The Secret of Stone Cottage

The new Mick Malone Mystery is now available for Kindle and in Paperback on Amazon.com.  The Secret of Stone Cottage takes Mick back to Scotland for his latest adventure. 

I had a lot of fun writing this one, including doing research on Tarot Cards (anyone want a reading?) and many of the mystical stone circles in Scotland. The more I read about these incredible man-made monuments, the more intrigued I got about what they were actually used for.  It has been over thirty years since I first visited Stone Henge near Salisbury, England. And there was an even more primitive stone circle in Avebury, England, a village only ten miles west of where I lived. Next to the stone circle, Avebury is a charming village with many activities that display what life was like in rural England many hundreds of years ago. Well worth a visit if you are ever in that neck of the woods.

In the middle of the circle, is a pub, the Red Lion. The locals, here, will tell you that the stones are identical to a ring of stones on Mars, lending fuel to the theory that these monuments were built by ancient aliens.  Well, honestly, there is a lot of evidence that makes this theory viable.

But back to the book. Mick and Jock are unraveling not only a current murder but also the disappearances of young women over the past twenty years. Detective Sergeant Galen Cullen joins them on another adventure, this time, based in the Aberdeenshire countryside.

Available in paperback and kindle versions. If you do read it, please let me know what you think. I am always interested in reader's feedback. Or better yet, please review it on Amazon. I would really appreciate your help to increase the number of reviews I have.

Thanks again to all of you that continuously send me good wishes. I really appreciate the support!!!

Regensburg and Kelheim

After another night of cruising, and more locks, we arrived in Regensburg which is a very interesting medieval city.  Another walking tour....sore feet but good for us since they feed us so well....through the narrow cobblestone streets, to see the ancient buildings and life along the river.

 And of course, another beautiful church, this time St. Peter's.

 We are learning much about the history and how south of the river was "civilization" brought by the Romans; north of the river were the barbarians. The oldest bridge in Germany is the Old Stone Bridge built in the 12th century. Unfortunately, this bridge is under renovation, so we couldn't cross it, but it was very interesting, nonetheless.  All along the bridge there are signs of the high water of the floods of 2012, when all the residents spent months cleaning up mud after the flood.  Where you see the plaster was washed away on the gate house shows how high the water was.

Near the bridge is the oldest restauraunt in Germany as well, the sausage house which is still in operation today (the green building).

After a great tour of Regensburg and lunch, we took a bus about thirty minutes outside of town to a small village of Kelheim. This was a village of very rich merchants, rich in the salt trade and breweries.  After a visit to another beer garden, we took a small boat down the Danube narrows where the river cuts a deep gorge and is only 80 meters wide to Weltenburg Abbey, where six monks still live and brew beer.

Atop the hill as you sail into the narrows sits a magnificent building, Independence Hall.

Nuremberg

From Prague we were bussed to Nuremberg. I must say, we were not looking forward to four hours on a bus, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The bus was only about half full, allowing everyone to spread out. It was very new and comfortable and the countryside in Czech Republic and later, in Germany was beautiful.

In Nuremberg, we boarded the Viking Idun for our river cruise down the Danube. If you are thinking about doing a river cruise, don't think twice.  The long boats are great, rooms nice, and service and food outstanding.  After a nice dinner and good night's sleep, we headed out the next morning for our tour of Nuremberg.  I must say, I was a bit sobered by the ruins of the Nazi stadium and meeting halls. Our guide was very knowledgeable and told the story of how Hitler was able to influence so many young people due to the dire economic circumstances that Germany found itself in after WWI. The Nazi party and flags and symbols are all illegal in Germany today.

After a sobering start to the tour, we were taken to the old town, to see the castle and look out over this pretty city.

In the afternoon, we returned to the boat for lunch and to start cruising through the many locks in the Main-Danube Canal. It is eerie and interesting at the same time, to sail into a huge concrete lock and then have the back door close and the lock fill with water.....slowly, slowly rising to the next level.

