Category writing

Mar 29 2016

AudioBook Review – The Eaton

I’ve had the pleasure of listening to Jeff Hays this week, with one of his new released Audio books, The Eaton by John K. Addis.

I don’t mind Horror stories at all, and have to admit this was a pretty good scary listen. 🙂

If you like classic 80’s Horror stories, then this is a must for you!

Blurb –

The Eaton is the debut novel of John K. Addis. Spanning over 100 years of mid-Michigan history but written in the gruesome style of ’80s horror classics, The Eaton tells the story of Sam Spicer, who purchases the dilapidated Michigan Central Railroad Depot in Eaton Rapids with the dream of opening a hot new martini bar. But when he and his friends discover an abandoned underground hotel directly beneath the property, they must discover what happened to the original guests – before their own time runs out.

Check the book out at –

http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/The-Eaton-Audiobook/B01CKLAVDW

Review –

“Scary stuff…”

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, because it had lots of wonderful elements in it, it was scary, heartbreaking and just terrible all at once. 🙂

What did you like best about this story?

The fact that it took you on such an emotional journey with the characters, it takes you by surprise because even I wasn’t expecting it as a horror. It was very character driven.

What about Jeff Hays’s performance did you like?

Jeff has quite the difference in character voices. I enjoyed all of them, and when the characters were excited and scared so was I…. I really enjoyed his characters voices for Sarah, Kinsey and Janet. : ) so different, yet so woman like. Great job.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were several moments that really got me. I have to admit, Janet and seeing ‘the baby’ in the linen basket. Would be horrid for anyone… Sarah and having her nipple in the chomper, and for me that moment when someone you love and care about is crying out to you ‘Sarah, I’m hurt… please don’t leave me’ ugggh, just heart wrenching. I don’t know how they could ever leave them, belief or not that it’s the creature. What if it just wasn’t?

Any additional comments?

Okay, so for the most part I did enjoy the performance of the book. It was great to listen to, had it’s ups and downs, what I wasn’t so sure about was some of the flashbacks and places of ‘backstory’ I know most of it seemed really relevant, and it was and it was much better than the ‘reader of the journal’ just recanting events as Jonathan experienced them. But, they did interrupt some of the story for me. Mostly because of their timing. I wasn’t so sure some of them were totally relevant till I’d gotten past them and into the next scene or chapter.

What this as a book did do for me, was take me back to the scary films I used to watch and the stories I used to read as a young adult. It had good tone and great characters. I will defo come back and see if there are more in the future from this author, and yeah Jeff has a new fan to 🙂 so thank you to both for the 10 plus hours of entertainment. Well worth investing my time, and energy into.

Extra thoughts – Prologue – Not so sure on it they’re almost always not needed, but it ended well enough for Zeke, and the creature got out after all! damned. Sarah if she’s still alive better run….

Author note – Interesting to hear that I’m not the only Author who takes their dreams and writes them out. Thank you for that. And pretty interesting that there are real facts in here. 🙂 Kudos to the writer, for research. (heck you talk fast though)

~ Dawn

 

Mar 25 2016

CampNano!

So yeah. That says everything. April is looking good and I’m excited as usual. I have one story I haven’t finished from last year which is still begging to be continued. I am heavy in beta edits still from TSK’s book 2, which I’ve 7 chapters to get through this weekend. I’ve been out this morning with mum got some bits to keep me going and now I gotta knuckle down and get on with it. 🙂

Anyone else doing it? want to join in my small writing group on facebook… It’s a small group of last years camp participants a few nano friends and will have some from this year 🙂 but we’re from all over the world, all ages and genres, some huge talent…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/549921195147203/

If you do let me know, the more the merrier to get April well off to a good start. We’re in plotting and planning stages still but the more the merrier.

EXCITED!!!!!!

Mar 20 2016

Narrator Interview – Marie Rose

And Audio Giveaway!

I’ve had the most amazing few weeks getting to talk to several AudioBook Narrators, and this weeks interview was with Marie Rose.

TSK’s really excited to give you some insight to these very talented folk who bring authors works to life!

http://www.tskproductions.com/our-blog/38-narrator-interview-marie-rose

And if you don’t want to click the link this is also how you can find her 🙂  But yeah please click the link! it’s a great interview!

And for those who check out Marie Rose’s sites, facebook and Youtube, if you leave her a comment and me a pingback here so I can go see! She’s promised an audiobook to one of my lovely fans 🙂 How sweet is that! Get in there….

How can readers discover more about you and you work?

Book Links: (* American, UK, etc.)

Mar 19 2016

Book Review – Think Happy Club-Friendship

 

I’ve had the great pleasure of being sought out to write some book/and AudioBook reviews this last few weeks,  (more so than the usual requests) and I have been doing them on and off for sometime, yet I’ve never really posted them to my blog before. So this is the first. There will be more to come I promise you that.

I will post it here because it was such a wonderful reminder of friendship, how we should act and how we need to work at things to keep those we love around us. Which more often than not, never really happens. True friends will stick with you for a life time, others just come and go.

