Kobo Audiobook Sale

 

If you’re an audiobook listener, you need to check out Kobo Books. Not only do they have a fabulous selection of books to choose from, there’s no subscription requirement.

 

Better yet: to celebrate Audiobook Month, Kobo is running a fantastic sale, one that includes the first three books in the Royal Scandals series. Hollis McCarthy narrates all three titles and has earned rave reviews.

 

BONUS: if you're new to Kobo, you can get your first audiobook FREE for giving them a try. Gotta love the words "free" and "audiobook" in the same sentence.

If you haven't read any of these books and want to learn more, you can listen to audio samples, read an excerpt, or go behind the scenes here:

 

Scandal With a Prince

 

Honeymoon With a Prince 

 

Slow Tango With a Prince 

 

This is a limited-time event, so grab your books today.

 

 

Interview: Audiobook Narrator Hollis McCarthy

I interviewed the ever-wonderful Hollis McCarthy for my blog back in October 2015, when she was in the midst of recording the second book in the original Royal Scandals series, Honeymoon With a Prince. Many books—and now a spinoff Royal Scandals series—later, I think it’s time for an update.

Nicole: Hi Hollis! Thank you for agreeing to answer a new round of questions.

First of all, as the series has expanded both in number of titles and in scope, what has been the biggest challenge of performing these books?

Hollis: It’s tricky to keep the large families of characters from sounding too much alike.  For instance, there were identical twins in the Royal Scandals series and when they had dialogue, I did the same voice for each but gave them different rhythms—one more legato/sustained, one more staccato/intermittent. I even talked a bit out of the left side of my mouth for one brother and the right side for the other.

Nicole: I can imagine you doing that! You have performed dozens of different characters over the course of the two Royal Scandals series, everyone from security guards to a gelato shop owner to kings and queens. You’ve even done a medieval knight. Any favorites? Any characters that posed difficulty?  

 

Hollis: The twins were tricky! I love the gossip monger, Val Dempsey, because she’s so shallow and naughty and also…plummy British. My fave to voice is probably Queen Fabrizia in Royal Scandals because she’s so mature, feminine, warm, motherly, and yet strong and regal and not to be crossed! Loved the medieval knight scene with the sword—we’re kinda sword crazy at our house. I totally fell in love with King Eduardo in the Royal Scandals: San Rimini series, especially To Kiss a King. He was a delight to voice, and the character arc you gave him was so lovely—he went through a lot, which always makes for a great acting challenge. I also love that you write strong, smart men who love strong smart women. Makes all the characters fun to play! Claire was a treat in that book too. I enjoyed that both of them were mature, accomplished career people and yet so carried away by romantic love.

 

Nicole: Thank you! I admit, I loved writing about people who had separate romantic histories and then delving into the complexities of them finding each other later in life. I loved how you brought them alive in audio, too.

 

Audiobook technology has changed a great deal in the past five years. How has this affected your work? Have there been changes in the way you prepare for your performances or in how you record?

 

Hollis: The biggest change for me has been setting up a Covid-necessitated home studio, rather than going in to NYC studios to record. That happened in March of this year, hastily improvised due to the lockdown, and we’ve been refining it ever since. It’s basically a booth made of packing blankets around a shell of acoustic foam, with our new mic on a boom arm clamped to a cloth-covered desk.  We’re actors who do stage combat and Shakespeare, so when we needed some strong supports, my husband took the blades off their hilts and…voila! The booth is suspended from our two broadsword blades, clamped to brackets screwed to the wall, and crossed by our sabre blade on the outside. So we call it “Three Swords Studio!” We’ve invested a lot in new equipment and learned a lot about software and recording technology in the last few months. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. 

Nicole: Three Swords does fine work. The recordings you’ve made there have been phenomonal! 

 

You’ve also done a number of other projects since we began working together, ranging from audiobooks to theater to television. (It was a kick to see you as a judge on CBS’s Bull.) What other projects are on your plate?  

 

Hollis: Right now in our industry, due to the pandemic, theater is shut down, film isn’t happening and TV episodics are just now starting to cast and get ready shoot again. We just invested in better video recording equipment to do episodic auditions from home, as no casting studios are open. So voiceover has been it, lately, and I feel so lucky to have the work, when so many of my friends and colleagues are suffering. I’m incredibly grateful to report that I have a lot of audiobooks lined up thru year’s end, and have done 24 this year already. I did some fun roles in a big-time video game recently, but had to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and can’t tell you about that until it comes out. I’ve also done several full-cast projects for Audible this year. All of which is to say a huge THANKS to swell authors like you, and to readers who love audiobooks!

