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#HistFicThursdays - Gothic Horror - The Curse of Heatherwell House

  The Curse of Heatherwell House (Working Title) came from a slightly different place than many of the other stories in this collection. When I decided that I was going to put together a collection of short stories with the theme of Gothic Horror, I quizzed Clemency on what would scare her. She said “zombies”. Not the easiest thing to work with for Gothic Horror – give me a ghost any day. Here are some thoughts about how I went about creating The Curse of Heatherwell House … Once I had spoken to Clem about the things she finds scary – and discovered which of my back catalogue she found the creepiest – I started to get an idea for a story. It involved a vicar (obviously the younger son of a wealthy family, as all these Gothic vicars seem to be) who took over gravedigging responsibilities because the rest of his parish were too sick to do it. I was pleased with the premise – and perhaps it will turn into another story. Watch this space… But there was one major sticking problem: whils...

NaNoWriMo Day 25 - Reading Aloud - Audio Books?



Monday 25th November - Reading Aloud - Audio Books?

Some books are better read aloud. I love reading books which are filled with sumptuous language, so that I can hear the narrator's voice and it just wraps me up in the language. And if you love hearing a book, you'd love talking about it too! And, let's face it, that's what every author dreams of achieving.

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Audio books are on the rise. They're a fantastic addition to the an author's CV, but they can also cost an arm and a leg to secure. To a self-published author this expense is almost unobtainable. But here's a few ideas of how to make it happen:

  1. Make every word count - Your audio book need not feature every word you wrote in your print book. Most companies or individuals charge according to the word count, so make sure each word counts!
  2. Can you beat the author as the narrator? - Give some consideration to the thought your reader might like to hear your voice reading the book. It may not be the best recording quality, but if you can share your version with your readers via a blog or youtube channel, the voice of your characters is still getting out there.
  3. Book trailers - This allows your potential readers the opportunity to hear your character's voices. From here they can imagine the sound in the rest of the book. Here's an example!
Crowvus is still developing its projects ready for Audio Book recording. But it's something we feel strongly about. We want our books to be accessible to everyone, as all publishers and authors want. Who knows? Maybe 2020 could be the year we release our first Audio Book.

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