Once we finished the production, we were inspired to create a 2:28 video to describe how we met in the style of the interviews from the popular movie When Harry Met Sally. Enjoy!

The post How I Met the Love of My Life appeared first on Karen Commins.

During 2015, I’ve drastically increased my efforts to help authors and publishers with a backlist understand the audiobook production process and get more of their titles into audio! I wrote a number of articles and created some videos, which I will detail in a moment.

New Links In My Discography

Rest assured, my writing and video production activities are mere extensions of my greatest passion, which is audiobook narration! I’m delighted to announce I released 8 new audiobooks in 2015!

My first release of 2015 was BLY VS BISLAND: BEATING PHILEAS FOGG IN A RACE AROUND THE WORLD, which the talented Melissa Reizian Frank narrated with me. It was a very special narration project, and the story behind the story still gives me chills!

In addition, I performed:

• cozy mysteries — DEAD PAN by Gayle Trent and ONE HOOF IN THE GRAVE by Carolyn McSparren
• suspense and romantic suspense — DEADLY BLESSINGS by Julie Hyzy and WHAT SHE DOESN’T SEE by Debra Webb
• history —THE STORY OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY by Benjamin Levine and Isabelle Story, THE TRIAL OF SUSAN B ANTHONY by Ann D. Gordon (I edited the text to make it more suitable for an audiobook), and Susan B. Anthony’s famous 1873 speech IS IT A CRIME FOR A US CITIZEN TO VOTE

You can hear samples of my 2015 releases in this Soundcloud playlist:

Articles and Videos

I started the year by creating and, of course, narrating a 41-minute video Setting Sail In Audiobooks that explains reasons every author should have audiobooks and offers concrete suggestions for writing with audio in mind and using ACX.com to create audiobooks. I also created and narrated a 3-minute video that demonstrates Amazon’s Whispersync between the Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook.

In June, my friend and fellow narrator Ann M. Richardson and I had the great joy of launching InD’ear, our featured column about audiobook production, in InD’tale Magazine, a celebrated publication for indie authors and publishers. My articles appeared in the June, October, and November issues.

I’m currently developing a new web site AudioForAuthors.com as a home for even MORE of my articles, as well as a curated resources list! I expect it to go on-line within the next few weeks.

Even with the expanded assistance to authors, I continue to develop content to help my fellow narrators.

I added 18 new articles to this blog, which continues to serve as a resource to other voice talent and narrators. One article that has been particularly popular with both narrators and authors is How to Afford Your Editor, Proofer, or Narrator TODAY.

Narrators have also appreciated these 2 videos that I created and narrated this year:

• How Graphic Are the Sex Scenes in A Romance Book? (1:20)
• Audiobook Corrections with iAnnotate (2:25)

Finally, I started and maintain an FAQ for the very active Facebook Group ACX Narrators and Producers.

This year has been fulfilling in every sense of the word, and I’m excited about the projects already on tap for 2016! Best wishes to you for continued health, prosperity, and success!
 

The post 2015 Audiobook Wrap-up appeared first on Karen Commins.

In 1889, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were female reporters in New York. Each went on a daring solo trip around the world at the same time. Nellie wanted to beat the time of Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne’s fictional character in Around The World in 80 Days. Rival reporter Elizabeth Bisland left on a solo race around the world hoping to beat Nellie’s time!

Nellie sailed east to England in the morning. That night, and unbeknownst to Nellie, Elizabeth took a train west to San Francisco. In Bly vs Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg In A Race Around The World, I combined the narratives from both women into a single book with 1 timeline! Who will win the race?!

My journal entries tell Part 1 of the story behind the story between idea and implementation.

Sunday 16 November 2014 1:10pm

With no book in progress, I am officially on vacation.

Monday 17 November 2014 9:55pm

When a divine, inspired idea comes to you at bedtime, you can’t swat it away and say, “I’m on vacation!” Well, I guess you could do that, but only if you don’t value the Creator handing you an inspired idea!

I was lying in bed last night when an idea just magically appeared in my mind. It was raining outside, but this idea didn’t come accompanied by a thunderbolt, either real or imagined. It just quietly showed up for no reason I can recall. I don’t even remember exactly how it was worded at the time it arrived, but it was something like this:

Do an audiobook mash-up of Nellie Bly’s and Elizabeth Bisland’s books about their race around the world.

