As always, there’s a summary of this week’s progress at the end of this post.
The Auditions
Out of five requests, I got two auditions, so I was pretty chuffed with that!
I listened to both several times, trying not to flail too hard as two wonderful ladies gave my characters a voice.
It was such a surreal moment for me. I kinda just smiled at my screen with blank eyes as I listened to every word.
Both narrators did amazing jobs, but they were also quite different to each other. I loved both and struggled to choose.
Fortunately, I have critique partners who were happy to help, and by Saturday, I’d pretty much chosen.
I still waited until Monday just in case I changed my mind, but I didn’t and pressed the exciting/daunting BOOK NARRATOR button.
I got these two screens next:
I’ve blacked out her name for now since nothing is official or signed yet. To be honest, this is probably overkill, but since both of us can still pull out at this point, I don’t want to make anything look official.
Production Notes and the Contract
Last night, I got an email.
IT’S HAPPENING
*throws confetti*
(I mean, it’s probably happening. As I said above, we haven’t signed anything yet, and I never like celebrating too soon.)
So, things are suddenly moving very quickly. This time last week, I didn’t have the auditions yet and was hoping that at least one of my five would be interested. Fast-forward a week and I’m about to sign the contract and my narrator is getting ready.
A Shout-Out to FindawayVoices
The fourth week of my journey into audiobook production is about to end, and so far, I’ve had nothing but a good experience with FindawayVoices.
On the few occasions when I’ve emailed them with questions, their team got back to me quickly with helpful answers and a friendly tone.
Everything has been easy, clear, and professional, even to a complete newbie like me.
So far, I’m very pleased that I chose them to produce my audiobook, and can only recommend them if you’re considering doing the same.
Summary:
I got two auditions late last Friday and listened to both.
Since I struggled to decide – they were both incredible! – I asked my critique partners and my editor for their feedback.
On Monday, I booked my chosen narrator, and FindawayVoices got in touch with her.
Last night, I got the production notes form to fill in and the contract to sign. My narrator is currently reading the book and making notes as she goes, so it’s possible that she won’t like what she reads and cancels, but I’d like to think that’s a small chance.
I’ll be filling in the production notes over the next few working days (unless there’s a tighter deadline than that – I’ve emailed them to check) and signing the contract as soon as they’ve confirmed one more thing for me.
And then we’re off! :O
All being well, I’ll be able to tell you next Friday that the production is officially underway *high five*
If you have any questions about this process, leave a comment and I’ll reply asap!
For all entries in The Audiobook Diaries, look here.
Sign up to BOOKISH WITH SARINA for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and other exclusive freebies such as the short stories All that I Can Be and Bubak.
After I’ve burned myself out in May – badly – I vow to do better this month *high five*
The below may not read like much, but they’re all big milestones across all WIPs!
Brightened Shadows
My first priority this June is to go over the rest of my critique partner feedback and make some changes to my draft. Once that’s done, it’ll go to my editor for its line edit. I might also read over everything again before that to make sure I’m happy with the changes and that everything flows well.
Blood Wisp
As I mentioned in the May update, this book is a right mess. Once I’m done with Brightened Shadows and it’s in my editor’s capable hands, I’ll restructure Blood Wisp. I’ve already started, and it’ll be a fairly simple process of copying chapters from the current draft and pasting them into a new draft, without any of that repetition and now-unnecessary chapters.
I’ll have quite a bit of rewriting and adding to do afterwards, but it’ll be much stronger for it when I’m done.
The Rise of the Sparrows Audiobook
I won’t say too much here because details are what my Audiobook Diaries are for, BUT I’ve chosen my narrator and am ready to book her.
I’m a little unclear right now as to how the next steps work (mostly admin-y things), but I’m hoping to wait with production until July to make sure I leave myself enough for living costs.
I’ve gone slightly over budget, but this narrator is perfect for my book, so I’m okay with that.
If they are happy to wait, too, I’ll be booking my narrator this month. I imagine it’ll be fine, but as someone who’s never done this before, I don’t want to make any assumptions.
And that’s my little big update! What are you all up to this June?
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Welcome to Week 3 of my Audiobook Diaries! This week has been an important milestone, because I’ve requested auditions from specific narrators *flails*
As always, there’s a summary at the end if you don’t have time to read right now and a look at what’s next.
Narration Samples
Findaway Voices sent me a list of eight recommended narrators last Friday afternoon.
I’m really impressed with the variety, especially the experience some of them have! Based on my own lack of awards and tiny social media proof, I figured I’d only have a chance with new narrators who are just starting out – and I got one or two of those, too – but some of my recommendations have won multiple awards.
Findaway Voices provided me with the list, which includes headshots of every narrator, their name, their estimated fee, and a description of what they’ve done, awards they’ve won, what accents they can do, what they’d rather not do, etc.
Along with all that also come narration samples in different genres and styles for every narrator, which really helped narrow it down and get a feel for the type of work they’ve previously done.
You can listen to as many samples as you want and request auditions from your book from your favourite narrators. If none of them are a good fit, you can request another set of samples.
