Guest blog: Lauren Fortgang on audiobooks …

October 8, 2012 •17 Comments » •Posted in About Books, Elemental Assassin series, Guest blogs

Today, I’m pleased to welcome Lauren Fortgang to my blog. Lauren is the narrator for the audiobooks for my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, along with many other audiobooks.

Jennifer: Welcome, Lauren! Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Lauren: Hi! And thank you. I’m very excited to be guest blogging on your site! Your fans have been incredibly supportive of the narration I’ve done on your books, and to get to “meet” them is such a treat.

I’m based in New York City, where I work as an actor and narrator. I do a little bit of everything, both on-camera and off, and love the variety of finding all the nooks and niches in the industry.

Jennifer: How did you get into narrating audiobooks?

Lauren: Audiobook narration definitely isn’t for every actor. Some actors are much more adaptable to physical performance over narration and vice versa.

My introduction came by way Gabra Zackman, a talented fellow-actor friend and narrator, who had found her way into the audiobook world, was working for Audible at the time, and graciously extended an audition opportunity my way. I’m a graduate of Fordham University’s theater program, so I already had a drama background, which is pretty consistent with most professional narrators. I met with a fantastic producer at Audible who auditioned me and put me to work right away. They have a large Harlequin division and my voice is suited to that particular genre, so I really lucked out in finding a place for myself in a relatively small niche of the entertainment industry as it was beginning to grow significantly.

Jennifer: What’s the process of narrating an audiobook like? How long does it take?

Lauren: These are absolutely the questions most often asked of narrators! The process can be slightly varied, but the general steps are for the narrator to “prep” the book, and then record with an engineer/director in the studio. Following that, the audio is edited by a fresh set of eyes and ears, then sent back to the narrator for pick-ups (corrections). After the new audio is inserted, the book undergoes a final mastering stage and another once-over, before it hits the digital marketplace!

There’s a great, thorough article about the process by Audible Executive Producer Mike Charzuk here in Audiofile Magazine, if anyone is still curious.

The narrator’s time commitment varies by book length, but I generally spend a few days reading and prepping a title (noting characters, accents, pronunciations, etc.). Skipping this step can be disastrous. A big “oops” would getting to the end of an un-prepped book and realizing the main character is described as having an accent you didn’t apply or that your mystery serial killer is a woman and you’ve been giving her a man’s voice. Surprises are for the reader/listener, not for the professional narrator! If I’m lucky, as is the case with your books, the author is available to provide feedback and answer questions. This can be invaluable and helps me tell the story better!

Time in the studio is roughly 6 hours a day for 2+ days. The Elemental Assassin books take me 5-6 studio days.

The biggest misconception is that it’s passive – sitting and “reading aloud”. In fact, it’s a fairly concentrated energy output for the narrator and can be extremely draining. It’s more “lengthy theatrical performance” and less “reading to yourself” even though it’s done in a stationary setting. Sometimes I’ll finish in the studio at four in the afternoon and want to hit the hay immediately!

Jennifer: What are some of the audiobooks that you’ve narrated? How many books have you narrated?

Lauren: My total title count is nearing 270 (!), with 200 of those being for an original podcast-type monthly series, and the remainder being unabridged books.

I tend to do mostly Harlequin romance titles as it’s good fit for my voice, but I’ve also done some non-fiction, fantasy, crime, and YA (young adult).

Recently, I worked on a crime drama/police procedural – The Anderson Tapes by Lawrence Sanders – which was recorded as a multi-cast. I’m not sure how well it was received in audiobook format, but it was fun to record with other actors. This is uncommon, as each book typically has only one narrator performing all the parts as well as the narrative, so it’s especially interesting to work with others, as audiobook narration can feel a bit solitary at times.

Jennifer: Is there a favorite book genre that you enjoy narrating? Who are some of your favorite authors/books?

Lauren: As I said, I tend to get paired with romance titles or “chick-lit”, and I do appreciate the consistency, but I always look forward to stepping out of the genre. I’ve really enjoyed the few YA titles that I’ve done and hope to do more of that. It’s a really interesting market and I love that there’s a crossover from YA writing into adult readership. I’ve been known to get completely engulfed in some younger series – The Hunger Games and Harry Potter among them!

And, of course, I’ve been thrilled to do the Elemental Assassin series! The characters are really vivid and larger than life and the specifics of their world make my job incredibly fun. Plus, I get to be Gin, which is pretty kick-ass!

