Earlier this month, I finally found a narrator for the Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI Series.

The search started sometime in December, when I offered the job to Rebecca Winder, who narrated the Sunshine Walkingstick Series.  Listeners continually comment on how well she rendered Sunny and her stories. I knew from past experience that a talented narrator can make the difference between a good audiobook and a great one, and can even contribute to an audiobook's dismal sales. Becca merely drove that point home; because of her, audiobook sales for the series have been solid.

Unfortunately, Becca could not narrate the Vanessa Kinley Series, so I extended the call for a narrator via ACX, Amazon's audiobook distribution service.

Auditions flooded in faster than I could evaluate them. I've never had that kind of response before. Literally dozens of auditions came in within the first couple of weeks alone.

None seemed right, however, though many fine narrators submitted auditions. I didn't want to settle, so I started seeking out voice talent rather than waiting on promising narrators to audition.

The flood of auditions eventually dwindled to a trickle, and finally, I began reaching out to the most promising narrators. In May or so, I thought I'd finally found one, but she also had to turn the job down.

Then Karen Diaz, a really amazing voice artist, auditioned, and I felt certain she was the one. Within a few days, we signed a contract and Karen started narrating. Last week she submitted the first fifteen minutes, and wow! She nailed Nessa. Karen's performance is going to blow y'all away.

Our goal is to have the audiobook completed by the end of September. Then there are a few checks to go through, including ACX's independent quality control. Hopefully all of that will go quickly and smoothly, and we'll have a finished product available by the end of October.

I'm really pumped to get the audiobook out, especially if it comes out in October. That's going to be a good month for readers of all my series, but that's news for another day.