Let's Talk Audiobooks!

 LUCY BURDETTE: I know some of you, Debs in particular, are big fans of audiobooks. John is too, he always has his EarPods in listening to something. Usually when I’m out walking, I prefer to be looking around at the world or trying to come up with plot ideas. One time I do listen is when I’m trying to get to sleep. This is very particular, though. The story has to be something that I’m already familiar with so I’m not worried about keeping up with what will happen. One of my favorites is Jenny Colgan, especially The Endless Beach or others in her Mure series. Since I love those, I bought two other titles when I saw them on sale. But oh horror of horrors, it was a different narrator—one that I did not feel the least bit soothing. I tried listening a little more while I was walking to see if I could get used to her voice, but it was like nails on chalkboard.

So that’s the question of the day. If you listen to audiobooks, how important is the narrator, and when do you most enjoy listening? And one more question, do you like the narrator acting out the voices or would you prefer they just read the darn book? (I guess you can tell what side I’m on!)

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m not (is it anathema to say this?) a huge fan of audio books or of narrators who get into all the voices. Plus I fall asleep and then have no idea where I tuned out when I restart the thing. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Yeah, um, oops. Well, I cannot listen to them. I HAVE listened to mine, although I have to say it’s really difficult to listen to one’s own audiobooks for a million reasons, but I adore my actors and am happy with the terrific response to them. The actor who reads  ALL THIS, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, is incredible, and shows how a good reader can make a book fully realized.

 But me, listening to an audiobook? Is me, sleeping. Boom, done, I am out. (I think it has something to do with not knowing where to look.)

If I try to do something else while I’m listening, I cannot do either thing, god forbid I should drive, which would be deadly. 

I’ve just downloaded one now, though, because someone told me it was unmissably fabulous, so we shall see. 

Adding this later: wow. This is interesting. The book I am “hearing” is great--but I can sort of tell that if I would have been reading it on paper, I would have thought: ”backstory backstory get on with it” but because I am hearing it, it’s like someone telling me a story, and that’s fine. Whoa.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve adored audiobooks ever since they were cassette tapes in HUGE boxes. The audiobooks of the Harry Potter series and novels like The Wizard of Oz and The Boxcar Children made many a long, long car trip bearable when my kids were small.

I tend to lean more to nonfiction for my audiobooks, interestingly. Right now I’m listening to Becca Syme’s ENERGY MANAGMENT FOR WRITERS. Next up will be 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin. 

I’m going to give a shoutout to the reader who performs my audio books, Suzanne Toren. She is SO good, and I can’t tell you how many readers love her. I’ve listen to her narration for other books as well, and she always knocks it out of the park. The performer/reader/narrator is SO important to the enjoyment of the book!

JENN MCKINLAY: Like Julia, I’ve been a listener since the old “books on tape” days. I used to listen during my commute in CT and now I listen at the gym, while gardening, etc. My latest love is the graphic audio books where they have multiple narrators and sound effects! I listened to all of Sarah J Maas’s ACOTAR and Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing on audio — so good! 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Well, obviously, I am a fan. I did start with the books on cassettes, how many ever years ago, then CDs, but that was mostly in the car on long trips. (I can't listen to audio books while driving in Dallas traffic.) But the digital audio books were revolutionary. I think my gateway books were the Harry Potters, read by the marvelous Jim Dale, because I knew the stories and didn't have to worry if I didn't understand or was missing something. (The new full cast audio of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is really good and is unabridged, but I think I prefer one narrator.) I do like readers who do different accents and character voices!

Lucy and Hank, I listen while I am cooking (as long as not following complicated recipe!), washing dishes, doing mindless chores like watering and cleaning out catboxes, and I do listen in bed at night. I just set the Audible timer on my phone, so if I fall asleep I only have to back up a bit the next day.

RHYS BOWEN: there was a huge upheaval in my world when the narrator for the Royal Spyness series died. Not only because she was so young and it was so unexpected but because she was so talented. She was nominated for an Audie award every year and one year she won, beating out Meryl Streep. So the fans had a hard time accepting a new narrator, who was quite good. But this time she was nowhere to be found so I had to choose yet another new narrator. Luckily the actor who has done the Molly series was available so all is well. But the narrator makes a huge difference. A grating or inappropriate voice and the book is ruined!

Red readers, are you audiobook fans? How important is the narrator?