I had planned to do Elizabeth Bisland’s book earlier this year but then decided to do Fanny Herself first. Bisland’s book is not in audio anywhere. I thought Nellie Bly’s book was done…

On the 14th, Drew told me that he saw an article on that it was the 125th anniversary of the start of that race. He showed me that someone had done a board game…. I guess it was a bit of a delayed reaction because 48 hours later, the Divine made sure I knew that….Nellie Bly’s travel story isn’t on Audible! I had wanted to do it originally, but I thought it had been done.

However, this mash-up idea is completely original! I haven’t seen anyone create an audiobook out of 2 different books to make 1 cohesive story!…

I sent a long email to Melissa Frank to see if she would [narrate] with me… She responded quickly and favorably… she’s in!

Nellie left by ship going east. Elizabeth left by train going west…. I’ve spend part of the evening dividing the text into chapters. Nellie included a timetable at the end of her book, which certainly helps….

So far, the story is dove-tailing sooo well! The chapters alternate for the most part. I’m working to keep their timelines consistent. It’s also interesting to see how they were writing about similar things at the same time, like how other travelers treated them as women traveling alone.

Not only could I not ignore the divine, inspired idea, but it’s hard to disconnect when audiobooks are my passion, my vocation, and such a large part of my life!

Tuesday 18 November 2014 10:10pm

I sure am working a lot for a person who says she’s on vacation.

…I spent all afternoon working on my text mash-up of Bly vs Bisland….

In addition to matching their timelines, I’m starting and ending chapters at places that highlight contrast. [For example,] Bisland says how every plank in her ship creaked and groaned such that she couldn’t sleep. I start the next chapter with Bly saying she slept great on the train.

Wednesday 19 November 2014 10:45pm

I have spent at least 7 hours of this “vacation” day sequencing Bly vs Bisland. My shoulder hurts from being extended on the desk for my mouse all day. I got tired, cold, and hungry, yet I pressed on. I feel like an explorer myself as I read their accounts and try to figure out which day something happened and align the timelines.

I’m an explorer as I look at the maps to see where they’ve been, but I’m also a detective. I’ve Googled distances between 2 places like Singapore and Penang, and I’ve also called up calendars for Dec. 1889 and Jan. 1890 so I could plot the timeline based on references to “Sunday”, “the next day”, “on the fifth day”, etc.

Bly gave her timeline in the back of her book, but it had an error. She expected to arrive in Hong Kong on 25 Dec. but instead got there on 23 Dec. Bisland wrote less overall. While she was overly detailed in her descriptions of the people and their clothes, she was very sketchy about dates.

I’m excited about the project and increasingly proud of my editing to create chapters that make sense and often compare/contrast the journeys of both women. I hope to finish the text mash-up tomorrow.

Thursday 20 November 2014 11:40pm

I spent about 5 hours (I think) in finishing my text mash-up of Bly vs Bisland. I feel it is a monumental accomplishment! I might actually have something resembling a vacation day tomorrow!

Friday 21 November 2014 10:32pm

I went through every chapter with Drew for 2.5 hours or so. I found and fixed some chapter numbering problems.

Coming up in Part 2, I’ll share the stories about recording the text and choosing the cover art and music for the credits.

In the meantime, I invite you to listen to the retail sample of this audiobook and leave me any questions or comments about this audiobook on the blog. If you’d like a FREE copy of this fantastic audiobook, just click this link to start a trial membership at Audible.com.

The post Bly vs Bisland: The Story Behind the Story (Part 1) appeared first on Karen Commins.

Sherry Spencer decides that she’ll call Kit and let her know that her phone number was being circulated along with the currency. Any woman would want to know that, right?

Only…to Sherry’s shock, Kit isn’t a woman, but a man. And he’s not exactly thrilled to hear her news or anxious to retrieve the bill from her.

The next day, she’s not exactly thrilled to see Kit again. I won’t say how or where they re-establish their acquaintance because I don’t want to give too much away!

