Why I dreaded my audiobook…

At first when I discovered The Sister was also going to be an audio book I was jumping-up-and-down-excited. I love listening to stories in the car and was flooded with impatience to hear mine.

That is until I curled up on the sofa one evening last week and watched the film adaptation of a book I loved. It was terrible. the casting was wrong and I hated every single second of it. The stomach rolling anticipation I’d felt waiting for my book to be recorded morphed into a gnawing anxiety. I felt sick at the thought of my characters being in the hands of a complete stranger.

Would she give them weird accents? Would they sound aggressive? Too hard? Too soft? Would the tension be nail biting? The emotion shine through?

Today I’ve been sent the audio file, narrated by Natalie Blass, and my hand was shaking with dread as I pressed play. The urge to protect the characters I’d spent every day with for the past year was overwhelming.

Within the first few minutes of listening I felt my shoulders relax. Natalie has a beautiful tone to her voice and has captured the essence of the book perfectly.

I’m thrilled with the result, and so, so grateful to everyone involved in the making.