What We're Writing Week: Writing for Listeners as well as Readers

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: If you read JRW, you've heard a lot about what goes into the imaginative grist mill of a writer's mind. Travel to different places. News stories. Real historical events. And the ways we express ourselves: point of view, structure, outlining or organic. In short, there are a lot of items jostling for space on the author's To-Write list.

One of those items on my list is writing for the audio book. I love the audio versions of my series, performed by the wonderful Suzanne Toren, and thinking about how my words will be read has changed my writing in subtle ways. I try to leave off as many "he said," and "she said"s as I can, because when you're listening to the narrator, it's perfectly obvious who said what.

I try to give clues about the differences in people's speech without spelling it out, so instead of, "'I'm perfectly fine to drive myself,' she said in a haughty tone," I'll have "'I'm perfectly fine to drive myself.' Her voice made Russ think of the rich women on the North side of town." Let's face it, the latter is a much more interesting way to describe a person speaking, isn't it?

And because Suzanne is so good at accents, it's pushed me to make my cast more diverse, which, I confess, isn't anything I originally thought of. I know the area my Millers Kill is based on, and it's pretty goshdarn white, inhabited largely by people whose ancestors settled in the lower Adirondacks no later than the 1880s. But there's no reason I can't have a European doctor, or an assistant district attorney whose family came from Vietnam. Or characters who are Black or Iroquois or Quebecois. 

So when I knew I was going to introduce officer Kevin Flynn's family in Through the Evil Days, I decided to make Irish-American Flynn the son of an Irish immigrant father. (There's a whole history. I should write it as a short story some day.) Since one of the plot lines of my work-in-progress, At Midnight Comes the Cry, is the mysterious disappearance of Kevin, I couldn't resist the chance to bring his dad, Sean, back on the scene for a bit.

They had joked about Kevin Flynn being Irish, but Russ had no idea he was Irish-Irish until meeting his father. “This is it. Turn here.” Sean Flynn sounded like a tour guide from the auld sod, but instead of a castle in Limerick, they were approaching a street of small houses hard against the bank of the Seneca River in Baldwinsville. “Here 'tis.” Sean pointed to a small, neat house with a red door and green metal roof. No curb in this neighborhood; Russ parked at the edge of the frost-stricken lawn.

He figured he had been on the road to this house since Hadley Knox had asked him where he thought Flynn might be. Between his former officer and Clare's pointed comments, he decided to do the smart thing and surrender. He was glad he had, though, when he contacted Flynn's parents, who were so worried about their middle son's disappearance, Sean Flynn had volunteered to drive the three hours across New York state to let Russ into the rented house. “I know you'll want to keep it all on the up-and-up, and I have his key and his permission, and I suppose they're both still good, even if he gave them over near a year ago.”

Russ had turned him down, preferring to make the trip in his own truck, but Sean had come along for the ride. Russ grabbed his jacket from the back seat and got out. “Nice little place.”

“It's small, but the back garden runs straight down to the river, with stairs and a wee dock. I told him if he wanted to buy, we could expand toward the road here or raise the roof to put in a second floor...” Sean's voice died away. He pulled the key from his pocket and unlocked the front door.

They walked into a mudroom space at the end of a galley-style kitchen. Everything was clean and neat. No clothing waiting in the stacked washer and dryer. He opened the fridge. Condiments, bottled water, a six-pack, but no food left to spoil. The freezer was stuffed with frozen meals and ice cream that had crystalized over.

“Does Kevin like to cook? Would he have milk and eggs and that sort of stuff?”

“He isn't much to make his own dinner, but he likes cereal and his sandwiches.” Sean paused beside Russ. “That looks cleaned out to me.”

“Me, too.”

“Is that a good sign?”

“Well, it means he probably left of his own accord, and he had enough time to plan his departure and get rid of everything that might spoil.” He shut the refrigerator door. The kitchen opened into a great room beneath a peaked roof, with a TV watching spot on one side and a desk and bookcases on the other. He could see the promised view of the river through a glass-fronted door framed with two wide picture windows. “Why don't you check his bedroom and see what clothes might be missing. I'll take a look at his desk.”

 

What do you think, dear readers? Do you "hear" accents in your head as you read a book, or do you wait for the audio edition? If you're a fan of the latter, who are some of your favorite narrators?

How Do You Say That? The Mysteries of Audiobooks by Leslie Budewitz

Jenn McKinlay: Do you hear what I hear? Yes, it's our very dear Jungle Red friend, Leslie Budewitz, talking about audiobooks! Take it away, Leslie! 

