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HOME WORLD by Bonnie Milani -- Centuries of ruinous war have left Earth little more than a dusty tourist world within the star-flung Commonwealth she founded. Now, amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, Jezekiah Van Buren has found a way to restore Earth – Home World to the other worlds of the Commonwealth – to her lost glory. 

The most ingenious prince even the genetically-enhanced, Great Family Van Buren has ever produced, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth's ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Once he has the treaty sealed, it will not only make Earth rich again, but it will grant him the chance to escape the Ring that marks him as Earth's next ruler. Once the treaty is signed, he will be free: free to create his own future, and free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the warrior-trained woman he loves. His future and Earth's is assured. Assuming he can convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan's alpha warlord in marriage before the assassin she's put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Assuming he can thwart another deadly uprising by the interstellar criminal organization called Ho Tong. And before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason. 

Jezekiah manages to stay one step ahead of his foes, until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And these two most powerful men suddenly find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.

Guild’s May 3 workshop helps writers get “inside the heart of darkness”

Writer, poet and martial artist David Alan Lucas will explore the villains’ role in fiction during his “Inside the Heart of Darkness” workshop for writers from 10 a.m. to noon, May 3, at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer Rd. in Kirkwood. Free to St. Louis Writers Guild members; $5 for nonmembers.

Using myths, personality archetypes, criminal psychology and personal experience with real-life evil, David will help writers of all genres create memorable and sympathetic antagonists.

For more than thirty years, he has studied criminology as a “hobby” and applied the lessons learned to his fiction and in real life.

David is a published author in multiple genres, a published poet and contributor to e-zines on music. He also gives seminars on self-defense and writing fight scenes. Recently David launched The Write Pack, a weekly show on BlogTalkRadio, and he is a founding contributor to The Writers’ Lens blog.

Learn more about the St. Louis Writers Guild at www.stlwritersguild.org

Touching the Evil that Lies in the Hearts of Men

Picture taken by David Alan Lucas at St. Louis Comic Con.
 Copyright to characters portrayed are owned by their prospective creators or companies.

Decades ago, an old time radio drama, The Shadow, always asked “Who knows what evil lies in the hearts for men?” The answer is writers, especially those who explore the nature of evil in their writing.  When we make a memorable antagonist in our stories, we are touching on the darkness around us and within us. Even though we know we would never commit some of the acts that our antagonist—and sometimes even our protagonist—commits in our stories it can frighten and even thrill us in the core of our being where the dark part of ourselves lies.


Robert Lewis Stevenson, author of the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, once wrote, “In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer.” Sometimes we have to draw from that sleeping monster the essence of our story villains. These villains can range in evil from the nosey neighbor who likes to start neighborhood gossip to the genocidal dictator.  It is by drawing on this darkness in us that we are able to create memorable villains and even villains who are loved.

In trying to understand how to create these characters, let’s start very basic and then dive deeper. What is a villain or antagonist in a story? They are the character or element that is preventing your protagonist from achieving their desired goal. The act of prevention may be malicious or may be an act of the world itself.  in Jack London’s  “To Build a Fire” the villain was nature. It didn’t care what happened to the protagonist, it acted as itself. However, in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening , the main antagonist is the society in which her protagonist lives that has a strict code of expected conduct and the consequences of that. Or, we can look at Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome where the antagonist is Zeena who just wants to be needed—either as the object of care or as the care giver.  From these examples we have clearly missed the archetype villain who is twisting their evil mustache, wearing a dark cape, and laughing as they blow up a planets. But wait—those can exist as well. But how do you create them and are they really any different from the ones I have used?

Unless you are going for paper thin villains who are over the top, your villain should grow organically either from the darkness within yourself or from the darkness you have experienced—be it a bad storm or a bully or someone even worse.  If you are trying to build an archetypical villain, then he or she will be paper thin. It is your experience with darkness that takes this two dimensional character and beefs it up to the memorable villain and allows you, as a writer, to even imagine being able to write the story as if THEY were the protagonist.  How to start: First ask yourself and honestly answer if you have ever done something that was inappropriate? Did you react to something violently? Have you ever been provoked to desiring, if not out right seeking, revenge?  If you answered no,  then you are either a saint (and even most of them had a dark side) or you are lying and should explore the darkness of that lie. If you answered yes, take that experience and apply your imagination and ask—can I extrapolate and exaggerate it to the length of the story.

