Persona non grata

... and a giveaway (no April foolin.').

Before we get into "persona non grata," I want to celebrate with you my latest audiobook release, Mushroom Capped by Cathy Wiley. This is the second in the Fatal Food Festival Mystery series. Here’s the description:

"At the Conway Mushroom Festival, former celebrity chef turned food festival judge Jackie Norwood looks forward to a weekend of gourmet delights and friendly competition.

"But the festivities take a dark turn when a controversial figure is found dead and Jackie's old friend Marshall becomes the main suspect.

"Jackie, along with her friends, stirs through secrets and suspicions in a race to find the real killer.

"Mushroom Capped is a delicious blend of humor, intrigue, and mouth-watering mushroom recipes that will leave you craving more. This is a follow-up to Claws of Death, but can be listened to alone."

I love this culinary cozy series because:

1. It’s a mystery series! My favorite genre.

2. It’s a culinary story with lots of descriptions of food, details of food preparation and the eating of these amazing dishes and (drumroll, please!) recipes. I love really good food and learning how to prepare it.

3. The characters are fabulous!

4. These books are very punny. You’ve been warned!

I am so honored that Cathy Wiley chose me to voice Jackie Norwood and her friends (and even some of her enemies). This is a terrific series and I am happy to introduce you to the series by offering three subscribers an Audible promo code for the first book in the series, Claws of Death. Just reply to this email by Friday, April 5 at midnight CST with the words PROMO CODE in the subject. I will randomly select 3 from among the entries. I’ll contact the winners via email and will publish their first names in the next installment of AMLC. Chances of winning depend on the number of entries received (typing that make me feel so official).

And now: Persona non grata

Listening to an audiobook is a very intimate activity: listeners welcome the voice of the narrator into their ears and allow the storytelling to transport them deep into the heart of a story. And if a narrator voices a series which the listeners love, that narrator’s style, interpretation of characters and choice of character voices become familiar and almost comforting for listeners making their way through the series.

But sometimes narrators change. I have read reviews from very angry listeners who demand to know why their favorite narrator was replaced. Sometimes life gets in the way and a narrator cannot continue an audiobook series. Sickness, contractual differences, changes of publisher — all these can lead to a change in the voice of a series. And it’s not easy for the narrator who is continuing the series. There are constant comparisons to the original narrator as to how a character is voiced, the pacing, the expressiveness or lack thereof.

I’m reminded (I’m really going to date myself here) of the TV sitcom "Bewitched," 1964 to 1972, in which an ailing Dick York, who portrayed Darrin Stephens, was replaced by Dick Sargent, who finished out the last three seasons of the show. Sargent as Darrin was quite good, in the estimation of a very, very young Anne Marie, but decidedly different from York’s Darrin.

Recently I finished recording the last book of a trilogy that was started by another narrator. A celebrity narrator. Janis Ian, as a matter of fact. If you were paying attention in the 1970s (if you were alive and conscious in the 70s) you may recall her as the singer-songwriter with the hit “At Seventeen.” She narrated Book 1 of Catherine M. Wilson’s widely beloved, gorgeously lyrical, alternate historical fiction When Women Were Warriors in 2014. The remaining 2 books in the trilogy remained unrecorded. In mid-2022, Dog Ear Audio approached me about completing the trilogy and I readily accepted, knowing full well that I would probably be compared to Ms. Ian.

Is my reading different than Janis Ian’s? Yes, of course. Are the character voice choices different? Yes. Is my pacing different? Yes. We narrators are story interpreters. And the number narrators you put in a room to read one author’s work, that’s the number of interpretations you’ll hear. But always, I hope, always we narrators allow the voice of the author to shine through the performance. Because the audiobook is not about the narrator — if it is, I haven’t done my job — the audiobook is the author’s story through the narrator’s voice.

So when narrators put themselves on the line by having the narration baton passed on to them in a series begun by another, please give them a chance. Please don’t dismiss them as a persona non grata. Maybe they do belong with that series. Maybe listening to their interpretation only solidifies in your mind how amazing that series is no matter who voices it. Maybe the newer narrator will find nuances that you didn’t expect. (By the way, the audio for Book III: A Hero’s Tale should be out later this year.)

And so, imma gonna do it again. An author has asked me to re-record his first book in series. It was traditionally published and that publisher retained the audio rights and produced the audiobook about 10 years ago. But the author has since purchased the audio rights back, the original audiobook is no longer for sale, and I will be recording it soon. So here we go again! Wish me luck!

Until next time, I’ll just be over here in my Little Corner.

Anne Marie

Photo by kiki Wang on Unsplash

A belated Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here is a sweet little poem for my paid subscribers: