Author: Grace Blair & Laren Bright
Narrator: Curt Bonnem
Length: 9 hours 13 minutes
Publisher: Grace Blair & Modern Mystic Media, LLC
Released: Mar. 26, 2019
Genre: Science Fiction; Young Adult
How did Albert Einstein come up with his wondrous theories of light and time? In Einstein's Compass: A YA Time Traveler Adventure, a young Albert is gifted a supernatural compass that allows him to travel through time and space. He finds wisdom in other dimensions, like the lost city of Atlantis, but evil forces seek the power of the compass, including a monstrous, shape-shifting dragon from a different age. Can the compass protect Albert from such villainy?
Grace Blair, Award-Winning Author
Throughout her adult life, Grace became a serious student of the spiritual. She found that, often, psychological principles and practices were incomplete, but could be filled out by adding the missing spiritual component. Her approach was always to see practical applications for what she uncovered in the mystical. It was through immersing herself in this field of study and experience that she came up with her idea for her book, Einstein’s Compass.
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Versatile, authentic & engaging with a hint of wry edge.
I am a professional, union (SAG-AFTRA/Actor’s Equity) multi-media performer with over 35 years of experience.
I provide voiceover reads that range from conversational to enthusiastic, young, quirky and hip, to smooth, resonant and sexy. Ask me about my character voices and accents!
Audiobooks have become a true passion, making excellent use of all of my acting skills developed over decades. I mean, what actor doesn’t love to play all the parts!?
Hailing from the Windy City (neutral American accent included) I spent the past 30 years in sunny Los Angeles, developing my skills and working on stage, screen and in the booth. I’ve now ventured Southeast to Atlanta, where I’m settling in and re-adjusting to weather I haven’t had since I was a kid. And bugs. Happily, my newly built professional VO studio keeps me safe from both!
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Q&A with Author Grace Blair
- Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.
- I found the process of choosing the best audiobook company to assist me to create the narrated version difficult. How much do I want to spend for the narrator? Do I go exclusive with Audible or choose worldwide rights? Do I split the royalites with the narrator or pay the person upfront while I receive all royalities. I found Audioflow who assisted me with finding the perfect narrator and stage actor Curt Bonnem. Curt took four weeks to narrate my novel. I paid Curt his full fee while I receive all royalities. Curt owned the story and created voices for each character. Audioflow assisted with the audiobook launch with a podcast interview and social media.
- Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format?
- Stories with conflict and detailed scenes. Colorful characters with personalities you can empathize with. Keep moving the story forward with action and adventure.
- Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?
- Yes, I knew there was going to be an audiobook. I wrote each chapter like a scene from a movie. Each character had their distinct voice. A good narrator could bring the story to life.
- How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters?
- To assist Curt with character development I created character postcards. Each postcard had a photo of the person and a short phrase from the book of their motivation in the story. I instructed Curt to not hurry rather record the story like he was taking a walk in the park. Slow, deliberate with emphasis on time, place and the characters interaction.
- Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
- Einstein's Compass was inspired by my spiritual/mystical life journey. The characters are composites of people I have known. The mystical part of the story came from more than forty years of spiritual training.
- If you had the power to time travel, would you use it? If yes, when and where would you go?
- I would travel to Atlantis, the time period in Einstein's Compass.
- What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?
- I enjoy reading books too. However, I find my attention span wanes when I read a book. Listening to a story keeps me in the story. And, I find with a good narrator an audiobook is more satisfying. Audiobooks bring stories to life.
- What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?
- I do not believe there is a writing slump. There is a creative place inside that fills up with story and ideas. When you convey the story to paper or computer that part of the story has been emptied from the creative place.The next part of the story will come. It may take a few hours, a day or month or more. Patience and listening to where the story is coming from is important. A book or story is born when it is ready. Trying to force it will create a lot of editing and rewrites.
- Have any of your characters ever appeared in your dreams?
- Early in the morning just before waking I would receive pictures of what was next in the story.
- What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors?
- Writing is one of the many hats authors need to wear today. With a saturated book market authors need to learn to participate in social media, marketing and self publishing.
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