Picture taken by David Alan Lucas at St. Louis Comic Con.
 Copyright to characters portrayed are owned by their prospective creators or companies.

If your own darkness isn’t working for you, try to think about someone in your life. Has someone stopped you from achieving something? Has someone picked on you? Has someone just been the biggest pain in the –ahem-neck? Let them be the seed for your villain. Identify how the real person caused conflict for you? Can that be extrapolated into the conflict the character that sprouts from the seed of your villain has with your protagonist?

Now, grab your shovel and let’s dig for the gold behind this character. Don’t worry, you don’t need to go anywhere to dig. The digging will be into your own psyche.

Shovel load one (as in step one)

Grab a pencil and paper or other favorite writing instrument and a timer. Set the timer for 30 seconds.  Now hit start and then write down all of the villain, regardless if they are from novels, short stories, movies, tv, plays, or myth, you can recall.  Once the timer announces your time is up, stop. Don’t go any further. You may be thinking of other villains but stop when the timer stops.

Shovel load two

Picture taken by David Alan Lucas at St. Louis Comic Con.
 Copyright to characters portrayed are owned by their prospective creators or companies.

You may have to re-write the list to give you space to do this next exercise. Beside each name, list the top five reasons why that villain was memorable to you.  Do you have more than five? Then write them all down. Do you see a common pattern or many common patterns? If so, jot the pattern or patterns down and try to see if you can put them into your villain.

Shovel load three

In your story, what would happen if your villain actually was the one who was right? Make them think they are right. It may be a delusion, but still. Think about any conflict—from a sports game to all out war. Each side believes that right or some divine being representing righteousness is on their side.

Shovel load four

Think about your villain now. Is he or she stereotypical? My guess is, if you are honest, the answer is yes. So how do you get rid of this melodramatic character and make them into a full fledge memorable character? Go back to your list of villains. Now write down, in a different color ink if you can (not required), how each of these characters broke the mold of being stereotypical? Maybe the villain was a victim once. Maybe the villain was once a hero, but has been manipulated to become the villain. Maybe the villain loved kids but hated society. Maybe they wouldn’t mind killing someone, but had a soft spot for kittens or puppies. Every good villain has a light side just as every protagonist has a dark side (even Superman).  Explore this light side.  There is noting more powerful than a sympathetic villain.

Shovel load five

Picture taken by David Alan Lucas at St. Louis Comic Con.
 Copyright to characters portrayed are owned by their prospective creators or companies.

Is either the villain or the protagonist more powerful than the other one? Is the villain stupid or is the hero naïve? You may have a real yawn of a story. What do you do? Put them on equal footing. The villain may put himself in a position of power—think of Kahn from Star Trek his weakness ends up putting Kirk on the same level as him. It is through this equal footing that makes the battle interesting.  Let the characters reflect each other and bring out their intelligence and cunning. Give the villain and the hero a mental database of knowledge that they use to engage in this battle—this could be knowledge of real weapons or a special skill or a special knowledge.  It makes for a much better battle.

Shovel load six

Make the threat of the villain real and tangible in the story.  Show the nature of this threat, let it fill the reader and the hero with dread. Then give the villain a true motive for turning the threat into a reality. Blend the lines between the hero and the antagonist into a field of grey and try to get the protagonist and antagonist to be sympathetic or (even better) empathetic to the reader. Remember the best story can be written with either the hero or the villain as the protagonist of the story if only by shifting points of view.

Shovel load seven

It is stereotypical that the villain wants to run the universe, the world, or the company. Make the motive of the villain want something more tangible or sympathetic.  Maybe it is the destruction of a system that the villain sees as abusive or that they have been the victim of. Maybe they want to restore glory or honor to their family or nation? Maybe they want to stop an even bigger villain. There are two old sayings and it is good to keep them in mind: Only a few ever want to rule the world, most just want control of their corner; and one man’s insurgent is another man’s freedom fighter.

Shovel load eight

Picture taken by David Alan Lucas at St. Louis Comic Con.
 Copyright to characters portrayed are owned by their prospective creators or companies.

Shovel load five touches on this, but let’s dig it up. The best way to build your villain is to make them the shadow of the hero. A good example is Professor Moriarty to Sherlock Holmes. Boyd and Raylan Gibbins in the TV version of Justified. (The novels start off differently.) Or, how about something a little less drastic: Zeena to Ethan Frome. Give them a relationship with each other to explore this. One of my personal favorite relationship styles is the Batman/Joker relationship. Don’t think that relationship can exist in any other work? Have you seen the TV show “The Following”? The hero and villain in that show have the same relationship. 

