Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 73

The Best Alternate History

From Book Riot: 9 OF THE VERY BEST ALTERNATE HISTORY BOOKS

I can think of some alternate history novels I really enjoyed, but it’s not a particular interest of mine. In fact, some of the alternate histories that come to mind for me are not well known and there’s no chance they’ll appear on this list at Book Riot. (I haven’t clicked through yet, but I’m pretty confident.) I know, or I’m pretty sure, that a very large proportion of alternate histories deal with (a) The South wins the Civil War, or (b) The Nazis win World War II, and I’m not especially interested in either scenario. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I think both of those are boring, though of course a specific novel may handle either scenario so well that I love it. I mean, in theory. In the real world, that hasn’t ever happened.

Also, I specifically prefer alternate history that is also fantasy, so, I mean, Temeraire. Not that I believe in the essential element. You cannot sustain that population of dragons in Britain. There’s no way. But firmly suspending belief means that I loved the first book of this alternate history of the Napoleonic era with dragons.

On the other hand, if you start to say “alternate history, but with magic!” then you can get way beyond alternate history in a hurry. I mean, look at Liz Williams’ Inspector Chen series. I guess that’s sort of alternate history, in the sense that things might be different if heaven and hell were layered above and below ordinary reality in Singapore Three. But this is not really what I think of as alternate history.

I think I prefer a stricter definition, something that limits the fantasy elements so that the alternate history elements get a chance to shine. Anything beyond dragons = too much fantasy, though the dragons themselves might not push the boundary too hard. They are treated like natural creatures except that they are, you know, dragons, and also not ecologically plausible.

Let me pause to actually scan Book Riot’s list. Okay, there are zero WWII or South Wins the Civil War novels here, which is a surprise! Some of these sound pretty interesting.

I mean, The Haunting of Tram Car 015 sounds a bit like the Inspector Chen series.

In turn of the 20th century Cairo, the natural and supernatural mix. It’s up to agents from Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities to deal with any issues that come up between the two. So when a tram car is reportedly haunted, throwing a wrench into the city’s daily commute, a senior agent and his newbie partner must perform an exorcism. But this is no run of the mill haunting, and the agents will have to pull out all the stops to get the trains running on time again.

See? Detectives in a really odd alternate-history world where magic mixes into a modern-ish setting. That’s definitely reminiscent of Liz Williams’ excellent series. This is the one that catches my eye the most from the Book Riot list. But how about alternate history that’s all about the history and doesn’t blur the lines with fantasy?

One of my fairly recent favorites in that category is Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale.

This is “Romans meet Cahokians … with hangliders and Greek fire.” This is the first book of a trilogy. It’s very well written, but, warning, terrible things happen. To moderate that warning, let me add that the ultimate ending is not terrible. After Smale manages to end the first book in a fairly good way, I trusted that the whole trilogy would also end well, and it does.

One I’d like to read, but haven’t gotten to, is Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.

This one begins with the idea that the Black Death eradicated Europeans and then moves on from that point of divergence to develop a world quite different from the real world. It sounds intriguing, though reviews are somewhat mixed.

Of course, for someone who really knows Alternate History, we should ask Craig N and/or Mike S for recommendations. I mean, here:

GURPS Alternate Earths and GURPS Alternate Earths 2 by Ken Hite, Mike Schiffer, and Craig Neumeier

Travel the Confederate States of America by dirigible. Battle the Aztec Jaguar Knights in their conquest of Europe. Join the American Resistance against Nazi occupation. March with the Roman legions on their campaigns in the New World. GURPS Alternate Earths provides fully fleshed-out backgrounds for six alternate histories … the six are Dixie, Roma Aeterna, Reich-5, Shikaku-Mon, Escalli, and Gernsback. That last would be the one you’d want to live in.

Also six more alternate histories in the second supplement: Serve the August Emperor as an Eye of Heaven – or plot the downfall of the world-girdling Ming. Take to the skies to defend democracy in Bourbon Europe. Raid the glittering pyramids of Mexico with your Vinlander kinsmen. Dodge British helicopter gunships as you fight for America 200 years after Washington’s execution. Raise your eyes to the stars of the Rightly Guided Stellar Caliphate.

