​Author: Abigail Drake
Narrator: Alex Bonner
Length: 11 hours 27 minutes
Publisher: Abigail Drake⎮2022
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Release date: Apr. 4, 2022

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What type of training have you undergone?
After graduating from the University of Miami (BBA), I moved to New York to train as an actor. I was lucky to start my work with students in the Columbia MFA program as an actor used in scenes run for classroom discussion. I learned a great deal from the faculty there, and through it met the wonderful director Peter Miner, who invited me to take his scene study course at the Terry Schreiber Studio in Chelsea. Peter is a fantastic teacher, and he guided me towards the next chapter of my training, a two year Meisner program I attended at Playhouse West Brooklyn. Under the instruction of actors Jim Parrack and Andrea Dantas, I learned what it meant to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances, to connect myself deeply to my work, and most of all, to give myself freely to my partner. It was my first experience in theater, and it was magic. All of the things I’d never been asked to say or never had the courage to do had a place on stage.

A lot of narrators seem to have a background in theatre. Is that something you think is essential to a successful narration career?
It might not be essential, but it's definitely helpful! I think a good read can only be enhanced by training, and quality technique can really help in bringing the characters to life. This can be especially true on the days you might not feel up to record! You could've stepped in gum on the way to the studio and got caught in the rain, but the script calls for you to have the best day of your life for that take. Theater training can help the actor bring their whole person to any project, despite any obstacles life throws in your way.

How do you manage to avoid burn-out?
Recording and producing a book is a marathon, and not a sprint. Organization is key, and it helps to create unbreakable contracts with yourself to hit your milestones for each day. If you've got 5 chapters for that day, make it all the way to 5 chapters. That also means that if you crush a recording session and have time for extra chapters, give yourself a break and say "jobs done for today, I did what I set out to do for this project, now I need to do what I need for me". Spending time with your family and self care is essential. If you're running into that often, you can always increase your goals for output. But keeping a promise to yourself is an investment in self confidence.

What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for narrating?
No holds barred in the booth! Sing, dance, and do whatever silly thing that will put you in a mindset of "no wrong answers here".

How closely do you prefer to work with authors?
I really love working closely with authors! Sometimes it's fun to start the work with a blank slate and fill in the gaps with your own imagination. Your instincts can open up a character in really cool ways. Other times, having conversations with the author about the story and characters can feel like getting a peel at the answer key to an upcoming test. Specificity is key; the more specific I can make a read or character, the more alive that character will be, and ultimately in line with the authors vision.

Do you read reviews for your audiobooks?
Only the good ones! 

​ For fans of Lee Child, Robert Ludlum and Stieg Larsson, comes the exhilarating fourth instalment of the Winter series, winner of Audible’s Thriller of the Year 2019.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster....
Firestorm is down - the assassin for hire website that had the world by its throat, gone. Alek Konstantin, king of the underworld, is in hiding. But while the world celebrates, Winter is bracing for what must surely follow. 
All the world’s cut-throats, assassins and thugs are unemployed, roaming the globe without a leader - and nature abhors a vacuum. 
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken....
Something’s not right, and it’s not only that Winter’s body is in pieces. A boy held captive. An attempted assassination. Thirty men gunned down in rural South Wales. What sinister hand is directing these events, and to what end?  
GCHQ is a place of secrets, and they follow Winter everywhere. There is so much she must conceal, and Control is keeping something from her, something vital about her past. 
As she crashes towards the ultimate showdown, Winter faces the hardest decision of her life - and she must ask herself the question - whose side is she really on?


Buy Links for Audiobook #4
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About the Author: Alex Callister
Alex is an action movie fan and her books are full of cult references and movie one-liners. Her kick-ass heroine, Winter, was inspired by Bond, Bourne, John Wick, Vin Diesel, Jack Reacher and many others. She has a history degree, a certificate in creative writing and a murderous imagination. She writes when she gets a chance, which is mainly at night between 10pm and 2am at home in London, with her three Bengal tigers. Her debut WINTER DARK was the Audible UK Thriller of the Year and was a finalist at the Audies in 2020.
Website

About the Narrator: Ell Potter
Ell Potter is an actor, writer, and award-winning narrator. While training at LAMDA, she was named Audible’s ‘Breakout Star’ and her debut audiobook was subsequently nominated for an Audie. She has since recorded extensively with numerous publishers, winning multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards in the process. Her narrator credits include Hamnet, the Winter series, Dark, Salt, Clear (BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week), In At The Deep End , and little scratch.