It doesn’t have to be that relationship to work. But the key is, regardless if they know each other from the start or they meet in the story, there is a relationship that develops. The question you get to play with as you make your villain more memorable and realistic is where that relationship takes the hero and villain together.

Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens.  You can also find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DavidAlanLucasAuthor.

Also, check out Write Pack Radio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writepackradio or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-Pack-Radio/258130144353624 or on twitter @WritePackRadio. Write Pack Radio brings Pop Culture, Writing, and Publishing together and throws them into a crucible of humor, clarity, and passion.

Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

Chris S: Writing through the doubt

Guest post by Chris Stuckenschneider

The types of writing that I do are varied and intended for different audiences but the way I focus for each is similar. For the past 16 years, I’ve written a weekly column for our community newspaper, The Washington Missourian. In the past, I’ve written travel articles for The Missourian, and profiles of folks in our area for the Senior Life Times.

I also write monthly reviews on three children’s books under the nom de plume “Newsbee,” The Missourian’s literary bee buddy. He’s always on the fly looking for quality hardcover books for kids. Additionally, I review books for adults in “Novel Ideas,” a book column I created for The Missourian that’s been ongoing for a dozen years or so

Another type of writing I do is for The Missouri Press Association, serial stories that have appeared in newspapers across the United States, and led to the publication of two of my books based on the serials, "Twist of Fate, the Miracle Colt and His Friends," and “Patriotic Pals, Tails of Civil War Dogs."

There are other assignments that vie for my time as well, posting about book news and reviews on MO Books, the Missourian’s blog at emissourian.com, and on a blog on my website, chrisstuckenschneider.com.

Because I write in my home office, I’m fortunate to enjoy quiet, no radio or television disrupting my concentration. I also write shoeless, cranking up a small space heater if it’s a blustery day. Without shoes, I feel less restricted—surely I’m not the only writer to be a bit quirky?

Once an idea hits—please let an idea hit—there’s research involved to ground myself in a subject. Often this not only requires going to the library and seeking reliable sites on the Internet, but also conducting interviews if I’m working on a book or a people profile for my column.

Saying what I mean necessitates plenty of time for revision, my favorite part of the writing process, other than the magic moments when I have a break through and move from feeling like “I’m going to fail this time,” to “Wow, where did that come from?” I despise this ongoing doubt, but recently heard author Alice Hoffman, who has written more than 30 novels, say each time she begins a new one she has no idea how to get started.

Writing is all about sticking to it—suiting up and heading for the computer, writing through the doubt. The reward is an aura of mystic that sometimes comes like a gift when I’m immersed and clicking away on the keyboard, a sense that something hovers on the edge of my consciousness and carries me along. I love it when that happens—it’s totally spontaneous and never ceases to amaze me.

ABOUT CHRIS:  Chris Stuckenschneider is the author of two children’s books—“Patriot Pals: Tails of Civil War Dogs,” with art by Richard Bernal, published in 2013, and “Twist of Fate, the Miracle Colt and His Friends,” a Missouri Show-Me Award Winner, in 2011-2012.

A columnist and book editor at The Washington Missourian for the past 16 years, Stuckenschneider also coordinates Book Buzz with her colleague Dawn Kitchell. The award-winning newspaper column for children has become a community-wide service project that has provided more than 10,000 new hardcover books to schools in the Missourian’s readership. Book Buzz is distributed at no charge to newspapers across the United States by the Missouri Press Foundation.

Stuckenschneider has called Washington, MO., home for over forty years and in February 2014 co-authored a coffee table book with Jeanne Miller Wood, photo editor at the Washington Missourian.

“My Washington, Photographs and Reflections” celebrates Washington’s 175 anniversary. Stuckenschneider’s books are published by Reedy Press, St. Louis, MO. 

TWIST OF FATE -- A truck careened along the Missouri interstate on a starless night carrying 42 horses destined for a slaughterhouse in Dekalb, Illinois. Suddenly without warning, the truck failed to manage a curve on I-44. Brakes squealed, and the top-heavy trailer lurched and crashed to its side.

Twenty-six animals survived that night.