Mostly, I appreciate variety to keep things fresh and interesting.

I do listen to other narrators in an effort to grow and tweak my own skills, but I’m definitely more of a book reader than an audiobook listener and love to get buried in all types of good books.

To Kill a Mockingbird is an all-time favorite and Scout one of the dearest, spunkiest characters ever written. Other favorites of mine include The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (with its dancing words and phrases) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. (Huh, I don’t know that I’ve ever realized how drawn I am to books with clever, curious, introspective children as central characters.)

Additionally, I’m always happy when I stumble upon something laugh-out-loud funny. I read Bossypants by Tina Fey while waiting for jury duty selection, and was worried I might be asked to exit the courthouse for inappropriate bursts of giggles and guffaws.

Jennifer: What’s next for you?

Lauren: I recently wrapped up a play I did at LaMama this summer, as part of their 50th anniversary season, and am set to start shooting on a short film with some long time cohorts this month. I have a few audiobooks lined up to record in October, but my big news is that I’m building a small (very small) home studio. It’s an overwhelming project, but it should expand my recording opportunities and, I’m not going to lie, pajama recording is a pretty alluring prospect!

Before I go, I really do want to give big heartfelt thanks to the Elemental Assassin audiobook audience. They have been unbelievably supportive and encouraging of my work on these books. I do read nearly all of my feedback at Audible, and your fans are incredible! It genuinely makes me want to do the best I can with each book in the series. So, thanks!

Jennifer: Thank you, Lauren, for being here today and for all your work on the Elemental Assassin audiobooks. I appreciate it.

WIDOW’S WEB PRINT BOOK GIVEAWAY

In honor of Lauren’s visit to the blog, I’m giving away a print copy of Widow’s Web, the latest book in my Elemental Assassin series. To enter, just leave a comment on this blog about your favorite audio book or a book that you’d like to hear as an audio book.

The contest is open worldwide to folks 18 and older and will run through midnight, EST, Wednesday, Oct. 10. The winner will be announced here on my blog on Friday, Oct. 12.

In the meantime, happy reading and listening!

Tags: About Books, Audio books, Elemental Assassin series, Guest blogs

Widow’s Web discussion post …

October 1, 2012 •22 Comments » •Posted in About Books, Elemental Assassin series, On Writing

SPOILER ALERT: This post (and the comments section) has major, major spoilers for Widow’s Web, the seventh book in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series. So if you haven’t read that far in the series and don’t want to be spoiled, you will want to skip this post. You have been warned.

So Widow’s Web has been out for about six weeks now. I said that I would try to do a discussion post talking about the book after it had been out for several weeks, and this is that post. So let’s get to it, shall we?

SPOILER ALERT REDUX: Seriously, this is your last chance not to be spoiled. Look away now.

Many of you have seen this already, but here’s the back cover copy for Widow’s Web:

I used to murder people for money, but lately it’s become more of a survival technique.

Once an assassin, always an assassin. So much for being plain old Gin Blanco. With every lowlife in Ashland gunning for me, I don’t need another problem, but a new one has come to town anyway. Salina might seem like a sweet Southern belle, but she’s really a dangerous enemy whose water elemental magic can go head-to-head with my own Ice and Stone power. Salina also has an intimate history with my lover, Owen Grayson, and now that she’s back, she thinks he’s hers for the taking. Salina’s playing a mysterious game that involves a shady local casino owner with a surprising connection to Owen. But they call me the Spider for a reason. I’m going to untangle her deadly scheme, even if it leaves my love affair hanging by a thread.

In the book, Owen’s ex, Salina, comes back to town, and Gin learns all about Owen’s relationship with Salina, his time living on the streets as a kid, and how Owen and his younger sister, Eva, were friends with Phillip Kincaid. This book is all about Owen and how his past — especially Salina — affects his relationship with Gin. Basically, Gin and Owen break up because Gin kills Salina, who tries to kill Gin and most of the folks in the Ashland underworld, among her other crimes.

So why did I decide to break up my happy couple? Well, there were several reasons. When the book starts out, Gin is in a pretty good place professionally (so to speak) — Mab is dead, and Gin has gotten her revenge, even if she’s on everybody’s hit list now. So I wanted to do more of a personal story with Widow’s Web.

In By a Thread, the previous book, Gin dealt with her lingering issues with her ex, Detective Donovan Caine. That sort of led me to the idea of flipping the story around and having Owen having to deal with one of his exes in Widow’s Web.

