Behind the Books

It's been a busy summer! Kimberly Drew and I have been hard at work on the devotional book for parents of children with special needs children.  I'm pretty much done with my portion of the writing so I can focus on my next project for the month of August. Fiction lovers, this is for you. It's time for me to get deep down into my writing cave and only come out when I have a proposal in hand for my next historical fiction series. The topic is something I've been researching for months already, but took a break from while I worked on the devotional book with Kimberly. I've read dozens of books and even took a research trip with my family in April to help fill in the gaps. I'm not ready to share exactly what I'm working on quite yet, but these snapshots from my trip will give you a little peek into where I'm headed with my series! [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1296", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3385", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"336", "alt":"Gulf Coast beach"}}]] Gulf Coast beach   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1297", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3389", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"345", "alt":"Swamp Tour"}}]] Swamp Tour   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1298", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3394", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"476", "alt":"Gators!"}}]] Gators!   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1299", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3390", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"450", "height":"580", "alt":"Research Center! Yes!!"}}]] Research Center! Yes!!   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1300", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3388", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"336", "alt":"Mississippi River"}}]] Mississippi River   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1301", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3387", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"336", "alt":"An old cemetery on the site of a former village."}}]] An old cemetery on the site of a former village.   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1302", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-3386", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"450", "height":"524", "alt":"Reconstructed French fort"}}]] Reconstructed French fort   I'm so excited to try to bring these places (and intriguing characters!) to life in a new series. Hopefully a publisher will agree it's worthwhile. If you don't hear from me for a while, just remember I'm deep into this! :)

Today I'm thrilled to be sharing an interview with the very talented Laura's Voice, who brings Widow of Gettysburg to life in audio book format. I hope you'll enjoy learning about it from Laura as much as I did. Jocelyn: How do you choose which books you want to lend your voice to? Laura: Whatever I do, I want to help share a message that is inspiring, edifying, or juicily entertaining--or all three! Tell us about your process once you've contracted to do the narration. I like to print the manuscript and I still use a pencil--creating a character list of each one's first appearance and first speaking part, along with any notes from the text that describes his/her personality, voice, tone attitude, etc. In the margins, I make notes of any kind that occur to me--typos (as a former English teacher and technical writer, I simply can't help myself!), and other corrections, moments where I want to emote in a certain way--then I may add a smiley face, a sad face, exclamation points, etc. After an entire read-through, I'll go back to the author/publisher with any questions I may have. I create a sample for the client to listen to and get their approval and, if necessary, will also include a character sample to ensure he/she likes the voices I create for each character. Once we have final agreement on tone, character voices, pronunciations, and any corrections that alter the text, I record and edit the text, creating .mp3 files for the listener! [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1289", "attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-3349", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"366", "alt":"This markup picture shows where I had to switch from Harrison to a commanding officer to the young soldier who overstuffed his rifle and kept chanting to himself."}}]] This markup picture shows where I had to switch from Harrison to a commanding officer to the young soldier who overstuffed his rifle and kept chanting to himself.   I see you've noted Harrison's voice as deep but clear. That's exactly how I imagined it, too! How do you create the different voices and accents for the characters? In addition to what I described in the answer to Q2, when a character is said to be from a particular region, I study that region's accents (by listening to folks on YouTube) and practice, practice, practice! I love how you captured the various accents in Widow! How else do you mark up the text? I like to underline lines or phrases I especially like--just in case I have the chance to tell the author--it's always nice to hear what someone likes about your work! I have also printed pictures of places and maps of regions to have with me as I read the manuscript in order to get to know the content better. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1290", "attributes":{"class":"media-image aligncenter wp-image-3351", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"489", "alt":"LaurasVoicetext2"}}]] Take us behind the scenes on a recording day. How much time do you spend in a recording session, and how many times do you typically read the same passage? I like to have everything done to avoid interruptions--wait until the kids are on the bus, make sure the dogs have gone potty, wait at least a half-hour after brushing my teeth and have been drinking plenty of water so my mouth isn't dry, etc. I like to break the reading up into chunks--most easily by chapters, but if a chapter is particularly long, I find a good stopping point within the chapter. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1291", "attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-3353", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"550", "height":"310", "alt":"LaurasVoicestudio"}}]] Where the magic happens!   