Updates and Newsy Things

“When will your novels be available as audiobooks?”

We hear this question from would-be fans, pretty much weekly.

And it really shouldn’t surprise us. After all, it takes focused solo time to read a book. With audiobooks, you can “read with your ears” while commuting to work, exercising, or doing chores around the house. Audiobooks are perfect for busy folks whose imaginations crave regular feeding.

No surprise, either, that the audiobook format is the fastest-growing segment of the book market, several years running. Once relegated to CD-ROM or cassette tapes, audiobooks are now delivered digitally over the internet, instantly to readers’ smartphones. It’s the perfect marriage of technology and entertainment.

Audiobooks are also expensive to produce. They require professional voice acting in a sound booth, with a sound engineer cleaning up and mastering the files. Several rounds of proofing are involved as well.

It’s been a multi-month project, but at last we’re on the home stretch to offering our Ascending Mage series in audio format. The first two titles are fully produced and mastered and have been submitted to a few dozen distribution sites. These sites take anywhere from 1 week to a whopping 45 days (Audible/Amazon) to appear available for sale.

Where you’ll (soon) be able to get our audiobooks:

24symbols / Anyplay / Apple / Audible, Amazon / Audiobooks.com / AudiobooksNow / AudiobooksNZ / Authors Direct / BajaLibros / Beek / Bokus Play / BookBeat / Bookmate / Chirp / Downpour / eStories / Fuuze / Google Play / hibooks / Hummingbird / Instaread / Kobo, Walmart / Leamos / Libro.FM / Nextory / NOOK Audiobooks / Papaya / Playster / Scribd / Storytel / 3Leaf Group / Axiell / Baker & Taylor / Bibliotheca / Bidi / EBSCO / Follett / hoopla / MLOL / Odilo / Overdrive / Perma-Bound / Wheelers

It might be easier to ask “where can’t you get our audiobooks?”

Be sure to check back (or get on our newsletter list) as we’ll announce when the audiobooks are available for purchase.

Here’s a 5-minute sample scene as a teaser:

Special thanks to our amazing narrator, the actress Stephanie Willing (recording under the pseudonym A.V. Caris), and sound engineer Naava Feingold. There’s SO MUCH WORK involved in bringing each of these titles to audiobook form. These two ladies have been putting in long hours and late nights to bring these stories to life. Many more to come!

We’re really excited to bring our stories to a whole new segment of readers.

Did you know: typically fewer than 1% of readers bother to leave a review on Amazon?

Writing a review is easier than you might think, and it helps potential readers decide whether or not to pick up our books.

If you’ve read any of our stories and would be willing to take two minutes to leave a review, we would be very grateful!

And now, we have a convenient Review Landing Page which sends you directly to the review form on Amazon (they’ll ask you to log in).

Thanks for reviewing our books!

(Image credit to Gerd Altmann on Pixabay)

Ghosts may be frightening, but they aren’t dangerous to the living. Right?

The adventure continues!

Ascending Mage 7: Prairie Poltergeist is scheduled for release on February 20, 2020.

Description and pre-order details are now available on the Ascending Mage 7 product page.

Have you ever wished you could drink from the skull of your enemy?

err, me neither.

But how about drinking coffee (or your breakfast beer–we don’t judge) from a classy ceramic mug featuring artwork from your favorite urban fantasy series?

No, not Harry Potter. We’re talking Ascending Mage!

Our new swag shop features mugs of different sizes and styles, each emblazoned with cover art from Fog Over Mandaree and each of the Ascending Mage novels (thus far).

Go on, check out the new swag shop!

Your ears are in for a treat!

Actress A.V. Caris has been recording voiceover narration for the audiobook version of Ascending Mage 1: Changeling Justice.

It hasn’t been to the production engineer for fine-tuning yet, but we wanted to share a sneak peek with you.

Here’s the raw recording for Chapter One of Ascending Mage 1:

Isn’t she amazing? We’re so excited to add audiobooks to our lineup for those folks who prefer to read with their ears.

We’re expecting to have this first audiobook ready for release in early November.

About This Chapter

Chapter One of Ascending Mage 1: Changeling Justice throws you straight into the action. Senior investigator Wallis Livingston\u2014known as “the Legend”\u2014and his new partner Amber are in hot pursuit of a dangerous changeling through the rain-slicked streets of Lancashire, England. It’s 1998, and the Mage Guard takes shapeshifter crimes seriously.

This opening scene sets the tone for the entire Ascending Mage series: fast-paced, atmospheric, and steeped in a world where magic operates in the shadows of our own. A.V. Caris brings Amber’s tension and Wallis’s weathered confidence to life with a performance that captures exactly the gritty, cerebral tone we envisioned when writing the series.

If you enjoy urban fantasy with complex characters and layered mysteries\u2014think Dresden Files meets Longmire\u2014the Ascending Mage series has eight books waiting for you. Start with Changeling Justice.

More from the Ascending Mage world: a written sneak peek at Ascending Mage 2, our search for the voice of Ember Wright, and the full series descriptions.