Diving into the Audiobook Pool

I’m pleased to announce that The Missing Comatose Woman is now available as an audiobook at Audible and Amazon. It’s also supposed to be on iTunes, but I haven’t checked for it there.

TheMissingComatoseWoman170WebThis is the first time I’ve released an audiobook. I chose The Missing Comatose Woman because it’s the shortest book from Norn Publishing to date. Audiobook production can be quite expensive; the cost is usually directly proportional to the length of the book (the longer the book, the more expensive it is). Since I’m Canadian, I couldn’t use Amazon’s audiobook production company ACX, so I shopped around, did my research, and decided to use eBookIt, the same company I use for eBook distribution to some venues.

Depending on how well the audiobook does, I’ll consider bringing other books to audio. Having said that, something like the Rymellan Series would be too expensive to produce in audio. It would cost me at least $10,000, probably more. Given that, I decided to read The Dance, the first story in the series, myself, and I might read more Rymellan stories over time.

The Dance is the shortest story in the series, but it still resulted in almost an hour of audio. In addition to the story, I recorded a short commentary (we’re talking less than a minute, here) about why, out of all the events in Lesley and Mo’s younger lives I could have written about, I chose to write about that one.

When it’s ready, the audio story will be available at Ganxy.com for $0.99. I’ll let you know when it’s there.

It was a bit strange to go back and read The Dance. I wrote it five years ago (yikes!). Lesley and Mo sound so young. :)   Also, I hate reading my own stuff, because there are always things I’d like to change. The Dance was no exception.

Here’s a short video of Maggie Smith admitting that she’s never watched Downton Abbey. I can completely relate to why she hasn’t (and if I change “acting” to “writing” in her last sentence, I agree with that, too):

Have a great weekend (and Happy Victoria Day weekend to Canadians)!

Lesbian Fiction Books/Deiform Two

Two quick items today:

Lesbian Fiction Books Site

Two women symbolsA month ago (time flies!), I posted about possibly working on a site that would help people find lesbian fiction books. The lesbian category at the bookstores is too broad, and often there isn’t one; lesbian fiction is lumped in with LGBT or put under Gay. Also, some lesbian fiction isn’t categorized as such at all.

To create and maintain the proposed site would take an investment of my time, so I wanted to test the waters before going ahead. I asked that people express interest in the site by filling out a short survey. I had a certain number of responses in mind that would make me think, “Okay, creating the site will be a wise investment of my time.” I haven’t received that number of responses, so I’ve decided to put the project on the back burner for now.

Thanks to everyone who took the survey.

Deiform Two

I finished the first draft earlier in the week. Phew! What a rocky road! I started Deiform Two shortly before Deiform One became available, then fell ill for six weeks. When I was well enough to write again, I had to scramble to make an editing date, which forced me to put Deiform Two aside in favour of The Missing Comatose Woman. So it’s been a while coming, but the first draft is finally done.

The story is 20,000 words longer than Deiform One. The word count will change, but when all is said and done, Deiform Two will be the second longest story I’ve written so far (behind The Salbine Sisters). At this point, I expect to release it in October.

I’ll talk more about the story over the coming months. A tidbit for today is that Deiform Two introduces Ruth, a kickass Deiform in her seventies.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Books I Read in April and Other Stuff

A more accurate title would be, “Books I’ve Been Reading Since April.” :)  Last month, I started The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. It’s slow going. At first I thought I’d abandon it, but … [Continue reading]

Email from Readers: Frightful or Delightful?

Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein received so many letters from readers that his wife created a form reply (this was before email). She’d check off the applicable responses and stick the reply in the mail. Reading the responses is like playing … [Continue reading]