I had forgotten the Rightly Guided Stellar Caliphate. That is a great name. It reminds me strongly of something … oh! The Benignity of the Compassionate Hand in Elizabeth Moon’s space opera series. I greatly enjoyed the first book set in this world, Hunting Party. That does not appear to be available on Kindle. Oh, yes it is, as part of an omnibus edition. I’ve never seen a better use of the word “benignity” in my life.

I see I’ve wandered away from the topic of alternate history. What’s another actual alternate history I’ve enjoyed? Well, there’s a book, actually a phenomenon, that is adjacent to alternate history: 1632, where a Pennsylvania mining town blips back to Europe in 1632, in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War. The first book is a gung-ho adventure story where the good guys sweep all obstacles before them. After that, the series turns into the most fascinating shared-world phenomenon in SFF history. I expect it’s still going strong, but I must admit I have lost track. I will pause to mention that my actual favorite book by Eric Flint is Mother of Demons, which offers great aliens. Mollusk types rather than anything more typical.

Here’s an alternate history I’d like to read: The Oppenheimer Alternative.

While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a weapon based on nuclear fusion — the mechanism that powers the sun. But Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the year 2030, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroying the entire inner solar system — including Earth. After the war ends, Oppenheimer’s physicists combine forces with Albert Einstein, computing pioneer John von Neumann, and rocket designer Wernher von Braun — the greatest scientific geniuses from the last century racing against time to save our future. Meticulously researched and replete with real-life characters and events, The Oppenheimer Alternative is a breathtaking adventure through both real and alternate history.

Doesn’t that sound interesting? I have (sigh) a sample on my Kindle, languishing amongst all the vast number of other samples and books.

If you’ve got a favorite alternate history, or a suggestion for something adjacent to this subgenre, drop it in the comments. Craig and Mike S might have a top ten list instead of a particular favorite. Bring ’em on.

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Hopefully brief bobble in access to the audio version of TUYO

Just letting you all know that the audio version of TUYO is temporarily unavailable.

This has happened because I’ve been negotiating with ACX to change the distribution contract from exclusive to nonexclusive without waiting for the remaining four or so years specified by the initial contract. This will allow me to distribute the audiobook widely at a much reduced price, thus hopefully bringing listeners to the series.

The negotiation has abruptly moved forward, with the unexpected result that (a) the TUYO audiobook has been de-distributed from Amazon, (b) various complicated things are happening in the background, (c) the TUYO audiobook should once again be re-distributed to Amazon soon, and also to other platforms shortly thereafter.

If you’ve followed an audio link in an attempt to pick up the audio version of TUYO, thank you! Sorry if you hit this unexpected blank wall! I would not have pointed everyone to the audiobook if I had realized this would happen so quickly (or at all). The hiatus in availability should be brief, I hope a matter of days rather than weeks, and then once again the TUYO audiobook will be available.

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Do people deliberately decide to become a beta reader?

Both the linked posts are from the blog Write to Done. They’re obviously related, but it’s the first that puzzles me. I can see someone saying, “You know what, I bet I could make a decent second career out of freelance proofreading.” I can also see someone saying the same thing about freelance editing. But beta reading? That seems like … like … like deciding to be an amateur unpaid editor, when I sort of thought people mostly fell into beta reading. Or else traded beta reads with another author.

Here’s the post:

Beta Readers: 5 Skills To Become A Fantastic Help To New Writers

If you want to become a beta reader, the great news is, you’re not far away from this dream. Beta readers are an integral part of a writer’s process, and while they are most commonly associated with newer writers, you may get to try your hand at beta reading for an established author at some point.

A beta reader is a person who commits to reading a book before publication with the purpose of providing feedback for the writer. If an author asks you to beta read their book, you will need to focus on finding: 

TyposPlot discrepancies Characterization issues 

You will also need to read the book as a reader. This acts as a mock test for the writer. If you find characters engaging, tell them so. If a particular character drives you crazy, the author needs to know this as well. 

I disagree about the first of these. Spotting typos, while a nice perk, is absolutely not the same thing as beta reading. If someone is focused on finding typos, I think that makes it much harder (MUCH HARDER) to look at bigger things, such as plot discrepancies and characterization.

