I’m so excited that it’s almost November because that means it’s almost time for the National Novel Writing Month! I look forward to November all year long because for thirty days I do nothing but think about characters, weave crazy plots, and write like my life depends on it.
Spell of Summoning was a NaNoWriMo book from a couple years ago. This year I’ll be writing the third book in a new trilogy!
I made this myself (miracle!) to take to the RWA national conference and publicize my published works, and I’m so proud of it I wanted to share it with you.
I’m very excited that Elizabeth Siedt has agreed to narrate book two in the Dark Caster series. Currently it is in the production stage, but I’ll let you know when it is available (Hopefully soon!).
You can pick up the audiobook of Spell of Summoning, the first novel in the series, now at Amazon and iTunes.
Or, Enjoy Dark Caster #1 For Under $1 All Summer Long
Great news! In honor of summer, Spell of Summoning (Dark Caster #1) will be on sale for 99¢ at all major online ebook retailers. Take it to the beach, the boat, or the campsite. Enjoy this story of necromancers, witches, and kick-butt mortals wherever summer takes you.
Or, Why I Decided to Create an Audiobook Version of Spell of Summoning
Converting my first novel in the Dark Caster Series into an audiobook made me more nervous and way more scared than publishing it in its current digital form. My inner pessimist went wild:
What if it sounds awful?
What if the voice actor sucks?
What if it doesn’t sell well and then I look like a loser to my producing partner?
I’m a bit of a worrier.
Before I lost any more sleep, I logged onto iTunes and downloaded my first audiobook–Relentless Seduction–a paranormal romance by Jillian Burns. I listened to it in the car on my iPad, and I loved it! My new favorite thing to do on road trips is listening to audiobooks.
ACX.com, an Amazon company, is a user friendly one stop shop for uploading your novel and hiring a producer to create the audio version. The technical, contract style language made me a little hesitant to move forward, but I agreed to the site’s terms and opened Spell of Summoning as a new project. I could have waited for a producer to find me and offer to record my novel, but I’m impatient, so I listened to pre-recorded auditions. After some trial and error I decided I wanted a young woman with a general American accent and an engaging voice that I could happily listen to for hours on end.
I was lucky to find a talented young actress, Elizabeth Siedt, right away who agreed to produce the audiobook.
Unlike traditional “books on tape,” there were no upfront costs. Similar to publishing your digital book with Amazon, you and the producer receive a percentage of the sales in exchange for selling the audiobook exclusively at Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon.com.
The answer to my initial question–Are audiobooks worth the effort?–is yes!
I loved Abner’s take on necromancer’s. It was refreshing to see them portrayed as real people that have a choice to use their powers for good or evil, instead of just automatically being nasty people because of their powers. Holden is a genuinely good guy with lots of baggage. Baggage that he is forced to confront head on if he wants to save Becca from demonic possession. She’s got a particularly nasty demon that is being summoned to take control of her. Becca and Holden need to find a way to stop it and kill the necromancer controlling it before it’s too late.
Even though I had guessed the bad guy’s identity part way through, the story was written in a way that I kept second guessing myself all along the way. With lots of action and a deep love between our two characters, it was a fantastic story that kept me very entertained until the very end.
Wow! It has been some time since I read a book that kept me that on the edge of my seat! I loved Spell of Summoning. The paranormal world reflected in this book was obviously created with both imagination and good research making the story of Holden and Rebecca come to life. The author did an excellent job of dropping clues about who the evil necromancer could be without totally giving the game away. I had at least three people that I thought it could be but wasn’t really sure which is one thing I love about books like this. If I can figure out who the bad guy is in the first twenty or thirty pages I tend to lose interest, this was not the case with this book. The feelings between Holden and Rebecca are sweet, and sensual and the author does an excellent job of showing their budding relationship, and by the end of the book I was truly satisfied with how the ending came about. This is a wonderful, suspenseful love story and great feel good book! If you love happy endings, but like there to be turmoil and obstacles before you get to the end, as well as, story having paranormal paranormal elements, then you do not want to miss Spell of Summoning. I will definitely be picking up this author’s next book!