 Leslie Budewitz: I’m willing to bet every Jungle Red will agree with me: When an author gets her first audiobook contract, she breaks out in a grin. Why, exactly, I’m not sure, but it feels like a sign that you’ve arrived. 

 For me, it may be in part because books on tape—and they were on tape, back then—were such a big part of my reading life when I started writing. (We’ll just ignore the debate about whether listening is reading; it’s story, and that’s what matters.) I was living in a small town on an Indian reservation in western Montana and driving a lot—I worked for a small law firm 30 miles north, and helped teach a legal writing class at the University, 45 miles south in Missoula. My town didn’t have a public library, but the Missoula Public Library took the view that it served the region and gave anyone living in an adjacent county a card. As I drove, I listened to books by Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth Peters, Ellis Peters, and Tony Hillerman. It was Hillerman whose books showed me I could set a mystery in my own rural community and that readers, and listeners, would be interested. 

 And it was those narrators—Barbara Rosenblat, George Guidall, Stephen Thorne and Patrick Tull—who gave the stories another dimension. Through them, I could be in two places at once: Driving my narrow highways lined by foothills and mountains, winding above the river or through a lush farm valley. And at the same time, walking the streets of Chicago, cruising along the Pacific Ocean near Santa Teresa, harvesting herbs in the gardens of a 12th century Benedictine monastery, or roaming the vast Hopi and Navajo lands. It was the voices who took me there. 

 Although my Food Lovers’ Village series began before my Spice Shop series, it was the Spice Shop books, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, that came to audio first. When I heard the voice sample the publisher sent me after they chose the narrator, my eyes widened. I knew that voice! You know it, too—Dara Rosenberg who does voiceovers for TV and ads, as well as narrating books. She even narrates Barbara Ross’s Maine Clam Bake series, a favorite of mine and a regular Jungle Red visitor. 

 At some point, we connected by phone and talked about talking—that is, pronunciations. My main character, Pepper Reece, is a Seattle native, and Northwesterners have their own way of saying certain things. It’s toorist and toor, not the Northeasterner’s toreist and tore. The king of clam chowder is EYE-ver, even though it’s spelled Ivar. Some characters have an accent, or a personal manner of speech. 

 The books are loaded with regional names, many from Native languages. It’s SHIL-shole Bay, not Shils-hole. Klickitat, Duwamish, and Snoqualmie. (KLIK-uh-tat. Doo-WAHM-ish. Snow-KWAL-mee.) The t and l of Tlingit are said as one syllable, rather than inserting a vowel between them. And it’s Spo-KAN, not Spo-KANE. 

 For The Solace of Bay Leaves, Pepper’s fifth adventure, knowing there would be an audio book directly influenced the writing. There’s a character named Jake Byrd, and no spoilers, but at times, the spelling of his last name matters. How could I make that clear for the narrator and for listeners? That led to passages like this: 

     “I went to a couple of meetings,” the customer said. “I didn’t trust that Burns or Burke, whatever his name was.” ... 

    “His name was Byrd,” the stylist said. “With a Y. And he called the project Byrd’s Nest. With a Y.” 

    “That’s right. He had all these fancy drawings, but they were ugly as sin.” 

And this: 

     “You know, mostly you know the other people in the business, right? You’re looking at the same jobs, hiring the same subs. But this guy was new on the scene. His name was Jake Byrd, with a Y, doing business as Byrd’s Nest, LLC. With a Y.” 

     “Cute,” I said. Finally, a first name for the man. 

     “I thought it was dumb.” Jessica bit into a lemon coriander crescent. “Oh, wow.” 

     Wait until the baker started using my spices. 

 Each chapter opens with a short epigraph, usually a bit of spice lore or Seattle history. I wanted to use a snippet from a book of walking tours saying that Lake Union, in the heart of Seattle, was known as XáXu7cHoo, or “small lake,” in Whulshootseed, the language of the Puget Salish tribe. But I couldn’t use it if I couldn’t tell Dara how to pronounce it. I emailed the guidebook author; he had no idea. An old friend of my husband’s is a professor of linguistics at Western Washington University; I emailed her. She didn’t even recognize the phonetics, and was sure it wasn’t a widely used system. She reached out to colleagues among the Northwest tribes, but it was Christmas; my copyedits were due January 2. I chose a different epigraph. Trust me, that made recording an audio file for my darling narrator much easier. 

