City of the Gods Audio & I reveal a secret

The official cover image for the audio book.

Usually the projects I work on show my efforts very clearly.  They are books or games that I did illustrations, maps, graphics or even the layout of.  So seeing evidence that I was involved is fairly easy to spot most times. You can see my illos and maps right there on the page. Some books I have also written things for, and you’ll see my name in the credits. But today I’m very proud of a project where my contributions are somewhat invisible. Today is the day that the novel City of the Gods: Forgotten is now available as an audio book on Audible.com Here’s the link:

I suppose its time to confess that I co-wrote this novel (with Debora Kerr/Wynn Mercere) under the my pen name M.Scott Verne. This is the first time I’ve actually ever posted that fact online, although lots of people who have bought the book at conventions have discovered that I am one and the same.  I’m telling you now, so you’ll understand WHY I am so excited about this audio book.

I thought it might be of interest in my blog to post about what it was like to work on putting together this project.  This might help some of you who want to have your book released as a audio down the road. Or at least give you an interesting story of how it all came together.

One important thing you must have to make something like this work, is a burning desire to make it become real. It has to be almost as much mental effort as writing the novel was in the first place.  Another (in my case) is having a writing partner who trusts you enough and knows when to help with advice, LOTS of audio proofing help and encouragement during times of doubt, (I had various doubts as we proceeded on this quest, but Debora was always there to help keep me going forward.)

But in truth the MOST IMPORTANT thing is having a great voice actor who is willing to trudge through the novel and read it chapter by chapter. (Numerous times in some cases) We were extremely lucky to have Christopher Thomson as our book reader.  How we found him is an interesting story in itself.  I am big Doctor Who fan and before I ever seriously thought about producing an audio book, I would go to his YouTube page and listen to his 2nd Doctor impersonations (which are truly amazing.)  He also did lots of other impersonations as well and when the idea of doing an audiobook fully emerged from my crazed mind, I started daydreaming about how Christopher might read the book.  After showing Debora his YouTube page, she concurred and I approached Christopher about the idea. This is where the “luck” part comes in, because although Christopher had done numerous audio plays and voice overs for animations, he hadn’t actually done an audiobook yet. He really wanted to break into that field, so he was keen to take it on as a way to add an audiobook to his long list of credits.  And so we worked out a payment plan and he begun. Debora and I listened to his impersonations and tried to match some of them with characters in the book, then we started to look for other “well known” voices that would help give Christopher some guidance as to what some of the other characters might sound like.  He then took those suggestions and came up with many more voices as well. He did a spectacular job putting together his “cast” of over 50 different voices for characters that appear in the book. It was amazing to hear it all come to audio reality!

And so after a year and half of hard work on the part of professional voice actor Christopher Thomson, and jumping through lots of hoops, our audio book is now on Audible. If you are a fan of the City of the Gods, now you can hear the first novel come to life in an totally new way. If you have not yet read our novel, now you can experience it in this amazing rendition where all the characters and gods have unique voices and sound effects. Be among the first to actually HEAR the City of the Gods and go on a mystical and mysterious journey.  We hope you will enjoy it, and in turn tell your friends you know someone who made an audio book and that they should give it a listen.

If you want hear a  sample of the book that includes a video with art created by me, you can see that here.