At this point, there’s still zero commitment.
I focussed on two things: narrators who had samples in my genre, and narrator’s whose tone of voice fit my protagonist Rachael best.
I made my own little list of every narrator and my first impressions, and then I left it over the weekend.
The Auditions
As I mentioned above, I got the list of narrator recommendations late on Friday. Monday was a bank holiday here, so I had lots of time to think about my preferences and consider what excerpt to choose for their auditions.
Above the narrator details and their samples, I could fill in specific guidelines for the audition – including the text I’d like them to read.
Now, you don’t have to choose anything, in which case it will default to the first 700 words of your book…
Or you could choose whatever excerpt from your book you want, maybe something with dialogue, to make sure your chosen narrator handles those parts well. If you decide to go this route, find the sections you want them to read in your book and copy & paste them into the provided box.
I chose two important scenes – one a plot milestone, one an emotional character development milestone – because I wanted to see how the narrators read those big moments.
You can give them a few details besides the script, like the main character’s accent, but you can’t give them too many details beyond that – for example, one of my chosen excerpts had Cephy in it, and there was no room to mention that she’s twelve years old – so consider that the narrators don’t have all the info at this point. If your narrator doesn’t voice the Elderly man with a strong Scottish accent differently to the 20-something girl with a British accent, don’t worry about it. There’ll be time to pass these things on later.
I could then tick the narrators I wanted to send the request to, but don’t worry – if you later change your mind and would like to request an audition from someone you didn’t tick, you can still easily add them with the click of a button.
If you change your mind and don’t want to request an audition from one or more narrators from anymore, don’t worry about it. There’s no guarantee they’ll be interested in return, so they might not audition anyway, and if they do, you don’t have to pick them to narrate your whole book. Remember that there’s still zero commitment at this point! You might as well see if they audition and, if they do, if they are a good fit after all.
Once I’d filled in this little questionnaire and copied and pasted my audition script, I clicked Submit and got another Thank You pop-up, informing me that my chosen narrators will read the excerpts within seven working days. I’ll also get an email once all interested narrators have submitted the script.
Naturally, I forgot to take a picture of this. *ahem*
It’s important to note that my interest in the narrators doesn’t mean they’ll be interested in my book. It’s entirely possible that all of my chosen narrators decline my audition request, in which case we’ll try again with a new set of recommendations.
Summary
It’s been a big week with few steps!
Findaway Voices sent me a list of 8 recommended narrators.
I listened to the narrators’ samples and decided which ones I’d like to audition.
I filled in a brief questionnaire (the audition request) and added two vital-moment excerpts from my book. As long as it’s between 500-700 words, you can choose any scenes from your book you’d like.
I submitted the audition request! *throws dark confetti*
Now I wait. I submitted the requests on Tuesday, plus seven working days… *counts on fingers* All being well, I’ll have an audition or two (or maybe even all five! I dare dream) in my inbox by Thursday afternoon!
For all entries in The Audiobook Diaries, look here.
Sign up to BOOKISH WITH SARINA for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and other exclusive freebies such as the short stories All that I Can Be and Bubak.
I’ll keep this month’s update short because I’ve burned myself out pretty badly this month *rolls eyes at self*
Brightened Shadows
I’ve received all critique partner feedback and have begun to go over their suggestions. Most of it is straightforward – a word spelled wrong here, an easy-to-fix inconsistency there – but other parts…
I’d go over one set of feedback and the critique partner loved, say, a chapter. I’d then move on to the next set of feedback, and the critique partner didn’t get on with the same chapter at all.
There’s one character I was worried had too many chapters compared to the others. One critique partner thinks they had too few and need more.
And on it went! So, in short, I somewhat divided my critique partners with this one. This isn’t on everything, of course, but they’ve given me a lot to think about, and I have some ideas on how to strengthen important parts of the book thanks to them.
Blood Wisp
Remember how I said at the beginning of the month that I’d dive into rewrites at some point this month, depending on how messy this draft really is?
Turns out, it’s messy. I was tempted to start over from scratch at one point.
I’ve gone over the entire draft now and have begun to take notes of my notes. There are some serious structural problems (friendly reminder to avoid turning three novellas into one novel), which means a good bit of rewriting is necessary.
To hopefully make sense of the mess without creating more mess, I’ve re-outlined it and will copy and paste the chapters I’m keeping/moving into a new, clean document. I’m cutting a few chapters and need to add quite a few more so everything comes together well, so I’m hoping this will make it easier.
At the moment, entries are weekly every Friday – and the reason this monthly progress update happens today rather than tomorrow.
Twitter
I’ve rejoined Twitter earlier this month! I considered tidying up my account, but that would have taken a very long time, so I deleted it and started over.
And that sums up my May! Remember to look after yourselves <3
Sign up for my mailing list for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and the exclusive freebies Shadow in Ar’Sanciond (the Relics of Ar’Zac prequel novella) and Pashros Kai Zo (a Relics of Ar’Zac short story, which isn’t available anywhere else).
