Thanks for all the support guys! I'd love to tell you all about it in person but sadly i'm unlikely to make a pinball show until next year now what with impending wedding. I met Steve Ritchie 4 years ago when he came over to the South Coast Slam, even played against him on AC/DC. He was also at the Dutch Pinball Open last year and so I got chance to chat to him again, he remembered me from the SCS - afterall, there aren't that many women that play competitively - so again we had a nice chat and also swapped email addresses.
Well when I got an email about 2-3 months ago from him, you can probably imagine I nearly fell off my chair. He explained that they needed an English female voice for the Game of Thrones pinball machine and that he remembered me having a 'very nice English voice' and would I be interested in auditioning. I almost ran around the house in excitement but decided to sit there gobsmacked for a while instead. I read the email several times to make sure I wasn't mistaken. OMG seriously?! And at this point I had never watched Game of Thrones. So I thought i'd better get cracking.... Watched back to back episodes to try and get an idea of what it was all about, and once i'd got past the first few episodes of the first season, I was hooked by about episode 5.
So I did the audition, sent it off, and a couple of days later I got the job. Unbelievable! Steve really liked the idea of having a true 'pinball lady' as part of the game, and thought that having played many different machines in the past would help with understanding the script and the tone of certain phrases (for example, the enthusiasm in a 'super jackpot!' or how you might be berated for losing the ball or for tilting). So off I went to a recording studio and had Steve Ritchie and Dwight Sullivan (the game developer) talking to me through headphones, and guided me through the script line by line. (By this point i'd watched up to the end of season 4 - still hooked). Steve and Dwight were both fantastic, so supportive and not just patient with each line but really enthusiastic too, even 3 hours in. Anyone who has met Steve and talked to him about his machines will know how passionate he is about them - so much thought and effort goes into every element. And given that he's a massive fan of GoT, I've 100% confidence this machine is going to be epic. Anyway, I digress.
So since then i've been really excited and really nervous at the same time. It's going to be weird when I play it. "Get the extra ball!" "Thanks me, I will!!"

I really hope I've done the game justice, and I hope you all really like it too. And if it's in a competition I promise not to shout phrases at the wrong time to confuse people ;-)
Kate
P.S. I'm now half way through season 5. Anyone who's just watched the first couple of episodes and given in, give it another try - the storyline is fantastic once you get into it.