If I'm reading a Jeeves & Wooster book, I hear Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie's voices in my head. Very good, sir. Their performances in the television series are the voices for me, and I couldn't disconnect that if I tried.
But if I'm reading a book without any preconceived notions of how the characters sound, I might not come up with something myself. I don't even think too much about how they look. I'm mainly imagining how they're feeling as the plot unfolds.
So it's been a very interesting exercise to put the Clandestine Magic characters into audio. The narrator, Leanne Woodward, who is absolutely awesome, asks her authors to share their preferences upfront. She helps out with thought-provoking questions: What actor would play this character? What three adjectives would your character use to describe themselves?
(Oh, brief pause in this story to mention that Subversive is now out on Audible as an audiobook. Yay! It's exclusive there for now, but after the rest of the trilogy is out, I do plan to make it more widely available.)
Anyway: that adjective question. It made me think. I figured Beatrix, at the start of the story, would describe herself as determined, wry and resigned. (She's a lot less resigned as the story progresses.) Peter, at the start, would probably call himself flawed, reckless and overwhelmed.
There are many reasons I loved Leanne's narration of this book, but part of it is that she immediately got Beatrix and Peter, even before I answered her questions. You guys, I have re-read my words roughly a bajillion and one times at this point, but she made them new.
Indulge my curiosity: Do you "cast" actors for characters in books you read and imagine them saying the words? Did you have anyone in mind for Beatrix and Peter?
Hit reply and tell me.👂
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About that short story ...
Last month I asked what Clandestine Magic short story you'd like to get as a (free) bonus, and you asked for a bit more happy ending. I had a lot of fun writing it! I may have also (a) resolved a slight mystery, (b) tipped my hand about the name of the book I'm very slowly working on, and (c) set the story on Halloween just because.
(Also, a heads up about the heat level: Unlike the epilogue, this piece includes some steam. For folks who skip over those parts, I'll include some details about when and how to do that.)
I should be done with tweaks in time to share the piece in my next email. Fingers crossed.
PSA: If you aren't seeing two emails from me each month — if you didn't get the survey, for instance — I may be landing in your spam or promotions folder sometimes. It's usually pretty simple to fix that.
In Gmail, for instance, just drag the email into your primary mail folder and click "yes" when Gmail pops up a message asking if you want future emails from me to be categorized that way. (I don't think it'll give you that helpful message if it relegated me to spam, alas, but adding [email protected] to your contacts should rectify that.)
If you don't have Gmail or could use a bit more help with this mission, here's a handy how-to from author David Gaughran.
I want you to get that Beatrix and Peter story when it's done, after all. 🤗
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A few more cool & bookish things
I recently finished Jeffe Kennedy's Dark Wizard, an intriguing story set in a world where people with magical power are either wizards (regardless of gender) or familiars treated as second-class citizens. Veronica Elal, doomed to be a familiar, is looking for a wizard she can control ... but Gabriel Phel is not that man.
Now I'm reading the third book in L. Penelope's awesome Earthsinger Chronicles (more on that later), with a bunch of other tempting fantasy romance books queued up in my phone.
What have you read lately that you'd recommend?
You made it to the end! You're awesome. (And oh hey, here are my latest books. In an America run by wizards and 100 years behind on women's rights, she resists. He's the wizard who just hired her.)
If this bookish newsletter you signed up for is no longer your cup of tea, just hit unsubscribe below. ⬇️
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