TPOTS Audiobook Image!

 I am hunkered down here in Chateau Riverside, listening to rough mixes of each chapter of THE PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORD (TPOTS) audiobook as they come in from SueMedia, as Sue & David & I prepare the audiobook for release. (They're on Long Island, I'm on Manhattan's Upper West Side . . . and YouSendIt is our new best friend!) We are fussing over every sound and music cue, trying to get the beats exactly right, the emotional tone of everything Just So!  Yes, we are insane. No one should be putting this kind of labor into a 15-hour book. But it's a labor of passion for all of us: Not only am I The Author (and Narrator), but my years of public radio production experience have made me exquisitely sensitive to the nuances of the interplay between text and sound - and I guess that's always been the way I process things anyway. Sue & David are, of course, the consummate professionals in the world of Radio Drama - it's so exciting having them putting that to work in our "illuminated" audiobook: I hope we're setting a new standard for a certain kind of book! Our deepest thanks to Neil Gaiman Presents (not only the great NeilHimself, but the colleagues at Audible who help it along) for encouraging and supporting this second book in the Riverside series.

And huge, GIGANTIC thanks to my friend, the artist Thomas Canty, who did the original U.S. Swordspoint cover for the Arbor House Books hardcover - picked up by Tor - for letting us use it for the Swordspoint audiobook (which came out in November 2011 - and if I've pressed the right buttons, it's the Icon for this post!) . . . and then generously created a NEW image specially for the release of the TPOTS audiobook!





The book is scheduled for release the third week of July - I'll give you the exact date when it's confirmed.

And I'll be posting more thoughts - and some backstage gossip - about TPOTS Audiobook between now and then!