Yvette Keller's Blog, page 19
March 16, 2018
Fictional Characters Who Walk Into The Real World, a.k.a. Cosplay
Viola Roberts went to Seattle to promote two new audiobooks released in February: The Body in The Bathtub and The Venom in The Valentine.
Well. Viola’s VOICE went (Psssst! That’s me). Her creator was there as well, author Shéa Macleod. This is us, having a blast after not seeing each other for over 2 years!
We had a great time selling books and raffling off free audiobook codes. The raffle is still on and you can enter it here before March 31st!
ECCC was an amazing place to see great Cospla...
March 9, 2018
Book Review: Eligible
If you’re one of the people in my life who wonders what all the fuss is about—why anyone (sometimes it seems everyone) still reads the six slim novels written by Jane Austen—Curtis Sittenfeld, a smart, funny, parent has written the delightful novel Eligible to show you why.
Eligible follows all the characters you’d expect to find in a knockoff P&P rehash, but not a single one of them are anything other than modern people. A neurosurgeon. A reality TV star. A manicurist. An avid bowler. A...
February 22, 2018
Over 500 Copies Sold!
To thank you for supporting me and my work, each person who sends me a note of congratulations before the end of February will be entered to win a free audiobook code!
Listeners are happy, check out some of the recent reviews:
Kelly from Edmonton, Canada wrote about The Body in The Bathtub:
Humorous, engaging, and easy to listen to.
Part of the reason its easy to listen to, of course, is the narration of Yvette Keller. She has a...
February 9, 2018
New Release: The Body in The Bathtub!
Happy Friday! Have a new audiobook!
The Body in The Bathtub written by Shea Macleod and narrated by Yvette Keller is now available!
Bunco night seems like a safe bet, until someone finds a dead body in the bathtub. With her friends in shock and topping the local detective’s suspect list, Viola Roberts decides it’s time once again to take matters into her own hands.
With her usual snark and disregard for the rules, Viola investigates everything from a cupcake-eating contest to the sordid af...
January 26, 2018
New (and used) Normal
Two audiobooks in the final release stages, a monthly newsletter out (before the month is over), and a functioning kitchen: January has been a back-to-normal month.
(If you didn’t get to read the January newsletter that launched today, you are missing out!)
Still, normal doesn’t mean boring: 2018 is new, the kitchen is new, and books 4 & 5 of the Viola Roberts Cozy Mysteries are ALL NEW!
Occasionally I wonder if I used up some of my luck-stores. My loved ones were all protected from the fire...
January 23, 2018
Book Review:
Once Upon A Nightmare: A Novella of the Nightmare City series by P.S. Newman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Once Upon A Nightmare is a fantastically-paced novella set in a fascinating future LA where dreams (and nightmares) can manifest. The twist of having a main character who discovers she isn’t “real” is an ironically humanizing one and an excellent origin story for a fish-out-of-water superheroine.
I enjoyed the writing and appreciated the lack of distracting typos–a pet peeve of mine that happ...
January 21, 2018
Book Reviews: Science Fiction Mystery Romp
Murder on the Orion Express by Nate Streeper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Murder on the Orion Express is a fun book full of humor and great action sequences, but I had enough trouble with some aspects of it that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. The story was sound, the laughs are outstanding, the writing brilliant at times…but inconsistent at others. I enjoyed the main character’s arc and the ending.
I had a hard time following the “sleuthing” of private detective Alan Blades. Pacing was...
January 19, 2018
Non-Fic Fridays: What Regency Women Did For Us
I loved my Finnemore Fridays, and soon I will find a legit way to bring them back, continuing my quest to spread the brilliance of John Finnemore far and wide (without bending any copyright laws).
Until then, let’s talk non-fiction!
There was a major swath of years between 25-35 where I don’t recall reading any non-fiction that wasn’t work-related. But I got married, and my husband’s brain is SO BIG, and so filled with useful stuff, that I decided to be more like him.
About ten years ago, I...
January 12, 2018
Whatcha Readin’?
You’ve seen the fiction binge I’ve been on since December, so this post is about the non-fiction books on my To Be Read (TBR) pile.
Wonderland: How Play Made The Modern World, by Steven Johnson, is one of the books on my currently reading stack. I love his premise that creation for the sake of joy spurred on the making of many modern inventions.
“‘Each epoch dreams the one to follow, creates it in dreaming,’ The French historian Michelet wrote in 1839. More often than not, those dreams do no...
January 8, 2018
The Speed of Narration
Forums are such an interesting place to hang out (when you have the time). This week I participated in an interesting thread about listeners who speed up their audiobooks. It’s a good topic for me to think about as I edit The Body In The Bathtub, due out at the end of this month.
Some people love the chipmunk effect.
Others want it faster than normal, but still sounding like a human.
When I “Accuracy Check” on my recordings, I listen at 1.85x. This is a comfortable speed for me to hear the...
