Chatting with Kate Reading, a Loretta Chase Giveaway, and TWO First Chapter Listens!

In January 2014, we were delighted with Kate Reading‘s narration of Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels and now we just can’t seem to get enough of this dynamic author/narrator team. Kate has narrated five additional Chase titles since that time and today that number increases by yet another two with the release of The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful. We decided it was time to celebrate this team yet again and we’re doing it up big with a terrific giveaway, a chat with Kate Reading, and First Chapter Listens of both The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful. On Thursday we will post reviews of these two releases as well.

 

The Giveaway

We’re giving away ten (10) sets of The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful (Audible downloads). Entry is simple. Just complete the easy entry form found at the bottom of the page by midnight (CST) Friday, May 15th. No comments are necessary to enter although we’d love to hear your thoughts in our discussion area. You may only enter once – anyone entering more than once will be disqualified. We’ll contact the ten winners on May 16th so watch your email as we must have acknowledgement of your win within 24 hours. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll select another winner.

 

Chatting with Kate Reading

LEA  Welcome Kate!

KATE  Hi, it’s nice to be here!

LEA  Although you are an official AudioGals Narrator Friend, we haven’t had the opportunity to talk with you one-on-one as we introduced you to our listeners when you were one of six narrators participating in our 2013 Narrators Forum. Therefore, we’re hoping to learn more about you today. How does that sound?

KATE  Great!

LEA  It looks as though you have been narrating for at least fifteen years. I discovered a few titles at Audible from 2000 but I realize there may be cassette tapes and CDs out there before Audible was around. When did you start narrating audiobooks and how were you lured into it?

KATE  My first professional book was in 1993, The Treasure Seekers, by Edith Nesbitt. I started earlier than that, at the Library of Congress (LOC) Talking Book program.

KATE  I was a new member of the Woolly mammoth Theatre Company, and Grover Gardner was a fellow company member, who had been working at LOC for a while. I was getting tired of waiting tables, and asked him about the program, Talking Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. It’s an amazing resource, free for anyone who is unable to read a print book, including people with dyslexia.

KATE  I started there in ’86 as a monitor/engineer, reviewer and proofer. After a couple years of that, I started narrating. I am so grateful for the time spent listening to experienced narrators. It was a great education. And the studio is filled with interesting, talented people. My husband, Michael Kramer, works there now. I had to leave because I was too busy with commercial books.

KATE  For a while, I recorded at Grover’s house, since he had booth space. After my husband and I moved into the house we live in now, in Hyattsville, we built a booth and started working at home. A few years ago, we renovated the basement to create a studio with two booths. No more sharing, which has helped our marriage.

LEA  I bet!

KATE  He and I did the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series (fantasy) starting in the 90s and finished just a year ago. Over a dozen books, each over 900 pages, with so many characters with made up names we had to keep track of them in a binder. And fanatical fans!

LEA  Now that’s dedication!

KATE  As to being “lured”… If you had told me forty years ago, that I’d be able to make a living reading books, I would not have believed it. Dream job. Hands down. My husband and I are bookworms anyway, and actors, so we love creating the characters, and geek out over the technical aspects of story arc and phrasing.

LEA  Although I listened to “tapes” back in the early 80s (instructional and inspirational), I didn’t start listening to fiction until around 2000. I couldn’t begin to imagine the audio industry as it is today – even in 2000.

LEA  What was it like to record back in those early days?

KATE  I began on reel to reel at LOC, then DAT tape, then ADAT, which uses VHS tapes and eight tracks on each tape, so if the ADAT machine ate your tape on the eighth side, you were out of luck, no backup.

LEA  Oh, how far we have come!

KATE  I was so happy to learn how to record on the computer, and now that we can send files electronically, and read from PDFs on iPads, much less wasted paper, no shipping costs!

KATE  I’m telling you, it was like sailing a rusty scupper.

LEA  HA!

LEA  Okay – I have just learned so much about the early recording days that I didn’t know! I thought ALL recording of audiobooks was in a publisher’s studio.

LEA  I’d like to ask a question about something you stated about LOC.

LEA  Dyslexia qualifies one for LOC availability? How can our readers/listeners discover more?

KATE  Persons certified by competent authority as having a reading disability resulting from organic dysfunction and of sufficient severity to prevent their reading printed material in a normal manner. In the case of reading disability from organic dysfunction, competent authority is defined as doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy who may consult with colleagues in associated disciplines. Here’s the link for Eligibility of Service.