Welcome to the second week of my audiobook diaries! *high five*
I started this series last week to record my first journey into turning my books into audiobooks and to give everyone who’s interested an insight into that process. Start with Week 1 if you want to read it in sequence or missed the first entry.
This week, I dove into the good stuff – I started the casting process for my narrator *rubs hands together*
If you don’t have time to read the whole article right now, I’ve summarised the key points at the end.
The Necessary Paperwork
Because everything about this is a business, there was a quick tax form to fill in. It’s as exciting as it sounds, but I don’t want to give you the wrong impression by not including it, so here we are.
If you want an audiobook and make money from it, you’ll need to fill in a quick, legally required tax form. Findaway Voices made that surprisingly easy.
Voices Plus
The first thing I did was choose Voices Plus. It looked like I had to choose this early on, but I actually didn’t choose until later as part of the narrator wishlist, so don’t worry about it until you give them all other details about what you’re looking for. More on that in a bit.
Opting in to Voices Plus means that Findaway Voices will be the exclusive distributor for a year. I can change my mind any time within the first six months, but I’m not sure why I would want to – Findaway distributes to 43 markets (at the time I’m writing this), and if they add any new ones after my book is out, they’ll automatically distribute our audiobook there too.
(I’m calling it our audiobook because, while it’s true that I wrote the thing, they’re doing a good bit of the hard work, too, so the audiobook is very much a team effort.)
With Voices Plus, the royalty share option works like this: the author (aka me) pays half up front and shares 20% of the royalties with the narrator for ten years. Findaway also keeps 20%, meaning I keep 60%.
You don’t have to choose the royalty share option if that doesn’t work for you. You can pay the full sum instead (in which case you’d keep 80%), but I deemed this safer since it’s my first time and I don’t have a lot of cash lying around.
A quick comparison: ACX has a royalty share option, too, but it works slightly differently from what I understand. With ACX, you don’t pay anything up front and share only your royalties. This might sound like the better option, but consider this:
My narrator could do a lot of work without getting paid if the book doesn’t sell – and this is always a risk, friends. Would I have accepted a work-intensive editing job that takes several months if there had been a chance of me not getting any money for it? Would you? Of course not.
Narrators do a lot of work and they do it well, so they should be paid what they’re worth. This is one of the reasons I chose Findaway Voices! Fair pay for everyone involved.
Narrator Wishlist
Once I’d filled in the tax form, it was time to start casting.
Findaway Voices takes you through a pretty straightforward questionnaire where you can specify what you’re looking for in a narrator.
Choosing up to five vocal timbres isn’t as easy as it sounds – throughout Rise of the Sparrows, Rachael goes through so many situations that her vocal timbre naturally isn’t always tough or warm. For the most part, she’s a tough, terse girl, but she also has soft conversations, for example, so I really appreciated being able to choose more than one.
I took the screenshot before I chose all five, but I did choose all five.
Just a heads-up: before this step, I also had to define the overall tone of the book. Again, not an easy thing to do since my book is mostly dark but there are also joyful moments and there’s a good dose of sarcasm – just like any book isn’t one thing only. They gave examples like ‘joyful’ and ‘morose’, and I gave them a small essay in return. This might be something to think about before you start this process if you don’t want to stumble once you’ve started.
Details Besides the Narrator
Besides the narrator wishlist, they calculate how much this is likely to cost you and how long it’s likely to take based on the wordcount in the document I’d uploaded to Draft2Digital. Findaway Voices gets the book straight from there, which saves you an upload. The calculation is automatic and instant, so you’ll get a good idea of costs before you commit to anything.
Remember that, if you choose Voices Plus, that number will be halved.
I was tempted to upload a ‘clean’ document without the front and back matter (since those bits won’t be read in the audiobook), but it barely changed the wordcount (and therefore didn’t touch the production cost). In the end, I figured it’d be recommended on the site if they preferred it or they just wouldn’t take the book from Draft2Digital in all it’s back matter-y glory, so I left it as it was.
Choosing Voices Plus means they wanted to see social proof. This is very fair – my narrator will earn less, possibly nothing from royalties if the book doesn’t sell, so Findaway wants to see before they commit to anything that this is worth their time.
I stumbled again at this point.
They asked for up to 5 proofs that I’ve previously sold the ebook, so I uploaded sales data from the KDP dashboard and thanked the Powers That Be that download numbers have gone up since I made it perma-free.
They also asked for links to any awards I might have received (which is 0), reviews (easy – I linked to BookBub and Goodreads (their suggestion)), and social proof – which confused me. I included a link to when I first posted the book trailer on Instagram, but to be honest, I’ve no idea if that’s what they were after.
Fortunately, I could also tick that this is my first time, so hopefully they’ll be understanding of my ignorance o.o
The Waiting Game Begins
Once I had filled all this in, I got this super exciting screen:
Every time I opened Photoshop on this screenshot, I had a second of thinking I needed to click the big green button because Photoshop had crashed or had an update or whatever.
I filled in the metadata last week, so now I wait.
It’s my understanding that they will send me recommendations with general audition recordings. I will narrow it down from those and upload an excerpt or two from my book for my favourite narrators to audition from – which, I imagine, is when my nerves will really go through the roof.