Told by Twister, an unborn colt at the time of the accident, the new children’s book Twist of Fate: The Miracle Colt and His Friends (published by Reedy Press) highlightsthe experiences of some of the surviving horses and their care  at Longmeadow Rescue Ranch outside Union, Missouri.

Author Chris Stuckenschneider imagines a thoughtful, unassuming voice that shares the story of Twister’s birth and his new life at Longmeadow, a haven for rescued and abused farm animals. Resplendent scenes of the 165-acre farm, rendered in paintings by Kevin Belford, show Twister making friends and discovering his surroundings amid lush hills and meadows.

Twist of Fate not only delivers an inspiring tale, the book teaches as it entertains. The author intersperses sidebars about five other amazing horses rescued at the accident and taken to Longmeadow. Readers also learn about the ranch itself—operated by the Humane Society of Missouri-- where care is provided for countless abused and neglected farm animals. The book concludes with an invitation to visit the ranch.

PATRIOTIC PALS -- Chuck, a sensible Border Collie from Missouri, and his poodle sidekick Tilly, reveal little-known stories about hero dogs of the Civil War in Patriotic Pals (Reedy Press).

Chuck and Tilly go on a multi-state road trip that begins in the key Union city of St. Louis. On their educational and entertaining journey, they encounter legendary dogs from the war, including Big Brutus, the saluting Newfoundland who earned his stripes at Antietam, as well as Abe Lincoln’s beloved mutt Fido.

This beautifully illustrated children’s picture book depicts vivid scenes of past and present. Children (grades 4-6) will learn plenty about the Civil War throughout—not just dates and locations—but also the importance of canine cohorts as warriors, mascots, and, of course, man’s best friend.

More than 400 newspapers nationwide published Patriotic Pals as a serialized story in 2012.

MY WASHINGTON -- Founded in 1839 and located on the banks of the Missouri River, Washington, Missouri, is a community that retains its old-world charm while embracing change with an eye to the future. My Washington: Photographs and Reflections (Reedy Press), a lavishly illustrated coffee-table volume, features photographs of local landmarks and favorite spots, as well as heartfelt sentiments about the town from more than 150 citizens proud to call the community home.

People of all walks of life— neighborhood butchers, bank presidents, students, college grads who’ve returned to raise their children—share their perspective on what makes Washington special. Longtime residents offer their memories, too, as they revisit double features at the Calvin Theater, enjoy ice cream sundaes at Schroeder Drugs, and meet friends at Buds games.

Interviews by Chris Stuckenschneider give context to gorgeous scenes depicted by photographer Jeanne Miller Wood. A limited- edition book, My Washington serves as a tribute to the community on its 175th anniversary.

Einspanier: My vampires don't sparkle

Welcome to Elizabeth Einspanier,  a writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and cross-genre fiction, as well as poetry of all types. Her short stories have been published in Down in the Dirt and Dark Fire Fiction, and her poetry has been published in Aphelion, Haiku Journal, and Abandoned Towers Magazine. She has been a member of the St. Louis Writer’s Guild since November 2013.

She has been writing as long as she has been able to string words together into an interesting story, so naturally by the time she enrolled in college it was clear that a BA in English was the way to go. Her inspirations are as diverse as Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, C. S. Lewis, Arthur Conan Doyle, Madeleine L’Engle, and Jonathan Coulton, and when she is not writing she works full-time at the St. Louis County Library, where she feeds her hunger for new books. Her other hobbies include playing Dungeons & Dragons and watching strange movies.

She is a native of St. Louis, but frequently visits worlds of her own creation.

What brings your writing into focus-- the characters, the stories, the love of words? Mainly I enjoy offering a different take on a genre, trope, or mythos, rather than recycling the same old things over and over again until my stuff essentially disappears into the crowd. I also like throwing unusual characters into otherwise classic stories, just to see what happens. My mind likes to look at old things in new ways, and in new combinations, and more often than not it results in something I have an awesome time writing.

What inspired Sheep's Clothing? Basically I was getting tired of all the modern vampire novels featuring decadent "beautiful elite" vampires that were all sex gods or goddesses who just happened to drink blood. My tipping point was reading Twilight, and I just ran as far as I could in the opposite direction, back to the Bram Stoker, old-school vampires. Of course, I couldn't exactly rehash Dracula either, or I'd still just be following someone else's literary path. I think the Western angle finally came in shortly after I read the comic Desperadoes and realized, hey--the Old West would be great for a supernatural tale like this. I mean, vampires in the Wild West? Native American shapeshifter myths? Why not? It kind of fell into place from there.

