Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

New releases

Fall 2013 Audiobook Releases

Kitty Kitty Bang Bang. the third audiobook in Sparkle Abbey’s Pampered Pets series, is now available!

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!


 

In the Shadow of Billy the Kid

You probably have heard the name of Billy the Kid, but have you heard the story behind his fame? Did you know a woman was involved?

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.

 

May 2013 Audiobook Releases

Between moving my blog platform from Movable Type to WordPress, a wonderful beach vacation with Drew and Yogi, and my on-going audiobook narration projects, May quickly evaporated and has now turned into June.

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
 

March 2013 Audiobook Releases

Before April turns into May, I wanted to update you about my 2 audiobooks that were released in March.

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
 

December 2012 Audiobook Releases

Two of my audiobooks released in December.

Lowcountry Bribe by C. Hope Clark (Book 1 in the Carolina Slade Mysteries)

Threats, a missing boss, a very dead co-worker, a high-level investigation, and a sinister hog farmer… Someone wants to make sure she buys the farm.

In Lowcountry Bribe, Carolina Slade is a by-the-book manager for the Dept. of Agriculture. A farmer offers her a bribe, and she decides to do the right thing — report it. Soon, her life and those of her children are in danger.

As a former career federal employee, I wanted to narrate this book from the moment I saw it. I had great empathy with the main character, and I was surprised by the strong emotions that I felt in many of the scenes.

I also thought the rural setting was a refreshing change from books about city-dwellers. In fact, the author discussed the country setting in an article titled “We Murder in the Country, Too”, which you may find interesting reading.

With over 13 hours of listening, this book would be an ideal companion on dreary winter days! 🙂

Harley Rushes In by Virginia Brown (Book 2 in the Blue Suede Memphis series)

Part-time tour guide and part-time amateur sleuth Harley Jean Davidson is back with another crime to solve. Her Aunt Darcy owns a furniture store and is convinced her partner is smuggling priceless artifacts…until Harley finds him hanging from elk antlers in the shop.

It’s a light-hearted, fun, cozy mystery.

As with the first book, Hound Dog Blues, the hero of my life story Drew Commins joins me in the booth and performs all the male parts. We enjoy recording this series and laugh at the interplay in the dialogue. Should I feel concerned that Drew sounds a little too good as the gay transvestite receptionist? 🙂
 

Summer/Fall 2012 Audiobook Releases

My audiobook work has continued steadily all year, and I’m blessed and grateful to report that more are coming!

In addition to the narration, I did the complete production of each of these books in my stunning soundproof studio. I am so fortunate that Drew directs me on my audiobooks. He is exceedingly good at catching mis-reads, and he also offers guidance about saying lines with different emotion or inflection.

Drop Dead Divas by Virginia Brown (Book 2 in the Dixie Divas mystery series)

No sooner has Bitty Hollandale been cleared of the murder of her ex-husband than townspeople suspect she may have killed his lover, town bad girl Naomi Spencer. In addition, Naomi’s fiancé Race Champion is also found dead. Talk about a fly in the martini!

Dixie Diva Blues by Virginia Brown (Book 3 in the Dixie Divas mystery series)

Trinket Truevine and her cousin Bitty Hollandale are once again up to their eyebrows in murder and mayhem. This time, the husband of one of the Divas has been arrested for murder. The Divas will stop at nothing to clear him…but what happens at a Divas meeting stays at a Divas meeting!

Irreparable Harm by Melissa F. Miller (Book 1 in the Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller series)

A smartphone app is capable of crashing a commercial jet. And it’s for sale to the highest bidder. A plane slams into the side of a mountain, killing everyone aboard. But, as attorney Sasha McCandless digs into the case, she learns the crash was no accident. She joins forces with federal air marshal Leo Connelly, and they race to prevent another crash.

Hound Dog Blues by Virginia Brown (Book 1 in the Blue Suede Memphis series)

With a heroine named Harley Davidson, you know this cozy mystery will be fun! Harley sets out to find out who dognapped family dog King (named after Elvis, of course) and quickly finds herself in the midst of a band of jewel thieves!

I’m also excited about it because my co-narrator who did all of the male parts is also the hero of my life story — Drew Commins! It was quite a challenge to record both of our parts and then edit it to make it sound seamless. We also gained greater appreciation for each others’ usual roles.

Inadvertent Disclosure by Melissa F. Miller (Book 2 in the Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller series)

In this book, tiny but fierce lawyer Sasha McCandless finds a town divided by the practice of hydrofracking. The town’s only judge is killed just as he is about to decide a major issue about the mineral leases. Sasha races to find the murderer and save the town before it’s too late.

Subsequent books in each of these 3 series are on tap for the coming months. I’m currently finishing Lowcountry Bribe by C. Hope Clark. This mystery thriller is set in South Carolina, and the protagonist works for the US Department of Agriculture. It should be released in early November.