This wonderful book written by Anne Saucer and Grace Snoke was pointed in my direction this week and here’s a link to my review 🙂 –

Review of Think Happy Club – Friendship

I was given a copy of this in exchange for an honest review, but I enjoyed it so much I bought it… 🙂

What I found in these pages was not only a wonderful message for the younger person, (I have to say I’m not really sure about children although the characters in the book are much younger, I think the messages is for older kids, teens, but I have to admit I’m debating this one a lot lately because so many young children are just really tiny adults. Sigh ) But the content here really does resonate with us as adults as well. We could learn a lot from this book.

It has some great motivational aspects, from ‘Listen’ to ‘Fight if you have to’ because not everyone gets along all of the time and better to sort things out than to keep it bottled up.

A couple of my more favourite moments are ‘Accept the differences’ and ‘Plan an Adventure’ because how many of us actually do that. Life is so full on that I believe a lot of our real friendships go by the wayside, and we should fight for those who have been around us and supported us.

So that leaves me to the best part, for me, it’s been a reminder that friendship is to be nurtured and cherished. Thank you so much for this, it will have a lasting effect on my day and my week.

Review 4 stars, I gave it this award because although it was lovely, I wasn’t sure the artwork was quite the right age. Even with youngsters growing up as fast as they are.

 

Feb 28 2016

TSK’s next step AudioBooks :)

Last few days to get in as early bird members to the TSK website! come on I know you want in!

members image

It has been a busy week and I’m posting this side of today first. I did blog about my personal life earlier, but I’m scheduling that post for later.

The title really says it all, and as director of TSK Productions,  I’ve been looking for the right people to bring onboard for us since the beginning of January. They say good things come to those who wait and it’s so true. At first I was a little over excited about the possibilities of hearing TSK read by someone else. Then the task of finding that voice overwhelmed me.

The world of Audio Book is so different I hadn’t expected any of the process.

So for those who don’t know anything this was my journey to now. My friends pointed me at first in the direction of ACX. This is part of Audible and Authors (Rights Holders) can post their projects for potential Narrators to Audition for.

Here’s where I got a little lost. ACX ask you to fill in your profile and ‘sell’ yourself. I’m not very good at that but I tried my best, then they suggest you try and find a voice you like. I tried that and found someone, send them an offer and it lapsed without even a reply. I guess that is the nature of hunting for any partnership.

I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere and one of my friends pointed me to a facebook group. Which I joined and have been so happy with, I’ve learned much more about not only the process of ACX but also more about Narrators and how the system works. How they essentially do their job.

On ACX you can post your work with two options-

1 – A royalty share deal where the author and narrator split the profits.

2 – A PFH rate system which can range from anything like $100 – 400 an hour.

Now we RH’s don’t know how long it take for one person to get to that ‘finished hour, and the confusion seems pretty wide spread from chatter in the facebook group and amongst some of my Author friends.

The fact is it can take 10 hours to make 1 finished Audio Hour and although some narrators do all the work themselves, the fact is getting a producer to do the work frees time and means two ears are on the project not just the narrator and RH. A better win. But, narrators can’t pay for a producer out their own pocket, no matter how much they love a novel. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and so a lot of narrators try and negotiate for a Hybrid deal. Which ACX at the moment doesn’t have as an option for.

I was very lucky to start talking to a wonderful guy, Steven about the whole process, and we talked about what I needed for TSK and of course budget etc. I’m a big believer in paying people but I’ve personally only got so much cash coming in. And it’s taken me time to get that together with my savings. TSK’s been growing in a huge rate this last few months, in design and in everything we as a team do. I’ve backed everyone as I know I should and I will continue to do so.

Sorting out payments in advance for things like editing on book 2 trying to get ahead of the game and not worry about suddenly having to find a huge wad of money when I need the job done. I try and have a business head on, at all times, but yes of course I get excited and spend stuff I shouldn’t. lol

This last two weeks we’ve had Steve find and start negotiating with two very talented narrators. Of which I’m totally excited to say have now joined with us as Team TSK’s voice.

More than excited to welcome Greg Tremblay, who is taking on Book 1 and our short snippets. 🙂

His Audio books can be found at if you want to listen to his amazing voice –

http://www.audible.co.uk/search/ref=a_listener__cco_1_1_1_n?searchNarrator=Greg+Tremblay

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GTremblayVoice/posts/1224970447520737?fref=nf&pnref=story

and Holly Adams –

Audible link for her sweet voice is – http://www.audible.co.uk/search/ref=a_search_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Holly+Adama&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

and her facebook fan page

https://www.facebook.com/hollyadamsnarrator/?fref=ts

 

I know this project has a lot coming up.  We could keep these guys nice and busy for a bit, with book 2 set for release (sept, I’m hoping) our short snippets live each month and three of our writers working on other stories and novels set in the TSK world, we’ve lots to do in the next year or so.

Greg and Holly were both honest with me, and that little bit of ‘RH and Narrators’ don’t mix kinda thing I found wasn’t true. Greg told me that he found the language side of things exciting and daunting at the same time. I contacted Trent and they had a chat, which really helped, and I’ve since heard Greg’s proof for the story,  and so has Trent. Greg’s fantastic and Lacria sounds just fabulous.

I can’t wait for you guys to hear these two amazing voices, TSK will be brought to life on a whole different level. Which has left me totally awestruck this week.

Nothing else to do but, squeeeee.

🙂 talk later.