Monday Meanderings & a Giveaway

First Meandering ...

Good week for Swing Vote edits. Since it was a NaNoWriMo first draft, there were lot of XXXs in places (mostly names). I worked on my character bibles and added pictures to this book's my Pinterest board. 

*grins* You can get a feel for some of the story elements based upon the links I pin. 

Second Meandering ...

They did the backfilling last week in preparation for pouring the concrete over pipes in the foundation. Rumor has it that they'll pour that today. THEN they can begin framing.

Third Meandering ...

It's time for a giveaway. I haven't done one of those in a while.

I finished the Beauty and the Clockwork Beast ARC I won on a Goodreads giveaway. I loved it--enough that I bought the audiobook! The narrator sounds wonderful.

I've decided to giveaway my gently used copy. If you are interested in being considered for it, I only have two stipulations:

1. Giveaways like this are rewards for my Reader Group. You can join on the right--AND get a free copy of  Hope's Watch, Safe Harbors #1.5.
2. Because of the high expense to mail a paper book internationally, only people in the continental US can be considered.

When Lucy Pickett arrives at Blackwell Manor to tend to her ailing cousin, Kate, she finds more than she bargained for. A restless ghost roams the hallways, werewolves have been reported in the area, and vampires lurk across the Scottish border. 

Lord Miles himself is clearly hiding a secret. He is brash and inhospitable, and does not take kindly to visitors even one as smart and attractive as Miss Pickett. He is unsettled by the mysterious deaths of his new wife, Clara, and his sister, Marie. Could Miles be to blame for the deaths?

Working together, Miles and Lucy attempt to restore peace to Blackwell Manor. But can Lucy solve the mystery of Miles? Can she love the man, beast and all?

How'd your weekend go? 

Do you use Pinterest? If so, what for?

My Audiobook Journey - Finding My Producer

Part 2

You can find Part 1 here.

There's a place on the main ACX webpage where you can go searching for producers (narrators). You have to put in information about the book like your genre, region, male, female, young, etc. Then your search will provide you with the names and audio samples that you can go through.

At this point, I hadn't yet listened to the book that made me seek out the producer I went after.

Now, if you've never listened to audiobooks yourself, you might not have much experience with them. I think it wouldn't hurt to give some a try. I'll bet your local library has a collection, and I would ask your librarian to make suggestions about good narrators.

What are some things that were important to me?

How the male producer does female voices.

I know there are some ways of reading that I don't like. I love how Jim Dale did the Scholastic version of the Harry Potter series. His Snape and Dumbledore ... amazing. I wasn't a fan of the way he did Hermione. So, I wanted a male producer who wouldn't do the book's women high pitched and irritating.

Can the producer do decent accents?

An audiobook is a performance. It is not turning on the read feature on your Kindle with that horrible, mechanical voice. In my opinion, it should be a way to enhance the story experience and not just be a faster way to get through the book. Torn Canvas has people from different races and parts of the world. I wanted someone who could make listening to the book be more real.

There were other things, but one important one I didn't even think about until I was deep into the process. I'll talk about that next time.

I found one narrator that I thought would work and asked him to audition. Even though he'd come up on my list for my genre, he said didn't think he could do a romance. Well, Torn Canvas isn't a romance but it does have a strong romantic element, so okay.

The good thing is that I'd just listened to a book, and I LOVED the narrator. Seriously, he became my dream narrator for this book.

I contacted to author, and she told me how to send him a request to audition. And he said YES. Proof positive that sometimes an initial no is a good thing.

This was last August. My narrator's only challenge was the he had some other commitments that he had to finish before he could begin mine.

Next week, the process of audiobook production.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you missed out, don't forget there's a huge book promotion going on right now. Great opportunity to stock up on your summer reads. Click here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What have I been reading? Well, it's actually listening to.

