If you prefer getting my novels in audiobook form (as apparently most of you do) then it might be time to break out the yesca and cerveza. Fifty Grand will be available from May 1 as a talking book from Blackstone Audio and your friendly neighbourhood Amazon and shortly thereafter Audible.com. The book is narrated by Paula Christensen who I think is this Paula Christensen (right) an actress from Buenos Aires, a city I visited last year, mainly because of its connections to Jorge Luis Borges. JLB is a prose idol of mine who also turned some of my favourite quotes including: "Humiliation, unhappiness, discord are the ancient foods of heroes," and "the flattery of posterity is worth about the same as contemporary flattery which is worth absolutely nothing." Good old Jorge. If you want to hear a sample of Paula's excellent narration then click here.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Can You Hear Me Now?
If you prefer getting my novels in audiobook form (as apparently most of you do) then it might be time to break out the yesca and cerveza. Fifty Grand will be available from May 1 as a talking book from Blackstone Audio and your friendly neighbourhood Amazon and shortly thereafter Audible.com. The book is narrated by Paula Christensen who I think is this Paula Christensen (right) an actress from Buenos Aires, a city I visited last year, mainly because of its connections to Jorge Luis Borges. JLB is a prose idol of mine who also turned some of my favourite quotes including: "Humiliation, unhappiness, discord are the ancient foods of heroes," and "the flattery of posterity is worth about the same as contemporary flattery which is worth absolutely nothing." Good old Jorge. If you want to hear a sample of Paula's excellent narration then click here.
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35 comments:
muy calliente!
Ian
I assume you're talking about me.
hate to burst your bubble...
I actually just received an ARC of Fifty Grand for review, but if Paula would like to come over and read it to me, I'll not be offended.
Couldn't hear a thing...
I like authors to read their own books.
Miss Witch
You have to click the here link and then "listen to sample". Its a slow loader, takes about 30 seconds.
Dana
Not a bad idea. I think my reviews would sky rocket (at least among my male readers).
Miss Witch
I should alao point out that the title of the blog post is an allusion to an annoying series of ads for a mobile phone company in the US,
Adrian:
I've been doing my bit for lit in Dublin, prior to being lashed to the mast on Monday, and I just know you are going to be delighted with my adventures.
Vicki and I went pub-hopping today, interspersed with visits to this fair city's bookshops, where I announced myself as the great McKinty and loudly berated management and staff who were not well-stocked with my full line of output.
They were each and all suitably impressed with you, Adrian.
Waterstones, on Dawson Street, even speedily supplied a signing table where their last twelve copies of Bloomsday were graciously signed in your name to the assembled instant fans. You were, I assure you, a big hit!
What's more, I made damn sure they all order sufficient quantities of Fifty Grand.
You can thank me when I bring that little square
case to your door in the near future.
Dum de dum dum Dum!
PKL
Patrick
The best way to prove that you're the real McKinty is to cause some sort of diplomatic incident. I've been stopped TWICE for drugs smuggling in Dublin (innocent both times of course).
Dude, that sounds great. Took a few lines for me to hear the accent but once it was there, yowwzzah. They picked a good one here.
Liam
Hopefully Blackstone will send me the whole book at some point but the bit I heard was pretty good.
Patrick, the adventures of the false McKinty is going to do wonders for sales. I hope you're planning on doing a stateside reprise. It should probably involve breaking a few pub windows and quoting Brendan Behan while doing it or something. I'd do it myself, but credibility is a key factor here. Although maybe it would work if the marketing strategy was as chicklit.
Anyway, Adrian, I expect you're very happy with the audio choice right now. Very, very happy. You do seem to fare rather well in that sector.
Funny how two of the most famous American soundbites are: "You talkin' to me?" And "Can you hear me now?" I envision two vast segments of American culture talking to each other endlessly with these two lines, and getting, of course, absolutely nowhere.
Seana
I've got to say, yup, I've been lucky in the audiobooks department. Blackstone's a good company who gets good narrators and apparently knows how to market their books. I wonder if they're just that bit savvier than the old New York houses? I dont know. The publishing world continues to be a total mystery to me.
Patrick should go to my sister's pub, say that he's me, run up a huge tab and skive on out of there. Thats what I would do, if I had the bottle.
Well, I'm sure Patrick has the bottle for it, but he may have had to use all of it to steal a certain head.
You don't think your sister might have been just a tad suspicious? Or did she never pay all that much attention to you to begin with? I suppose it would be a sort of Return of Martin Guerre thing.
The publishing world is a mystery to me too. I think Blackstone must do their main selling to other outlets than bookstores. We see catalogs, but frankly don't do all that much in terms of audio these days. It's partly poor placement in the store, but I think the audio addicts have migrated elsewhere--downloads in some form would be my guess. That and the library.
I guess the audio 'reader' doesn't stand a chance of getting the big reveal at the end of chapter one, does he (or she)?
She could be a nice Mercado also for the movie adaptation.
They were each and all suitably impressed with you, Adrian.
