Wednesday, September 28, 2011

If audiobooks featuring romance (with sex) are your thing...

Iambik Audiobooks released their latest romance collection today with some teasing excerpts on their Tumblr and Twitter feeds.  This collection is comprised of five titles that may be purchased separately for $6.99 each or you can save money by purchasing the group as a set for $24.99.

The five titles are:  Around the World in Stilettos by Natalie-Jane Revell, Daughter of Darkness by Janet Woods, The Lady Soldier by Michelle Styles and Kate Allan, Nanny Behaving Badly by Judy Jarvie and Reversing over Liberace by Jane Lovering.

 
As the narrator of one of the books, Nanny Behaving Badly by Judy Jarvie, I'm just glad that my excerpt was in the written form.  The lovely Miette who, among other things, maintains the Iambik blog, had asked for sexy/steamy excerpts from the various narrators in order to titillate potential listeners.  Phew!  I'm really glad I sent her text excerpts.  Miette posted the following excerpt on Iambik's tumblr/twitter feed here.  From Nanny Behaving Badly:

“Their mouths met with more promise than she’d bargained for. Desire’s voltage wired her spine as her world rocked and spun as he kissed her, taking her over the edge with him.
Everything inside her melted. She reached up to hold his neck, tug him close as he deepened the kiss and their tongues told of desire unmasked. Mouths flirted and tangoed and told that each of them understood. He clasped her closer, then his hands smoothed down her spine.
Groaning with spiralling need, he trailed kisses on her neck, behind her ear.
She needed Lyle so badly it bared the weak and vulnerable spot deep inside.
‘I want you!’ he whispered.
‘Me too.’
Trust me, folks, that was one of the milder sections that I read.  No porn here, just good clean sex.  However, our own Irishman, Tadhg Hynes, sent Miette an audio excerpt from the book he narrated, Daughter of Darkness.  Miette dutifully posted Tadhg's reading here.  You'll just have to listen for yourself to find out what happens.  Miette did post a warning for anyone who might be listening at work. (wink)

"NSFSWC: Not suitable for the speakers on your work computers.  Unless you work for the type of place where “the hot flood of his passion” is on your meeting agenda.  It’s not our place to judge.  Enjoy the romance!"

Just fair warning for anyone who happens to be accustomed to blaring whatever comes out of their speakers.  Neither Miette nor Iambik can be held accountable.  So, for all of you romance fans who like your stories a little steamy/spicy, too, check out Tadhg's reading (feel free to smoke afterwards) and then head to our website.  

In the mean time, here's a little something to set the mood...


Saturday, September 24, 2011

Mrs. Peel rides again

Yesterday morning Duane and I hit an estate sale with Duane at the wheel of Mrs. Peel and me navigating.  I really need to work on my navigation skills or give up and buy a GPS device.  MapQuest isn't doing it for me.  Of course, it also didn't help that in this particular part of town, the streets are broken up by canals.  You think you're heading the right way and, technically, you are, but you come to a dead end and have to backtrack to find where the street picks up again.  Grrr.  I'm glad Duane is such a patient person.  It was worth it when we got there.

Lots of furniture, household items, china, glassware and household items.
I found some DVDs of movies I haven't seen.  Duane did even better, though.  The lady who had lived in this house must have been on a perpetual diet.  There were all sorts of magnets, pictures, etc., making jokes about pigging out and losing weight.  Also, her clothing ran a range of several sizes and many items still had the tags on them.  Duane found a smart-looking red dress that looks like it was never worn.  
She also found a lovely blue wallet in
pristine condition and a Victorian style planter.

After this sale, we hit a garage sale on the way back to Duane's house.  The man giving it was an artist and Duane scored a cool wood easel and several lovely hardcover art books.  I bought a nice hardcover reference book on antiques with lots of photos for $1.

Then we headed to Starbucks for refreshment.  Ah, nothing like an iced coffee and a vanilla bean scone to boost your system.  We hit a fabric store (I'm planning to recover my dining room chairs as part of my project to 'de-formalize' the room) and then to Kaleidoscope, one of our favorite places to browse for furniture and decor.  A fun day!                            

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Iambik releases dark fiction

Iambik Audiobooks has two new releases out this week.  Both come under the heading of  'dark' fiction.  Perfect for a rainy afternoon or evening or just to send your mind to that place...

