Big-Time Excitement Alert!

Today, my first novel Like A Flip Turn became available as an audiobook! How cool is that?! There have been so many people over the years who have said, "I'd read your books if they were available on Audible," so now one of them is available on Audible! (It will soon be available on iTunes as well.)

Now that I do have a book available as an audio, I still have some friends who say, "I'd listen to your book if you were the one who was reading it," but I'm NOT the one reading Like A Flip Turn. (I am hopeful those friends might give it a chance despite this because the woman who is reading Like A Flip Turn is AMAZING.)

I worked with a wonderful human named Cassandra Alling who does unique voices for each of my characters. It was so fun to hear how she brought to life this cast of characters who lives in my head! The entire process was so interesting. For example, there is one mention of Sebastian (Bas) in this novel and because his friend just refers to him as "Bas" and not "Sebastian," the pronunciation was slightly off when I listened to Cassandra's initial recording of that scene. I could have let it go -- it was only one syllable, after all -- but Bas Porter is the MOST important character in my life and he's the star of so many books that haven't been published yet. Four, in fact... with a fifth itching to be written. Running Through the Words is available, though, so you can meet him there in the meantime.

For those of you who have read Like A Flip Turn before, you probably remember that Jenny has a pretty unique ability... It involves animals and voices and the way Cassandra voices Fergus the dog is just the best! She absolutely nailed the Scottish accent! I love it so much!

Other things Cassandra does well:

• Ruby Gallagher's voice. Right from the start, she knew that Ruby was spunky and strong. Cassandra never voiced her as weak and crotchety.

• Lydia's voice, because she sounds so incredibly young. It's wild to think that she can read entire chapters and make herself sound like a middle-school student. I'm still so impressed!

• Emotion. I kid you not, I listened to the last two chapters with tears streaming down my face. I'm not going to say why -- I don't want to give anything away -- but I knew what was coming (obviously) and that didn't matter. It. Was. So. Good.

I am really hoping she wants to work with me again because so many of the characters in this novel show up in other novels and I think it could be so fun for her to revisit them there! And see what she does with them at different stages of their lives.

Oh! And speaking of that... Mary and I have been busily editing Kick It One More Time (it's massive) because I'd like to get it to you this summer, and in editing it, there was an insane numbers of things that will be especially fun for readers if they've read Running Through the Words, Like A Flip Turn, Just Whistle, and/or The Way Back. It's just all so connected, you know? I told my mom the other day that (re)reading my stuff is like listening to her and her friends talk about the people of Adams County... because everyone's connected and everyone knows everyone else!

Alright. I need to advertise Like A Flip Turn's audio all over the internet before meeting my friend Erin for dinner, so I'm out. Thanks for reading!

If you'd like to buy Like A Flip Turn from Audible, here's the link: MUCH MUCH MUCH EXCITEMENT!