How can I go on with my mod if I am unwilling to voice act? Even more so: If I choose to voice act, my female characters will sound quiet comical.

Umm...you put out a casting call for voice actors?

Wouldn't I have to pay them?

You'd probably be the first mod author to do so.

Where do I sign up?

I wouldn't think so, unless you're planning on hiring famous actors and actresses like Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Judy Dench and Olivia Wilde.

Anyway, there is the http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/74-voice-actors-project/ that you can look at. You can also look at this http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1426689-how-would-one-go-about-finding-voice-actors/?hl=voice+actor#entry21872148 as well.

Other links:

http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/tags.php?tag=skyrim

http://my.voiceacting.co.uk/forums/forums/auditions

Or you can start a thread here requesting voice actors.

You'll need to provide the actors with some sample dialogue for each character, and a rough character bio so they can get into character.

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/951656-the-voice-actors-of-skyrim-nexus/ And it can also be useful to play some mods with voice acting, and send messages directly to the VAs who you think might fit your roles.

And that said, you don't need voice acting; plenty of popular mods use silent, unvoiced dialogue. Sure, there are some people who won't play a mod that doesn't have voice acting, but there are also people who won't play a mod with voice acting that they don't like for whatever reason. (Sometimes technical/recording issues, but just as often people arbitrarily won't like the sound of a certain voice.) There's no denying that good voice acting adds a nice layer of polish and continuity with the vanilla game, but the general consensus whenever the topic comes up is that no voice acting is better than bad voice acting. So be choosy!

If all else fails...... there's always Microsoft Sam.

Haven't downloaded any quest mods yet, but if you take this suggestion, I can guarantee I'll get yours once it's done.

Actually, I think the editor for Dragon Age: Origins had some kind of built in text-to-speech function for NPC dialog.