 

Nicole: That’s an amazing number, especially given the amount of prep work I know you do for each recording. Yet with all that, you have another project in full swing. What can you tell me about it?

 

Hollis: My husband, the brilliant and funny Mark McCarthy, is writing a comic noir mystery fictional podcast for me, set in Chicago, in which I play a tough female private eye. We’ve recorded part of that and are shopping it around. That’s a really fun self-created project I’m excited about!  The character is a riot—dry, tough, smart, funny and “perfectly willing and able to snap your tibia in two places using common objects found around the house.”  

 

Nicole: You’d make an intriguing private eye and I know enough about Mark’s work to know it’ll be a tight, well-written script. I can’t wait to hear it!

 

Thank you, Hollis, for taking the time to answer questions and for all the time and talent you’ve contributed to my audiobooks. It’s been a joy to work with you. Can’t wait to send the next story your way!

 

Hollis: Thanks, Nicole! Love the wonderful world you’ve built in the Royal Scandals series, and it’s always delightful to read your books!

 

 

 

Audio On Sale

If you're an Audible member (or have been thinking about subscribing), there's a big sale right now. Nearly all books, including the entire Royal Scandals series, are 50-70% off. There's never been a better time to give them a try.

If you're unsure about the experience of listening to a book rather than reading, you can listen to excerpts on my website. Actress Hollis McCarthy narrates the entire series and does an incredible job bringing the characters to life. To hear her performance, go to the books page for the Royal Scandals title of your choice, click on it, then look for the audio sample button underneath the cover.

Now in Audio - Honeymoon With a Prince

If you're in the United States, odds are good you'll be in the car this weekend (or enduring a longer-than-usual commute over the next few days) due to the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm happy to share that, if you choose, you can have a sexy Barrali prince for companionship.

The wonderful Hollis McCarthy has recorded the audiobook of Honeymoon With a Prince, and it's now available from iTunes, Amazon, and Audible.com, where it already has a 4.9/5 rating. Hollis does a spectacular job capturing the rich feel of Sarcaccia and the excitement that surrounds the Barrali family, particularly battle-scarred Prince Massimo.

If you haven't enjoyed this story yet, be sure to check it out in audio. It's easy listening while you walk or commute. For more on Hollis, her background, and the prep work that goes into audiobooks, be sure to read my recent interview with her.

I look forward to hearing what you think of Honeymoon With a Prince! And stay tuned...Hollis is in the midst of recording my RITA finalist novel Slow Tango With a Prince, so look for it soon.

PS: If you've wanted to try audiobooks and aren't sure where to start, check out the deal now running on Audible. You can try their monthly audiobook subscription program for 30 days for FREE. It's a great way to grab Honeymoon With a Prince and see if audiobooks are for you.

Eight Questions for Audiobook Narrator Hollis McCarthy

Hollis McCarthy has received rave reviews for her acting performances in many theatrical, television, and film productions. I feel incredibly fortunate to have her as the narrator of the Royal Scandals audiobooks. The first book in the series, Scandal With a Prince, is now available from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. As I post this, Hollis has finished principal recording on Honeymoon With a Prince.

I found Hollis after hearing the audiobook of Anthea Lawson’s Sonata for a Scoundrel. I was amazed by the way Hollis brought the characters to life. Because I know you’ll love her work on Scandal With a Prince as much as I do and will want to know more about her, I asked Hollis if she’d agree to be interviewed. 

Hollis McCarthy, photo by Yvonne Marchese

Q: Hi Hollis!  I’m thrilled to have you here. What can you tell my readers about your background?

I grew up in rural Northwest Ohio, and literally went to school surrounded by cornfields.  I got my BFA and MFA degrees in acting and have been acting professionally around the country in stage, film, tv and voice-over for twenty some years.  I specialize in plays of complex language – Shakespeare, Pinter, Friel, and so on – and have worked off-Broadway and in regional theatres like The Old Globe, Alabama Shakespeare, Chicago Shakespeare, Portland CenterStage, and so on. 

Q:  When you aren’t in the studio recording audiobooks, what do you do?