But we shall see what happens next week, yes?
To summarise:
I filled in a quick and necessary tax form.
I opted in to Voices Plus, meaning I’ll pay half up front and share my royalties with Findaway Voices and my narrator once the audiobook is out.
I filled in the details of what I’m looking for in a narrator and submitted the form to Findaway Voices.
I submitted the form on Tuesday, so in theory, I’ll get a list of potential narrators around Tuesday next week. I expect this can easily take longer (especially because I don’t have any awards or massive social proof to show off, plus there’s a pandemic going on), so I won’t hope for it to be that fast.
Either way, I’ll keep you posted next week Friday!
For all entries in The Audiobook Diaries, look here.
Sign up to BOOKISH WITH SARINA for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and other exclusive freebies such as the short stories All that I Can Be and Bubak.
Roughly three years ago, I was as far away from having my own audiobooks as I could get.
I hated working out (I believe I was running on my treadmill at the time (I’ve since sold the bloody thing)) and needed something to distract myself. So, I signed up for the Audible trial and downloaded two books I knew I’d love: Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman and On Writing by Stephen King.
I plugged in my headphones, started up my treadmill…
And couldn’t for the life of me focus on those books.
I figured audiobooks just weren’t for me, so why would I consider making my own? I just didn’t.
But then late last year, I wanted to try again. I’d been wanting to read more but didn’t have the time to sit down with a book every day, so people recommended audiobooks to me. And guess what?
Audiobooks are awesome.
Turns out, the audiobooks weren’t the problem, the type of exercise was! (I should have known–I loathe running for anything with a passion)
Since then, I’ve really fallen in love with audiobooks. They transform everything into reading time, and I’ve found some gems this way which I might not have read otherwise.
So, it feels only natural to me to offer my own novels as audiobooks, to hopefully bring the same joy audiobooks have brought me to my own readers.
BUT I won’t lie, this is daunting af. Something about people auditioning for my books, recording the whole things, and then me listening to my own books read by someone professional just seems so huge, you know?
Since I announced on social media that I was considering this step, lots of people have told me they’d love to know what’s involved, that they might create their own audibooks but have no idea what to do, so I decided to set up this regular series. I hope it’ll give you detailed insight into the audiobook creation process so that you can decide for yourself if this is the right step for you.
Alternatively, if you’re not an author but a bookworm and just want to know more about what we do all day, I hope this sheds some light on some of the mystery.
I will aim to post updates every Friday. If the process slows down (as I expect it will once recording starts), they might become a little more infrequent.
If you don’t want to read through everything, feel free to skip to the headers that interest you. There’s also a summary at the end of this post.
Disclaimer: Please remember that I’m very new to this and haven’t tried to go it with either ACX or Findaway Voices yet. It’s possible I’ve misunderstood something somewhere, in which case, do correct me! I’m here to learn.
Disclaimer 2: My little blog uses affiliate links on occasion, which means I’ll earn a small commission if you purchase something I recommend. Thank you for your support <3
As with anything I do, I started with research. This is very new to me, and like all those people asking me for answers on social media, I have no idea what to do (plus there’s the aforementioned daunting factor), so it seemed like the best place to start.
These are the resources I’ve used over the last few weeks to help me make sense of it all:
But just reading about the process didn’t, you know, begin the process, so I took the first step this week:
I emailed my cover designer about creating the audiobook cover for Rise of the Sparrows – the perfect starter book, I hope, since it’s the first novel in my first series and the first book I published. Now it can be my first audiobook too!
Why did I start here?
Because, unlike regular book covers, audiobook covers are square. You can try to wiggle it yourself, but chances are your cover will end up looking distorted, which isn’t very appealing to potential listeners.
As always, my designer was a pro and a star and did it right away <3
I read in one of the resources above that uploading the cover early can help find narrators since it shows them a) the cover, which gives them a good feel for whether it’s their kind of book and b) that you’re prepared and therefore know what you’re doing.
*ahem*
So, I wanted to start with the cover so I’ll have it ready when it’s time to create my project. But before I could do that, I had to choose how I’d create the audiobook itself, and that took a little more consideration.
ACX or Findaway Voices
Honestly, this could be its own article. Suffice it to say that I’ve done a lot of reading about both (see above!) over the last two weeks, was torn for a while, and have now chosen Findaway Voices.
I won’t go into detail here because this post would become much too big, but for details on both, I recommend the resources I’ve listed above. All are free except the book.
Findaway Voices give me what I’ve always wanted since before I published Rise of the Sparrows four years ago: control. I decide the price. I decide when and where and how it’s discounted. With ACX, those things would be out of my hands.
It’s free to sign up for ACX (just use your Amazon details!). Findaway Voices have a $49 fee, but you can go around that by using them via Draft2Digital, which waives that fee.
Both give you the choice to either pay your narrator per hour or to split the royalties at the end. Paying per hour gets expensive fast (I believe it starts around $100 per production hour and rises to up to $1000, depending on the narrator), so I’ll be going with the royalty-split option and hope it won’t ruin my chances of getting a good narrator. I might choose to pay per production hour in the future, but this seemed safer for my first try.
