The Heroine's Bookshelf » contest http://theheroinesbookshelf.com Books fit for a heroine Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:48:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Why Don’t We Think Women Are Funny? Welcome Alice Ozma, Win The Reading Promise http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/04/21/why-dont-we-think-women-are-funny-welcome-alice-ozma-win-the-reading-promise/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/04/21/why-dont-we-think-women-are-funny-welcome-alice-ozma-win-the-reading-promise/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:00:49 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=1560 After all the stress about asking authors I admire to blurb my book, I never thought I’d be on the receiving end of that question!  So when I was asked to take a look at Alice Ozma’s book about reading earlier this year, I was intrigued.  To my relief, I ]]> After all the stress about asking authors I admire to blurb my book, I never thought I’d be on the receiving end of that question!  So when I was asked to take a look at Alice Ozma’s book about reading earlier this year, I was intrigued.  To my relief, I loved the book…and I’m excited to welcome Alice to my blog ahead of her big debut.  Read on for a funny dilemma and a chance to win The Reading Promise!

When your fearless leader, Erin Blakemore, reviewed my book and asked me to guest blog, I was thrilled. As an English major with a concentration in Women’s Studies (and three times director of The Vagina Monologues!), I thought her fans were my type of people. I wanted to write something truly inspiring, a fist-pumping tribute to the women we love in the pages we cherish, but frankly, I’ve got to reach out to you, my kindred spirits, with a question:

Why, oh why, don’t we think women are funny?

Quick- name the funniest book you’ve read lately. Then the second-funniest. Then the third. Were any of them written by female authors? I tend to think yes, because again, this is the sort of place where we embrace women in all their hilarity. But for the majority of the population, I think, males have the trump card when it comes to tickling our funny bones. Just being male makes you funnier, apparently.

That’s not to say I’ve never read a funny book by a man. My favorite laugh-out-loud author happens to be David Sedaris. But when I edited the humor magazine in college, I found it to be a boys’ club. I worked hard to change this, and this year, there is a female editor-in-chief. But the staff is still largely male. A recent study found that when women say they want someone with a sense of humor, they are looking for a man who is funny. But when a man says he wants someone with a sense of humor, for the most part, he is looking for someone to laugh at his jokes. This seems strange to me.

What seems even stranger, though, is that women are, in my experience, the most common offenders. I love to watch stand-up, and when I have friends over we surf through the NetFlix menu, trying to find mutually agreeable comedians. Females, I find, are more likely to utter the surprising and surprisingly offensive sentence that always leads me into a rant- “I don’t think girls are funny.”

Why has this become socially acceptable? There is no other situation where saying this would be anything less than malicious. “I don’t think black people are funny.” “I don’t think gay men are funny.” “I don’t think poor people are funny.” Say any of these and you’ve instantly ruined the party. But write off females – roughly half off the world population- as incapable of witticism? People tend to either shrug it off or agree.

My book, The Reading Promise, is about my father reading to me every night, without missing a night, for 3,218 days. We read everything from Pinocchio to Shakespeare as I went from an elementary school student to my first day of college. This book had the potential to be quite sappy, so I tried to balance it out with laughter. I hope I succeeded. Early reviews have noted the humor, and I am grateful to potentially become an outlier- a funny woman.

As my publication date approaches (May 3rd!), I find myself considering this subject more and more. When I speak at schools, or to young girls, I’d like to address this theory. I’d like to embrace the funny female authors I know and love. And I’d like your help. Uh-oh…sounds like a contest to me!

Please comment on this post with a short paragraph (250 words max) and tell us about the funniest female author you’ve read. I will choose the post that entices me the most.

That commenter will be invited to guest on my blog, aliceozma.wordpress.com, and share the hilarity of the women she admires…and she’ll receive a free copy of my book, The Reading Promise.  And if it happens to make you laugh- hey, what more could I ask?

 

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/04/21/why-dont-we-think-women-are-funny-welcome-alice-ozma-win-the-reading-promise/feed/ 6 The Rumors are True! http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/01/13/the-rumors-are-true/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/01/13/the-rumors-are-true/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:55:42 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=1063 Okay, so I’d love to pretend that there were constant swirling rumors about The Heroine’s Bookshelf…but dare to dream. However. I am very pleased to officially announce February the month of Heroine Love. For many, it’s a bitter month, or a swoony one, or just a normal one, but just ]]> Okay, so I’d love to pretend that there were constant swirling rumors about The Heroine’s Bookshelf…but dare to dream.

However.

I am very pleased to officially announce February the month of Heroine Love. For many, it’s a bitter month, or a swoony one, or just a normal one, but just once, this once, I want it to be all about love of literature and, of course, love of literary heroines.

How will we celebrate?  With guests, lots of them.  In fact, no fewer than twelve of my favorite book bloggers will be joining the blog throughout the month of February to extol, praise, and ruminate on the literary ladies who made them who they are today.

Better yet?  The prize.  Yes, there will be a prize…and it will be big.  I’ll announce specifics of the prize pack later in the game, but suffice it to say that it is going to be awesome, and that its artistic, literary, and trinket-like contents were contributed by a diverse set of book lovers and a publisher who will go unnamed but can surely be guessed.  Yours for the winning February 18.

By my calculations, there are a whopping 19 days until Heroine Love kicks off on February 1.  That’s 19 days to spread the word, my loves…and to mull over heroic feats to come.

PS – While you’re at it, check out Beth’s wonderful post on just this topic on An Accomplished Young Lady!

