Hope you all had a peaceful and happy holiday season. I spent my New Year’s reading. There is nothing like curling up with a good book! In 2022, I hoped to get the Jill Quint series started on Audio. I signed a contract last January to publish the first three books by May of last year. That deadline slipped and slipped and slipped. Then in December, I had word that Vials was completed, but by a different narrator than I originally selected. I heard the audio and let me just say that I parted ways with the audio company. I couldn’t publish that audio version of Vials.
Meanwhile, just about a week before that happened, I put my Damian Green Series up for an audition with Audible. I’ve had about 30 narrators audition for one or more of the 5 book series. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and a narrator can make or break an audiobook. If the narrator is monotonous, I soon disappear into my imagination and miss the narration. So, I’ve listened and relistened to several auditions trying to decide if this is the voice of Damian, Arianna, and Hermione. Oh, the pressure to get this right.
I’m also going to do the same for the Jill Quint series. If you’ve read most of the books, listen to audiobooks, and would like to give me a second opinion on which narrator should be the voices of Jill, Jo, Marie, Angela, Nathan, and Henrik and the other side characters let me know – maybe we’ll set up a listening party on Zoom for later this month. My first reader said Jill needed to be a strong female voice. As I’ve weeded out voices for the Damian Green series, I’ve asked myself – would this be suited to Michelle Watson or Jill Quint? Again, oh the pressure to get this right.
Meanwhile, I’m working on Jill Quint #14 – Mint Death. I haven’t set a publication date, but I will as soon as I clear the audio mess. I’ve also had some fun with TikTok. I won’t be going “viral” anytime soon, but there are some very funny book videos on Booktok. I stay away from dancing people as that’s a rabbit hole I don’t need to explore-I might lose hours of my life watching those videos.
Finally, I’ll be doing a newsletter swap with another author. This week it is Peyton Dinwiddie, a South African Mystery writer - follow the link below to read about his books. By now, we’re acquainted with British mysteries and perhaps Scandinavian mysteries, and I read a series set in Ghana, but this is my first South African story. Most authors writing in English try to have success in the U.S. market first as it is the largest. There are higher book-reading populations in Europe percentage-wise, but the overall population is smaller.
I think that catches you up. In my January 18 newsletter, I should be able to have a pre-order date for Mint Death.
Cheers,
Alec
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