Plot and characterization blur together, of course; one of the things that always catches my eye when I am beta reading for someone else is a character who does something that is out of character or that does not make sense in order to push the plot along. Particularly if the character is acting stupid in a way that is not in character. “Character acting stupid” is certainly something I want beta readers to point at for me. People who beta read NO FOREIGN SKY caught various plot details that did not make sense. That was definitely helpful.

This post contains tips about how to become a beta reader for an established author. Some apparently have an actual application. There are also tips on how to find a beta reader if you have completed a manuscript.

Have I mentioned how much I appreciate everyone here who beta reads for me? I appreciate you very much! If any of you ever want me to beta read for you, just ask! I will find the time!

I appreciate proofreaders very much as well, as I’m sure you all realize because I post about proofreading pretty often when getting close to a release date.

I find that if I proofread the manuscript myself half a dozen times in three different formats AND at least four other people read the manuscript AND at least one of those people is either Hanneke or Linda S (preferably both), THEN readers will still send me emails the first week after the book is released, pointing out about half a dozen more typos. Inclusive, at least, rather than each.

People have not found very many typos for TASMAKAT, far fewer than I expected. I cut that manuscript HARD twice, which involves very close reading, so maybe I actually cleared out a larger proportion of typos than usual. But everyone is finding SOME typos.

Anyway:

How to Become A Proofreader In 5 Steps (Even As A Beginner)

Whether you want to be a proofreader on the side or want to turn it into your career, this article will cover the basics of proofreading and everything you need to know about how to get your foot in the door. …

Proofreaders typically focus on fixing punctuation, grammar, and any other sentence structure issues. They usually don’t focus on fixing the larger issues of a piece and instead just make sure it is free of any essential errors.

Exactly. Punctuation, grammar, and syntax. Also glaringly obvious continuity errors or logical flaws, but those are extra. It’s really punctuation, grammar, and syntax. Missing words. It’s astoundingly easy to read a word that isn’t there, over and over, through many proofreading iterations.

Some people have much more of a knack for proofreading than others. I’m about average. I will ALWAYS see effect/affect and lay/lie and “and I” vs “and me” errors. For those, I have extra-sharp radar. But I can read over a missing word without noticing and fail to see “has” when it should obviously be “had” — that is a particular issue lately. I mean, in my own work. I would probably catch most of those errors in someone else’s manuscript. But I still think I’d be toward the average side of good at proofreading. Hanneke and Linda S. have much more of a knack than I do.

I do think probably everyone here could be a pretty decent proofreader, though. If you want to see how your skill stacks up, here’s a proofreading quiz. I scored 8 out of 10, but I think I was stylistically right about one of those. Oh, here’s another one at the Grammarist blog. This one is too easy and also too much about theory and not enough about practice, imo. Who cares that the standard form of a sentence is subject-verb-object? The point is to catch errors, not look for nonstandard sentences. There are lots of quizzes online that purport to test proofreading skills, it turns out. Here’s another. I think this one offers the most relevant questions for checking proofreading skills.

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Puppy cuteness

I can’t get even very short video clips to play here, but I can get them to work on Facebook.

So here: Naamah is a very tolerant babysitter until her tail gets grabbed.

Click through and enjoy this short burst of puppy cuteness!

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Audible promo codes available

BUT, when I took a look at the promo codes that just arrived for TARASHANA, I realized that I actually have a handful of promo codes for each of the books in this series — I didn’t actually realize those codes lasted forever, but there they are, all that haven’t been used previously. I have a few for TUYO and quite a good handful for the others.

So, if you would like a promo code that will let you download an Audible copy of any of these books, let me know! You do not have to be a member of Audible to use a code. You just go to www.audible.com/acx-promo and there’s a box to enter the code. Boom, done, that easy.

I have codes for the US and UK. I don’t see codes that are generic for any country.

Obviously I would appreciate a Audible review if you listen to any of these, particularly aimed at the quality of the listening experience, especially if you enjoy the narration. Which I hope you will!