For A Good Time, Call by Trish Jensen is a sweet romance that runs 5 hours and 38 minutes. It read like all of my favorite RomCom movies and left me smiling at the perfect HEA ending! I hope you’ll enjoy it, too!

 
Buy on Audible  iTunes

Here’s a different scenario:  What would you do if you were the last person left on Earth following a nuclear war?

For 19-year-old Lita Day, the choice is simple: continue singing to the TV camera every night in the empty Copa.

Her husband Bill had said a man might hear her and would come to her. However, Lita was shocked by the visitors who actually showed up.

Eddie For Short is a 41-minute short story by prolific American science fiction writer Wallace West that is sure to give you something to think about!

 
Buy on Audible  iTunes

In October, I released a couple of cozy mysteries. The first was Return To Fender by Virginia Brown.

This fun book is the 4th in the Blue Suede Memphis Mysteries and is set in the week or so approaching Halloween. In fact, one of the biggest scenes in the book occurs at a Halloween party.

One of the leading drag queens in Memphis asks our heroine Harley Davidson (yep, that’s her name!) to find out who is trying to kill him. Harley isn’t a detective. She’s a tour guide at Memphis Tour Tyme.

Her friend and co-worker Thomas “Tootsie” Rowell is adept with computers and helps her get information. Her former boyfriend Bobby and current boyfriend Mike — both police officers — try in vain to convince her that she should leave the investigations to them.

Whoever it is thinks Harley is getting a little to close to the action and tells her to back off — or else.

As with the first 3 books in this series, Drew Commins, the hero of my life story, voices all of the male parts in this book, which runs 9 hours and 44 minutes.

 
Buy on Audible  iTunes 

Next came Yip/Tuck , book #4 in the Pampered Pets fun, cozy mystery series written by Sparkle Abbey. Each book in this series alternates between the POVs of 2 cousins, pet therapist Carolina LaMont and pet boutique owner Melinda Langston. This time, it’s Mel’s turn to tell the story.

She and her best friend Darby find Dr. Jack O’Doggle, one of Laguna’s best known plastic surgeons, dead outside of her Bow Wow Boutique. In trying to unravel the mystery of his bizarre death and find his killer, they learn most interesting secrets about several people in town.

Meanwhile, in a sub-plot, Mel and Caro are fighting over a brooch left by their grandmother to her “favorite granddaughter”. Naturally, each thinks she is the granddaughter in question, so they keep stealing the brooch from each other. We’re in on the fun as Mel plots and schemes about getting the brooch back in her possession!

The story has a lot of charm and humor. I especially enjoyed narrating Betty Foxx’s lines because Betty White seems to have been the model for this character.

Yip/Tuck is set at Christmastime and runs 5 hours 15 minutes, making this a perfect companion on holiday trips to see friends and family!

 
Buy on Audible  iTunes

December saw 2 releases: one of mine, and one for my husband Drew, which I directed.

Dead In Boca by Miriam Auerbach is audiobook #3 in the Dirty Harriet cozy mysteries.

In Boca Raton, Florida, Junior Castellano, a big-time land developer, hires PI Harriet Horowitz to find the silver-haired gigolo who broke Mama Castellano’s heart.

Simple enough, until the Boca police find Junior bulldozed at one of his construction sites. Was Junior killed by his mother’s con man? Or by a bitter ex-wife or spurned ex-girlfriend? Maybe by his estranged sons got the old man out of the picture for good.

The book has lots of laughs during its 6 hours and 49 minutes. I particularly enjoyed Harriet’s HELP test — the Horowitz Ersatz Lovers Profile — in which Harriet asked funny questions to determine whether Junior’s mama, Miss Lil, was getting scammed.

 
Buy on Audible  iTunes

After the success of Plague, a story about a terrorist unleashing the Ebola virus in Atlanta, Drew was excited to narrate H. W. “Buzz” Bernard’s latest suspenseful offering.

In this stand-alone story, Chuck Rittenburg is a washed-up, former tornado chaser/tour guide. A film director offers him $1 million to find the biggest, baddest F5 tornado within a 2-week window. Chuck hopes to not only find the tornado, but to regain the respect of his estranged son Tyler, who decides to help Chuck in this venture.