KATE  I knew a young man who told me he got through school with the NLS service, as he couldn’t read print.

LEA  I’m glad we can help spread the word about that.

LEA  I had no idea.

KATE  Here’s another link that contains more information.

My grandmother, who was pretty much blind, read extensively, listened to hundreds of books. They have millions in their catalogue. It’s protected, so that it can’t be accessed commercially. But you can have discs delivered to your door, or download.

I cannot say enough great things about this program, and it’s just silly that more people don’t know about it.

KATE  I wanted to tell you another thing about the history of audiobooks. My first book paid a rate of $35 per recorded hour.

It takes two to three times as much time as the length of the book, once you figure in stopping and starting, editing, and looking up pronunciations. So a ten hour book takes 20-30 hours to produce.

Divide $350 by 25. It’s not very much, given the level of training and skill required.

LEA  Wow. Listeners have NO idea.

KATE  Rates bobbled around wildly for a while, both in studios and for home narrators.

KATE  We are now fortunate to have the protection of the Aftra-SAG union: many, if not most, publishers have signed on to use union contracts, with a set minimum rate, and contributions made toward the narrator’s health insurance (through the union), pension and welfare. I cannot tell you what a relief it is. We have a really smart and dedicated staff working for the audiobook arm of the voiceover market: Jane Love is the person I know best, as she is here in the DC area. It’s a completely different climate. And I believe the publishers understand that they are best off hiring union talent, and that it really won’t create any kind of a hardship for them. Which is so important. We need a non-adversarial relationship; it’s vital that this be a win win for all.

LEA  As an avid listener, we see so much benefit to that protection offered through the Aftra-SAG union. Not that I know the details but we see a different side – the one of the end result – quality audiobooks. We understand that significant benefits need to be in place for your profession to keep those quality standards.

KATE  Yes, you are right, and I’m glad this is apparent to listeners. Like any profession that seems glamorous and fun (let me say, it can also have grindy moments!), there are many, many people who are willing to do it for free. So, having union contracts not only safeguards the rates that narrators are paid, provides them with access to good health insurance, and something for a pension for after the dentures start flapping too much to be able to record, but it also creates a kind of quality control barrier. I think there definitely should be arenas for newcomers to learn and grow, and for their talent to be identified, but we also need a way to establish and point out the narrators with experience and training, and protect them from being denied opportunities simply because of the hordes of people who would like to be narrators.

LEA  Agreed with a standing ovation!!

KATE  My colleagues and I thank you!

LEA  Can you tell us something about your background prior to narrating? It sounds as though you were already an actor. But we always ask narrators the same question – did you have any training that prepared you for narrating audiobooks?

KATE  Well, here’s where I have to give a shout out to my mother, Barbara Mendenhall. She has a great sense of humor. My parents moved to England when I was a baby, and she would always tell stories using different voices and accents. Living in the pre-American invasion, remote countryside, there were some amazing dialects all around us. And yes. We would imitate them. Lovingly. I think that, in addition to the fact that I could switch from US to UK speak, depending on the circumstances, just talking with and listening to my Mom gave me a grounding in creating a character.

KATE  Once I started working at LOC, after being a DC actor for a few years, I realized that – for me, at least – the hardest thing was not the dialogue, but the narration. Dialogue tends to be familiar and easy for most actors, I think. In the narration, you have to find the voice of the author, the reason for that particular descriptive passage, the need, and the style, and the flavor. I used to run out of breath, reading descriptive passages, because I wasn’t connected to the need to say the words. Once I started to connect to the author’s voice, everything flowed much more easily. But it took a couple years until I really felt assured.

LEA  When did you move to the States?

KATE  I came over in ’78 to go to college, at UVA.

KATE  …and stayed…

LEA  Well, yours has to be one of the most interesting tales of training I have heard!

KATE  You’d be surprised. There are so many fascinating stories out there, of how narrators came to it.

LEA  That would be an interesting narrators forum right there! How I Started in the Business of Narrating.

KATE  My lovely friend Ralph Cosham, who passed away recently, came over in the 60s I think, from the UK, and worked as a journalist, and was an actor with Arena Stage and Shakespeare companies in DC, and came to narration quite late in his career. He absolutely loved it, and was very successful.

