Musings of Two Creative Minds

While waiting for Audible to approve/reject our submission, we have heard back from a number of people who say they don't do Audible. Some prefer CD's because they cannot afford Audible's monthly charges. So this got me an Helen thinking about offering CD's even if Audible accepts our books. We are also considering the fact that some people cannot afford Audible but also don't have a convenient CD Player these days, or may prefer audio files for storage. For them, we are thinking about selling MP3 audio files that people can order from this site so they can download the entire book into their own device of choice. So please take a moment and let us know which of the following options that would be of interest to you. We are simply seeking feedback which would be a huge help to us in deciding what path(s) to take as far as making our audios available to people, so your responses are VERY important to us.  NOTE: you CAN vote for more than one option from...

CAN YOUR HEAR ME NOW? Everyone knows that typing in all caps means the person is yelling/screaming at you over the internet. Naturally, most folks will tell the user to please lower their volume/tone as no one likes being screamed at. This is even more true when it comes to a person listening to an audiobook. If the narrator telling the tale is too loud or too soft it can really take the listener out of the story and annoy them to no end. And don't expect good reviews on Audible either. I've seen reviews that praise the story but tear into the performance with a vengeance. This in turn can ruin your chances to be hired to do audios of other peoples' books.  So today we're going to get into volume and consistency in our recordings. Now if you're renting studio space and have someone else doing your editing, you're probably going to be okay. But if you're like me and doing your recording in the comfort of your own home/studio, as well as taking ...

New Year's is a time for reflection and looking ahead... or so I've been told. My first thought was "I didn't really get that much done this year. I don't have much to say or show for it." Then at the urging of Helen I pulled out a pen and paper and started making a list. The results surprised me.                                              I created not one but three book covers. This is the most art I've done in one year in I don't know how long. Two of them were of course for Helen's new The Forever Detective Series. The other was a new cover for "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" which we re-released as the first Young Adult (YA) installment of our Para-Earth Series. Speaking of Helen's new series, we created not one but two book trailers, one for each book.                        ...

This entry may seem to be a repeat but every year I get asked about how to gift e-books to someone. So here you all are and I hope everyone takes advantage since giving someone a tale they will love can be priceless sometimes... Okay gang, the big day is drawing near and you still want to get a few more gifts but don't know what to buy, or don't want to go out into the stores which have already pulled down half of their displays and are lining up Spring stuff. What to do, what to do... how about giving someone a good book to read on their Kindle? It's fast, easy, and you can have it delivered on Christmas Day and know it will arrive on time...                                    Didn't know you could do this? Neither did I for the longest time. I only found out a couple of years ago when we released "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home". I found myself rewarding some of our beta-readers with a...

Just in time for the Christmas season, a good old fashion ghost story is the theme of Helen's second solo book... The year is 1947 and private investigator Rafael Jones has already learned the hard way that the supernatural is all too real. Having been turned into a vampire, albeit one who has no problems with holy objects, he's trying to continue working as a detective. While back on the continent his Interpol love, Clara Thomas, is using her considerable "occult" contacts to find a way to help him. In the meantime he has a new case to deal with. A friend has asked him to prove a mansion he's inherited is NOT haunted. Unfortunately, it is and the ghost has reached out to Rafael for help and justice.  Can our hero find answers to a 20 year old cold case no one knew about? Can he find the Prohibition gangster who murdered the young flapper? And can our boy survive the fact that he's not the only one who knows about supernatural beings and how t...

Okay now that we've covered as much of the technical that I'm aware of, let's move on to a new topic, namely doing the actual reading aloud. Now the first thing I'm going to say is please do not make yourself sound like Ben Stein. Unless of course your book is about curing insomnia, in which case then you might make a bundle on the open market. People do not want to hear a lifeless dull monotone performance. You put a lot into your work to make it come to life on the written page. Now you have to bring that same life into your reading. Mind you I'm not saying you have to put together a full-fledged performance complete with sound effects, mood music, and an entire cast. But you do need to give your listeners an interesting and gripping experience. Try to get them caught up int he moment with your voice and delivery. But equally as important you have to make sure your speaking clearly, not too fast, nor too slowly. You need to enunciate properly so they don...

Allan and I created this trailer for my soon-to-be released second novel of the Forever Detective series.