Now, if the section I'm working on has a lot of difficult voices--male, gruff, deep, or perhaps a character is sick, wounded--anything that would cause strain and take extra energy to act out--I may be limited to only about half an hour of recording. It could take several hours or even another day before I can return to recording! If a passage is difficult, it may be due to long sentences, multi-syllabic words, older style of speaking, or a number of character voice changes. Those may require several takes--so I'll stop, wait a couple of seconds, say "Take Two" (or sometimes three, four, five, six, grrrrr . . . . (and restart from a moment when there was a natural stop because of a paragraph break, punctuation, or breathing. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1292", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignleft wp-image-3208 size-full", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"300", "height":"300", "alt":"widowaudible"}}]] I'm sure that different projects require you to strike different tones, from upbeat and energetic to slow and thoughtful. How would you describe the tone (or tones) you employed for Widow of Gettysburg? Widow of Gettysburg required a lot of different tones--from memories, life-changing considerations, guilt and regret, longing, love and loss, renewed love, evil and lust for power. There were times I had to read a passage to myself before recording to get into the right mood--maybe even practice the passage a bit to get just the right amount of remorse Silas felt, or anger and frustration both Bella and Libbie had with each other--especially as Bella kept her secret. Amelia was one of my favorite characters to capture her various tones depending on her audience the moment and the events and how they altered her perception--or clarified her position. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1293", "attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-3360 size-medium", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"300", "height":"200", "alt":"LaurasVoiceheadshot"}}]] Laura   Amelia was really fun to write! What do you think would surprise the rest of us about your work as a voice actress? Perhaps the people I've consulted in an effort to get the correct pronunciation for a town. A lot of terms I can Google--but not all! Taneytown, as it's pronounced, cannot be found ANYWHERE on the Internet! I ended up calling the Adams County courthouse and asked the first person to pick up the phone how she pronounced it! For other projects, I've consulted scientists for help with nine-syllable chemicals and related formulas; a banker and our local economic development corporation for help in reading aloud the acronyms for various programs and forms needed to obtain the correct licenses. That may be one of the most fun tasks is tracking down the pronunciation or accent that a story requires and once I've had success--! I usually have to call my mom to tell her I did it! My dogs just aren't quite enthusiastic enough. I think the other thing is that, locally, people are quite surprised someone in a town of less than 9K is the voice for books they very well might listen to--it's always nice to see the wonder on a person's face. :) That is so neat! Thank you so much for being with us and sharing how you do your job! I found it fascinating! Listen to the first scene of Widow by clicking "Sample" beneath the audiobook cover on this page. If you enjoyed this "behind the scenes" post, you may also enjoy: Behind the Scenes: The Making of a Book Trailer (Wedded to War) Revealed: Evolution of a Book Cover (Widow of Gettysburg) The Writing Life: A Single Scene in the Making (Yankee in Atlanta) The Making of a Book Cover (A Refuge Assured) Why Does It Take So Long? Book Publishing from Conception to Publication

A recent review of Spy of Richmond suggested that the title of the novel should really be Spies of Richmond, and I'm actually delighted with her observation. I really wanted to show in my novel that Underground Richmond was made up of many, many people working together. White Richmonders like Elizabeth Van Lew, farmers, immigrants, and my fictional heroine Sophie Kent were part of it, and we'll talk about them on the blog later. But while it's still Black History Month, I'd like to shine a little light on the black community in Richmond. Though they had everything to lose by doing so, including their lives, they contributed to Union espionage more than we will probably realize. Here are a few of them that we know of: Samuel Ruth was a colored railroad superintendent whose circle of spies overlapped Van Lew's. Because of his railroad travelling into other parts of Virginia, he contributed valuable information about Southern troop movements, the availability of food for both the army and civilians, etc. He instructed the railroad cars to move slowly when transporting war materiel, and he helped Union loyalists and escaped prisoners flee Richmond. He was arrested as a spy but released. Robert Ford was a teamster for Union troops before he was captured and forced to become the hostler for the warden of Richmond's Libby Prison. Libby was the notorious prison for Union officers. Ford was an invaluable conduit of information between the prisoners and "friends" --Union loyalists in Richmond who would aid them in their escape. After the mass breakout from Libby Prison in February 1864, Ford was whipped with five hundred lashes. After he recovered from the near-lethal experience, he too escaped Richmond. Mary Bowser was formerly a slave in the household of Elizabeth Van Lew, but had gained her freedom. After the war began, she posed as a slave once more and was planted as a domestic in the White House of the Confederacy. We also know that black women, most likely both slave and free, brought food to the Union prisoners at Libby, and that the warden beat at least a few of them for doing so. Black men also managed to feed information to either Samuel Ruth or Elizabeth Van Lew, from their positions working on the city's fortifications, and from working at Tredegar Iron Works and its various furnaces around the state. In Spy of Richmond, you'll meet Samuel Ruth, Robert Ford, and of course my own fictional African-American characters Bella and Abraham Jamison who all feed intelligence to Elizabeth Van Lew. Van Lew is certainly the most famous spy of Richmond, and General Grant called her his most valuable in the city for good reason. But she was supported by the information gathered by those in her circle, both white and black. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1140", "attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-2760 size-medium", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"300", "height":"300", "alt":"Susie_King_Taylor"}}]] Susie King Taylor   Susie King Taylor, a black woman nurse for her husband's South Carolina regiment, said this: There are many people who do not know what some of the colored women did during the war. There were hundreds of them who assisted the Union soldiers by hiding them and helping them to escape. Many were punished for taking food to the prison stockades for the prisoners. . . The soldiers were starving and these women did all they could towards relieving those men, although they knew the penalty, should they be caught giving them aid. Others assisted in various ways the Union army. These things should be kept in history before the people. I fully agree. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1141", "attributes":{"class":"media-image aligncenter size-full wp-image-2765", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"400", "height":"400", "alt":"susiektaylor"}}]] Spy of Richmond (Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War Book 4) Compelled to atone for the sins of her slaveholding father, Union loyalist Sophie Kent risks everything to help end the war from within the Confederate capital and abolish slavery forever. But she can’t do it alone. Former slave Bella Jamison sacrifices her freedom to come to Richmond, where her Union soldier husband is imprisoned, and her twin sister still lives in bondage in Sophie’s home. Though it may cost them their lives, they work with Sophie to betray Rebel authorities. Harrison Caldwell, a Northern journalist who escorts Bella to Richmond, infiltrates the War Department as a clerk–but is conscripted to defend the city’s fortifications. As Sophie’s spy network grows, she walks a tightrope of deception, using her father’s position as newspaper editor and a suitor’s position in the ordnance bureau for the advantage of the Union. One misstep could land her in prison, or worse. Suspicion hounds her until she barely even trusts herself. When her espionage endangers the people she loves, she makes a life-and-death gamble. Will she follow her convictions even though it costs her everything–and everyone–she holds dear?  For more information and purchase links for Spy of Richmond, click here. For more about the four-book Civil War series, click here.

Cheryl McGuinness is a former Navy wife whose husband was a co-pilot on the plane that crashed into the first World Trade Center on 9-11-01.  Chronicling her journey to healing after she lost her husband, Cheryl wrote Beauty Beyond the Ashes: Choosing Hope After Crisis, and now has a ministry also called Beauty Beyond the Ashes. I was so impressed by her book that I have to tell you about it. I read a lot of books, including a fair share of memoirs, but this one stands out from the rest. Usually, the memoir is not my favorite genre. Either the memoir is more depressing than it is hopeful, or it isn't edited well because they were in a rush to release it, or it just isn't relevant to my own life. You can tell by just a three-second flip through the pages that Cheryl's book is different. In Beauty Beyond the Ashes, she shares her story in the first part of each chapter, but devotes the second half of each chapter to drawing out the principle that any reader can apply to his or her own life. I have never seen a memoir structured this way, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Clearly, Cheryl does not want to hog the attention because of what happened to her life. She could if she wanted to, because it's that dramatic. Instead, she shows the rest of us how we can learn something from what God did in her life. And she shows us God's gentle hand throughout. For example, Chapter Five is called "God's Hands and Feet," and the Principle is " God wants you to experience His love through the loving care of His people." In this chapter, she shares how her community rallied around her family after the tragic loss of her husband. But then she pulls out the principle and applies it to us by expanding on these four points: God can use anyone. We need to accept the help of others. We need to be sensitive to the needs of others. Ministry to others can be accomplished in the simplest ways. Chapter Six discusses her husband's legacy. The principle she emphasizes is "God designed your life to have an impact on eternity." The points she makes for us are these: We determine what our legacy will be. We are being watched. Sometimes we need healing from past hurts in order to leave a positive legacy. We can begin today to build a legacy. I can't tell you how refreshing it was for me to read this book, especially after reading so many other accounts of Sept. 11, 2001. I lived in Washington, D.C., during the terrorist attacks myself, so these stories always strike a nerve with me because of my own memories. Researching for my own book, I read another memoir of a woman whose firefighter husband died in the WTC. Correction: I stopped reading it- this couple had no faith in God at all, and could only turn to alcohol and drugs to help them cope. The excruciating void of hope evident in her book caused me to put the book down before finishing it. The difference between that book and Beauty Beyond the Ashes is as dramatic as night and day. Jesus in your life makes all the difference in the world. Thank you, Cheryl McGguinness, for so beautifully sharing your own story of Beauty Beyond the Ashes: Choosing Hope After Crisis. I give this book five stars, and highly recommend it to those who are desperate for hope, and for the rest of us--for if we haven't been there yet, we all will be at one point or another. I leave you with this quote from page 237: On September 11, 2001, the day my nightmare began, I knew God, but I didn't have the ability to trust him completely. I loved him, but I couldn't bring myself to turn over every aspect of my life to him. In the months that followed, however, God slowly turned my disbelief into belief. I have learned that God is my refuge and strength. I have learned that he does truly love me. And I have come to see that I can trust him in all things. I couldn't see that on September 11--not like I see it today. But over these passing months and now years, my Prince of Peace has brought me peace and given me hope. Read more about Cheryl's story in the 9-11-01 section of Stories of Faith and Courage from the  Home Front.