KATE  Yes. And here’s the thing: the art of narration is such a human art form, so ancient. Telling stories around the fire goes way back in our history. So, many people have a talent for doing that. But reading from print and making it feel like a fireside story that is unfolding as you speak, is a specific skill.

KATE  As a narrator, there are times when I get in a zone. I have no concept of time passing. I look up and I’ve recorded twenty pages. It’s addictive; it’s such a pleasure to get lost in a book. And I’m so grateful to the authors who make that happen.

LEA  Yes, when I hear a narrator telling me (reading with expression similar to me reading a story to my kids) a bedtime story, it sounds pretty lame. I expect the full experience now – fleshed out characters and all. But I listen to a lot of fiction. I don’t think I require it so much in non-fiction.

KATE  Right, though you still (and perhaps more so) need skilled phrasing in a non-fiction book, and a level of compelling interest, so you can comprehend the ideas, and so you feel a need to discover more, and to keep listening.

LEA  Definitely!

LEA  Maybe it is that I don’t require as much differentiation of characters if there aren’t that many characters (if any) actually speaking.

KATE  That’s its own skill set. I’ve done a number of non-fiction books, from self-help to pharmaceutical expose, and they are their own beast. Three fairly recent ones, Breasts, and Bittersweet Season,and The Story of Beautiful Girl which I would rank up against my favorite and most challenging classic.

LEA  I just finished Cornelius Ryan’s The Last Battle narrated by Simon Vance about the Battle of Berlin and I don’t believe a single character spoke but it was exactly what you are talking about. I remained entranced (although distressed at the content at times) throughout the book.

KATE  Yes.

KATE  Again, if the author has a compelling voice, that’s the voice you are serving.

LEA  You developed a romance audio following through your narration of Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series. I don’t believe that was your first venture into narrating romance as I easily recall your narration of Katherine Sutcliffe’s Whitehorse early on in 2001. What were your thoughts when you signed on to narrate these first romances? Had you read the genre?

KATE  Hahahahahahahahahah!!!!! Ok, so I grew up in the countryside, tiny village, with no TV. No. TV. And at that time, there were three channels and they went off the air around 11 p.m.

KATE  So, I read books. Lots of them. And around age 13 or so, I discovered Barbara Cartland. I must have had fifty of her books. I would read them over and over. Three at a single sitting. Or in the bathtub. My father was appalled when I came downstairs after a three-hour soak, to see my hands were still dirty. “I was READING, Dad!”

LEA  Ha ha!!

KATE I think I needed a way to occupy my mind when it got too busy, and BC fit the bill. I have read some other romance authors, but it’s not a genre I read a lot of, though I really enjoy narrating the ones I have done.

LEA  I imagine there isn’t a lot of time for a narrator to read just because you want to since there are always those books to read for your next narration.

KATE  Michael and I just went down to Key West for a mini vacation and visit with my mom. And of course, he had to find the bookstore and buy a couple books by a local author. Hey, when you are a reader, you find the time!

LEA  That is true!

LEA  Well, now we come down to the heart of our talk and that is your narration of a number of Loretta Chase books. We were thrilled when we saw the news that our most wished-for romance, Lord of Scoundrels was scheduled for release in audio format. At that stage, we are always cautiously optimistic at best as a great book isn’t great in audio format until it is matched with a narrator deserving of that responsibility. When we heard the news later that you would be narrating, we decided it would be very good at the very least. But once we heard the final product, we were ecstatic.

LEA  Can you share with our listeners how that all developed?

KATE  I had no idea it was such a popular book. None. That is just as well – crushing weight of expectation averted – and I had a grand time recording it. It wasn’t until afterward, reading what people were saying about it, that I understood what an iconic period romance book it is.

LEA  It has received the number one spot on All About Romance’s Top 100 Poll since 2000. And that is a very BIG honor. They run it every three years and Lord of Scoundrels still sits at #1.

KATE  WWOWWW! WWOWW!

KATE  I’m so glad I didn’t know that.

LEA  Ha!!

KATE  OK, well, let’s break it down to see why that book is so popular!

KATE  It’s so much fun to read!

LEA  LOL in the extreme!

KATE  The characters have flaws, and a sense of humor and awareness.

