Saturday 25 February 2017

Hear the Chronicles!

Reading is great and all, but sometimes it can be hard work, right?  All of those letters and words!  And isn't it nice, sometimes, just to have someone read to you instead?  Especially someone who's really good at reading ... a professional narrator, say?

Okay, I'm joking a little; reading is brilliant and nothing can match it.  But I'm a big fan of audiobooks too, though not so much as a replacement but as an addition.  Certainly, as a writer, it's thrilling to have someone who really knows what they're doing read your work aloud - as close as some of us may ever get to a film or TV adaptation!  I've been peculiarly lucky on the audiobook front too, with all three Tales of Damasco books and even my novella Patchwerk getting the treatment, as well as a fair nothing of stories available as podcasts.

And now that goes for The Black River Chronicles: Level One as well - making it the first ever audiobook release from Digital Fiction Publishing.  Co-author Mike Wills, wearing his second hat as publisher, has done an amazing job of making this happen, and the results are, frankly, stupendous.  I can clearly remember how over the Christmas week we were both listening to samples of narrators, and it was no coincidence that we both independently (and with further corroboration from family members!) decided on Alan Ross.  From even a brief listen, it was clear that he had a real handle on the flow of the writing, on the cast, really on every aspect of the book; Alan is just plain fun to listen to, bringing his own character to the prose and clearly enjoying himself.  Again, I've been fortunate with readers, both of books and short stories, but I think it's fair to see that Alan's up there with the best.

Don't believe me?  Or do believe me but want to hear what I'm raving about?  Either way, you can listen to a brief trailer - here:


If that piques your interest then the audio version of The Black River Chronicles: Level One should be dribbling out across all good stockists in the very near future.  But, since audibooks.com are a little ahead of the game, they're certainly a good place to start: you can find Level One here.

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