This little romance isn't just a take off of a Jane Austen book. It's immersed in a modern-day version of Jane's world. The main character is Jane (she's crazy about book romances), and the love interest is Austen (he's practical and thinks all the romance stuff is crazy).

What do I think?

It's a cute and clever story. I'm at the stage where the silly stuff they do to convince the other are making me crazy, but the story's getting even more fun the farther in I get.

What did you do this weekend? I was at a writers retreat. 

Characterizations

I recently listened to Richelle Mead's newest contribution to her Vampire Academy breakout series, Bloodlines. This is the third book with Sydney and Adrian. Now, Adrian (a Moroi--good vampire who can do magic and doesn't burn up in the sun but is fatigued by too much exposure to it) is very different from human Sydney (an alchemist whose people help the Moroi but only because alchemists view them as evil and must be kept from humans).

One of the things that strikes me as I listen to these books (I'm a huge audiobook fan) is how well Mead handles the unique and often quirky personality differences between Sydney and Adrian. And I'm not just talking about the fun voice differences the reader provides.

Adrian is a recovering playboy. Kind of. lol He's funny and he's flirty and he's self-denigrating. Adrian's flawed and still finding his way as he grows up and learns to deal with his magic (which could eventually drive him insane--literally). Here are some examples of the kind of quips he comes up with:

“I know how devastated you must be to miss me, but leave a message, and I'll try to ease your agony.” 

“Who is he?"
"An idiot," said Adrian. "Makes me look like an upstanding member of society.” 

“You look confused," said Adrian.
I shook my head and sighed. "I think I'm just overthinking things."
He nodded solemnly. "That's why I try to never do it.” 

The books are written in first person--from Sydney's point of view--so we don't get into Adrian's head. His comments do a great job of showing the reader what frame of mind he's in at the moment.

Mead has more flexibility with Sydney because of the first person writing, but I think this is where the author excels. The things that Sydney notices and thinks about are so "Sydney." She's brilliant, analytical, and totally a novice when it comes to feelings. Even her battle scene descriptions reflect how she views the world. She's a rule keeper and even her internal thoughts reflect that--if she's trying to break into someone's apartment and the ratty fire escape looks like it needs repair, she'll wonder why someone didn't report it, all while she's hanging two or three floors above the ground.

This is what we need to do with our characters. Make sure that we're capturing the uniqueness that is each one. Do you have any tips for doing that?

That Other Blog . . .

I'm posting today over at the LDS Writer's Blogck about different book mediums.

Define "Real"

Okay, first thing--I really love this video of an animated bookshop. The very last statement at the end, though, gave me pause. I'd like you to watch it if you can afford the time and then come back and comment on my question later in this post.

"There's nothing quite like a real book."

For me, this begs the question: what counts as a real book?

Is it only the beloved paper tomes we were raised with? How about the audiobook that includes all the words but with some interpretation provided by the narrator(s)? What about ebooks or even the new enhanced ebooks?

Is one format more real than another?

On an aside, someone once told one my children who is not a fast reader (and yet is an avid reader via audiobooks) that listening to a book doesn't count as having read the book.

Really? Try explaining that to someone who's visually impaired.

My day job includes working with municipal records, and all the time I deal with my state's sunshine laws (what we call GRAMA for government records access and management act). In fact, I'm my city's records officer. As such, I receive requests from residents and attorneys all the time wanting information/records that the city collects.

One thing that's a bit of an issue now is text messaging. Frequently, when people are angry at a decision the city council has made, they want to know what the city councilmembers are talking about relating to it. As I worked with our archivist at the state, he reminded me that the format is not relevant.

It's the content that determines if something meets the state's definition of a "record".

Velveteen Rabbit (source)

So, as I prepare to begin the querying process (and consider self-publishing if things don't work out), I suggest that regardless of the format, my ebook would be just as real as it would be in a paper or an audiobook format.

It will still be my story, my words, my hard work and sweat (figuratively) that went into its creation.

What about you? What does it take for a book to be real to you?