Audio of Tuyo

Audio of Nikoles

Audio of Tarashana

Audio of Keraunani

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The Good Parts Version

A post at Kill Zone Blog: Cutting the DULL from Your Scenes

We talk a lot here at TKZ about opening pages. We all know how important they are to agents, editors, and readers. But we should think the same way about every scene in our novel. And thus to the topic for today: Cutting the DULL from your scenes. To wit …

And then James Scott Bell goes on to identify failures that lead to boredom in the following four categories:

Description Dumps: Always describe your scenes in words that reflect the tone, which you’ll most often find in the mind of the viewpoint character.

Uninteresting Characters: When you think about the scene you’re going to write, plan one action (even if it’s just a line of dialogue) a reader won’t see coming. A good practice is to make a quick list of the things the average reader might expect to happen…then don’t do those things.

Lethargic Action: The story question should involve death stakes (physical, professional, or psychological). Otherwise, why should the reader care?

Leaden Prose: Try things. Make up wild metaphors, not to use (necessarily) but to stretch. Read challenging prose, even in nonfiction. Read poetry out loud.

Well, boring description, characters, action, and prose does pretty much does seem to cover the topic, yes. More at the link, of course, but I was more curious about the proposed solutions, so those are the bits I pulled out. A lot of the time, the solutions to problems like the above are things like Be lively in your writing, which isn’t very helpful. I am, of course, not nearly analytical enough to pause and think Now what is something the reader won’t see coming? I hope I surprise the reader on a pretty consistent basis without having to stop and think about how to surprise the reader.

However, a suggestion to read poetry seems more useful, doesn’t it? That actually seems like a really good suggestion! I like poetry, of course, and perhaps that was useful in developing my ability to write. Yes, certainly, by all means: read poetry to develop a feel for language! Bell suggests Robert W. Service. I have not, to the best of my knowledge, encountered this poet previously. Let me find a poem by Robert W. Service. All right, here:

A Grain Of Sand

If starry space no limit knows
And sun succeeds to sun,
There is no reason to suppose
Our earth the only one.
‘Mid countless constellations cast
A million worlds may be,
With each a God to bless or blast
And steer to destiny.

Just think! A million gods or so
To guide each vital stream,
With over all to boss the show
A Deity supreme.
Such magnitudes oppress my mind;
From cosmic space it swings;
So ultimately glad to find
Relief in little things.

For look! Within my hollow hand,
While round the earth careens,
I hold a single grain of sand
And wonder what it means.
Ah! If I had the eyes to see,
And brain to understand,
I think Life’s mystery might be
Solved in this grain of sand.

All right, I do like that. I just clicked on the first poem title that caught my eye, so I had no idea what to expect. Fine, sure, let’s see what Amazon happens to have available … ah, look at this: here is a book of Robert Service’s collected poetry for $0.99, if you would like a Kindle version. Okay, I’m picking it up because at that price why not. I like something short to read at bedtime, right before I turn off the lights.

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Hasty Monday update

Okay, yes, there was a week last week, wasn’t there? It seemed to disappear in a blur.

So did the weekend.

I actually made considerable progress on the story about returning Hokino’s knife. I guess I should pick a title for it, probably “Hokino’s Knife,” to make referring to it easier. Anyway, as I say, considerable progress, which does not mean 4000 words a day the way it was for TANO. But maybe 2000 words per day, which is GREAT given how distracting the puppies are. I’m about to move into the last third of the story, which is the part I actually thought would be, you know, the story. It expanded forward from the opening scene, included a huge middle chunk I did not see coming until I arrived at it, and now should hopefully move more predictably toward the ending scenes.

I wish I could say I thought I would finish that story this week, but that seems highly unlikely. Perhaps this month. Probably this month? I hope this month. This will put me behind for where I wanted to be in June; eg, I will not yet be ready to start SILVER CIRCLE. But I will have unexpectedly written most of the TUYO World Companion, so, I mean, there’s that.

I’m glad so many of you gave the final cover a thumbs up! I really did not expect to look for other backgrounds, but then I happened across that one and immediately liked it.

Okay, so, sorry, but I did not take any more puppy pictures this weekend. Not sure why. Probably so many trips up and down the stairs were so tiring that I just forgot. They are all being very cute romping around outside. The big ones are not quite so overwhelming to the little ones at this point. Still kind of overwhelming, but not SO overwhelming that I have to supervise every single second.