LEA  Unusual hero in that he isn’t considered handsome or… is it that HE doesn’t consider himself handsome and relishes others’ reactions when he acts on that belief??

KATE  The plot is secondary to the character development, which has hurdles and pitfalls, which is fun.

LEA  He treats the heroine so disrespectfully yet it never dents her image.

LEA  In fact, the hero is liked even more because his insults don’t stick…

LEA  and he is so puzzled about that.

KATE  Exactly, so it goes deeper than is often the case, because we are talking about people, human, not styrofoam, and the nature of desire.

LEA  Exactly! No cardboard characters!

LEA  And I’ll be the first to admit that the romance genre is full of cardboard characters.

LEA  And Dain and Jessica aren’t cardboard in any sense of the word.

KATE  Desire is discriminate and very particular. I think people read romances because they are trying to figure out where their own sense of desire is seated.

LEA  Again – agreed! This is why you are so effective! You understand.

KATE  Right. So, we have very human characters, humor, desire, obstacles…

KATE  and then the big gun, which astonished this Barbara Cartland-reared reader.

LEA  Oh yeah – I recall just sitting there stunned at the big moment.

KATE  Very contemporary sex.

KATE  Great technique.

KATE  Tastefully graphic.

KATE  The men can not only find the clitoris, but they actually know what to do with it.

LEA  Ha!!

KATE  And it’s still humorous.

KATE  Like sex is.

KATE  And passionate, and ridiculous.

LEA  And Jessica thinks Dain is sooo handsome which shows more of that “through a lover’s eyes”.

KATE  So, this was a big revelation to me as a narrator – that you could have period romances, with accurate behavior and dialogue, AND sex that feels very contemporary, or at least not constrained by the mores of the period.

LEA  Well, some may criticize that but romance listeners/readers love that.

KATE  Right. Because none of us actually look like movie stars, not even they do. So, what draws us to someone has a whole lot more to do with hormones and pheromones and character, than it does with appearance.

KATE  And I would argue that though the technique of the sex act seems contemporary, I always feel it is presented as appropriate to the time period.

LEA  Those heroes usually are great lovers.

KATE  Because you know people were having a nice time centuries ago, or we might not be here.

LEA  Exactly! Have to think there was more than a little fun behind those closed doors.

LEA  Today marks the release of two more Chase favorites – The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful. Can you tell us more about your narration of these two books? What is your process and did you see any challenges with either book?

KATE  Ok, so The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful: I was approached by Adrienne Rosado, of Nancy Yost Literary Productions who asked if I would be willing to sign on to do TEN Loretta Chase books they were publishing in audio format.

LEA  What?!

LEA  YES!

KATE  I had already done the Dressmaker series for Tantor Media and loved them, thought they were fun and sexy and intelligently written.

KATE  I had done Lord of Scoundrels first for Blackstone Audiobooks. So I knew I liked Loretta’s writing, and partly because her books are set in England, and I feel very much at home there, and I read so many classic by Hardy, and Austen, and Lawrence, and I’m comfortable…

KATE  I said Yes.

LEA  So, we have more coming?!

KATE  Captives of the Night and The Lion’s Daughter were the first of the ten.

KATE  Captives of the Night and The Lion’s Daughter are the same set of characters as Lord of Scoundrels, which was fine, as I was still familiar with them.

KATE  Though there was some Albanian in The Lion’s Daughter, which Loretta had her aunt record for me…

LEA  Really!

KATE  So, when Adrienne sent the next two books, one (The Last Hellion) belongs with Lord of Scoundrels series, but the other, Miss Wonderful, is part of a different series, the Carsington Brothers. I panicked and wrote Adrienne, saying “OMG how am I going to keep all this straight in my head?”, but she assured me that The Last Hellion was the last of that series, and Miss Wonderful was the first in the next. So I’m moving on to the Carsington Brothers…

KATE  There’s a hilarious scene in Miss Wonderful involving the day of the wedding, a ladder, and being late to the church.

KATE  And after these two, that’s four, there will be another six books to do. I will be thoroughly Chased.

LEA  We will be thoroughly thrilled!

LEA  I want to weep at times when a popular author is paired up with a sub-par narrator. It has happened more than I want to think about over the years. I just stay with the print.

LEA  So, we Chase lovers know we have future successes for listening – guaranteed.

KATE  I am hoping so!