Findaway Voices let you go wide very easily, whereas with ACX, you can either be exclusive (meaning Audible, Amazon, and iTunes only, larger royalties, and they might let you go wide after a year if you email them), go wide (much smaller royalties), or you choose the royalty-split option, which also binds you to them for seven years.
It’s my understanding that you can go wide on ACX after a while even if you chose to share your earnings, but then you’d also take the smaller royalties, meaning your narrator gets smaller royalties as a result, and that just doesn’t seem fair to me. Like editors, narrators put in a lot of work and deserve to get paid what they’re worth.
Long story short, Findaway Voices seems more user friendly, and finding a narrator seems easier (you can all laugh at me next week should the opposite happen), plus there’s the additional control, so I’ve chosen them.
SO, all posts in this series will focus on how things work with Findaway Voices. You can totally choose ACX if you prefer, but my posts won’t have any answers for you.
I think that’s quite enough detail given I promised to keep it short 😛 If you want more in-depth info, allow me to recommend the above resources again.
How to Set Up with Findaway Voices
I’m going through Draft2Digital since I was already going wide with my ebooks with them anyway and since they’re the ones who tempted me to begin with.
Getting started is easy. You can either click on the little microphone next to your title or open the individual title (by clicking it on the same screen) and choosing the big, orange Audio Book option. Like so:
Ignore the green microphone next to the box set. I made a mistake and am trying to get rid of it.
Or…
Once you’ve told them that you’d like to create your audiobook with Findaway Voices, you will be taken to this screen:
It’s pretty straightforward from there. If you already have an audiobook, you choose the right option; if you need to create your audiobook, like me, you go left.
To begin with, you’ll fill in/check your book’s general information, like the cover, its blurb, and who holds the copyright.
And this is where I stumbled for the first time.
I had to set the release date – or Street Date, on Findaway Voices – but since I haven’t done this before, I had no idea what to put. I don’t know how long this’ll take, friends!
I did a bit of research and found in their help section that ‘an audiobook can go from start to sale in as fast as 6–8 weeks.’ They also mention that it depends on the book’s complexity and length, which is only logical.
I still wasn’t sure what to put (and their above estimation seems fast to me), so I set the date to four months from now. It doesn’t say if I can change this date later, but I hope I can – just in case I’ve messed up before I even got to the good bit and need longer after all!
And that’s where I’m at right now!
To summarise:
I started last week by doing research. For the list of recommended resources, scroll up to just under the banner.
I will be creating the audiobook of Rise of the Sparrows (and the rest of the series if all goes well) with Findaway Voices.
I started this week by asking my cover designer to create the audiobook cover and by officially beginning the project via Draft2Digital.
What’s next?
Phew! This was a lot for one week, wasn’t it? :O As this is the very start of this fun, terrifying adventure, I know the least and therefore have the most to share.
I approved the cover proof yesterday and uploaded the finished cover. This morning, I’ll add some keywords (which seems to be exactly the same as everywhere else?), and then…
I’ll make a strong chamomile tea (to calm down, see) and begin the narrator audition process, whatever that’ll involve! I’m beyond excited to hear how someone else will voice my babies <3 This is definitely the part I’m most excited about right now.
If you have any questions about what I did this week or generally have questions about this process, ask away in the comments and I’ll answer your comment as well as include it in next week’s post.
For all entries in The Audiobook Diaries, look here.
Sign up to BOOKISH WITH SARINA for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and other exclusive freebies such as the short stories All that I Can Be and Bubak.
Do you remember back in January (which feels roughly seven years ago) when I posted the first ever interview of this blog? It was with my editor, playwright, and author Briana Morgan, and I mentioned that it was the first in a new series of monthly author interviews.
Well, that didn’t bloody happen, did it.
If you’ve been reading my monthly progress updates, you’ll know some of how life got in the way, and if you haven’t, I won’t bore you with the details. The important thing is, monthly interviews are BACK!
*throws dark confetti*
This month’s interview is with one of my very best author friends, Beverley Lee. She’s a paranormal horror author who taught me that everything I thought I knew about the genre was wrong 🙂
If you love horror books or the paranormal in fiction, I hope you’ll enjoy reading our interview as much as we enjoyed chatting about it.
One quick note: we did this interview a little while ago (*coughs* January *coughs*) and then life got in the way as it does, so when Bev talks about her current reads and her WIP, please note they were her current reads at the time we did the interview and that her WIP has moved on a little since we chatted.
S: Welcome to my author blog, Bev! To start with, what are you reading at the moment?
B: Right now I’m immersed in horror! I’m reading Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke and an advanced reader copy of Nocturnal Farm from Villimey Mist, but it’s rare that I have two similar books on my reading pile.
S: I may be biased where Villimey’s book is concerned, but it’s excellent, isn’t it? ^-^ And I’ve seen Kealan around Instagram quite a bit and admit I’ve been interested in his books for a while. It’s not your first read by him, is it?