I didn’t get to take any of the dogs to the park … it was suddenly too hot anyway, and who exactly ordered a ninety-degree day, because that sure wasn’t me. I didn’t give any of them baths either, which I would really like to do. But at least I did trim all their claws. It’s so helpful that they are all happy to jump up on the grooming table and let me trim their claws in return for quite moderate numbers of treats. I need to do the claws of the babies, which are sharp and ouchey. You do baby claws by feel, just running a clippers along the claw till you feel the hook at the end and then snipping off the tip. It’s not hard as long as the puppy is sleepy. (It’s impossible if the puppy is wide awake.)

I love my robot vacuum. LOVE IT. It’s not perfect, particularly leaving a trail of little fragments of leaf bits along the line where the carpet joins the tile. But it is MUCH BETTER than not having a robot vacuum cleaner. Especially when Conner goes out, rolls exuberantly in the leaf mulch, comes in, and shakes all the bits of mulch off his coat and all over the floor.

I’ll try to remember to take pictures this afternoon or tomorrow or sometime, but in the meantime, here is a visitor who seemed to get stuck on this door at my mother’s house:

Apparently the inability to go up led to this little guy being really reluctant to go in any direction. Took him about ten minutes to calm down, sort out his options, and leave the same way he came, via the deck.

If this had been MY house, my dogs would have gone NUTS and also destroyed the screen on this door.

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Just FYI, final cover, plus gratuitous puppy pic

I thought you all might like to know how the “voting” looked for the cover of the Tuyo World Companion.

So:

Looking at everyone’s top or top three choices, Covers #1 and #2 got the most thumbs-up reactions. They were equally preferred. I like both of those too. Having said that, I stumbled across a different textured background that is similar to #2, but with some black to it that picks up the black of the various frames and the black of the lettering. I have decided to go with that one, and I hope you will mostly be pleased, or at least reasonably content, with that choice.

“The” Tuyo World Companion vs Tuyo World Companion got roughly equivalent votes. I totally understand both positions. I have decided to go without the “the.” But –>

Twice as many people prefer to see some of the text on the top and some on the bottom. I personally agree with those of you who commented that putting all the text on the top makes the image look squished toward the bottom. However, it’s true that putting “Tuyo” by itself at the top could in theory produce confusion, though the cover is SO DIFFERENT from the actual TUYO that I feel the risk someone would buy the book by mistake is low. Nevertheless, I’m going to put “Tuyo World Companion” on the top and just my name at the bottom, but bigger to help the cover look more balanced.

Here is the final version. Barring substantial feedback that forces me to change my mind, I don’t expect to do more than maybe the very tiniest tweaks to this version. That is, I could easily move text just a bit up or down or change the size of the text. Other than that sort of thing, this is it.

Hopefully you will all see this cover for real on Amazon before TASMAKAT drops — or at worst, possibly in August.

My hope is that I will be able to set this for release July 1st, thereby potentially driving a final uptick in preorders for TASMAKAT. I’m not sure whether that will be possible. Despite my vivid awareness that I wrote TANO in three weeks, the (presumably) much shorter story included here is going to take much longer. TANO was written (a) over Christmas Break, and (b) before puppies arrived, and also (c) I had a quite clear idea of the whole story in my mind, with just details to work out. None of that is true for this new story, except that I have a clear idea of the ending scenes. I think.

The puppies are in the cutest but also most distracting and time-consuming stage right now. I mean, seriously, I get up in the morning and immediately carry all the puppies outside (three trips up and down the stairs.) Then I bring them in and feed them (three more trips up and down the stairs). Then I take them all out again (you’re counting, right? this is nine trips up and down the stairs so far). Then I give the impatient adult dogs their breakfast. Then I take the big puppies into the puppy room to play with the little puppies. They are ENORMOUSLY cute. They are so interested in each other! I keep putting a hand between a big puppy and a little one whenever the big one looks like he might be getting too overwhelming for the little ones, but it’s no hardship to supervise because SO CUTE, I AM DYING OF THE CUTE.

