all that I've accomplished and makes me feel a little better about myself at the start of a new year. As a freelancer, I do so many different things that I often forget what I did yesterday, let alone last week, month, or year! I'll let you know what else I've been up to in the past two months later in the newsletter, but first: please join me on this 2018 Rachel Retrospective!

I was lucky to participate in two wonderful short films with some fabulous new production teams. In April I traveled to Brighton to film "Ombrophobia", which was a fantastic experience and what I've seen of the resulting footage is beautiful. There were some hiccups in the sound design, so it's still not released, but I'll hopefully be able to share it with you sometime soon! 

The second film was "The Pilfered Publication" shot on a Super 8 Camera on the Isle of Wight railway. It was a great crew, fantastic location, I got to act alongside my husband, and we were featured on the BBC!

Speaking of films, 16/03 finally had its London premiere. Erick and I got to see ourselves on the big screen and walk the red carpet. The film has been scooping up award after award in film festivals around the world (I think the count is now 25+), and we're awaiting news on the distribution deal. Hopefully I'll have news about how you can see it sometime soon!

I traveled up to Norwich to shoot an episode in the US TV Series "Someone You Thought You Knew," where I (once again) played a murdering housewife... I'm beginning to see a pattern here... 

Finally, I was very happy to make a return to the stage in the recent Eagle & Beaver ensemble's productions of "Tiny Shorts" and "Side Dishes", which were fun productions featuring a collection of short American plays and (mostly) American casts. I hope to work with them again in future productions this year!

One of my 2018 goals was to get back into modelling more, as I'd kind of let it slide in 2017. Well, I certainly achieved that goal with about a dozen shoots with a lot of new (to  me) photographers. I now have SO many favourite new photos, a great new network, and I already am lining up multiple shoots for the coming year. I look forward to seeing what 2019 will bring!

My voiceover agent, Soho Voices, has been wonderful to me and I've been kept busy with a bunch of corporate and commercial projects. Above is one of the projects those of you in the USA may have seen, but not known that it was me!

I had a couple of corporate jobs in the past year, including a reunion of the Skillsoft team (this time filming in London, not Dublin), new semesters of Medical Roleplay, and an online ad for an Aromatherapy company.

Erick and I fulfilled our travel goals by making it to 8 locations in the last year (Los Angeles doesn't count as that was technically the first trip of 2019). Our goal this year is to spread them out a bit more evenly, as we visited the first 5 in the first half of the year, and then we didn't travel again until Christmas! We were DEFINITELY ready for a vacation by then!

I've been getting more involved with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, which means I've learned a lot about the industry and gotten some great feedback on my portfolio. I plan on building on what I've learned in the past year and gaining a better foothold in the illustration industry by finding the niche that best fits me. Exciting times!

I also made the Online Sketchbook part of my website available to the public. If you haven't checked it out yet, please click here! I'd love to hear your comments! 

December/January News

Wow, I did a lot last year... Thanks for taking a little time journey with me. Now, on to what I've been up to in the past two months!

One of my New Year's goals is to have more character voiceover work. So, last year I spoke with my voiceover agent about how I could make this a reality, and we started working on a "Character Reel", which is a collection of voices that I can do which my agent can use to shop around for auditions/roles for me in animation/video games/etc. Finally, it's done! Click the track above to have a listen! Let me know which voices are your favourite!

I had two singing gigs through Reminisce Entertainment in December/January, and one of the staff actually filmed part of my January performance and shared it on their Facebook! I guess they liked me ;-) I love singing for these care homes, as it gives me a chance to work on my singing/performance technique, while singing songs I love to people who love them too! I hope I brighten their day at least a little bit :)