KATE  And the people at Nancy Yost have been absolutely great. Adrienne and I have a flurry of emails before each duo of books, and she is so responsive and so smart. NY seems like a great agency, especially for women’s books, and YA, and some darker, quirky literature.

KATE  I know the Chase-alanche was a big commitment.

LEA  Adrienne has been wonderful to work with in planning this event. She answers every email quickly and addresses every detail.

LEA  So, it sounds like you have communicated with the author. How did that come about? Did Adrienne coordinate it?

KATE  I actually have not really communicated with LC, but Adrienne has sent on some really lovely things she has said about my narration, and I have sent some compliments to her. We haven’t really needed to discuss anything, because she seems to be happy with my approach to the books.

LEA  Now when we hear you will be narrating a Historical Romance, odds are that it will receive a lot of hype from romance listeners unless the author is completely unknown. However, I believe you carry the influence within the romance community now to bring new listeners to an unknown author. Although you may not realize this immense popularity you now have within the historical romance audio community, has it changed the way you see narrating romance – historical in particular?

KATE  I have certainly become more aware of the fans!

LEA  We certainly have fans in this genre! Avid fans. Gentle fans. Crazed fans. Quiet fans that we don’t hear from online but we know they are out there by looking at numbers and giveaway entries. They come in all types!

KATE  I have done a number of romances at this point, like Christine Warren’s the Others.

LEA  Yes, we have followed those but they were before the days of AudioGals. You will find lots of reviews from Speaking of Audiobooks (a column I write) when they were being released. (Some of the Speaking of Audiobooks reviewers now review for AudioGals.) Our readers can find those reviews over at the Romance Audiobooks Goodreads shelf.

KATE  …and then this Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series.

LEA  We have followed that series at AudioGals the last three years. So, a word to listeners, you can find reviews of some Pink Carnation entries here…

KATE and Stephanie Barron.

KATE All of which have taught me a lot about approaching romance books.

KATE And ultimately, the same criteria applies to any book: is it compelling, interesting, funny, does it teach you something about yourself, do you get lost in it…

KATE …and can I recreate the voices from the landscape of my youth?

LEA  Yes!

LEA  It’s not only about clearly differentiating the hero from the heroine in narrating romance but that pause at just the right place, the emphasis of the humor without being over the top. The softening or hardening of the voice.

KATE  Never underestimate the intelligence of the reader.

LEA  Can you tell us about some of your other current or upcoming projects?

KATE  Sure! I cross over all genres, so I do a wide variety of books. My husband and I are well known in fantasy land, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and I did a fantasy series of my own, Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera

KATE  Michael and I are expecting the next Brandon Sanderson book to come along, though we don’t know when…

KATE  I have a three book series by Charles Stross in the works.

KATE  and this series by P J Brackston, really fun.

KATE  Marie Brennan’s series about a woman scientist/explorer in a steam punk kind of universe.

KATE  And perhaps the most unusual one, Larry Kramer’s new book, The American People, huge book, for which I recorded the voice of Lady Hermia.

KATE  And all my Chases.

KATE  Oh! And I will be going to Hollywood in June to do a show at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

LEA  Fun!

KATE  Then I’m coming home and collapsing.

LEA  Do you narrate many books jointly with your husband?

KATE  The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, and the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (who stepped in the finish the WoT series after Jordan passed away are the two major ones.

KATE  But Michael is more established in the fantasy genre, he’s got several series going, and some exciting new authors. He does a number of mysteries, fiction, history, biography as well. I’m pretty evenly spread between romance, mystery, fiction, classic, non-fiction, not really constrained to any one particular genre, which I like….

KATE  being in grad school for thirty years – always learning something new, always something to pique my interest and be further explored.

LEA  I bet!

KATE  I’m so very glad people love listening, because I certainly love narrating.

KATE  And huge, huge props to all you AudioGals for creating a place where romance fans can find not only books, but each other. It’s a tremendous service. I know fans are very grateful to you.

LEA  Thanks! We love being here.

KATE  It has been such a pleasure to talk about Loretta’s books!

LEA  It has been such a delight to have you here at AudioGals today. Thanks for joining us!

KATE  Thank you, Lea!!!

 

First Chapter Listens of The Last Hellion and Miss Wonderful

Technically these First Chapters are the Prologues which are 19 minutes and 23 minutes respectively.

 

 

 

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Lea Hensley