Prague

From London, we flew to Prague for a three-day visit before our cruise. Prague was largely spared during WWII and so much of the city is hundreds of years old. My first lesson learned, and the advice I will give is get a good guide!! We had a long, long walking tour of Prague on the first morning. More than once, during the 4+ hour tour, I thought I couldn't keep walking. But I did and I will always be thankful for that.  Prague, was occupied by the Nazi's during WWII, then liberated by the Russians after the war, only to be occupied some twenty years later by the Communists, and then, again liberated in the late 1980s. Now the economy is predominately based on tourism, and Viking has a huge presence there. Some of the things to see in Prague include Old Town Square:

This includes a lovely cobblestone square with small streets and shops all around.  One of the most interesting things to me was the market, which has been there since 1232 A.D.

Other must see sights are the Charles Bridge and Lobkowitz Palace. The Lobkowitz's were exciled during both WWII and the Cold War. The current owner, who was born in excile in Boston, moved back to Prague in the 1990's and was able to reclaim his family home. He and his wife are working hard to restore this beautiful palace and have opened it to the public. We were honored to be able to have a private lunch of goulash which was delicious and a private concert at the Palace.

Also a must is a walk over the Charles Bridge which is lined with statues of saints. This was the first bridge in Prague over the river Vltava and takes you from the edge of Old Town to Lesser Town which is at the bottom of Castle hill. Lesser Town floods often and you can see high water marks above the doors often on these old buildings.  Here, in Lesser Town, you will find the Kafka Museum, a very sobering visit if you are interested in his life and writing.

Don't forget to include the local pilsner, very nice! and goulash, sausages or duck. Yum!

London

Our son has been living in London for nearly three years. He works for an American company headquartered in Silicon Valley, so he does get home often on business. But we hadn't yet visited him in London until last week. What a glorious trip. I lived in England many years ago and so have wonderful friends that I hadn't seen in over 6 years. It was a great trip and we enjoyed great visits with our son and friends.

We stayed at a hotel in Westminster. The St. Ermins is a very nice boutique type hotel, and although a bit pricey it is within walking distance of Buckingham Palace, which was very convenient for my husband, Tom, who awaited anxiously the whole time we were there for an invitation to tea with the Queen.  She must have been otherwise engaged, however.......Here is a pic of our hotel.

 On the left, that's the hotel.....the picture on the right is New Scotland Yard which was right across from our hotel. While Tom was waiting for the Queen, I was hoping for a tour. No such luck. LOL.
We did a lot of the tourist things, many of which I had done years ago, but it was even more fun this time. London is still bustling and vibrant, and there are some new additions as well, such as the Eye, which I actually did get on and didn't pass out. (I am afraid of heights).

 That's Big Ben, of course, on the right.
We spent a whole afternoon in St. Paul's Cathedral. What a gorgeous and impressive place. During WWII, Churchill stationed artillery around it to protect it. The Germans wanted to destroy it because it is such a national symbol for England. But although one bomb did hit it, the damage was not total and the beautiful dome, designed by Christopher Wren, was saved. Probably one of the most touching parts of the trip so far, was finding my husband's uncle's name in the book in the cathedral that honors fallen U.S. soldiers from WWII. Tom's uncle, see below: Peterson, R. G. Pfc, was killed in the English Channel on Christmas Eve in 1944, right before the war ended. Incredibly moving!!

An Interview with the Narrator

Turning my first published book, The Mystery of Glengarron, into an audio book was easy and fun for me. But for the talented young narrator, it was a lot of work. As I mentioned in my last post, Patrick Peterson is the narrator and we collaborated via the tools available online at acx.com (an Amazon company) and email. But I was curious to learn more about him and how he works. In this interview, Patrick answers some questions about what inspires him and what it takes to be a narrator of audio books. 

Sallee:  How did you get interested in narrating audiobooks?

Patrick:  Ever since I was a child I have loved cartoons. Even into adulthood I am still a fan and am working toward my dream of voicing a cartoon one of these days. I have two bachelors degrees in English and Theatre so narrating audiobooks was something that would allow me to use both of my talents. Though my love of voice over and cartoons is what got me started. My teacher worked with me in setting up a demo and introduced me to various audiobook websites that I could work to be a part of.

Sallee: Do you have a dedicated studio? and, Was it hard/expensive to set up?
Patrick: I do have a studio that I built in my basement. It was fairly expensive spanning roughly $2,000  once complete for work, though I still add new things here and there for better quality. Setting up was not hard at all. Just a matter of finding a sizable room to sit in comfortably. I have a deep side closet. The room is laced with quiet brace, a material that helps to keep in sound, that I found a Home Depot. So with some dedication I raised the money and bought the materials and now I have my own private studio.

