Greetings Picklesversians,
The Ides of August are upon us!
This month, I bring you:
– exciting news about the launch of Artificial Selection
– a quick guide to how audiobooks get made
– tales from an amazing maize maze.
Onwards!
It’s almost here…
I’m excited to tell you that Artificial Selection is in the very, very final stages of production. It’s being copyedited as we speak – that’s where someone checks through for inconsistencies in punctuation and makes sure the spelling and grammar are correct.
The book is also in the hands of several kind souls among you who volunteered to read a version in which some of the en dashes are hyphens and the ellipses aren’t always the same size. Thanks again to all of you, and I hope these insults to your eyeballs can be forgiven in time.
This all means that the book will be coming out very soon indeed. There’s even a chance it’ll be available this time next month! You will, of course, be the first to know when it’s out.
But what formats will it be available in?
At launch, you’ll be able to get it from Amazon as an ebook, followed soon after by the paperback print-on-demand version. There will also be a special fancy hardcover edition for those among you who are keen on pretty physical books. And my other news this month is that I’ve started the process of commissioning the audiobook.
The audiobook stuff is potentially quite cool and/or interesting so I thought I’d tell you more about it…
How to make an audiobook
Short version: you pass someone a sack of cash and they do it for you.
Longer and more interesting version:
I know some authors like to narrate their own audiobooks, and I did consider doing that. I considered it so seriously that I attended a five hour acting class in a neighbouring town which was dedicated to the topic of “doing accents.” It was a great class and I learned a lot… mainly because I hated it.
The teacher was wonderful and the content was spot on, but I learned first hand just how physical acting is, even when you’re only using your voice. It’s exhausting! All that breathing! Saying all those words! It should be an Olympic sport. I also learned that the only accent I can “do” is my own (and not to a terribly convincing standard). So I’ll leave narration to the professionals.
I got in touch with someone who worked for over a decade as an audiobook producer for one of the big publishing houses. After a few emails, it was clear he’s a genius and we agreed to work together to produce the audiobook over the next couple of months.
The next part of the process is for him to read the manuscript and think about who among the voice actors he works with might be a good fit. He’ll then send me some samples of them reading from the book and we’ll choose an actor (exciting!). It’ll take about three and a half days to record.
After the recording sessions, there’ll be three weeks of post production, during which time it’s all put together, checked, and saved into the right format. At that point, they’ll give me the files and I’ll be able to upload them to Audible (whose checks can take up to ten days).
So a professionally narrated and produced audiobook of both Artificial Selection and Beware the Ides of April will be coming soon… probably around a month later than the other formats. As ever, you’ll be the first to hear when they’re available.
Speaking of hearing makes me think of ears.
And thinking of ears makes me think of corn.
Which is an excellent (and not at all tenuous) segue into our next topic.
The amazing maize maze
I’ve been on holiday these last couple of weeks and my partner and I have been going on day trips to different places. One such trip was to the Skylark maize maze in Manea.* (They really went all out on the alliteration for that one.)
We’ve got maize – or indeed ‘corn’ as I’d call it in any non-maze-related scenario – in the fields near our house and I find it quite interesting to watch it grow (which perhaps gives you an indication of just how exciting things get living in Ely). But going to a maize maze meant I could pay someone for the privilege of walking around in a corn field, instead of next to a corn field, which was, somehow, completely different and even more fun.
They asked if we wanted to buy a map of the maze.
I said that would be cheating.
When the lady wrote down what we were both wearing, I said, ‘Is that because we may never been seen or heard from again?’
And she said, ‘Yes, we had to rescue a few people just this morning.’
That’s when I realised this maize maze was serious business. Luckily, we did re-emerge from the corn field eventually and the helicopter winch crew remained on standby.
That’s all from me for this month. Hope all’s well in your own personal universes.
Until the Ides,
Marianne
*Manea is pronounced ‘may-knee’ if you weren’t sure… I mean, how would anybody know that? I only know that because they say it sometimes on the train.**
**It’s like Ely. It’s pronounced ‘eel-ee’, because the river used to be filled with eels until our medieval forebears caught them all and exchanged them for stone to build the cathedral.*** But unless you’re familiar with the eel-rich cultural heritage of the region, you’d think it was pronounced ‘eel-eye’.
*** Historical accuracy may vary. For an equally trustworthy rendition of the story, ask ChatGPT.
