Willow is a under-employed journalist, living a relatively sedate life in the house her hippy parents left her, trying not to strangle her quirky siblings, hanging out with her best friends — and strictly no romance. Willow has a little problem, you see … (or at least you will hear, if you listen to the first chapter below.)

The book is set in York, and you will be relieved to learn that I do not perpetrate any kind of accent tomfoolery upon it, other than my usual southern Estuary lilt, which can’t really be helped. The heroine is entirely modern, so be prepared for strong language. There are some saucy scenes but they’re not hair-straighteningly explicit and didn’t make me blush while recording, so I’m sure you’ll be fine when listening too. It runs to 8hrs 38min. I’m 95% sure I pronounced the word ‘scones’ correctly, but if you hear of my having a terrible exsanguinatory accident — you’ll know I didn’t. And that it was no accident.

You can buy it here at Iambik and enter the code “september-nights” at checkout for 20% off (is $6.99, so that’ll get you it for $5.59USD or £3.55 if you’re a Brit and the exchange rates don’t go crazy between now and time of purchasing.) It will probably be available through Audible eventually, if you’d rather do it there — and if you’re an audiobook reviewer, book blogger, or Iambik ambassador, email Miette for review copies of any Iambik title, including this one.

Listen to the whole of Chapter 1: (16:07) Download audio file (01-reversingoverliberace.mp3)

But the problem is, Frankenstein has GOT me. I’ve been thinking about making a free public domain recording of it for more than a year now, and the other day, I thought I’d just try out a sample recording, as a warm-up, you know. Two weeks and nine sections later, I am still largely in denial about this activity. The deadline for $newBook is April and that’s a while away still. And in the meantime, Frankenstein, which is NOT officially being read, I haven’t started a thread for it at LibriVox or anything … is somehow sneaking into files on my computer.

I’m not reading from the 1818 edition, which is rather less flowery than the 1831 “gosh, people like my book, I’d better revise it to make it more suitable for a wider audience” version. I’m not agonising over whether the Preface should be file 00, or considered an integral part of the book and numbered 01. I’m not wondering at all whether I might sound anything like Mary Shelley, and I definitely haven’t looked around online to see if any other women have ever recorded it (couldn’t find any.) I’ve not listened to Simon Vance’s widely available and very excellent version nor subsequently thought about how I myself would have approached those accents and voices.

Really, I’m only trying to fool myself, and I’m not even doing a good job of that. This book has completely gripped me, and I am enjoying recording it hugely. Last time I read the paper version, it was the 1831 one, and that seemed to drag … I’m not even sure I finished it. 1818 is (relatively!) punchy, and different in many ways (according to various comparisons and discussion online) that I approve of. (See also this listing of the 1823 edition’s changes.) A key aspect is the importance of free will in this version, vs. fatalism in the later edition. It’s less conventional — by the standards of the Nineteenth Century, at least. It’s a great book.

I wish she’d written more! What she did write is available as a free audiobook downloadable here: http://librivox.org/my-school-days-by-e-nesbit/

Or listen to the first chapter:
Download audio file (myschooldays_01_nesbit.mp3)
(9:18min)

And then I took a holiday and recorded it, and now, here’s the free audiobook version of Royal Children of English History by E. Nesbit.

Download audio file (royalchildren_1_nesbit.mp3)
(First section, 12MB, 12:37min)

It’s a retelling of the stories of a number of kings and queens of English history, in full Nesbit style. Aimed at older children (there’s a scene of quite grim threat/peril in “Prince Arthur” and there’s a number of battles / wars described,) she’s attempting to make the “people behind the headlines” real. Not to mention that these were the headlines of the day, which, as she sort of says at the start, is a helpful way to think about History when the names and dates threaten to overwhelm. Fun stuff!

http://librivox.org/royal-children-of-english-history-by-e-nesbit/

I’ve been working on my solo recording of Anna Sewell’s “Autobiography of a Horse”, Black Beauty, all summer, as its short chapters and positive attitude were a pleasant change from the intense modern non-fiction book I was recording for Audible (not yet released.) Black Beauty was catalogued at the start of the month, and is averaging 30 downloads a day, which isn’t bad going for a book which has previously been recorded for LibriVox.

Listen to Chapter 1 here:
Download audio file (blackbeauty_01_sewell.mp3)
5:03min (128kbps)

Then there was a poem which I found for the LibriVox Weekly Poetry reading. This is more of a challenge than you’d think; finding a shortish poem, by an author who died more than 70 years ago (to maximise the countries in which their work is in the public domain) and which is in some way interesting for multiple readers to try recording, and hopefully, that then has differences in the interpretations that’ll appeal to listeners. Down the Bayou by Mary Ashley Townsend fits many of these criteria, to my mind. I did find I had to check I knew how to say “bayou” correctly, but once I’d done that, I was away! (Along with 11 others. :)
Download audio file (downthebayou_townsend_cs.mp3)
1:15min (128kbps)

There are three other poems, pending cataloguing … that should happen shortly, since both collections are nearly full. I’ve not read poetry for a while, so it’s been really nice to come back to it.