What do you think readers will like about your book? First, my vampires don't sparkle. If you like your vampires to be bloodthirsty, vicious predators that actually fit the horror genre, then I think you'll like Sheep's Clothing.

Second, I researched the daylights out of this thing, from the time period to the monsters. The setting itself is as period-accurate as I could get it, only with the addition of vampires and werewolves, and rather than having "everybody" know about vampires, I acknowledged that they weren't even a part of popular culture yet, since Dracula wouldn't be published for more than two decades. As for my werewolf protagonist, he's half-skinwalker on his Native American side, setting him squarely within the mythology of the American territories.

Third, both my protagonists are complex characters that you want to root for--the skeptical doctor who wants to save his town and woo his next-door neighbor, and the wandering gunslinger who wants to avenge his lost love. They're both very human--even the one who isn't.

Would you share a bit about your next project? I have several projects in progress right now, but the one I'm currently working on is a sequel to Sheep's Clothing that focuses on Wolf Cowrie. It's entitled Hungry as a Wolf and offers a different take on the flesh-eating zombie tale by taking a hard left at the Algonquian myth of the Wendigo. Wolf's going to have more difficulties finding allies in this one, because it takes place in the Black Hills in 1875, where white settlers are in the middle of a gold rush and the local Sioux (Wolf's people on his mother's side) are trying to get them off their sacred land. I'm still plowing my way through the rough draft, but I'm making fairly swift progress.

How much fact is in your fiction? Quite a lot, actually. It might seem odd considering I write speculative fiction, but most of my stories are set in a version of "our" Earth that happens to have some crazy stuff going on in it, so I like to start with a pretty stable base of familiarity. Even my supernatural elements are based on existing folklore, so even if I have this creature in a setting that doesn't have the term werewolf in the local lexicon, my readers will be able to pick out that it's still a werewolf with the serial numbers filed off. 

SHEEP'S CLOTHING --  It is the year 1874. 

Doc Meadows, frontier doctor working in the small town of Salvation, has always considered himself a sensible man, and has not believed in monsters for a long time. When injured half-Indian Wolf Cowrie staggers into his practice one night, however, he brings terrifying news--a vampire he hunts plans to settle in Salvation and turn it into his own private larder. Now Doc has to overcome his skepticism and fear in order to face down this new threat to his town, before Salvation becomes just another ghost town in the territories...

You can buy it at Amazon:

• Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Sheeps-Clothing-Elizabeth-Einspanier/dp/1495358372/ref=sr_1_2_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397086079&sr=1-2&keywords=sheep%27s+clothing
• Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Sheeps-Clothing-Elizabeth-Einspanier-ebook/dp/B00IWY0Z6A/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-2&qid=1397086079
• CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/4641690

Can Utopia exist in all the Dystopic Fiction?

Can Utopia exist in all the Dystopic Fiction?

The Write Pack Radio Rebroadcast

With a world filled with Brave New World, The Hunger Games, Divergent, and so many dystopian stories, can Utopian stories be published today?  Is the idea of a Utopian world a fleeting illusion? Can a person or a society grow in a Utopia? Could artist exist? Is mankind able to truly exist in Utopian world or would we get ourselves expelled or choose to leave as Bilbo left the Shire?

OR

Is one man’s Utopia another man’s dystopia?

The Write Pack explores Star Trek, Logan’s Run, Brave New World, The Hunger Games, Batman, Divergent, 1984, Transformers, The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings as they try to tackle the debate between Utopia vs. Dystopia.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writepackradio/2014/04/06/can-utopia-exist-in-all-the-dystopic-fiction

There are many talks on the internet about writing, but nothing like Write Pack Radio. Write Pack Radio brings Pop Culture, Writing, and Publishing together and throws them into a crucible of humor, clarity, and passion.

Every Sunday at 3pm CST, Write Pack Radio brings you a new topic and a lively discussion of issues facing every writer or anyone navigating the tumultuous waters of the publishing industry.

Find the Write Pack Radio on www.blogtalkradio.com/writepackradio 

Other Episodes you’ll find on The Write Pack Radio

Amusing the Muse

Traditional vs. Self vs. Hybrid – Part One

Brown Bagging Books: Are You Judged By What You Read

Traditional vs. Self vs. Hybrid – Part Two 

Cyborgs vs. Androids vs. Robots

Meet Zip Rzeppa 4/5 at 6 North

Click image to enlarge.