At the same time, an FBI agent wants to tag along on the quest. She isn’t tracking storms. Instead, she’s chasing the criminals who follow them and pretend to be emergency workers. The only help these so-called EMTs offer is to help themselves to the victims’ valuable possessions.

Bernard is a former weather forecaster, and he sprinkles his immense knowledge of and love for weather phenomena in unique metaphors throughout the book. His writing style really adds to the drama.

This is a great listen on a trip (especially in sunny weather!) as it runs 9 hours and 45 minutes.

 
Buy on Audible  iTunes
 

The post Audiobook Releases Fall 2014 appeared first on Karen Commins.

It’s not the first time that Harriet has been at a wedding when a murder occurs. The first time was when she shot her abusive ex-husband. (Well, he did deserve it.)

This time, she is attending the wedding of her gay friends Chuck and Enrique. I won’t tell you who gets killed, and I certainly won’t tell you how Harriet figures out the killer! I will say, though, that the zingers in the book are hysterical, and the singers in the Holy Rollers Motorcycle Club and Gospel Choir provide more than just a little entertainment!

This cozy mystery audiobook runs 5 hours and 36 minutes. It’s a fun listen, especially while poolside or at the beach.

By the way, I was thrilled to learn that author Miriam Auerbach is a finalist in the Best Novel: Cozy/ Traditional category for the 2014 Silver Falchion award! I loved narrating the audiobook of her nominated book DIRTY HARRIET. Congrats to Miriam and Bell Bridge Books on this honor!

 
The next new release really means a lot to me because I published it!

For the first time on Audible on iTunes, I’m proud to present the UNABRIDGED edition of the classic text FANNY HERSELF by renowned American author Edna Ferber.

Due to Amazon/Audible/ACX publishing rules, my audiobook has a different title: Fanny Herself: A Passionate Instinct.

This wonderful, coming-of-age story follows Fanny Brandeis from her childhood in Winnebago, WI into her 20s as a businesswoman in Chicago. Even though the book was written in 1917, many of the themes are still relevant.

Fanny’s mother, a widow, makes a decision about her children’s education that affects all of them throughout their lives. Like many of us, Fanny has to decide how whether she will pursue wealth or her creative dreams. We also wonder whether Fanny will find love.

I have recently discovered Edna Ferber and find that she is a brilliant storyteller.  Ferber won the Pulitzer Prize for Novel in 1925 and may be best known for her book Show Boat, which was adapted into a successful and long-running musical.

Rather than relying on dialogue to progress the story, she offers such vivid descriptions that we feel we are right there with the characters, experiencing the world as they did. Her female characters are strong and assertive, and I could identify with both Fanny and her mother. I was sorry when the story ended!

The book runs 12 hours and 44 minutes, perfect listening for those long drives to and from the beach or rainy weekends.

Ferber originally published this book as a serial story that ran in the April-November 1917 issues of The American Magazine. Check out my companion Kindle ebook which contains the original, beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations that accompanied the magazine segments.

 
I love Edna Ferber’s work so much that I narrated the first of many of her short stories to come:  Cheerful By Request.

As a child, Josie Fifer always spoke in front of crowds and liked to make people laugh. She thought she would be an actress on the stage. However, her life changed in a freak accident.

Can she find happiness and fulfillment in a new career?

Although the story is over 100 years old, it offers an important truth that is still relevant to the modern listener.

The black, the pearls, the theatre marquee, the star, and the mauve — oh, especially, the mauve! — are all important elements of this wonderful short story. I get giddy with delight when I think about how perfectly the cover art and the music in the credits complement the story.

The story runs just over an hour, an ideal length to hear while commuting, cooking, or doing other tasks.

The post Audiobook Releases Summer 2014 appeared first on Karen Commins.

Earlier this year, I published The Heart of the New Thought by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, one of the leaders in the New Thought movement in the early 20th century.

This short book was first published over 100 years ago, but Wilcox offers advice for living a better and more spiritual life that is still practical today. Wilcox suggests ways to change your thinking and specific actions to take in order to feel better about yourself and improve your life.

For instance, have you ever noticed that the more you talk about being sick, the illness worsens and stays with you for a longer period of time?

I’m especially proud of this book because it is the first publication for my new audiobook company Jewel Audiobooks! Jewel Audiobooks will specialize in self-development and travel treasures and long-hidden gems of fiction.