But I wanted to do more than just have Owen’s ex come to town. I also wanted to really delve into how finding out that Owen once loved someone else would bring up all of Gin’s old insecurities and how she would respond to that.

Also, up until Widow’s Web, Owen has been a really good guy and really supportive of Gin. I wanted to peel back his layers and show his backstory and how his relationship with Salina and her sudden departure from town mirrored Gin’s experience with Donovan in some ways. I think that learning more about Owen’s past and his mistakes (both past and present) makes him a more interesting character. That’s my hope, anyway.

I also wanted to focus in on Gin and Owen’s relationship and some of the questions and issues that they have to deal with because of Salina and just Gin being an assassin in general. What do you do when someone you love does something you don’t approve of? How do you get past it? Can you get past it? Or do you go your separate ways?

I thought those sorts of questions would make for a good story arc, especially set against the backdrop of the Ashland underworld being in so much turmoil and Gin being everyone’s target now. Plus, one of the things I like about writing urban fantasy is that you can do a story arc like this and have your characters struggle to get together, stay together, etc.

Plus, I had been wanting to write a villain with water magic for a while, and Salina’s character seemed like a good fit for that.

So I thought writing Widow’s Web would be a way to accomplish several things at once — delve into Owen’s past, write an interesting villain, and tackle some Gin/Owen relationship questions.

I thought a lot about breaking up Gin and Owen at the end of this book, and I talked to a lot of folks about it — Wheezley, my book group, my editor. My editor made the comment that Gin and Owen were just two people caught up in an impossible situation, and I think that sums up the book nicely.

I’ve gotten a few e-mails that have been less than flattering to Owen, and I’ve been told that there is some Owen backlash going on online. But I realized when I was writing the book that what happens might upset people, but this was part of Gin’s story that I wanted to tell, and I thought that it was necessary for certain events to happen like they did.

I can’t really say too much about future books without giving out spoilers, but I do have a plan for Gin and Owen too. How well I execute that plan and how folks respond to it, well, we’ll just have to wait and see. But I hope that the payoff in the end will be worth the journey for readers. That’s my goal, anyway. I hope that folks will continue reading the series, but I understand if people don’t.

So there you have it. Some of what went into writing Widow’s Web and the direction that the story and characters went in.

If there are questions, I’ll try to answer them in the comments section, although please keep in mind that I can’t give out any spoilers for the next book, Deadly Sting.

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed the post.

Tags: About Books, Elemental Assassin series, On Writing

Today’s post …

October 1, 2012 •4 Comments » •Posted in About Books, Guest blogs

Is over at:

Red Hot Books — The blog is doing a series of posts where authors share some books that they would recommend, and I’m talking about the Travis contemporary romance series by Lisa Kleypas.

Tags: About Books, Guest blogs

And the winner is …

September 28, 2012 •2 Comments » •Posted in About Books, Contests, Guest blogs, On Writing

The winner of an e-copy of His Very Own Girl by Carrie Lofty is:

Andrea M.

Congrats! You have until midnight, EST, Sunday, Sept. 30 to e-mail me and tell me what kind of e-copy you want so I can get your book sent to you. After that, I will pick another winner.

Thanks again to Carrie for guest blogging and to everyone who stopped by and left a comment.

Tags: About Books, Contests, Guest blogs, Historical romance, On Writing

Guest blog: Carrie Lofty on the Romance of WWII …

September 24, 2012 •11 Comments » •Posted in About Books, Guest blogs, On Writing

Today, I am pleased to welcome Carrie Lofty to my blog. Carrie is the author of His Very Own Girl, a World War II romance which was recently released, along with other historical romances like Flawless and Starlight. Take it away, Carrie:

THE ROMANCE OF WWII

Some readers have asked why I chose to set a romance in the midst of such a harrowing, bloody era. For me, World War II brought good, honorable people together and showed them entirely news sides of life. In His Very Own Girl, for example, Lulu Davies is a British civilian pilot and her hero is Joe Weber, a combat paratrooper from the American Midwest. Under what other circumstances would these two have had the chance to fall in love?

Thousands and thousands of couples met and fell in love under the most trying circumstances.

But the road to a happy ending during the war was literally filled with obstacles and explosions. Here, Lulu realizes just how brave she’ll need to be in order to love a man about to drop into Occupied France. This scene takes place after Joe rescued civilians from a bombed building:

***

“I was so scared for you, Joe,” she whispered. His neck smelled bitter and dry, like dust in a stuffy attic. “I haven’t felt that helpless in ages.”