B: I’m only 10% into Villimey’s book but I’m enjoying being back with Leia. If you want a good start with Kealan’s work I’d suggest Sour Candy. It’s got such a fabulous first line! I’ve read a couple of his short story collections but Kin is the first novel length one. Don’t let the fact that it’s about cannibals put you off 😉
S: As if XD What about his books keeps drawing you back?
B: Good horror isn’t all about scares. It’s the subtle way he blends the everyday with things that go bump in the night that appeals. You can imagine yourself in the same situation as the characters, which is true for any good book in any genre, I think. He also has a knack for peeling away their skins (no pun intended!) and exposing their every thought, no matter how horrific.
S: I agree, and I think this is something I understood about horror quite late. Growing up I didn’t dare touch horror books because I’d been taught that the whole genre was just terrifying scares, but I’m trying to broaden my horizons. I think your first book, The Making of Gabriel Davenport, was one of the first horror books I’d read since… goodness, I can’t remember! Probably since that short story collection by Stephen King scared the hell out of me when I was a teenager! I’m proud to say that yours didn’t stop me from sleeping, but it was creepy and disturbing. I remember a scene near the beginning especially, where everything went downhill for poor Beth.
So, I know that blending the everyday with the things that go bump in the night is one of your specialties too! What else do you love about this genre that you try to incorporate in your own writing?
B: Ha, I’m glad I could disturb you 😉 I read Cujo by King as an impressionable teen and it scared the life out of me. I can still remember reading it.
Let’s see – that there is always a grey area between goodness and evil and that’s where the best things dwell. I like to show that the supposedly bad characters have redeeming qualities, and something I always do is make sure that my readers understand the motives behind my antagonist’s thinking. Just having a cardboard cutout villain doesn’t interest me at all. I like to take what’s been done before and spin my own twist, creating my own vampire hierarchy and laws, for instance, but they have to be believable.
We all like to be frightened a little bit. It takes us away into that primal place of instinct, so different from our closeted modern lifestyle and writing it gives me that same feeling.
S: All I know about Cujo is from Friends – there’s something seriously wrong with a dog XD
I think the way you do it – by taking something that’s been done before and putting your own spin on it – is the best way to do it. We like things that feel familiar no matter how many fantasy elements are involved. So many new writers try to be original to breaking point, because finding something that’s really never existed before is near impossible these days.
Now, to me your books are definitely horror. Horror that’s more disturbing than sleepless-nights-terrifying, but horror nontheless. But when you first categorised your debut novel, you didn’t think of horror. That came a little later, didn’t it?
B: Yes, you’re spot on 🙂 When I was writing Gabriel I classified it as dark fantasy. It was only after readers started saying that the first part seriously messed with their heads that I realised that the horror tag did in fact fit. But I’m not a huge fan of putting books into pigeon holes. A good story is a good story, and that might mean it has elements of half a dozen different genres.
S: Absolutely. It’s impossible to squeeze any one book into one genre only. Most books have an adventure element or a romance element, and pretty much every book has a bit of mystery. Your books definitely fit the dark fantasy tag, but you could equally say that they’re urban paranormal and, of course, horror!
Did you have an ideal reader in mind when you wrote the Gabriel Davenport trilogy? Who did you write them for?
B: I just wanted anyone to read them, no matter how old they were 🙂 A lot of people have classified them as YA as my main characters are predominantly teenagers, but I don’t think the way I write is suited to the YA ‘brand’ (there’s that pigeon hole thing again!) And to begin with I wrote them just for me, as they were the books I wanted to read but could never find.
S: No, I agree, I don’t think they really fit the YA brand. You could argue that they’re a coming-of-age story of sorts because of what happens to Gabe, but overall there are none of the things young adults or teens would identify with. Your MC is a teenager, but his problems aren’t normal teenage issues, and you could argue that some of the others may look like teenagers but haven’t really been teenagers for a long time…
This is even more true for your newest book, which has some very dark themes indeed! Can you tell us a bit about Ruin? How does it differ from Gabriel?
B: Gabriel is definitely a coming of age story, but when I started it, I had no idea what I was going to put him through!
Ah yes, my newest book baby, The Ruin of Delicate Things, is about a couple (Dan and Faye Morgan) struggling with the death of their son. A cottage is bequeathed to Dan in the heart of the English countryside. It’s where he spent his childhood summers. But soon after arriving, things start to happen that both of them can’t explain. The old house still stands in the middle of the forest, watching over the lake. And there’s something in that house that knows what Dan did and that wants him to pay *cue spooky music*
S: I loved Gabriel’s story, but I think I loved this one even more. I was lucky enough to read an early version, and it was so deliciously dark and the pace at which you reveal things kept me glued to the kindle screen!
You may hate me for asking this, but where did your inspiration for Ruin come from?
B: Nothing makes me happier than comments like that, Sarina *heart eyes*
The first thing that came to me with Ruin was the setting. And then the characters came next, but I think I told you before that I had a problem getting the story to stick with one of them so I had to age them up. As for what dwells in the house, some of the inspiration came from a nature program I was watching, but that character went through a few changes before I was happy with how she came out.
