Big Audiobook Sale at Audible through Sept. 2, 2012

Audible has placed over 1000 titles for sale through this week ending on Sunday, September 2, 2012.  Here's a chance to buy some good ones for $5.95 each.  If you're a member of Audible, the price is even less.  After September 2, the titles will revert to their original prices.  Alas, there are only two of my titles in this sale.  My latest addition to Audible, Shifting Positions by Jennifer Dellerman is also part of the sale.  $5.95 is a lot cheaper than $19.95 -- the price it's been selling.  Get your HOT stuff from this book here.  

You can also buy the tween/young adult book, The Distant Shore by Debora M. Coty, for the $5.95 sale price.  The previous price for this book was $19.95 so that's a big savings.  You can access this title directly from here.  The short story I recorded in the horror genre is also part of the sale but it's not a full audiobook.  However, if you're interested, Autopsy by Joel M. Andre can be purchased directly from here.

There are a lot of titles to choose from in this sale and you can search by genre, author, title and narrator.  Now is the time to stock up.  For a full list of the sale titles you can go here. 

In the mean time, I'm waiting for final approval of Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes (a great collection of Southern tales by various women writers) before it hits Audible.  I'm currently about half way through recording A Dixie Christmas by Sandra Hill.  Following that, I'll begin narrating a mystery thriller, Edited for Death by Michele Drier. 

The current weather situation with so much loud heavy rain and thunderstorms has caused some rearranging of my recording schedule.  Can't be helped, though, so I just go with the flow.

The Making of a Music Video

Mark and Jeff

Last weekend we had members from both my family and George's family come together for an artistic 'vision.'  Our nephew, Jeff Howlett (from George's side), and his friend, Mark Covino, fresh off the success of their documentary A Band Called Death at the Los Angeles Film Festival, got together with our nephew, Sam Lagos (my side of the family), to film a music video.  Sam is currently in a band called Bambery along with Alexa Toro, Ryan Scanlan and Jeremy Bambery (his brother Ryan Bambery is the group's manager).  Sam and Jeff hooked up after Bambery began posting some of their songs to, ta-da!, Facebook.  Jeff thought their song "Rainstorm" just screamed for a video.

Bambery

Soooo, Mark (who came all the way from Burlington, Vermont) and Jeff (who came from Charlotte, North Carolina) journeyed to Tampa for the filming.  They had been in contact with Sam and already had a blueprint for where and how they planned to shoot.  Sam had been scoping out local sites with the help of Uncle George.  Naturally, since it's August in Florida, you can expect rain almost every day.  Seriously.  Along with thunder and lightning.  Since most of the filming was done outside this did cause a few problems which called for some improvising on the part of everyone.  They decided to film most of the outdoor shots in an area called Oak Park which is just down the street from where we live.  When the rain finally settled into a nice little drizzle, they got ready to shoot.  Naturally, this meant protection for the main camera used  for this.  I found a vinyl zip bag in a  closet and Mark cut a hole for the lens and, voila!, Jeff had a way to film and keep the camera dry.  The result is pictured on the right.  Hey, whatever, works...

Since the first day Jeff and Mark were here was spent filming Bambery in a studio with a 'white' room that had to be rented, the outdoor filming was pretty much left for the next day.  As I mentioned, the rain was basically a drizzle by the time the band ventured into the woods in their costumes and make-up (courtesy of Sara Cottrell).  George had bought a bunch of cans of mosquito spray because the woods and the rain are what the little buggers love.  However, everyone still ended up with bites.  Even while wearing repellant with a lot of Deet.

Photo: Sara Cottrell

They managed to get the shots they needed since Oak Park is really picturesque with beautiful old oak trees (hence, the name) but there was an unfortunate incident with some yellow jackets.   Jeff was scouting around a bit away from the rest of the group and, unfortunately, stepped on a nest of yellow jackets.  He was wearing knee-high rubber boots that he borrowed from George but the yellow jackets managed to climb down inside his boots (he was also wearing shorts).  It probably would have been even worse without the boots but, let's just say, it major-ly sucked to be stung so many times.  Jeff assured us that other than the stings being very painful, he wasn't having any type of reaction (mine and George's biggest concern).  What a trouper!

The last bit of filming involved an underwater shot.  Since it was too difficult to find a clear spring without tons of people swimming in it, they decided to use a swimming pool.  My sister, Carol (Sam's mom), has a pool and the filmmakers and band did their thing while Carol served them pizza and brownies for dinner.  Jeff took the shot of Sam hamming it up in the pool.  (Not part of the video.)