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​Starr Valentine, the most popular cheerleader at Middleton High, has led a charmed life. But the day she is chosen as the youngest member ever of homecoming court, is also the day her parents reveal a secret more than a decade old: They are monarchs in exile from a mysterious planet called Vega, and it’s time for all of them to return home.
Best day ever, ruined!
While she likes the idea of being a princess, Starr realizes something is terribly wrong when they arrive on their new world. She’s always been the best-looking girl in the room, but everyone is ignoring her and fawning over her frumpy older sister, Astra, and it doesn’t make sense. Although Astra is the sweetest person around, she’s never even had a date. So why is she now getting all the attention?
Starr soon figures out the awful truth. The standard of beauty on Vega is different, and Starr isn’t pretty anymore. To make matters worse, everybody treats her like she’s annoying and shallow, including an irritatingly handsome young duke named Julian. Can Starr find a way to get noticed again, or is this once beautiful swan doomed to remain an ugly duckling forever?
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​About the Author: Abigail Drake
Abigail Drake is the award-winning author of seventeen novels, but she didn’t start her career in writing. She majored in Japanese and economics in college, and spent years traveling the world, collecting stories wherever she visited. She collected a husband from Istanbul on her travels, too, and he is still her favorite souvenir.
Abigail is a coffee addict, a puppy wrangler, and the mother of three adult sons. She writes contemporary romance, women’s fiction, and young adult fiction, and has taught workshops for many different writing organizations. In her spare time, she blogs about her dog, Capone, and teaches writing classes for children at her local library.
In 2019, Abigail was awarded an honorable mention for her book "Love, Chocolate, and a Dog Named Al Capone" in the Writer's Digest Self-Published E-book Awards. She is the winner of the 2017 Prism Award for her book "Traveller", the International Digital Award for her young adult novel, "Tiger Lily", and the Stiletto Contest for "Love, Chocolate, and a Dog Named Al Capone." In addition, she was named a finalist in the Golden Pen, the Golden Leaf, the Dante Rossetti Book Award, and the Cygnus Award for Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction.
Abigail is represented by Lauren Bieker of FinePrint Literary Management and she is the cofounder of Romancing Your Muse (www.romancingyourmuse.com). For more information, visit her website at www.abigaildrake.net.
Website

About the Narrator: Kasey Miracle
Kasey Miracle has been in productions since she was a child. In college, she performed in plays and musicals (including MacBeth, The Mouse Who Roared, Rent, Wicked, The Glass Menagerie and more). She wrote award winning scripts for commercials and helped create backgrounds and sound effects in her spare time. After college, she taught Computers in an Elementary School, was an Elementary School Librarian and helped with sound and visuals in Chapels, Productions, and Events. She was thrilled to help host the first STEM Competition in her city. 
When she became a mom to an amazing, Autistic, little boy, she altered her course to voice over so she could be with him while also helping others like him enjoy works that they may not be able to read easily. 
She is passionate about her work and does her best to make the entire process as hassle free as possible! She gives her absolute best to every single project, no matter how big or small!
Website

​Charles Dickens
Stephen King
Donna Leon
Elizabeth George
JRR Tolkien
George Eliot
Michael Ondaatje
The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Willams)
Anne Lamont
Agatha Christie

About the Author: Cameron D. Garriepy
Cameron Garriepy is a New England-based author of smart, sexy, small-town love stories. She’s been devouring romance novels since she discovered Princess Daisy on her mother’s bookshelf. She’s been a nanny, a pastry cook, a camp counselor, a ticket resale specialist, an office manager, and a content writer. In her spare time, she’s an archer, a gardener, a baker, a knitter, and a reader of a lot of romance. She writes from the greater Boston area, where she lives with her husband, son, a naughty pug, and four ridiculous hens.
Website

About the Narrator: Amy Jo Steele
Amy Jo Steele is a classically trained actor who studied theatre at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts NYC, and the New York Acting Conservatory for film acting. She grew up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and after living and learning in New York, she made the move to Los Angeles. She continued doing theatre but focused more on film work. She studied and performed at Upright Citizens Brigade and was part of a small comedy production group where she first experienced a bit of voice-over work and short story narration which she found an instant love for. When Covid inspired the need for more indoor activities, discovering and stepping into audiobook narration was a perfect and very rewarding solution. One she hopes to continue and evolve in regardless of the state of the world.