S: Ah, see, I knew I need to watch more nature programs! What did you enjoy the most about writing this book?
B: I really enjoyed writing the darkness in Barrington Hall. It became almost a character in itself – a playground for the lost and cursed. It had definite Hill House vibes for me! And I think I have a thing for making houses characters *laughs* I loved writing Barrington Hall’s history too with all the horrors involved and the way it shaped the present.
S: I definitely got the playground for the lost vibe, especially from this one character’s perception. It made the house come alive, and I shivered when certain characters set foot inside.
But speaking of spoilers… Can you share an excerpt? Without spoilers, of course 😉
B: Of course!
ONE
As the sign for the village flashed by, Dan Morgan knew he would rather be anywhere else but here.
In this car, with the rain beating down on the windscreen. On this road, which led to his childhood, with all of its muted meandering memories. Back when days had gone on forever. After thirty years he was racing back towards it, searching for its enchantment, fruitlessly hoping it could cast its rose-tinted spell upon the agonising hellscape of his life.
He glanced in his rear-view mirror, watched as the sign disappeared in the distance, the whoosh of the tyres on the wet road a constant background noise. Faye stared out of the rear passenger window, one finger tracing a line of mingled raindrops. A typical British summer.
She’d said she wanted to sleep, but Dan knew the real reason she had moved from beside him was because she couldn’t stand the wall of silence that had descended on the long journey down. He could see her profile etched against the thin light, almost as if she was trying to disappear into it. Dark curls mussed around her face, her nose a slight aquiline, which gave strength to her otherwise fragile features.
Sometimes he caught her watching him as if he had turned into a creature she didn’t understand.
A sharp pain jabbed Dan—Dan to his friends. Daniel to his colleagues. But never Danny, not since that summer—in the ribs.
The rot had set in on the night Toby had been sliced from their lives. Dan’s fingers clenched on the steering wheel.
How can a child go out one day and never return?
It had been a brutal year. And the weight that hung in the air between them was like the blade of a pendulum, gradually severing the fraying connection to which they were both clinging.
Faye’s ears were covered by her ever-present headphones, plugged into the world of audio books. It was much easier to immerse herself in other people’s stories; her own hurt too much.
An image of Toby, laying cold and still on the hospital gurney, covered in a white sheet, invaded his thoughts. Dan had watched from the safety of the small room, that clinical sheet of glass separating him from his son, watched as the young doctor with the dark circles under his eyes pulled back the sheet. Dan wanted to scream that it wasn’t Toby—this shell of a boy with the pale blue lips couldn’t possibly be his son. His boy had been loud and kind and lovable. His son had yelled, ‘See you later, Dad!’ as he swept past the study, hopping on one leg as he stuffed his foot into a trainer.
Dan hadn’t turned his head, just raised his hand in reply. He’d been too busy, too focussed on the marketing plan in front of him, the ever-approaching deadline looming like a hand grenade with a loose pin.
Dan bit his bottom lip, closing his eyes for a moment to stop the images. Stop the guilt.
A loud, dull thud, the weight of an impact hitting the front of the car. Dan’s eyes flew open. He braked hard, water splashing onto the bonnet, the wipers sweeping back and forth in a pattern that set his teeth on edge. Please God, don’t let it be a person…
S: Now that The Ruin of Delicate Things is out in the world and doing great, what’s next for you? I know you’re working on something in its very early stages…
B: Yes, I have something very much in its infancy which is already refusing to play along with any outline I might have had. Who I thought was my main character might not be now, as two others muscled their way in last week. There’s a possibility it will link back to Gabriel’s series in some way too, either by the appearance of a few characters or settings, but it’s very early days and we both know how a first draft can morph into something completely different!
S: Now that’s exciting! And I know it’s super frustrating when the characters and plot shuffle themselves around, but it’s also my favourite thing. The book comes alive and shows you how it’s done – and we both know there are more surprises for the reader when they’re surprising for us!
Horror author Beverley Lee
Before we go and I let you get back to your cat, can you share a few links? Where else can we find you online?
B: All my books and where to find them are listed on my website where you can download a free short story, a dark and twisted fairy tale, by signing up to my mailing list.
Thank you so much for chatting with me, Bev! Always lovely to talk to you ^-^
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I hope you’re all keeping well and safe, especially as the lock down ends in some places and eases in others <3
This will be the month my progress picks UP, because I’ll hit a big deadline this week. While it’s not related to my own books, it’s been taking up a lot of my time every day, so finishing it will free up my schedule like nothing else has done in a long time!
There are quite a few exciting things ahead! So many, in fact, that I’ve summarised my goals for this month at the end. Feel free to jump ahead if you’re short on time or don’t want to read the whole post.
Brightened Shadows
The deadline for critique partner feedback is the 18th. I will clear my schedule once it’s with me so I can go over their suggestions and apply the ones I agree with. I also have a small list of questions to ask the group once everyone is done – I could have included them when I sent the draft but didn’t want to influence their reading, so we’ll have this discussion when they’re done!