Sallee:  How do you choose which books you'd like to narrate?

Patrick: Well as a narrator you have to get comfortable with rejection. I'm still working on that, but I digress, for every book I land I probably have about 15-20 auditions lost. Mostly I look around in categories that interest me, fantasy, sci fi, children's, then there are some that I learn about. I work at a library as my day job and so I have a first hand kind of cheat when it comes to seeing what people are reading. Mystery, Romance and Nonfiction are the big audiobooks, those are usually the ones that will sell. So from all those categories I pick a few from each and see if someone likes me enough to offer me the job. 

Sallee:  What's the hardest part of narrating a book?
Patrick:  EDITING!!! Most people ask me how I change voices and if i do it all together, and the answer is yes, I do switch immediately between voices, it has always been fairly easy for me, ever since I would imitate Red Skelton as a child i have been good at imitation. The theatrical aspect of standing in a room by myself and talking to my self in 20-30 different voices is the most fun I have, especially when there is a character that you just love the voice you have for him/her and whenever you do that voice you smile. (For me that character was Harry in your novel) He was just so Billy Connelly over the top!!! Editing on the other hand is terrible, my least favorite part. Aside from being only ok at it which is not fun because it then affects your performance, it takes forever. For every hour you listen to this book I listened to that hour a minimum of 6 times and editing it took at least 8 hours. Sometimes it is just very tedious. You get better as you go, but my dream is to leave the editing to someone else, walk into my or someone's studio and recording and get paid and leave. HAHA that would be awesome.

Sallee: What are your long term goals?
Patrick: Well to be a cartoon voice someday is a big one. Also I would have to say work with the greats like Tom Kane, John Dimaggio, James Arnold Taylor, Jim Cummings, and Tara Strong, and if I kept going it would take forever, so many great talents out there that I idolize. Outside of audiobooks I can't wait to start a family and if my voiceover career takes off perhaps try to be a stay at home parent. If none of that pans out, or if it does I would like to do something with Shakespeare, his work is awesome!!

Producing an Audio Book

The popularity of audio books is definitely on the rise. I still read a lot. But there are times when an audio book just fits the bill. Commuting to work and exercising come immediately to mind. So it just seemed logical that I would offer my own books in an audio version. But I really didn't know where or how to start until I turned, once again, to ACX.com, which is Amazon's platform for connecting authors with potential narrators and producers. As an author, list your book and the rest is easy. Really. The rest is a matter of making a few decisions, do you want to pay the narrator a fee or split the royalties? The platform even estimates the number of hours your finished audio book will be.

You can look through potential narrators and send them a note asking if they would be interested in narrating your book. At the same time, narrators can see what books are available to narrate. In my case, a narrator contacted me. Patrick Peterson (no relation) saw my book and sent me a message. Through the platform, we communicated a couple of times, settled on a price and then ACX even had all the contracts available for us. 

The process was fun, at least for me. I know Patrick worked very hard on this book, especially since my books are set in Scotland. We had several initial discussions, via the messaging capability of the ACX platform, mostly about what these characters might sound like. After the first initial weeks, we settled into a routine. Every couple of days, Patrick would send a few more chapters for me to review. I must say that Patrick was a joy to work with. Any changes I requested were quickly and cheerfully completed. And all the communication and work was done over the platform. Really, within a few months, I had an audio book offering through both Audible.com and Amazon. Easy. 

If you are an Indie Author, I highly recommend you consider looking into producing your own audio book. There are several companies out there, but I do recommend ACX.com. Check it out. And if you love listening to audio books, like me, here's a deal for you: Audible.com is a subscription based audio book service. You pay one monthly fee and get a certain number of credits, each good for an audio book of your choice, and it is more cost effective than buying each audio book separately. But the best part of Audible is that they offer you a daily deal. Yes, you will get an email every day.....but, these are offers for popular audio books usually for $3.95 or less. They are a great way to build your library without breaking the bank. And they have really great periodic sales as well. For instance, they are offering their members a sale right now for hundreds of titles for $4.95. Great deals on audio books!

Oh, by the way, I was curious about what the audio book production was like for Patrick, so I asked him. In my next post, I'll share his perspective in an interview with him. He's really a remarkable and interesting young man.