First up is From Dark Places by E.J. Newman and also recorded by E.J. Newman.  This is a collection of very dark and creepy stories guaranteed to keep you up nights.  And to think that sweet-faced Emma came up with these tales of horror.  Just shows, you can't judge a book...






The second book is One O'Clock Jump by Lise McClendon and narrated by the talented and very popular Mark Douglas Nelson.  It's 1939 and you're in the crime-ridden streets of Kansas City.  Private Detective Dorie Lennox has found a way to escape the Depression and the war by tailing people and getting into very dangerous situations.




As always, both books are now available at Iambik for $6.99 each.  You can listen to the complete first chapter for each book there, too.  These will eventually be available via Audible, Amazon and iTunes but if you can't wait for the darkness, check us out.

A little mood music...  Don't let the sunny field fool you...

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Model A

Yesterday I happened to drive by the neighborhood elementary school and found myself caught up in traffic just as school was ending for the day.  There's a circular drive in front of the school and the parents/caretakers start lining up in their cars around 1:45pm.  Over the years I have, thankfully, noticed that the SUVs and mini vans are not as popular as they once were.  They may be practical but so are station wagons and I can see around those.

My parents had a white Chevy Impala station wagon during part of my years in elementary school.  We even had it during our time living in more than one state.  That was unusual for my parents.  They liked to trade every few years and always have a new/almost new car.  Which brings me to a childhood experience that, as I loved to tell my father, 'scarred' me for life.

My dad had been transferred to a town in South Carolina called Aiken.  There wasn't a real Air Force base there.  Just a place called Aiken Air Force Station.  Aiken was this kind of sleepy, pretty little town with green rolling hills and lots of trees.  It wasn't too far from the South Carolina/Georgia state line.  We lived there in the mid-1960's for just over a year.  Ironically, in the years since, Aiken has become this posh country club town with lots of seasonal wealthy people and their thoroughbred horses.  Who knew?

I was seven and in the second grade.  Pam had started kindergarten and Carol was born during the time we lived there in May of 1963.  There wasn't much to the Air Force station so we lived in a pretty house in one of the neighborhoods and I went to the local elementary school.  My dad often picked me up and dropped me off at school.  I don't know if it was because it would have been too far for me to walk or if there was no bus system.  At 7 years old, I wouldn't have been allowed to walk alone, anyway, even though Aiken wasn't exactly a hotbed of crime.

During our time there, I knew that my father had found some sort of old car that my grandfather was interested in buying.  Finally Dad brought it home one night.  It was this ugly old dirty black car with big buggy looking headlights.  Dad found someone to 'restore' it before my grandfather saw it.  I  know now that it was a Ford Model A (similar to the one pictured).  I didn't know that then and didn't care.  It was old and ugly.  Even after a new paint job and new seat covers -- I remember they were red -- I wasn't impressed.


Then, one day the unthinkable happened.  I was looking for our station wagon while walking out with some kids from my class and wondering where my dad was.  That's when I saw it.  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!  Dad was there to pick me up in the Model A.   I ran over to the car where Dad had opened the passenger door for me and hoped he'd hurry up and get as far from the school as possible.  Ugh.  Dad was smiling the whole time while I asked him "why are you driving this?", "I didn't think it would even go", "where's our station wagon?"

Dad said he decided to give the Model A a spin and that it was fun.  I was mortified that my friends saw it.  He just laughed and told me it was a 'classic' and to enjoy the ride.  I was getting knocked around by the not-so-smooth ride and the car was so loud that we almost had to shout to talk.  Poor Dad didn't realize that his explanations and attempts to explain the history of this car didn't matter to a 7 year old girl.   

After that, Dad took me to school a few times in the Model A because people he worked with wanted to see it.  I begged, pleaded, wheedled -- everything I could think of to get out of being seen in that car.  I asked him to please let me off a block before the school ("I love walking!  I never get to walk enough").  He said that was silly and that the other kids liked seeing the car.  I told him, melodramatically, "but, everyone will think we're poor!"  That didn't work, either.  The best I could do was slide down as far as possible in the seat clutching my red plaid school satchel until I could make my get-away.  I practically ran to my classroom holding my satchel almost to my shoulder in a vain attempt to hide.  I remember looking back and seeing my dad showing the car to some of the boys.  Meh.  Boys.  What did they know. 