Tiffany & Sean Williams tell authors: Communicate! Collaborate! Enjoy!

It's my pleasure to introduce Tiffany and Sean Williams of Airbending Media Productions, who produced the audiobook of my short story, SOLAR LULLABY -- T.W. Fendley

TIFFANY graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor's in Theatre with an emphasis on acting and directing, plus a minor in psychology - so watch out! She may just analyze YOU! Tiffany has been working professionally since 1993 as an actor; director; producer; costume, sound and prop designer; stage manager; technical assistant; box office assistant; board member; business manager, production manager and college professor for theatres. She's also provided voice-overs for plays, phone messaging services, and training videos. Tiffany is an eight-time winner of a Collin Theatre Center Award and received the 2004 Unsung Heroine Award at Collin College.

SEAN serves as the producer and sound engineer for Airbending Media Productions, LLC. Having studied at the Omega Recordings Studios School of Applied Recording Arts and Sciences from 2004-05, he handles all work from recording, to editing and mastering. And soon he will try his hand at vocal narration. Learn more about Tiffany and Sean

Why/when did you decide to do audiobooks? We (my husband and I) decided to embark on a new career narrating and producing audiobooks in June 2013. We chose this route for a multitude of reasons... The major ones being we wanted to do something that would allow us to work from home and use our artistic skills. We have a good friend in LA who is narrating audiobooks and with his encouragement, we went towards the goal of starting our own media production business.

You've produced a variety of audiobooks -- from nonfiction to genre, short stories to full-length. How do you choose which books to audition for? We look at various things when we decide what to audition for including interesting subject matter, paid per hour vs. royalty share, authors web presence, and book reviews. I research the books before auditioning by reading extra excerpts (usually on Amazon), visiting the author and publisher websites, and checking reviews on Goodreads.  I liked the synopsis of 'Solar Lullaby' as soon as I read it and wanted to audition for a Sci-Fi book. I was thrilled to be selected to narrate it. Both my husband and I think this short story has the potential to be full-length novel or film.

Recently a friend received several auditions on her book. She liked their voices, but thought the inflection was wrong (too little, too much) and one gave more of a dramatic reading than a narration. Is it appropriate to give that feedback and ask for "reauditions?" As a theatre artist, I like to get direction so that the work I am auditioning for fits into the vision of the project. Having details before the audition is ideal. Knowing the backstory leading into the audition helps with defining the characters too. Often that information is left out which is why I started researching the books. On the other hand, micro-managing the audition is a red flag.

If the voice seems like it might work, but the reading/interpretation is not exactly what they are looking for, requesting a re-audition with notes/direction is okay. I have resubmitted at the Right's Holder request before, and sometimes it works out, others times it didn't. The Right's Holder needs to go with the voice that feels right to them, but the Narrator needs to have room to create characters. While they may be different from what the author hears in their head, it can work out well for the piece. Micro-managing does not work in this arena and can prevent a project from getting done on time and with enthusiasm for the piece. My husband is great at talking with me if a character isn't flowing well, since what I hear in my head for the character may not be coming through the mic like I think it is. 

What makes you want to work with an author again? Communication. Responding to questions regarding pronunciation, or character notes; being flexible if there are unforeseen events that delay recording (a rarity, but things can happen); and sharing promotional/market tools/ideas. Also, if I'm not selected for a project, an email beyond the generic rejection from the Right's Holder thanking me for auditioning is wonderful! Especially if I had resubmitted an audition at their request. I will be likely to audition for a future project if they post something.

http://www.airbendingmediaproductions.com

As a narrator, do you look for authors with an established marketing platform? If so, what's most important to you --FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, other? It is preferred, but not required. As long as a marketing plan is in place and we can work together. I use FB, LinkedIn, and Pinterest at the moment, and with the start of our website (www.airbendingmediaproductions.com), we've added a blog. Also, there are lots of websites that review audiobooks. One author we worked with donated her profits to a different charity each month. That made my philanthropic heart happy! She even added a charity at my request to her list. (www.HDSA.com)

What three tips would you give authors about working with narrators/audiobook producers? Communicate! Collaborate! Enjoy the process and success of the medium!

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NOTE: If you’d be interested in submitting a review to Amazon and Goodreads, please contact me for a free copy of SOLAR LULLABY at twfendley@gmail.com. Check out the three-minute sample on Audible.