Listen Up!

I really got into audiobooks with the Harry Potter series, partly because I so enjoyed the way that Jim Dale converted J. K. Rowling's words into a complete sensory experience. For a long time, my husband and I never went anywhere without a set of Potter tapes (and later CDs) riding along. And of course audiobooks are great for making time go faster when I'm stuck with a tedious and mind-numbing task. I can even get excited about painting a wall if I have a good book to listen to. 

The first few of my own audiobook projects are now reaching completion, and I couldn't be more excited. Three are now finished, with another five in production.

 Creating Romantic Characters focuses on one of the most important elements of writing -- creating characters who feel real, exciting, and worthy of a book. No matter how exciting the plot, it's the people in a story who make it memorable. The techniques and examples in Creating Romantic Characters will help you produce provocative, exciting, forceful characters with dynamic stories. Whether you're writing romance novels, stories which include romantic relationships, or general fiction, this book will help you create characters who are romantic and heroic, adventurous and mysterious -- larger than life. 

(Narrated by Erin Novotny)

Writing Between the Sexes is a summary of a seminar I do in person and on line from time to time. Men and women think, talk, and act differently -- which causes problems for writers who are trying to create characters of the opposite sex. When we understand the difference between masculine and feminine qualities and habits, we can use those behaviors and patterns to create characters who are plausible and unique, but not stereotypical. Writing Between the Sexes will help you to identify your own gender-specific behaviors, notice those of the opposite sex, and use both to make your characters realistic and believable.

(Narrated by John David -- coming soon)

Wedding Daze is a Regency-period short story -- the audio is just half an hour long.  It's too late for Emily to back out of her wedding, even though she's pretty sure she'll regret it if she says "I do." The groom is just as reluctant -- and their respective fathers seem to be the only ones who think the wedding is a good idea. Will Harry and Emily make it to the altar? (Narrated by B. F. Laskar -- coming soon)

Waiting to Hear

As the date draws closer for the release of my new Regency-period historical romance, I find myself most anxious to hear the audio version.

The Birthday Scandal is my fourth historical romance... my 84th romance novel... at least my 105th book... but the very, very first which will be released as an audio book.

A few weeks ago, when the book was being recorded, actress Rosalyn Landor and I had a lovely conversation via email to talk about accents. One of the three heroes in the book is American, and she asked where he was from, so she could make him sound just right.

Rosalyn is an experienced narrator and I can't wait to hear how she shares my story about the three Arden siblings (Lucien, Isabel, and Emily) as they find love at their great-uncle's 70th birthday ball.

In the meantime, I'm in production with four more audio projects. Creating Romantic Characters will be out soon -- it's a non-fiction book about building characters from the ground up. It will be followed by Wedding Daze, which is a Regency short story (it'll only be about a half-hour long, though I wish it was more -- the narrator has such a lovely accent!). The other two projects are contemporary romances -- The Best Made Plans and The Lake Effect, which will probably be coming out at the beginning of next year.

Of course the narrator has the really hard job in this enterprise -- I've done enough radio spots in my time to have a great appreciation of the work they do. Still, I'm finding that the producer doesn't have an easy time of it, either. Part of my job is to listen to each book all the way through -- sometimes multiple times. While that sounds like fun (and indeed it is) it's also a challenge to stay completely alert in order to catch a wrong word or an unclear phrase, and then get it noted down quickly with the exact time spot in the recording, so it can easily be redone. Not at all like listening to a book for fun!