And once that’s done, I’ll send it to my editor for the line edit. Not sure that’ll happen this month, but it might! If my critique partners don’t come back with too many problems and there are no fires elsewhere in my WIPs, it’s definitely possible.
Fingers crossed!
Blood Wisp
I’ll finish taking notes this month and will dive into rewrites once that’s done. Depending on how everything goes (read: on how messy this draft really is), I should finish taking notes next week or the week after – Brightened Shadows feedback permitting, of course!
I’ve been hiding in the editing cave for so long I can’t wait to write again, even if it’s super complicated rewrites.
The Audiobook Diaries
This is a big one!
I’ve decided to dive into the wonderful world of audiobooks with my babies. Some time this month, I’ll start the process with Rise of the Sparrows.
It’s the first I’m doing this, so I’m excited to learn something new as well as to have my books out there in another format!
Since I first mentioned this on Instagram and in my Facebook Reader Group, several people have asked me to let them know how it goes and to share my experience because they are curious, too.
Instead of making a note of everyone who asked me and inform them all individually, I’ve decided to blog about my progress and my experience. That way, everyone can learn how it works, what’s involved, what issues I run into and how to solve them, etc in one place, month by month.
Keep an eye out for The AudioBook Diaries. The first entry will hit this blog this May.
Twitter
I left Twitter last autumn because everything was getting a bit overwhelming – running two blogs regularly, running two Facebook groups regularly, editing jobs, my own books (I had three release dates in short succession ahead of me at the time), Instagram seven days a week, Twitter, regular Pinterest session to drive traffic to one of my blogs–
It was too much, so I left.
But now, I only have this blog right here, I handed one of my Facebook groups over to someone else, I post on Instagram only three times a week, and I closed my editing services. Closing my other blog also brought an end to the Pinterest stress, so that’s five less things to worry about.
Long story short–I’m coming back, Twitter!
I’d share a link right now, but I think I’ll tidy up a little first *ahem*
So, to summarise:
I’ll receive my critique partners’ feedback for Brightened Shadows around the 18th. If all goes well and the issues aren’t too complicated to fix, it might even go to my editor for its line edit.
I’ll finish taking notes of Blood Wisp and will begin rewrites.
I’ll begin the lengthy audiobook progress and blog about it here under The Audiobook Diaries.
I’ll return to Twitter.
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I hope you’re all coping well with this lockdown. For me, it’s been a strange blessing, because I’ve been able to make massive progress towards my last editing jobs this month – thanks to the quarantine, I was able to power through 400 pages of line edits!
(yes, I am tired)
BUT an end is in sight, because I’ll be done after next week, and then gone will be the tiny progress updates!
I’m very excited to have more time for my own again, to say the least, and big plans are unfolding, but more about that next week. My to-do list may have been smaller this month, but it’s nothing to scoff at all the same:
Brightened Shadows
Brightened Shadows is with my critique partners! *throws confetti* I asked them to email me right away if there were any big issues so I can get on it right away, but it’s been silent since I send them the book around two weeks ago (it feels much longer ago than that!). That can only be a good sign.
Getting it to this point was my Camp NaNo goal, and I’m proud I got it done.
Blood Wisp
I was torn about how best to proceed. I wanted to start writing Blood Song, but I also left Blood Wisp in a right state. Since I combined three novellas to form the first book, the draft is essentially not done. It’s more of a detailed outline with big chunks missing.
So, I decided to tackle Blood Wisp before diving into Blood Song. Novellas flow much faster than full-length novels; therefore, the structure is all over the place, the plot is incomplete, and it’s not long enough to be a full-length novel even with all three novellas combined.
Basically, this WIP needs work.
I’m reading the whole thing with my structure sheets next to me, a notebook, and several pens in different colours. I’ve got some ideas for how to improve it, but because of the state it’s in, it’ll take time.
And that’s it! Prepare for an exciting announcement in my May goals on Monday 😉
Sign up for my mailing list for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and the exclusive freebies Shadow in Ar’Sanciond (the Relics of Ar’Zac prequel novella) and Pashros Kai Zo (a Relics of Ar’Zac short story, which isn’t available anywhere else).
I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed lately, so I’ve decided to scale thing back a lot and focus on one thing at a time until other parts of my life calm down a bit again and I have more time for the things I love – writing and learning.
With that in mind, my list of goals this month will be small and simple:
Beat Camp NaNo
I’ve been pushing myself to fit everything into my routine and am chuffed to say that I passed the halfway mark of Brightened Shadows this morning. If I continue at this speed (one hour a day – nothing crazy!), I’ll be ready to send it to my critique partners by the end of next week.
And that’s all I have energy for at the moment *blushes*
Wait, that’s one point… That doesn’t qualify as a list :O
On the plus side, I’m on track! Woohoo!
Let’s give it six to seven weeks and my progress will be back to normal again 🙂
Stay safe, everyone <3
Sign up for my mailing list for updates on my books, excerpts, early cover reveals, and the exclusive freebies Shadow in Ar’Sanciond (the Relics of Ar’Zac prequel novella) and Pashros Kai Zo (a Relics of Ar’Zac short story, which isn’t available anywhere else).