I live in NJ, just across the river from NYC now, so I spend a lot of time auditioning for plays, TV shows, commercials and so on.  I did an episode of The Good Wife, and one of House of Cards recently.  I love to ride my bike and run with my husband, Mark, an actor/playwright, along the Hudson River with a view of the city.  We also do stage combat, so we get our swords out in the park sometimes and practice our broadsword and rapier/dagger fights.  We’re about to be in a play together, playing husband and wife, at a small local professional theatre right in our neighborhood.

Q:  How did you get started as an audiobook narrator? What is it about audiobooks that you find appealing?

My husband, Mark McCarthy, who is a terrific narrator, took an audiobook workshop a few years ago from Paul Ruben, a wonderful producer and coach, and shared all the great stuff he learned from Paul with me.  So we cut our first audiobook demos and started sending links to producers, I did some books for Audible, hooked up with an engineer friend who has a studio near me, and it built slowly from there.

Mom taught us all to read before we started school, and used to read Tolkien aloud to us when we were cleaning up from dinner, to keep the five of us kids from arguing.  I’m a voracious reader, and have loved reading out loud since I would read to my little brother, and do the voices of the Sesame Street characters for him.  I do a killer Grover.  Getting to play ALL the characters in books is great fun.  I’ve played a lot of ingenues and leading ladies, and it’s so fun not to be constricted by physical type in audiobook work – to play old, young, English, Egyptian, and everything in between!   Telling stories is a wonderful way to make a living, and I feel lucky every time I go into the recording booth to bring an author’s words to audio life.

Q:  What kind of preparation do you do? What challenges have you faced narrating the Royal Scandals series?

I spend a lot of time on prep.  I always start reading the book through just for fun, like a regular reader, because you get a real feel for the book that way.  Then I go back and work through slowly, using my IAnnotate app on my tablet, assigning different vocal qualities to each character, marking “beats” into the text, looking up words/names that I don’t know how to pronounce, and so on.  I also sketch in a few acting cues for myself, here and there. 

One of the big challenges of the RS series is the dialects!  I’m very English/Scottish/Irish looking, and am great with all those dialects and pretty much any American dialects you can imagine, because I’ve played them on stage.  But I’ve never played Italian or Spanish, for obvious reasons, so I had to learn those.  I use my husband, who is a great dialect coach, a lot, and also listen to online coaching and the cds of David Allan Stern.  Of course, once you learn the dialect, you have to reduce how much of it you use, because less is truly more with dialects in this genre. 

Q:  Which Royal Scandals character has been the most fun to narrate?

I’d pick TWO so far:  Anna, the young daughter in Scandal With a Prince, and Fabrizia, the Queen of Sarcaccia, who is in both of the books I’ve done so far.  I love voicing kids, and Anna was a treat.  Her Majesty is so well written – a lot of emotional depth hidden beneath her regal, formal exterior. 

Q:  What are your current projects?

In addition to the play I start rehearsing with Mark on Monday at Hudson Theatre Works, I have a bunch of audiobooks done and in post-production, including your lovely Honeymoon With a Prince, a great non-fiction book by Lauren Kessler called Raising the Barre, another fun cozy mystery in the series I’m narrating for Leighann Dobbs, and a psychological thriller called Lucidity by C.J. Lyons.  I have four more lined up to record between now and year’s end, including two more Royal Scandals books I can’t wait to read!

Thanks so much for joining me, Hollis!  I've posted an audio sample of your work on Scandal With a Prince on my website, and look forward to the release of Honeymoon With a Prince in audio in the coming weeks.

For more about Hollis McCarthy, visit her website at www.mccactors.com.  You can also search for Hollis by name on your favorite audiobook platform to hear her other great performances.

Now in Audio - Scandal With a Prince

My good friend Emily March - a voracious reader -often listens to audiobooks. She can listen while doing housecleaning, gardening, or while out for a walk or a drive. If you're a fan of audiobooks, I'm happy to announce that the first Royal Scandals book, Scandal With a Prince, is now available in audio from Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Other Royal Scandals books will be available in audio in the coming months

If you've never listened to an audiobook, this is a great opportunity to give it a try.  Audible is running a promotion that allows you to Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks. Amazon and iTunes also run frequent deals for site users to try audiobooks.

Most of all, I'm thrilled to say that the Royal Scandals books are narrated by the fabulous Hollis McCarthy, who is a both a talented stage performer and voice actor.  I'll interview Hollis for an upcoming blog, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I can't wait to hear what you think of Scandal With a Prince.