I am not a fan, personally.

I like audio books in theory.

Because I am a full immersion reader, it can be difficult for me to read much and still manage to do important things like shower, or eat, or work, or answer the door so the sheriff doesn't break it down when someone calls in a wellness check after not hearing from me for several days.

You can see how short reads like the ones I write have been a good fit for reader-me.

Since I have always been a road-trip girl-- audio books always seemed like a great solution. I'd just pop in a book on tape (Yes, I said "tape." Yes, I am that old.) and point the car toward the open highway.

Unfortunately, that proved to not work out for the way my brain processes audio input.

I can't tell you how many audio books I've DNF'd over the years because I always find myself repeating each line in my internal monologue (I happen to have an extremely strong internal monologue...dialogue...din;) in the delivery that I would have read it in, instead of the narrator's voice.

It was last fall, at a writers' conference, when it finally dawned on me that the biggest reason writer-me has never considered creating audio books, is because reader-me hates them.

I understand that's not true of everyone else, and I've been working on options for bringing my books to the readers listeners who do love audio books.

Problem two, is that I am small potatoes in this writing game-- and audio books are very expensive to produce...although, there is a guy who works the drive-thru at the Burger King in Tonopah, Nevada who I would ask to narrate them in an instant, if I didn't feel like it would be a serious creeper move to ask the guy at Burger King if he would be comfortable reading smut.

(Ooh! Story idea!)

But I feel really bad for everyone who's been left with no option but to have Alexa or Siri read to them.

A fellow author recently clued me into the new Elevenreader app-- and I'm here to let you know that you can finally listen to my books read to you in a voice that doesn't send you to sleep or make you cringe.

The app is available for free on both Apple and Android and offers a growing library of books available to be listened to in the voice of your choice from a pretty impressive number of options.

Yes, it's still computer-generated, but they don't suck. And, as companies of this nature go-- they are top notch in the ethical use of AI as well, licensing and paying their human voice performers for usage. (FTR: Burt Reynolds has a surprisingly good voice for mountain men, but he won't say the curse words for you.)

As of this email, the first five books of the Moonshine Ridge Mountain Men are available to listen to, and listening to books through the app is currently free! (So binge while you can, I'm sure that's temporary.)

Start with Trusting the Mountain Man on the Elevenreader App.

The app is new, it can take some exploring to find what you're looking for, but authors like me are doing our best to make it easier to find our books, especially if they're in a series.

Preparing them for audio is a time-consuming job, so it will take awhile to get my full catalogue available-- but I'm working on it.

Yes, of course, I'm still working on Lance and Mercy's book.

Coming Soon

And yes, of course, I'm still helping Bestie with the house remodel: today I installed a new doorknob on the front bathroom door-- which was installed yesterday by someone else.

I got to use a cool hole drill-bit to carve out a new spot on the doorjamb for the latch because the new doorknob does not line up with where the old one was.

The hole drill-bit was so fun, I wanted to drill holes in everything.

Bestie said "no."

FTR: These are a different style of hole drill-bit than I've used in the past. I've cut holes in things before, it just wasn't this fun.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about the new audio book option. Eventually, it is on the Master To-Do List to have the books properly recorded in dual voice narration and available on more retailers, but for now? I'm pretty happy with this option.

~Rocklyn