And so it begins, dear friends. Here is my first full-scale attempt at doing an audio recording of one of the short stories from our anthology "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day At a Time".
The purpose of doing this short story is of course to start preparing for turning the entire anthology, as well as it's predecessor "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" into full-length audiobooks. Helen and I will also be turning her new solo novel "Forever's Too Long" (another vampire tale, set in 1947 NYC) into an audiobook as well.
For some time many readers and friends have been urging me to try my hand at doing audiobooks saying I have a good voice for reading aloud. Helen readily agreed as I have spent many evenings reading aloud to her from books we both wanted to read at the same time, and this seemed to be the simplest solution.
However, I was completely unsure how one even began to make an audiobook. I do not consider myself all that well versed in technology. Furthermore, until the last couple of years, our finances were very tight so trying to rent time at a professional recording studio. Plus, I would then have to pay someone to do all the technical cleanup of the recordings to make them presentable for Audible, over on Amazon.
But after having helped create the trailer for Helen's book "Forever's Too Long" (which I have shared here before but in case you missed it here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNoPA_ytUvc), I found my confidence increasing in my vocal skills. The responses to the trailer and the praise I received at her release party where I did some live reading in the voice of her main character, was the final nudge I needed. From there I downloaded Audacity (the program Audible uses for audiobook submissions) and did some serious reading up on audio recording. I also watched a number of YouTube videos which taught me how to get the best sound quality while recording inside our own home, instead of renting space at a studio. I also invested in some equipment...
I won't go into all the technical details of how I made the recording here, because I'm covering that topic in a series of entries over on our blog about writing at:
There will be more audios coming to this site in the near future for your enjoyment, leading up to the release of the complete anthology on Audible. When that date will be, I do not know as I still have a lot of recording to do. However, we will keep you all apprised of our progress. In the meantime, please enjoy the audio provided above and know that this blog will still be sharing brand new tales about Nathan and his friends as usual.
I also want to let you know that progress is being made on "The Vampyre Blogs - Family Ties". My main regret is that it's taken so long, but there have been health and family issues over the past year that slowed things down on that front. But the book is still under way and will see the light of day. Hopefully, late next year.
In the meantime, besides the audios, I am working on a new cover for "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" as it will be getting a new home under the Young Adult section over on Amazon. It will also be getting released to Kobo, Barnes and Noble (Nook form), PDF and other formats later this year. So, as you can see, we got a lot happening with Nathan and company, and there are many more adventures and stories to tell, so please stay tuned.
Until next time, happy reading (and listening) dear friends...
