Do you have voices in your head?

By JL Simpson

When I wrote the first book in my Daisy Dunlop Mystery series their was some sliver of interest in making it into a TV show. The interest fizzled and I got on with writing the rest of the series. However, it got me to wondering how the book would work on the screen. I don’t have the money to fund such a venture but I did have an opportunity to do the next best thing, turn it into an audio book.

I put the book out for auditions and waited. A few people tried out. Some were better than others, but none of them could quite do the British accents, or get the timing right for the comedic edge to the plot. After over a year of trying to find the right person for the job I was ready to give up. Days before I was going to pull the book off the internet I got a new audition.

The lovely Mary Phillips from Riveting Narrations sent me her reading of chapter one and I was blown away. I listened to it over and over and decided to sign her up. So, the book is now in production. I have never released an audio book, and Mary has only narrated one other book, so we are both learning as we go.

Mary is more than half way through recording the book and I get updates of each chapter as they are complete. Every single chapter I hear convinces me that not only does Mary have a great future as a narrator but that she was the only person who could do Daisy justice.

If you’ve ever been to the UK you’ll know that there are dozens of different accents, and I think I used every last one. Mary has managed them all. Not only does she switch from accent to accent, but also male to female voice, and every character has their own unique identity. It is an amazing thing to hear the characters you created being brought to life. As I sit and listen I can almost believe that the people that were brought into being by my imagination are alive and well living as the voices in Mary’s head.

The book is due out later this month and I can’t wait to find out how my readers feel about the transformation of Daisy from book to audio. So, if you have voices in your heads, a skill for doing accents, love to read out loud, then maybe you’re a budding narrator.

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