And finally, lady pirates! Yes, my long-ago-read chapter on the “Adventures And Heroism Of Mary Read” has now been entered into the catalogue, and you can hear it as part of The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms (Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers)! Or here:

Download audio file (piratesownbook_26_ellms.mp3)
10:04min (128kbps)

I have a few other things very close to finishing … this will have been a super-productive month, all in all!

They didn’t deserve that wait … some of these sonnets and poems are really lovely, though I’m not sure I’d listen to them all in one sitting, that might be pretty bleak! In amongst them is my new favourite poem title of ALL TIME. I’m so lucky that the order fell out right in order for me to record it, too.

Sonnet LXX. On being cautioned against walking on a Headland overlooking the Sea, because it was frequented by a Lunatic.
Download audio file (elegiacsonnets_078_smith.mp3)
(1:17)

http://librivox.org/elegiac-sonnets-and-other-poems-by-charlotte-turner-smith/
(1:22:53 of 3:04:49)

There are no swear words of even the mildest sort, no sex (not even kissing, just some blushing & giggling romance), and the closest we get to violence is a light scuffle in an apartment building. It’s 7 hours of the cleanest fun!

Listen to chapter 1 below, download the book from this page, or visit archive.org to stream the whole thing.
Download audio file (movingpicturegirls_01_hope_64kb.mp3)
12:06min, 64kbps]

It does include the most epic misspelling of my name to date, but hopefully that’ll be sorted out between the publisher and Audible soon. In the meantime, I’m marvelling over how quickly I read in the sample (it’s not a good thing, really, I must work on slowing down just a little) … and loving seeing my hard work available. I’ve never recorded a whole book in such a (relatively) short space of time before, it was quite an experience.

Audible.co.uk link | Audible.com link

I just discovered the audible.com link; same name misspelling, completely different pricing, and a semi-okay review (nice for me, but not going to improve sales overall.) Ah well.

My next commercial recording is completely different – watch this space.

http://librivox.org/the-wood-beyond-the-world-by-william-morris/
(Or stream each section through the online player here: http://www.archive.org/details/woodbeyondtheworld_0810_librivox )

It’s a great fantasy story, with interesting characters and strange plots, and it was splendid fun to read the pseudo-archaic language, even if I was tearing my hair out over it at times. Annoyingly, I think the archive.org counter has broken again, it still registers only 197 downloads so far, or else no-one’s downloaded it since the first day it was released — which is possible! SFFaudio set the original challenge and gave the book a good mention in their (excellent) recent podcast, but unfortunately, they DID refer to me as a ‘he’ throughout, so perhaps this is one of those books it’s better to read about than to read/hear. Or else they’d gotten confused with the other semi-freely available recording of the book, which can be found at AudioBooksForFree and runs a whole 10 mins longer than mine (a slower pace, not any deficiency of text, I hasten to note!) Read with a lovely British male accent, but only the lowest audioquality is available for free.

Here’s the first part — all about the lovely Golden Walter.
Download audio file (woodbeyondworld_01_morris_64kb.mp3)
(11MB, 22:56min)

My other solos are pootling along in reasonable form. Love and Freindship by Jane Austen, has been downloaded 4,891 times — as it has only 3 parts, that’s a minimum of 1690 downloaders. Rather cool! Dear Gertrude, released only a month later, is lagging the set with just 1,735 downloads of its three files / zip collection. This does not surprise me in the least … while it was storming fun to read, I can’t imagine listening to it unless I was contemplating a spectacular mashup in words, music and visuals. (I *hope* someone does that soon, it HAS the potential!) Nesbit’s Unlikely Tales has had 2,858 downloads in 3 months … which is actually rather less than I thought. Mathilda, the Mary Shelley novella is romping along with 2,375 downloads in six weeks – much more than I thought. It IS interesting to know what people want to hear.

I conclude from all this that I do not have even *slightly* popular taste in solo-project books. That said, collaboratively, I am a part of Jane Eyre, which is LibriVox’s top downloaded archive.org book at 391,407 times. (Boggling Big Number.) There’s a “sneeze and you’ll miss me” contribution to Oliver Twist, 181,604 downloads. The other Austen’s I have contributed chapters to clock in at 120,446 for Mansfield Park, 88,659 times for Northanger Abbey (and Persuasion‘s 36,591 isn’t in the Top 50!) Unexpectedly, Reviews, by Oscar Wilde is my other entry in the Top 50 with 74,963 downloads. That has 99 files, though, and it’s the sort of thing I’d expect people to pick at, rather than dousing themselves in the whole lot. (Yes, it’s Oscar, and Yes, he does have some droll moments, but nothing in the sections I read (3 or 4?) has stuck with me as über-quotable.)

Still. If it were all about the numbers, I’d be pirating Potter. If it were all about the fame, I guess a solo recording of Jane Eyre would be a solid bet. Since it is, in fact, all about the Posterity, and I strongly believe in the right of all of my authors to audio representation for Posterity … we’re all good. Plus, this shows very decent credentials as a team player, which is nice. So, hmm, what under-loved specimen of literature will I pick on next?