Readers, let’s talk talking books! Are you a fan? Do you have a favorite narrator? Do you listen in the car, like Leslie, or as you go about your day? One lucky winner will get their choice of a paperback or set of audio CDs of The Solace of Bay Leaves. 

 From the cover of The Solace of Bay Leaves, the 5th Spice Shop Mystery by Leslie Budewitz: Pepper Reece never expected to find solace in bay leaves. But when her life fell apart at forty and she bought the venerable-but-rundown Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, her days took a tasty turn. Now she’s savoring the prospect of a flavorful fall and a busy holiday cooking season, until danger bubbles to the surface ... Between managing her shop, worrying about her staff, and navigating a delicious new relationship, Pepper’s firing on all burners. But when her childhood friend Maddie is shot and gravely wounded, the incident is quickly tied to an unsolved murder that left another close friend a widow. Convinced that the secret to both crimes lies in the history of a once-beloved building, Pepper uses her local-girl contacts and her talent for asking questions to unearth startling links between the past and present—links that suggest her childhood friend may not have been the Golden Girl she appeared to be. Pepper is forced to face her own regrets and unsavory emotions, if she wants to save Maddie’s life—and her own. 

 Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the Northwest in two cozy mystery series, the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. Watch for her suspense debut, Bitterroot Lake (written as Alicia Beckman) in April 2021. A three-time Agatha-Award winner (2011, Best Nonfiction; 2013, Best First Novel; 2018, Best Short Story), she is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives and cooks in NW Montana. Find her online at www.LeslieBudewitz.com and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewitzAuthor More about the Solace of Bay Leaves, including an excerpt and buy links here: http://www.lesliebudewitz.com/spice-shop-mystery-series/

What We're Writing: In which Hank Hears Voices

The pilot coming out to tell us all is well

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Book tour is so crazy/wonderful/exhausting/hilarious. I can confess to you—on a plane from Atlanta to St. Louis last week I had a serious moment of having no idea where I was, and I could not feel my fingers. Weird. But, truth be told, it makes a good story, right?  Then from Boston to Indianapolis we had an emergency landing, which was terrifyingly NOT fun, but everything turned out fine. And, truth be told, in retrospect it makes a good story. Thank goodness.

This weekend—with the only travel by car and imagination—I spent at Crime Bake, the wonderful treasure of a crime fiction conference. On a panel with Guest of Honor Craig Johnson (LONG LIVE LONGMIRE!), we talked all about storytelling. Because of course, that’s what we all do. And those who read are just as involved with story telling, right?

w/Craig Johnson, Steve Ulfelder, Sheila Connolly, Brendan DuBois

 And now I have two exciting things to share. Both about storytelling.

First, TRUTH BE TOLD was just chosen as a Library Journal Best Book of 2014. What an honor. (I am still floating—and when I found out, in the security line at the

San Diego airport, I hardly needed a plane to get to my next destination!)

Second, I had an especially profound experience.

Last week, sitting in the Chicago airport waiting area (you can see how my life has been), with my earbuds in, I clicked "play" on the audiobook of TRUTH BE TOLD.  Wow. And again, it made me think about storytelling.

Tell me a story. How many times have you said that? How many times have you heard that? From the moment we understand what storytelling means, having someone say "Once upon a time" can transport you to a new world.

And it didn't even matter than my plane was delayed. On that audiobook, I heard my story come to life. I almost burst into tears.

The banker turned Robin Hood who manipulates mortgage records. The skeevy guy who confesses to the unsolved Lilac Sunday murder. Reporter Jane Ryland on the trail of murder victims in foreclosed homes. And Detective Jake Brogan working to solve the case that's baffled Boston police for 20 years. The reporter who makes stuff up.

It's all fully realized though the amazing voice of Xe Sands, who reads TRUTH BE TOLD so brilliantly on Macmillan Audio.

Even if you don't read audiobooks, even if you're planning to read the book-book, listen to this excerpt. Just click:

https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/truth-be-told-by-hank-phillippi-ryan-chapter-1 

From the very beginning, when Jane says, "I know it's legal, but it's terrible..." it's exactly the way I heard the book in my head as I was writing it.

But—very important, writers!--here’s what I learned from it. I learned a different way of writing from this different way of reading.  When you "read” an audiobook, it’s very difficult to go back and check on a fact or a character or an action. Right? You either get it, or you don’t. And if you don’t, you’re lost.