Then I take them all out again and bring them all in again (we are up to 15 trips up and down the stairs so far). Then I do ordinary morning things, which includes extra loads of laundry because I use these big, heavy, washable pads in both the puppy room and the playpen. Then I have about half an hour, maybe forty minutes before it’s time for MY breakfast and then I take the puppies out again to let them play (that makes eighteen) and then back in again (21 trips up and down the stairs) and then I can get ready to leave the house.

My knee is holding up fine so far. I take the stairs carefully, you bet, but in only a few weeks some of the puppies will go off to new homes and the others will be big enough to handle the stairs on their own. I only have to make it that far!

In the afternoon, I get a little more work done, but although proofreading and correcting NFS was incredibly tedious, it was also something I could do at low-energy times of the day. Working on the first draft of a new story is not. So we’ll see! But hopefully I will have this story finished soon and then I will send that story to first readers, think about what else to add to the World Companion, and set a release date.

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WHEW, THAT’S DONE plus puppy pictures

Okay! Just loaded the final version of No Foreign Sky into KDP, and wow, am I glad to be done with endless proofing.

Linda S. was the last proofreader. She found plenty of typos that everyone else missed (this always happens; everyone always finds unique typos). How many had I already caught via reading the book on my phone? About 2/3. That leaves maybe twenty typos that I missed, so that would have been a LOT. Thus we see that truly, it is impossible for the author to catch every single typo herself. Even reading it in three different formats! Multiple times!

I hope there are zero typos left, but no doubt there are a couple. As always, if anybody spots any, please let me know.

How much actual revision happened at the last minute? A little. Every now and then I would read one of Linda’s comments OR have a brand new thought about a scene myself and therefore I would wind up revising a few paragraphs here and there. This takes longer than just turning “had” to “has” but of course it’s far less tedious. Makes a nice break from straight-up proofing.

But it is now finished, the final version is loaded, and I am not going to look at again until the release date. Whew!

Next: I need to create a new paperback file. The slightly less annoying way to do this is to delete most of each chapter from the previous paperback file and then paste in each revised chapter in turn from the kindle file. There are 23 chapters plus an epilogue. This will take maybe 20 to 30 minutes, but it is the sort of task that feels endless.

THEN I WILL BE DONE.

Although I would like to write both a sequel and a prequel to this book in the near-ish future, that doesn’t mean this year. By next year or the year after that, I will have recovered from the endless revision and proofing of this manuscript and I will be much more in the mood to continue with this universe, which does definitely have room to expand.

Switching from universe to universe is definitely a useful technique for staying motivated, at least for me.

Meanwhile! I introduced the big puppies to the little puppies this morning. Much cuteness ensued. I will show you the initial introduction, which is both cute and revelatory.

See how the big Blenheim puppy has his tail way up, right up over his back? That is not the correct tail carriage in this breed. You know why his tail is like that? Because he is up on his toes, strutting. He is posturing and declaring that he is The Greatest! The little puppies should be awed by his utter magnificence. This is a fine attitude for a show dog. But he’s going to bully the little ones if not prevented. (I am preventing that.) The tricolor puppy, do you see his tail is not up like that? He is a MUCH gentler puppy. He might possibly be able to play unsupervised with the little ones, though I don’t plan to permit that. It’s stunning how clear their personalities have become in the past couple weeks, especially considering that just three weeks ago, they basically didn’t have personalities at all.

Here is the big Blenheim again, meeting a little one nose to nose. I have at this point corrected him for climbing on and crushing the little ones. He is still confident, but he is also thinking a bit at this point. His brain has turned on. He is more aware that some kinds of interaction may be a problem. If you consistently prevent bullying, that can nip that kind of problem right off at the beginning, so we’ll see. It does help that Cavaliers are usually gentle by nature. Magnificent as he is, probably he will be willing to play nicely with relatively little direction. But I wouldn’t leave him with them in uncontrolled circumstances. Especially as he is a Sumo wrestler of a puppy — fat and heavy and just way, way more than the little ones can deal with.

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WOO HOO! !!! Audiobook Edition

I’m ecstatic to be able to announce that the audiobook edition of TARASHANA just went live. !!!