 
Fans of Melissa F. Miller’s Sasha McCandless legal thriller series will be happy to know that book 5, Improper Influence is now in audio!

In this book, Sasha meets forensic pathologist Bodhi King, who asks her help in solving a case where young, healthy women in Pittsburgh are dying. In determining the cause of deaths, Bodhi also becomes a target.

Meanwhile, Sasha is working on a legal case involving corruption and another with a breach of contract. Could these cases be related to the deaths?

As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, her hunky fiancé is getting antsy about planning their wedding.

It’s never a dull moment in this series!

 
I had the honor of narrating Mary Potter Kenyon’s Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Saved a Marriage .

When Kenyon’s husband David contracted oral cancer, she looked for books and inspirational stories to help them get through the experience. She lets the listener know early on that her husband DID NOT DIE from his cancer treatments as she wanted to provide hope to those who are ill or caregivers for cancer patients.

She wrote with honesty and frankness about the state of their marriage at the time of his diagnosis and their steps to become closer as he went through treatments.

She also discussed the effect that his treatments and the couple’s re-commitment to each other had on their 8 children.

I wanted to narrate it because so many people are in a similar situation. I think this book can offer hope and encouragement to people who need it most.

 
Just in time for pool season, I’m delighted to announce that the Dixie Divas — your favorite summertime companions — are back with book 5 in this funny, cosy mystery series, Divas Do Tell .

You’ve heard of the book The Help? Well, this isn’t that book….but Holly Springs, MS resident and sister to one of the Divas Dixie Lee Forsythe was inspired by that book to write one of her own!

Bitty Hollandale and other own residents were upset about the publication of Dixie Lee’s tell-all Dark Secrets Under the Holly due to its thinly-veiled descriptions of townspeople. They were even more upset about the movie version…..that is, until they found out they could be IN the movie! Of course, wherever the Divas are, murders seem to follow.

It’s a fabulous day when I get to voice the dialogue between the main characters Bitty Hollandale and Trinket Truevine! I’m thrilled to learn that author Virginia Brown is already at work on book 6!

 
My latest release is Two Shades of Morning by Janice Daugharty. It falls in the category of literary fiction.

A woman looks back to the early 1960s and tells us about her relationships with her next-door neighbor. At the time, our narrator Earlene was 19, married, and accustomed to being the prettiest girl in her little N. Florida town.

Nothing changed — yet everything changed — the day her friend and neighbor Robert Dale Sharpe brought home his pretty new wife, Sibil.

“Nobody ever believed much about Sibyl Sharpe, least of all that she would die, and yet death is the first thing I heard about her.”

With an opening line like that, you know there are secrets to be kept and others exposed!

 
All of these books are great listens for those summer road trips and lounging by the pool. Enjoy!
 

The post Winter 2014 Audiobook Releases appeared first on Karen Commins.

If you like fun, cozy mysteries and/or light-hearted stories about pets, you will really enjoy this book!

Caro Lamont is a pet therapist in Laguna Beach, CA. Her next-door neighbor Kitty Bardot is the publicist to the stars and owner of 2 Bengal cats who paint. Yes, you read it right!

When Kitty Bardot is killed on the way home from the cats’ art exhibition, Caro is left to follow the clues. Meanwhile, one of Carol’s clients is also found dead, and Caro is trying to figure out the cause of both murders.

This was a fun book to read, and I’m looking forward to recording book 4, Yip/Tuck.

 
I also want to announce an audiobook I directed: Plague by Buzz Bernard, narrated by Drew Commins.

This gripping thriller is about a lone-wolf terrorist who plans to unleash the Ebola virus in Atlanta. The horrific descriptions of how the virus ravages its victims are definitely NOT what you want to hear at bedtime!

CDC virologist Dr. Dwight Butler finds instances of the virus at local hospitals and begins a frantic search to find the source before a terrible pandemic can occur.

Meanwhile, Richard Wainwright, interim CEO of BioDawn, learns that the plane crash that killed all of the company’s executives may be tied to the threat. He is stalked by a hit woman and becomes the main suspect in the murder of his assistant.