And if, at the beginning of a scene, you are confused about who is talking and where they are, you can’t go back and make sure. The minute you say “HUH?” Whose head am I in?” Or “WHOA—where am I?” You’re lost, right? And as the audio voice goes on and on, you begin to think—“I don’t get this. I’m done.”

And you give up. On to the next book. 

That was a life-changing realization for me. When you hear your book out loud, it shines a spotlight on the parts that don’t make sense, on the parts where the reader is confused, on the parts that lack clarity in time and space and geography.

When I start my revisions of my new Jane and Jake book next week—it's called WHAT YOU SEE, and you’ll hear more about that soon!—I’m going to keep in mind the lessons of the audiobook. At the beginning of every scene, I must ground the reader. Make sure they’re on the train and safely seated before the scene leaves the station.

My goal for readers–whether they read with eyes or ears—is to have them think: “OH! I can just envision that!” 

So now? Just take three minutes. Click.  And let Xe Sands tell you the "once upon a time" of TRUTH BE TOLD:

https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/truth-be-told-by-hank-phillippi-ryan-chapter-1 

And Darling Reds—do you “read” audio books? Let me know in the comments! What makes you love them—or not?   A fabulous prize to one lucky commenter.

And with much love gratitude and admiration to our veterans.

PS: As I said,  I'm on tour! Click here to see if I'll be in your city!
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?HankPhillippiRyan/7c7b615fd4/1ecea090f5/0113bdf8cf/HankPhillippiRyan/7c7b615fd4/TEST/0113bdf8cf

Audiobooks and some literary fashion

JAN BROGAN: When my son was young, he was terrible at any chore you gave him.  His main job was to empty the dishwasher. Each time he left at least three glasses or plates in the upper rack for no apparent reason.  If you asked him to clean his bedroom, he threw the covers on the bed and called it "made," left at least one bureau drawer hanging open, and several pairs of socks still on the floor.  One day in his teens, he decided to put on on his IPOD when I assigned him to clean the finished basement.  After about an hour and half later, when he was still down there, I went to check on him. The basement was spotless and he was still vacuuming. He was having such a good time singing along with the music, he kept looking for new things to clean.  

Well, I find the same thing is happening to me and audiobooks.  Normally, I have little patience for mundane tasks. Like my son, I tend to do as little as I can to get the job over with as soon as possible.   But with an audiobook in my ear, my life had changed. Suddenly, I am a perfectionist. 

A good audiobook can make me walk five miles when I set out to walk three. It can make me paint the trim on the kitchen door I've left unpainted for years.   To finish the Steve Jobs biography, I brought it with me to the track, which I normally consider torture, and ran - round and round and round - two tedious two miles with a smile on my face. I have cleaned closets that I've ignored since we bought the house. And last week, I finally sorted out my junk drawer.

Back when audiobooks came in cassette form, I played them only during long car trips or on airplanes. Now that I can put books on my IPHONE, I pretty much carry an ongoing story everywhere. In the car, at the allergist's office, in an amplifier for when I'm cooking in the kitchen, and upstairs with headphones in my bed when my eyes are too tired to read. 

Recently, I listened to the Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, which I highly recommend for both its great storytelling and the mesmerizing rhythms of the prose. Following Katey's love affair, I found myself scrubbing frantically into the always cruddy corners of my cake pans, first with just the sponge, then with COMET. They now look like they belong in Martha Stuart's kitchen.   Yesterday, I  started Hank's The Other Woman, walked the trails until it got dark, then today added three errands to my task list so that I could finish chapter eight. Tomorrow, I just might reorganize my sock drawer.

SPEAKING OF SOCKS:  This has nothing to do with audiobooks, but I was scrolling through the New York Daily News Pageviews blog and came across a piece on literary fashion trends for hipsters.

These stockings might look good on hipsters, but I think they'd be great for writers, readers, librarians and anyone who spends a lot of time on Jungle Red.  

Wouldn't these be perfect at Bouchercon or the New England Crime Bake? 

In other business:  Nancy was chosen at random from the comments page to win a copy of Edith Maxwell's Speaking of Murder. Please contact me Nancy at janbroganbooks@gmail.com to get your book. 

BACK TO AUDIOBOOKS:  Am I the only one altered by technology? Or has anyone else discovered the amazing motivating ability of audiobooks?