Now You Listen to Me!
When my first two novels were published, I narrated the audio versions myself using a Blue snowball mic and GarageBand (an audio app included with MacOS). I took great pains to ensure professional sound quality and as a result, the comments and reviews of the audio books are as overwhelmingly effusive as those for the ebook and paperbacks.
Back then, the audio versions were available for free on what used to be Podiobooks.com. Podiobooks later merged into Scribl.com and all legacy audiobooks are still available there for free. In fact, you can listen to Testing the Prisoner and By Your Side on Scribl by clicking here. If you do not have an account on Scribl, you will need to create one.
However, I was disappointed to observe that listener reviews did not port over from Podiobooks to Scribl. Later, I discovered my audiobooks on Librivox and not only do they include most of the listener comments from Podiobooks, but new reviews as well. You can listen to my audiobooks on Librivox by clicking here.
At the end of 2018, I released a novella in the same series as my novels. Like Mother, Like Daughters continues the adventures of psychic-medium Miranda Lorensen and this time, she brought along her daughter, Andrea, who is just discovering her own latent abilities to communicate beyond the veil. While Andrea attempts to solve the murder of her lover (with some help from her lover’s ghost), Miranda experiences a past-life vision that nearly kills her.
Like Mother, Like Daughters was released as part of a double-book (remember the classic ACE Doubles?) along with Steven H. Wilson’s vampire tale, Freedom’s Blood. Steven is not only the owner of Firebringer Press publishing, but was also the founder of Prometheus Radio Theatre, a podcast site where listeners could tune into Steve’s Mark Time and Parsec award-winning SF adventure series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Prometheus was also where my audio books first aired prior to Podiobooks.
Thus, it was Steve who encouraged me to record my own audio books ten years ago. Although I was hesitant at first, it wasn’t long before I began to enjoy the experience of voicing characters and finding my own rhythm of reading aloud that carried over into live readings at library events, conventions, and other book events.
So why haven’t I recorded Like Mother, Like Daughters on audio yet? My life and schedule have changed dramatically in the five years between By Your Side and Like Mother, Like Daughters. I’ve been writing and publishing an increasing number of short stories, expanding my reach to one or two new small and medium presses each year. I have a science fiction novel in progress, I’ve changed full time jobs twice and work different (and longer) hours, and I participate in occasional volunteer work in my community. More recently, I’ve been exploring options for going back to school to earn a master’s degree.
In other words, I need three of me to accomplish everything.
Even taking all of the above into consideration, I can’t help but to feel a modicum of guilt for dropping the ball here. Personally, I miss the experience of narrating audio books, but more importantly, the audio book market is immense and I would love to make the time to record Like Mother, Like Daughters and make it available on Audible ACX.
Of course, the other option is to pay a narrator, which could run upwards of $1000. While that’s unaffordable at the moment, it’s certainly not out of the question in the future.
So stay tuned. If the guilt finally overwhelms me, I might just break down and finally record it or shell out the cash to another narrator. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll take the time to listen to my first two novels on audio. There’s no better price than free. Enjoy!