“Lulu—”

“Because you wouldn’t have come out without that boy, would you?”

The muscles of his jaw bunched. “I couldn’t just leave him.”

And that’s why you’re going to break my heart.

He would keep putting himself out there for the men he was bound to save, and one day he wouldn’t be so lucky. She admired him and feared for him in equal measure, drowning, completely overwhelmed, until the emotions swelling in her chest threatened to burst.

“Lulu, I have to go.” He pulled free of her arms, gentle but determined. “There’s more to do here in the city, and then I have to report to my unit.”

“I can help—”

“No, Lulu. This was hard enough with you being here, no matter how you helped me. I can’t . . .” He looked up at her with an oddly sheepish expression. But neither did he seem willing to bend on this point. “I can’t do my job and think about you, too. Just go back on the ambulance, get home. Let me work. Please.”

He wasn’t out of line to demand it of her, no matter how gently, and she knew he was right. But her blood sizzled and she couldn’t catch her breath. How was she going to survive this — the wondering and not knowing?

At least in the midst of showering sparks and crumbling buildings, they’d been together. She’d been able to help, to see him move with easy, composed confidence. She’d taken comfort in his assurance. What did she have back at the ferry pool other than silences and endless waiting? What would she have when he jumped, inevitably, someday soon?

Her terrified mind screamed I told you to the heart that had behaved so rashly. But it was too late now.

“All right, Joe. I’ll go.” She wiped the tears that had collected at the corners of her eyes — proof that she’d lost her grip entirely. “I’ll go. But you have to promise you’ll get someone to stitch your head.”

“I will. It hurts. I’ll have someone patch me up tonight. Promise.”

The driver beeped her horn.

“C’mon, now.” Joe took her by the elbow and urged her toward the ambulance’s passenger door. “Can you take my girl wherever you’re going?”

“Hospital,” the blonde young woman said.

“That’s fine. I’d appreciate it.” Joe assisted Lulu into the cab and gave her hand one last squeeze. “You can catch a taxi home from there.”

She wanted to tell him so much. But his patients, the ones he’d worked so bravely and selflessly to save — they needed the attention of a real doctor. They needed to be at hospital. So Lulu held her tongue and let Joe shut the passenger door. He disappeared into the smoke-drenched aftermath of the bombing, leaving Lulu to cope as her body deteriorated into uncontrollable tremors.

“You all right, miss?” the driver asked. Her accent revealed her as a local girl.

“I’m fine. Just . . .” Lulu cleared her throat. “I’m fine.”

But her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Her heels bobbed up and down. She’d experienced those same wicked, disobedient shakes after her crash.

Only then did she remember that Joe had called her my girl.

***

The most foolish, most desperate, most optimistic men and women in the war were brave enough to risk both their lives and their hearts. I needed to write His Very Own Girl because I wanted to tell a story just like this — proof that love can flourish anywhere.

HIS VERY OWN GIRL GIVEAWAY

Carrie has generously offered to give away a digital copy of His Very Own Girl in any format. To enter, just leave a comment on this blog post answering the following question: What era in history is the most romantic to you?

The giveaway is open to those 18 and older and will be open through midnight, EST, Wednesday, Sept. 26. The winner will be announced on the blog on Friday, Sept. 28.

MORE ABOUT CARRIE

You can find Carrie online on her Web site and Twitter. And here is some more information about Carrie’s books:

Available now from Pocket Books are three Christie Family romances. Flawless kicked it off with a tale of an estranged couple’s search for love. The 99-cent tie-in novella, A Little More Scandal, follows two aspiring lovers to London. And the Scottish-set second novel, Starlight, was an RT Book Reviews 4 1/2 Star Top Pick.

Carrie has also launched a co-written pseudonym, Katie Porter, with her long-time friend and critique partner, Lorelie Brown. Their Vegas Top Guns series of contemporary erotic romances launched from Samhain with Double Down and Inside Bet, both of which were RT Book Reviews 4 1/2 Star Top Picks.

Thanks so much for being here today, Carrie.

Tags: About Books, Guest blogs, Historical romance, On Writing

Jennifer Estep

Urban Fantasy Author

Guest blog: Lauren Fortgang on audiobooks …

Widow’s Web discussion post …

Today’s post …

And the winner is …

Guest blog: Carrie Lofty on the Romance of WWII …

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