About Hiram Steele Samuels
My Story
It all began one dark and stormy night…actually not. No, my story begins in first grade, when I first discovered that those funny looking symbols actually meant something and I was taught to decode their mysteries. While my spoken language skills grew, so did my love of the written word, for I was one of those individuals that could visualize the story coming to life in my head. Growing up in the 80’s meant that visual story telling was getting a lot better through the use of computers as well. Combine this with my fathers’ extensive science fiction and fantasy collection, and my parents encouragement that I read more, and I became an avid reader.
Reading was one thing, acting out a fantasy is quite another. My father had an old copy of Dungeons & Dragons on his bookshelf that I discovered one day. Along with my recent reading of J.R.R. Tolkiens’ “The Hobbit” and armed with a system to create characters and scenarios on my own, I started a two decade long hobby of playing and acting as the dungeon master to groups of people. My collection still resides in my bookcase today.
Computers came to the home, giving me one more symbolic language to decode, and despite being a normal kid who played outside, I also spent quite a bit of time indoors in front of the family TV writing programs on a Commodore VIC-20 and later, a Rainbow 100+. This was the very first start to my professional career that has spanned the last two and a half decades.
College, multiple relationships, and children followed, of course. While I have tried, somewhat successfully, to pass on my love for books to my children, I have met with resistance, simply because the world is ever changing. Some of that change though, has found it’s way to be more useful than I originally thought in an unexpected way.
My career also contributed something to my path. Being in the Information Technology field for so long has led me to be a consultant, placing me in front of diverse audiences and forcing me to step up my skills as a speaker and presenter. Having the ability to read faster than I speak certainly helped in this, but without the soft skills of being a presenter, and being aware that one must engage the audience in a way that stimulates them is a skill that needs development over time.
As I got older, so did my father, who shared my love for books. Tragically, his eyesight started to fail him, and I took him in when he could no longer safely care for himself. His love for science fiction still present, we introduced an Echo Dot to his normal life. Our audiobook collection now numbers in the hundreds and he spends a large portion of every day listening to Alexa read him stories.
Some of his favorites, though, were not yet recorded. Out of love for him, and having the skills, technology, and funding to be successful in the production of audio books, I entered the field. I built a home recording studio and have produced several works in my spare time. Having a rather common first and middle name (Christopher Michael) and a last name that is extremely common in certain parts of the country (Goodrich), I chose a pseudonym to publish under to be distinctive. Being a genealogy buff, I picked names from my ancestors. Hiram is the first name of my Great, Great Grandfather, Steele is his grandmothers’ maiden name, and Samuel is the first name of Hirams’ father.
Feedback & Reviews
Feedback comes in all forms, and even the negative reviews are useful for me to build from and strive to do better. Here are a few words from those that have reviewed books I’ve produced so far.
“Christopher Goodrich’s talented narration adds to this unique book’s enjoyment.”
Roger
Amazon customer
“I really liked this new Narrator much better then the one used for the 1st 2 books.”
Georgia
Amazon customer
“She is using a different narrator this time Christopher Goodrich whom I found easy to listen to and great with the vocal inflections for different characters.”
Pamela
Amazon customer
“Now let me talk about the audio part of this auidobook edition. This is my first introduction to Christopher Goodrich. His narration is first rate as he breathes life into the characters. In addition he also does a fine job of audio production. I look forward to hearing more of his narration in the future.”
Wayne
Amazon customer