I’m excited to announce that my novel The Desert Run is now available in audiobook form!
I have a slightly odd relationship with this book. It’s my second book, and it began as a short story, written to give away to readers to help grow my mailing list. But it grew from a short story into a full-length novel, mainly because I was enjoying myself writing it. When it launched, it quickly got lots of very positive reviews, almost embarrassingly so – but for some reason I lost confidence in it (us ‘artists’ huh?) And as a result I didn’t push it very hard. I didn’t do any advertising, I didn’t submit it to any review sites. I just left it alone, where it quietly sank down Amazon’s rankings to oblivion (although I did continue to give it away to readers in the back of my other books). But then a couple of months back, I decided to re-read it. And actually I really enjoyed it again. So I decided it needs a bit of love and a re-launch.
You may notice there’s a bit more colour in the cover image, to bring it into line with my other books (thanks Rob). But the biggest part of the re-launch was to get an audio version out there. I spent a very, very long time listening to actor’s voices online and finally found a very talented young guy called Will Matt. He’s a British actor/voiceover artist who lives in New York but comes from the south coast of England (where The Desert Run is set). And I felt he had just the right casual, almost lazy style to his voice that I heard in my head when I was writing this book. It’s a tone that’s hard to describe, but is crucial to the book because it’s key to the main characters. I wanted them to come across as almost unwittingly arrogant – they feel hard done by because they can’t get a break, but they don’t see the reason behind it – how people are envious of their youth, their power, and the way their whole lives are stretching out in front of them, an infinite possible adventures still to come. I know that’s a lot to read into a tone of voice, but I felt Will nailed it from the first sentence!
A little bit to my surprise, Will agreed to take on the project, and carried it out with perfect professionalism. And the result is now live! I hope you like it…
Get The Desert Run Audio here:
Audible UK (free 30 day trail)
Audible US (free 30 day trial)
And find out more about Will on his website here.
And a bit of a ps. I’ve been away a lot this summer and busy with the children, so haven’t had easy access to a computer. As such I’ve failed to reply to lots of comments on this site, and to a few emails. Many apologies to all those people, I will pull my finger out when the new school term starts!
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