Buzz Bernard is a former weather forecaster who lives nearby, and we particularly enjoyed his unique and clever metaphors to weather terms throughout the story. Also, since we’re both Atlanta natives, we appreciated the accuracy of his references to the places around town.

While this is Drew’s first solo narration, he is no stranger to audiobooks! He has directed all of my audiobooks and voiced the male characters in our super fun Blue Suede Memphis cozy mysteries. Switching roles for this book gave us a great appreciation for the different skills required in our normal capacities!

This audiobook is 9 hours and 41 minutes and is sure to make you break out in a sweat (and start looking over your shoulder) on these cold days!

 
My latest release id Dirty Harriet by Miriam Auerbach, the first book in a funny chick lit series.

Former Boca Babe Harriet “Dirty Harriet” Horowitz is now a Biker Babe. Go ahead. Make her day.

“Dirty Harriet” had it all. Money. Plastic Surgery. Servants. Then her husband raised his fist one time too many, and she shot and killed him.

Now, she lives in the South Florida swamps, rides a Harley, and owns a private eye agency to investigate scams. When the Countess von Phul asks her to solve a murder, will Harriet escape with her life?

I had a great time narrating this book and was delighted to receive a lovely note from the author, quoted here with her permission:

Just recently had the chance to finish listening to your narration of my book and would like to give you a big THANK YOU!  I am so delighted with your voices!  I will say that Lana the alligator was my favorite voice.  Pitch-perfect, as they say.  You really captured that gator’s attitude!

The post Fall 2013 Audiobook Releases appeared first on Karen Commins.

William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was a leading participant in a prolonged shoot-out in Lincoln, NM during the late 1870s. The violent episode became known as the Lincoln County War.

While many people know something of this story, few realize that a woman was at the center of it.

She wasn’t Billy’s wife, mother, or sister, yet Billy and his band of “Regulators” were in her house during the conflict.

Who was she, and why was Billy the Kid in her home?

The woman was Susan McSween, the wife of attorney Alexander McSween.

Author Kathleen P. Chamberlain conducted extensive research and wrote a fascinating account of Susan McSween’s life in her book In The Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War, which was published earlier this year.

You never hear about women when learning about the Wild Wild West. As one who loves to read biographies and learn about history, it was exciting to me to read this well-researched biography of a woman embedded in what is typically man’s story. Billy the Kid may have made Susan McSween famous, but she went on to become the Cattle Queen of New Mexico.

I recorded the 12-hour audiobook for University Press Audiobooks and am honored to bring her story to audio. In doing so, I also conducted extensive research in order to pronounce the Spanish and Native American words found in the text.

The audiobook is now available for immediate purchase and download on Audible.com at this link.

The post In the Shadow of Billy the Kid appeared first on Karen Commins.

While this WordPress blog now has a nifty new Yearly Archives index, many things about the blog still don’t work, especially links within articles. Thanks for your patience as I continue to fix the previous article links. I also hadn’t posted new articles during the conversion, which, of course, took far longer than I expected! I will post a new article after this update on my recent audiobooks.

Divas and Dead Rebels by Virginia Brown

Book 4 in the best-selling Dixie Divas Cozy Mystery series

Trinket and her pals are, once again, caught in the middle of a murder scene. What Trinket thought was an untidy pile of clothing tumbling out of Bitty’s sons’ dorm room closet turned out to be a professor with whom Bitty had just quarreled that very morning. At 13 hours, this book is the perfect, light-hearted, fun companion to take to the pool or beach!

I love narrating this series! The Divas are like old friends, and the banter between Bitty and Trinket makes me laugh out loud! They remind me of Blanche Devereaux and Dorothy Sbornak on the TV show The Golden Girls.

You might think this type of book wouldn’t require preparatory research, but it does. In addition to looking up pronunciations for places mentioned in the book, I had to learn the Ole Miss Hotty Toddy cheer. I didn’t go to a college with a football team, but as an audiobook narrator, I was able to pretend I was a fervent football fan and cheering with the best of them!

Available at Amazon   Amazon   iTunes

Indispensable Party by Melissa F. Miller

Book 4 in the Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller series

In the name of science, an international team of researchers creates a deadly virus capable of killing untold millions. While the U.S. government quietly stockpiles a vaccine, a militaristic group of doomsday preppers begins to mobilize in response to the economic collapse they’re convinced is coming.