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​Are any of those things referenced in appearance in your work? I don’t think any of them are in Buck’s Landing, but they definitely get woven into the fabric of my written world.

What’s next for you? I’m working on a full-length, second-chance romance that’s really dear to my heart.

​Author: Emmanuel M Arriaga
Narrator: Melissa Reizian
Length: 16 hours 7 minutes
Publisher: EA Starchilde Company⎮2022
Genre: Science Fiction; Space Opera
Series: Foundra Series, Book 1
Release date: Mar. 4, 2022

The dead don’t come back, but some never leave...
Jack Kelly remembers everything about his wife and children. The wonderful smell of his wife’s hair, the way she whispers to him at night. His three children running through the house, the sound of their laughter.
That was his life before the accident. His near-death experience left him in the in-between space, somewhere between this world and whatever comes next. But he recovered and woke up as his 13-year-old self.
The doctors tell him it is a false memory, a result of his fall and the insult to his brain from his injuries.
“How can a 13-year-old boy have a wife and three children”? They ask.
But how can he see and hear dead people, demons, ghosts, and shadowy creatures? And if they exist, then is it so inconceivable to believe that Jack’s life as a 47-year-old man with a wife and children existed, too?
Jack begins his journey to find out why and how. And, in the end, he resolves to find his way back to his true existence, back to his family.
The Book of Souls is the first book in the series. The Book of Demons is coming...
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About the Author: Kevin Moore
Kevin Moore is the author of "Christmas Stories 7 Original Short Stories". He also had his first Children's picture book released in May 2021. His play "Conversations From The Sports Arena” was performed at the HBO Theater in Hollywood. "The Book of Souls” is his first novel. Based on a true event, Moore considers this a "self help book, which just happens to be a paranormal thriller. The sequel "The Book of Demons" will be released October 11, 2022. Moore practices Lucid Dreaming and Bardo Dreaming which has helped him with his writing. He is a Yogi and an Advanced Reiki Practitioner  — most importantly, he is Matthew and Madison's father.
Website

About the Narrator: Luke Welland
Luke Welland is a Canadian film and TV Actor based in Vancouver, BC. He has appeared in TV shows such as Supernatural, Caprica and Travelers; Movies such as Footsteps Into Gangland and Eat It Raw, and in commercials for Virgin Mobile, Mini-Cooper, Bud Light and several others. He used to tour as the singer and guitarist in punk band No Other Way, and still writes and records his own folk/acoustic music. He also is a working voiceover artist completing several audiobooks including The Vista, Soul Meets Body, Riding the Edge, and best-seller: The Imperial Alchemist, and Book of Souls.
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1. Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook. *My wife is in a book club and the majority of members listen to books, so I knew we had to do an audiobook. When we started listening to narrators it was a bit overwhelming because there were so many talented people. In the end we had an actor with a big booming voice and an actor that's voice captured Jack at 13. We went with him. You know someone is going to be listening for 10 hours, so the voice must be easy to listen to - while still capturing the vibration of the book.
   
2. How did you select your narrator? *We had chosen an actor who could do the "haunted" part of the book very well and we were suppose to stop listening and make an offer. Luke's audition came in a day later with several others and I thought - I'll just listen to these three just for fun before we make the offer. When I heard Luke I thought - wow - that is Jack as a teenager and we went with him at the eleventh hour.
   
3. Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing? *Yes! The story is based on these recurring dreams I was having about these shadow people who kept trying to get my son. It put me on guard. My son ended up in the hospital a month later in intensive care and I felt it was a "God call," because Matthew and I were ready to fight. I slept with him in the hospital every night for three weeks. We had a ghost experience while we were there with one of the nurses which is also in the book.
   
4. If you had the power to time travel, would you use it? If yes, when and where would you go?* I would definitely use it! My mother died when I was a teenager and she was with us for such a short time, but had a gigantic impact on my life. She introduced me to my spiritual life. I would go back to New York City, 1973 the year before she got sick - just to experience the wonder of her again.
   
5. What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”? I'm a firm believer in meeting people where they are - if someone drives a lot for work or has a long commute and that is how they are able to listen/read through audiobooks, how can that possibly be cheating? Remember oral story telling started long before books were in hand. I think just do you. If you like sitting with a book - great. If you can't sit still and need to listen to a book on a walk - great. It really is all about the story. I happen to love them both. I love the feel and smell of books, but as I have gotten older I love the company of a good audiobook.
   