When we took our next vacation, just before being transferred to Kansas, we towed the Model A from South Carolina to Florida.  My grandparents lived in Tampa and we visited them whenever we took a vacation, usually during the summer.  It was actually kind of cool towing the Model A behind our station wagon.  People kept honking their horns and pointing to the car and smiling.  Whenever we stopped for gas or to eat, people gathered around and asked my dad questions about the car.

My grandfather loved it when he saw it and kept it in a separate garage/tool shed behind his and my grandmother's  house.  Later, Pam and our cousin Ricky and I got to take a ride in the rumble seat.  That really was fun.  All three of us squeezed into a seat really meant for two but we were small enough that it wasn't a problem.  The rumble seat ride helped to salve my wounded pride from my humiliation in Aiken -- but only a little.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

New Non-Fiction and Romance from Iambik Audiobooks

Iambik Audiobooks released three new books today.  One is non-fiction and the other two are in the romance category.  The non-fiction title is a timely one with the ongoing debate regarding immigration.  No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border by Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacon delves into the long history of racism against immigrants.  It is narrated by the talented and versatile Mark F. Smith, a popular reader on Iambik and LibriVox.


Daughter of Darkness by Janet Woods is a prize-winning historical romance.  It received the Australian Woman's Day Romantic Fiction award and was named the 2002 Australian Romantic book of the
year by Romance Writers of Australia. Read by Tadhg Hynes in his wonderful lilting Irish accent.



The second romance release, Reversing Over Liberace by Jane Lovering, is set in the present day.  This one is very funny and is more in the vein of a 'Bridget Jones' with Willow, the heroine, not sure if her old boyfriend is wowed by her weight loss and new fashion sense or her anticipated inheritance.  Cori Samuel narrates this one with her usual wit and style.


As always, these books are available now on the Iambik website for $6.99 each with the entire first chapter of each book posted on the site for listening.  These should also be available at Audible, Amazon and iTunes within a few weeks.   

Monday, September 12, 2011

LibriVox Update

I finished recording the children's book Zip, the Adventures of a Frisky Fox Terrier by Frances Trego Montgomery for LibriVox.  It can be found in the catalog here.   Very sweet book that would be a good one to read to a young child.  There are a few terms used that would not be considered correct in today's world.  However, they are not used in a malicious way and are a reflection of the time the book was written  -- in 1917.  Here's the introduction I wrote for LibriVox:

Zip, a little fox terrier, lives in the town of Maplewood in the house of his owner, Dr. Elsworth. Each day when Dr. Elsworth drives his carriage to visit his patients, Zip goes along with him so that he can keep the doctor company and, most importantly, visit with the other animals in the town. Zip likes to find out all the latest news so that he can tell it to his best friend, Tabby the cat, who also lives with Dr. Elsworth. However, he also finds himself getting into mischief, whether it’s trying to solve a burglary, sneaking fried chicken from a picnic, getting stuck in a stovepipe or fighting with Peter-Kins the monkey. Zip is one dog who never has a dull day.
__________________________________________


For my next solo, I've just begun recording a book by Miriam Michelson called A Yellow Journalist.  It was originally published in 1905.  Rhoda Massey is a newspaper woman, a rarity during those years, who has to fight her way to get the scoop for her paper.  Almost all of her colleagues and peers are male and don't consider her a 'serious' journalist.  Of course, this just makes her all the more determined to prove them wrong.  Each chapter involves a different story Rhoda is working on and the lengths she must go to get the story and get it first.

I've already recorded one of Miriam Michelson's books for LibriVox called In the Bishop's Carriage.  You can listen to that one here.  I enjoyed the book so much that I decided to take a chance on another of her books.  So far, I've recorded the first two chapters and I'm in the process of editing them now.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Lilie Green's 10th Anniversary-Stravaganza + First-Ever Giveaway

A blog that I've been following, Lilie Green, is having a 10th anniversary give-away that sounds too good not to share!   The prize is, in Lilie's words, "a bead necklace from my color story collection + a Parisian postcard + delectable French bonbons + any other sparkly notions i can fit in the envelope."

All you have to do to enter is to leave a note in her comment section stating the name of your favorite book and, if you'd like, give a reason(s) why you like it.

Lilie is multi-talented.  Besides her beautiful and often mouth-watering photography, she's also a writer and a jewelry-maker.  Her jewelry is available on Etsy under the name 'enroute.'

She's also quite the traveler and is currently living in Paris.  Ah, life must be very good, indeed!