I hope this blog finds you well. I love sharing insights about books, but I have something new to share today!
My novel Mind the Gap just won the 2020 IPPY bronze medal for best regional fiction of the year, Canada East. The IPPYs or Independent Publishing Awards, are run out of Michigan. A few weeks ago, I won the 2019-2020 Reader Views Award for best humor/satire of the year – that competition is run out of Texas.
Mind the Gap is my first novel, and it all started off as an experiment on Facebook! I posted audio versions of a few 40-minute chapters on Soundcloud, then linked them to my Evidentia Channel page on Facebook, to gauge the interest of people visiting this page.
Would they like it? Would they find it funny? Would they be offended? Would they like fully-produced audio chapters for the 13 and over market?
The response from all over the world was encouraging, so I went ahead and wrote the complete novel, which is available as a paperback on Amazon, an ebook on Amazon, Kobo, Overdrive, B&N and Indigo, and an audiobook, on Audible.
A book these days takes a book video trailer! So, I am uploading the trailer I produced with my film-making friend Guillaume Falardeau. Marie Frenette plays two characters in the book trailer – the formidable and quirky Grandmother Grieve, who likes cheating at solitaire, and the vulnerable and lovable Mother Augusta. She’s the hero Richard Grey’s mom, and she slowly recovers from illness during the course of the story.
Richard himself grows up wearing a gas mask, in his own home, and learns how to deal/not to deal with the outside world. He’s a poet at heart, which is sometimes a pretty hilarious problem.
The audiobook version is available exclusively on Audible. Lasting 8h20m, this is a real production combining music, sound effects and my narration … plus I performed all 45 characters myself.
Recording all the characters, many of them female, taught me a lot. I had to put myself in their shoes, avoid judging them, feel things the way they do, and keep the story crazy and funny, but also goofy and gritty – real things happen in the novel, like confinement, illness, healing and love.
If you would like to listen to the first chapter for free, here’s a link to the page elsewhere on this author’s website:
https://www.evidentia.net/wildtrekker/a-crazy-funny-novel/
Here’s a link to the complete audiobook on Audible, for purchase: https://www.audible.com/pd/Mind-the-Gap-Audiobook/B07QZTHWZV
I hope you enjoy Mind the Gap. And by the way, stay safe during these difficult times!
Bye for now, George