6. Have any of your characters ever appeared in your dreams? *Oh yes! I am a lucid dreamer so several of my characters came to me. I met Kasper at a party in New York - he was unaware that I created him and had a full life of his own - we hung out an entire weekend - in my dream. Jack Kelly came to me with a another story right before the release of The Book of Souls" in a dream that was super fun and maybe the start of another book. The Book of Demons comes out on 10/11/22 which is the sequel.
   
7. What's your favorite:*
   
   1. Food - Mustard Salmon
      
   2.  Song "Mercy Mercy Me" by Marvin Gaye
      
   3.  Book "The Cat in The Hat" Dr Suess
      
   4. Television show 
      
   5. Movie "To Kill a Mockingbird"
      
   6.  Band "Pink Martini"
      
   7.  Sports team "Dodgers"
      
   8.  City "NYC" my home town.
      
8. Are any of those things referenced in appearance in your work? *Yes. It's set in Manhattan - which is where I grew up and also "To Kill a Mockingbird." Mr Cairo had a stroke and lost his ability to communicate verbally and can't use his writing hand. Jack realizes he can see symbols over Mr Cairo's head which don't always make sense. Jack is asking him if he knows the movie To Kill A Mockingbird? Mr Cairo keeps pulling up Woodie Wood pecker to represent the mockingbird and a whale to represent Gregory Peck, because Gregory Peck was in the movie Moby Dick. I hope it's a cute little segment and its away for the reader or listener to see the building of their relationship.
   
9. What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors? *Listen to your inner voice, your intuition and write. And fall in love with your characters - enjoy the process - that is where I had the most fun. Some people will like your book and some will not; it's all about the journey.
   
10. What’s next for you? * I like to surprise myself - so I'm opening myself to the possibilities. However Jack did show up in a dream last week, so I don't think he is done with me yet.
    

Please forgive me for picking a self-indulgent topic for my guest blog, but this is not going to be about me, me, me. It’s about three other individuals. One is the most important person in my life. Another I’ve known since they were born. And the other is a delightful guy I’ve only just met.
The first is Warren, my husband. He has been by my side for over thirty-one committed years and has encouraged me to write ever since I began work on my first novel, fifteen years ago. For the record, I have ten books published through NineStar Press and another scheduled later this year.
Warren has read all my stuff and is honest in his feedback. Winter Masquerade is his favourite. He knows it’s my most personal work and often compares it to my earlier books as an example of how far my writing has come. This novella is my second last release.
His favourite characters are the band members playing at the masquerade ball. Olive is a ditzy harp player. Cole is the ‘too cool for school’ guitarist. Scallywag is the child drummer. The character traits of this trio bring me to the second person I need to mention.
As there is a childlike feel to this story, I consulted ten-year-old Fern to help me with certain characters. They came up with the name Scallywag, and as several characters have darker alter-egos, Fern also helped with evil Olive.
Olive’s sinister self is malnourished, has bony fingers that bash on the keys of a harpsicord, and on Fern’s suggestion, she has homicidal tendencies. This idea shaped a lot of the story, giving it an edge not found in my other works.
Ferris believes he must find The Alchemist in order to get home to his boyfriend as he navigates both a whimsical, and a dangerous version, of life aboard an enchanted ocean liner. But the real reason he is on this ship is to find himself, and the Winter Masquerade is where everyone discovers who they really are. Ferris just has to make sure he’s not dead before that happens.
And now I urge you to stand up and applaud the third person I must mention, the narrator. Jon Bolitho-Jones is someone I found on the ACX website and encouraged to audition. And while several others also submitted fabulous reads, they didn’t match the exquisite eccentricity that Jon gave.
I studied acting in a previous life, so it was important to have a trained thespian read my fantasy tale. Jon has a Masters in Acting and has performed in short films, fringe theatre and a handful of Shakespeare productions. Overall, his resume lists over thirty productions. Who better to voice this over-the-top theatrical journey?
I think Jon is the real reason to listen to this audio book. He thought deeply about how he was going to voice each character. How do I know this? He created a short promotional video explaining these choices. His madcap read also features heartfelt moments that strike you unexpectedly, in a way that only a trained actor can portray. 
So, in short, I’m not asking you to listen because I wrote it. I’d just like you to daydream as you hear a beautiful interpretation of one of my husband’s favourite books.
 

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