[[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1016", "attributes":{"class":"media-image aligncenter size-full wp-image-2002", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"526", "height":"295", "alt":"messydesk"}}]] A few weeks ago, I was on deadline for Spy of Richmond, and apparently looking for things to do to keep me from meeting it, since I took the time to take a picture of my desk. Sometimes I try to work other places (a coffee shop, my patio, etc.), but this really is my HQ. Allow me to point out the essentials: Two computer monitors. One the lefthand screen is my working manuscript document. On the righthand screen I toggle between a Web page helping me with research, or several documents: Chopped Copy (where a lot of hard work goes to die); What If (where I keep on brainstorming even after I plotted the entire book); and Fix It (a list of things to fix later, such as adding mosquito nets to the beds in the summer months). Coloring books and paperdolls. I consult these often for help in what the characters would be wearing. Map of Richmond. Essential. Research books specific to Spy of Richmond on the shelf and spread out on the desk. About fifteen more books are on my Kindle. Three-ring binders full of research. I've slipped calendars for 1863, 1864, and 1865 in the front and back covers. Hard white plastic massaging tool. One of my kids must have brought this up. If they come in the office, I make them use it on my back. :) The small paper bracelet and bag of candy are also from one of their visits. Blanket. Normally I only use this during the winter months, but sometimes I just like to feel it under my bare feet even in the summer. It's just cozy. Essential Oils. These are small little bottles you can barely see (look for the white caps) but I use them often. I use Peppermint for headaches, something called Thieves to help me not get sick when I'm working instead of sleeping, and then of course Stress-Away (self-explanatory) and Clarity, which I use for warts. JUST KIDDING. Clarity actually does help me focus. ha ha (I have no warts. Let's just clear that up right now.) CVS brand of BioFreeze because I'm out of the Essential Oil kind. Shoulders, neck, and forearms take a beating with typing. Toilet paper, because I'm out of kleenex. Water glass, because I had met my coffee quota for the day. Box of gluten-free Nut-Thins sitting on my mini-fridge, because my GF daughter didn't eat them. (Hooray! They were delicious! Asiago Cheese flavored.) Artwork from my daughter, propped up between the printer that works and the printer that doesn't but somehow still takes up space on my desk. (Note to self: fix or remove sick printer.) She made this a while ago, and I'm sure the teacher was very confused by the last line, but I bet you'll understand her perfectly. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1017", "attributes":{"class":"media-image aligncenter wp-image-2006", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"450", "height":"600", "alt":"elsagift"}}]] Not pictured: the Civil War soundtrack I usually listen to. For some variety, I sometimes listen to The Civil Wars radio on Pandora. But that Civil Wars station has nothing to do with the Civil War. Just happens to be beautiful music, very soulful, and not at all intrusive. :) My friend and author Joanne Bischof first introduced me to these musicians. (Joanne wrote the Cadence of Grace series, set in Appalachia, so this folk music really is fitting for her books! If you haven't read the series yet, start with the Christy Award-finalist Be Still My Soul!) Here, take a look and listen, below. Now I can clean my desk--and the rest of the house! Spy of Richmond releases in March 2015!