Later that night, Bambery played in a club in the Latin quarter of Tampa, Ybor City.  Jeff and Mark went to see them perform live, although they knew from their experience filming live gigs that filming the band would be a logistical pain.  So, instead, they had a good time and got back to our house at, um, well, I don't really know.

Sam and the rest of the band are really grateful for this opportunity and were so happy to have Jeff and Mark take an interest in them.  When the video is up, I'll post a link here.  Good luck to Bambery and Howlermano Productions!

Bambery at the Crowbar. Photo by Victoria Archer.

My latest recording is for sale!

My latest recording was posted for sale today on Audible.  If you like romance, sex and shifters, you'll love this book.  Shifting Positions by Jennifer Dellerman is one hot, hot, hot book. 

Beautiful Tess Gentry returns to her small hometown in Colorado after years as a highly-paid model to look after her ailing mother.  As the daughter of a shifter, Tess had fled the town when she left for college and vowed to separate herself from the shifter society.  Little did she count on meeting a sexy-shifter-sheriff (say that fast, 3 times) named Caleb Bennett who recently moved to Woodcliff.  My, my, what's a girl to do? 

Available here.

A Garage Sale and more recording...

My friend, Linda, needed to have a garage sale because she's in the process of redecorating some rooms in her house.  Duane and I took some things to Linda's house on Saturday and we had the sale.  Linda had quite a few pieces of furniture (which she was practically giving away) and we had lots of misc.  As usual, we had our first theft within an hour of the start of the sale.  Honestly.  Who steals an item that's being sold for a quarter?  Well, apparently, an older lady who came with her daughter and teen-age granddaughter.  I saw this woman looking at a necklace I had in a little clear baggy.  The granddaughter bought (and paid for) several items and after they left, I walked over to check the tables.  I just had a funny feeling about grandma.  I looked at her hands after I saw her with the necklace but one hand was holding keys and the other was clutching a small leather change purse.  THAT'S the hand where I'm sure she hid the necklace in it's baggy.  It was a very dainty necklace in a tiny baggy -- worth much more than .25 but I wanted to get rid of stuff.  Why do people do this?  Over the years I've noticed it more with older people than with younger ones.  I think many people like to believe the opposite but that hasn't been my experience.  At least not at garage sales.  I guess she got her thrill for the day.  (insert rolling of eyes here)

I was able to help my younger nephew, Ben, who is moving from a furnished dorm room to a house with roommates (and owns almost nothing to take with him) by lightening Linda's and Duane's load.  I bought a night stand, 2 table lamps and some dishes from Linda.  I bought more dishes from Duane which included some bowls, too.  Ben was very happy to receive these things.  The stuff that didn't sell is being picked up by the Salvation Army so Linda can get her garage back.   We were all three pretty pooped afterwards (the heat was awful) but we always have a good time when we're together.  Now Linda has a lot more free space so she can continue with her re-deco projects.

I was able to record and edit two more of the short stories for Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes yesterday which made me a happy camper.  I also started editing chapter two of A Dixie Christmas.  Unfortunately, today has been a washout -- in every sense of the word -- as far as recording. The thunderstorms moved in pretty early and are still rumbling.  Loudly.  I'm so bummed.  I had hoped to record the last two short stories for "Sweet Tea..." today.  I may be burning the midnight oil on these -- provided the storms don't continue.  I used the time to work on a couple of yarn projects that I'll post about here when they're finished.  They're all turning out well and I'm pretty pleased.  In the mean time, I think the thunder may finally be fading away...

One finished and two to continue...

I had taken a partial break from recording the wonderful collection of short stories in Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes in order to record what I call a sexy 'wolf/shifter romance' called Shifting Positions by Jennifer Dellerman.  Oooh, hot stuff in that one!  I'll post when it's actually up for sale on Audible. 

I've also started recording another piece of southern fiction called A Dixie Christmas by Sandra Hill.  It's actually two novellas and both are funny.  In the mean time, the horror short story I recorded, Autopsy by Joel M. Andre, is selling well.  A little shiver is good for you now and then! 

My friend Linda is having a garage sale at her house tomorrow morning so Duane and I are going over to help her out and bring a few things of our own to sell.  We're just hoping the rain holds off -- at least until the afternoon.  We don't plan to stay out all day.  Too hot and not worth it.  I'll probably post about how the sale goes tomorrow or Sunday.