This was a long, long project, with many pauses along the way, for reasons which are massively too complicated to go into here. I will just say that this is, let me see, just about two years and two months from the time I put the project up at ACX. I know some of you have wanted an audio edition and I regret that it took so long, but here it is!

I love, love, love this audiobook. This is the same narrator as for the audio version of TUYO, which by the way if you haven’t listened to it, you REALLY SHOULD. I have listened to both TUYO and TARASHANA in audio multiple times, partly because I listen to chapters while the audiobook is in production and then listen to each book all the way through before hitting “approve” at ACX, but also because I love them and listen to them once they’re officially out as well.

It turns out I really prefer audiobooks when I’m already familiar with the story; the audiobooks I’ve listened to the most are not just these, but also the Touchstone trilogy and The Goblin Emperor. This is a personal quirk (I guess? Do any of you also prefer audiobooks of books you already know and enjoy in print?). But if you like audio versions at all when you already have ebook or print editions, then seriously, try TUYO and TARASHANA. I’m not kidding.

Did you know that if you get these books as your first books from Audible, you can get them both free and I get a bonus? Just saying.

Whether or not you are already a member of Audible, you ought to be able to get all sorts of audiobooks at a reduced price if you already have the kindle version. You know how you can easily find out? You can use the handy Audible Matchmaker service, here, which will show you audio version of those books and their prices. Let me see, looks like I could pick up Catfishing on Catnet for $10 less than the regular audio price, Six Ways to Write a Love Letter for a massive $29 dollars off the ordinary audio price, Emily Wild’s Encyclopedia of Faeries for $22 off, lots here. This is all presuming I’m not a member of Audible, which I’m not. This is a way to get audiobooks for reduced prices without joining Audible. I don’t generally listen to enough different audiobooks to make joining worthwhile, especially as I really do prefer listening to books I’ve already read. I’m very likely to pick some of these up in audio form now that I’ve been reminded to check Matchmaker.

But back to the audio editions of TUYO and TARASHANA. These are now the voices I hear in my head for Ryo and Aras. More than that, these are VERY MUCH the voices I hear in my head for Geras and Esau. I’m not sure why these particular voices appeal to me so much, but I think Esau sounds exactly right, on top of things and a little bored, and Geras sounds completely perfect. I don’t know what my favorite voiced scene in TARASHANA is, but it may be the part in chapter 35 when Geras steps up to fight that duel. I just love that scene. Can I say that without sounding conceited? Let me rephrase that: I LOVE that scene as Patrick voices it, as I particularly love every scene with Geras.

I’m happy to add that Patrick has agreed to narrate TASMAKAT as well. I would have been seriously unhappy to have to switch narrators for the main trilogy, so I’m delighted about that. It’s such a long book. Definitely a big project for a narrator. I hope it won’t take quite as long as TARASHANA, but if it does, it’ll be worth waiting for.

MEANWHILE. Now that TARASHANA is out there, I’m moving ahead with audio versions for SUELEN and TANO. I’ve made an offer for the former, which has been accepted by the narrator, so that is in production now. I am listening to auditions for the latter this week. This is going to be a demanding project, with those four young men, all of whom have to sound distinct, plus speaking parts from Ryo, Aras, Sinowa, and Marag, plus a few bit players here and there. The four young men are the most important. So far I think three of the auditions sound like the narrator can probably handle all these different male voices, but I will say, no one (so far) is spontaneously giving Raga the kind of cheerful, insouciant tone that I think would be right for him. Raga is not quite so carefree as some readers may think, but he certainly sounds carefree. It’s particularly important to get a good narrator for TANO, I think, because if he’s good, I will probably be asking him to do other books from Tano’s point of view. I asked two of the narrators who submitted auditions for SUELEN to audition for TANO because I definitely think that is the more difficult and demanding project from the narrator’s point of view.

After this, I will consider moving forward with audio version for the Death’s Lady series. You know what would make taking on the necessary expenses to do that significantly more inviting? Halfway decent sales of the audiobooks for TUYO and TARASHANA. I’m just saying.

Audio of Tuyo

Audio of Nikoles

Audio of Tarashana

Audio of Keraunani

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