Then the Doomsday virus is stolen, and a researcher is murdered. Attorney Sasha McCandless and her boyfriend Leo Connelly, who is now chief of security at the pharmaceutical firm making the vaccine, are in the middle of the action and racing against time to find the missing virus before it is unleashed on the world.

This audiobook can give you nightmares! As usual, Miller wrote a fast-paced book that reads like a movie script, with scenes primarily in Washington, DC and Pennsylvania.

While I was on vacation, I read the text version of Dan Brown’s latest thriller Inferno. Even if I didn’t narrate Melissa Miller’s books, I must tell you that her plot and action seem much more realistic and likely to happen than did Brown’s. I look forward to the day when her name and work is as well-known as his!

Available at Audible   Amazon   iTunes
 

The post May 2013 Audiobook Releases appeared first on Karen Commins.

Lizzie and the Guernsey Gang by April W. Gardner

Lizzie Browning loves nothing more than her tiny, island-home of Guernsey, but when German bombs drop on her crystal beach, her peaceful world explodes. For months, the big war in Europe has been nothing more than stories in the paper, but as the enemy takes over Guernsey, the war rushes to her doorstep. For Lizzie, younger brother Andre, and cousin James, the time to escape is now, and they know just how to do it.

This wonderful YA book was a challenge to narrate as almost all of the characters are British children. Before I started my pre-read and research phase, I confess that I didn’t even know where Guernsey was. I also felt a bit of trepidation in voicing the book because I haven’t been a young girl in a long time, and I’ve never been British. It might seem strange that I was the one chosen to narrate the book.

As an aside, several months before I was contracted for Lizzie, a well-known producer told me that I have an earnestness to my sound that would work well with YA and faith-based titles. Lizzie is both of those things.

The true Guernsey accent is difficult to achieve, especially with limited preparation time. However, the producer and I felt that some sort of passable British accent was needed to truly convey the author’s intent. It wouldn’t sound right to have an American accent speaking to her “mum” or using some of the other British-isms in the book. Since the book was written in first person, the narration had to be British as well.

Perhaps it was my earnestness rather than an authentic accent which made Lizzie’s producer choose me for this project. Perhaps it was because the author also lives in Georgia as I do. Whatever the reason that I was chosen, I wanted to the best possible job on it, as I do with all my audiobooks.

As part of my preparation, I listened to the delightful audiobook The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Five fabulous narrators told the fictional story, which was a series of letters between a London writer and Guernsey residents in post-War 1946. This story helped me get the lyricism and rhythm of the British speech patterns implanted in my mind. Through the incidents portrayed in this book and my additional research, I better understood the fear and uncertainty of the characters in my book.

Recording the book was a very difficult experience that required many stops and starts, but I’m proud of the outcome. The book may have some inconsistencies, and maybe even the casual listener would discern that I’m not British. Still, I told a good story.

I am honored to bring this story to audio.

Irretrievably Broken by Melissa F. Miller

Book 3 in the Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller series

One of the partners at the venerable Pittsburg law firm of Prescott & Talbott has been murdered, and her estranged husband is accused of the crime. A few days later, a second female partner is murdered; her husband is also accused.

Although former Prescott lawyer Sasha McCandless doesn’t have experience in criminal defense, she agrees to defend both men as a favor to the firm. The cases take her away from her boyfriend Leo Connelly. Even worse, she doesn’t know that the killer is on a vendetta about a past case that went wrong, and one more lawyer is on his list.

I love narrating this well-written series! Sasha McCandless is a physically and mentally strong person, and we see the character grow as the series progresses.

In addition, the legal wrangling is always extremely interesting. I research the legal rules and citations so that Sasha can say them correctly and talk intelligently about them. In this book, a dramatic development toward the end had me asking the author about the legalities of the resolution. While I won’t reveal the scene or tell you what she said, let me just say that Melissa Miller certainly is adept at making the reader feel something in her page-turning mysteries!

Sasha fans will be delighted to know that I have finished narrating book #4, Indispensable Party, and expect it to be released in May.

Available at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes
 

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