Waterstones, on Dawson Street, even speedily supplied a signing table where their last twelve copies of Bloomsday were graciously signed in your name to the assembled instant fans. You were, I assure you, a big hit! And afterwards the fans: he looked younger than in the photo isn't it- and much more hair,I wonder what's his secret.
Marco:
The answer is this, in rhyme:
"As one Tell-Tale
told another:
A. Lie
is
T. Truth's
younger brother."
And, uniquely among the species of men, the Irish are the kin of A. Lie. A good one is better than T. Truth.
However, I must note that the booksellers of Dublin are more gullible than the bartenders.
When the person of A. McKinty would not earn me a pint at the closest pub -- McDaid's -- I tried the ruse that I was the long lost roadie of Thin Lizzie, which in Ireland is apparently the rock Grail.
For my ingenuity I was charged five and twenty for my pint.
PKL
Seana
Good on you, keep reminding him of his London mission. Nice use of Brit slang there too BTW.
Marco
Speaking of hair. You'd be embarrassed to be seen with me at the moment. Unable to find a barber simpatico (or even remotely polite) I've let my hair grow since January and it now resembles a mighty 70's style Afro. Actually thats took kind, it looks like a big chunk of hedge sitting on top of my head.
Patrick
You should have said that you were Gary Moore. I bet they would have bought it.
Unable to find a barber simpatico (or even remotely polite)Barbers aren't meant to be nice or polite. That's the job of hairdressers and coiffeurs. You've probably seen too much Project Runway.
I've let my hair grow since January and it now resembles a mighty 70's style Afro. Now all you need are Cuban heels and a leather jacket.
Speaking of Project Runway...the lawsuits are over and its back on in a few weeks. I love that stupid show.
oi, Patrick, go over to DBB, you won a book.
You know, it's funny--I've been reading Mark Twain'sInnocents Abroad today, in the vain hope that I am somehow going to have finished it in timem for my book group on Tuesday night. Twain, or Clemens, has just arrived in Paris, and he too is dreaming of nice barbers. And gorgeous barber shops, which he imagines to be something like salons. He doesn't fare any better than you in his search for a kindly barber. I think, in fact, that there were tears shed.
And, though I suppose this will sound like flattery, there is much in his style that reminds me of your voice. Not the fiction so much, but the blogs. It has occurred to me several times already and, pitifully, I haven't even reached page 100.
"Ah, I have suffered, suffered, here in Paris, but never mind--the time will come when I shall have a dark and bloody revenge. Someday a Parisian barber will come to my room to skin me, and from that day forth that barber will never be heard of more."Yes, come to think of it, there are shades of Michael Forsythe in that as well.
Seana
Thats a nice compliment because of course MT is a huge idol. Of course if I could be a quarter as good I'd die happy.
If you liked Innocents Abroad, I'd skip A Tramp Abroad and go straight to Following the Equator which captures some of the same mood. I think its in FTE where Twain meets Robert Louis Stevenson's adopted son in Samoa and talks a bit about RLS. Also the stuff on India is great.
Adrian:
What is DBB?
PKL
Detectives Beyond Borders
Dear Adrian,
Wanted to let you know that all of us at Blackstone are huge fans, from the guys in the mailroom, to the artists who work on the covers, to the studio director, to the boss himself. We did a lot of auditioning to find the right narrator but we picked her for the underlying intensity she brought to the words. If she said she was going to kill you, you would believe it. Please
send your address to us and we'll send you a couple of copies of the audio. We appreciate your kind comments about Blackstone.
Best regards,
Haila
Haila
Thank you for that. You guys certainly know your business. I've been impressed by every decision Blackstone's made. It's been brilliant.
Thahk you very much. I'll get Bob, my agent, to send you my address.
However gloomy you get about the writing life, you do have to admit that your fans are absolutely committed. I don't know if it's in the 'Commit. Lose fingers. Commit.' realm but it seems to be pretty darn close.
From the little clip we got from the link, I do think they picked the right voice for this.
Just got Fifty Grand from audible.com. Love the narrator's voice.
I'm already hooked on the story.
I just cannot believe your books aren't huge sellers. I've listened to each of the Dead-series books 3 times.
I really enjoy your writing. Please don't ever think of stopping while you still have such great stories to tell.
Also, I would love to see another sequel to the Dead-series. Surely Michael cannot be content to be a stay-at-home dad.
Bruce Phillips
Bruce
I really appreciate that. I just hope you like it all the way to the end.
I still havent heard her narration yet (just the snippet on audible) but it sounds like most people do like it which is great.
Cheers mate
Dont forget to rate it on Audible even if you hate it.
A...
forgot to say, no plans on the MF front, but you never know. I dont see him down the links working on his handicap do you?
Hate it if you must, Bruce, but under no circumstances should you ever call it smut. This is deadly serious. You will be consigned to a circle of hell of which only one is lower--that of Bono, frozen in ice.
I think there's someone named Nora down there too.
Hi Adrian,
Could you please contact me at haila@blackstoneaudio.com to discuss and idea?
Thanks,
Haila
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