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/01/13/the-rumors-are-true/feed/ 9 Scarlett O’Hara: Literature’s Most Lovable Bitch http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/15/scarlett-o%e2%80%99hara-literature%e2%80%99s-most-lovable-bitch/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/15/scarlett-o%e2%80%99hara-literature%e2%80%99s-most-lovable-bitch/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:09:00 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=592 Guest Post by Ellen F. Brown Next up in our series of guest posts on heroines featured in The Heroine’s Bookshelf is Ellen F. Brown, who may just qualify as the world’s nicest human being (unlike her subject).  Ellen emailed me out of the blue (okay, I think I retweeted ]]> Guest Post by Ellen F. Brown

Next up in our series of guest posts on heroines featured in The Heroine’s Bookshelf is Ellen F. Brown, who may just qualify as the world’s nicest human being (unlike her subject).  Ellen emailed me out of the blue (okay, I think I retweeted a link of hers, but still) to tell me she had heard about the book and wanted to introduce me to her hard-core Gone with the Wind fan friends.  Why, the pleasure was mine!  Want to continue on in great company?  Click here to win a galley of the book, or ask Scarlett, Lizzie Bennet, and Jo March for another chance to win!

When I heard about Erin Blakemore’s upcoming book on heroines it did not even occur to me that Scarlett O’Hara would be included. After spending the last two years researching and writing about Gone With the Wind, I have learned that contemporary literary circles tend to forget Margaret Mitchell’s novel ever existed. Although it won the Pulitizer Prize and is one of the most successful books in publishing history, Scarlett and Rhett typically get short shrift when it comes to discussions of the great books. These two hot-headed lovers were, it seems, too popular to be taken seriously. They’re too un-P.C. They’re too Southern. They’re too, too…Gone With the Wind.

I was thrilled to discover that Blakemore had included Mitchell’s iconic belle-gone-bad among the ranks of Lizzy Bennett, Jane Eyre, and Jo March. Mitchell is finally going to get her day in the sun, I thought. This was great news! Though I am no Gone With the Wind fanatic, I do harbor a soft-spot for Mitchell, who I have come to see as one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated writers in American letters.

But then a tiny seed of doubt crept into my brain as I waited for Heroine’s Bookshelf to arrive. “Wait a minute,” I panicked. “Scarlett is not a heroine!” Doesn’t a heroine have to be heroic? Shouldn’t she be virtuous, or at least mostly so? Lizzy, Jane and Jo fit that bill, but certainly not Scarlett.

Since Gone With the Wind was first published in 1936, people have been misdiagnosing Scarlett O’Hara as a traditional heroine. This confused and irritated Mitchell to no end. She reviled her leading lady, whom she described in the novel as “poor white trashy” and a “flighty, fast bit of baggage.” She once threatened to sue a magazine editor who planned to run a story comparing her to Scarlett. The enraged author fumed at the insult of being likened to a woman who was self-centered, conceited, verging on illiterate, and lacking both taste and social skills. Scarlett did not have a nurturing bone in her body and was the bane of any man foolish enough to love her. She was an opportunist, a murderer, and was willing to sell her body for financial gain.

Although Mitchell had a touch of the drama queen about her, she was smart to be worried about perceptions of Scarlett. Deeming the character a heroine in the sense of a role model can lead to a horribly skewed reading of Mitchell’s novel. In fact, such misreadings are at the heart of much of the criticism lodged at Gone With the Wind for being racist. If one assumes that Mitchell put Scarlett up on a pedestal, it leads inexorably to the conclusion that Mitchell must have been a racist herself. If Scarlett thought that “that negroes had to be handled gently, as though they were children,” then it stands to reason, some say, Mitchell did too.

I don’t purport to know whether Margaret Mitchell was or was not a racist. I can point you to evidence on either side of that tricky coin. It’s a question we’ll never know the answer to. But, I do feel confident in saying that Scarlett’s racial views are scant evidence of her progenitor’s opinions. Mitchell wanted us to find Scarlett engaging, but she never meant to hold her up as a paragon of virtue.

So, should Scarlett O’Hara really be featured in a book called The Heroine’s Bookshelf ?

The answer is yes, when it’s written by a celebrity-gossip-loving former roller derby queen like Erin Blakemore. She nails it.

Scarlett is right where she belongs in a chapter labeled “Fight.” Fight is what Scarlett is all about. Her courage and strength were the only qualities that Mitchell intended for us to admire in her vixen. And, fight is what Gone With the Wind is all about. The point is not black versus white or north versus south. It is about the human spirit and its ability to overcome adversity.

Blakemore deftly draws us into the fights Mitchell experienced in her own life and the pure awfulness of Scarlett, then brings us to the heart of the matter: why, despite all her flaws, are so many people fascinated by Scarlett? As Blakemore says, “She’s a heroine who gets under the skin like that seductive splinter you can’t quite remove.” I couldn’t agree more.

Understanding why we admire Scarlett despite her flaws requires us to confront some harsh truths about ourselves, explains Blakemore. She describes the cultural fascination with Scarlett as a “train-wreck voyeurism”—we watch precisely because it is so awful. Then there is the nagging truth that we can’t help but see a little of the worst part of ourselves in Scarlett: “Who among us hasn’t hurt someone else in the pursuit of her own goals?” Ouch. Most of us do a fairly good job of keeping our inner Scarlett O’Hara tamped down and hidden. But, she’s in there. You know she is. And it’s only reasonable that she wants to come out and play every now and again, even if only vicariously through the pages of a novel.

My favorite part of the Scarlett chapter though is Blakemore’s dismissal of the idea that we should feel ashamed for finding inspiration in Gone With the Wind. She queries: “Can I really be expected to push against the boundaries of my own life without a bit of inspiration from literature’s most lovable bitch?” I certainly hope not.

Ellen F. Brown is co-author of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood, to be released by Taylor Trade in February 2011.

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/15/scarlett-o%e2%80%99hara-literature%e2%80%99s-most-lovable-bitch/feed/ 5 Impatiently Jerking http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/14/impatiently-jerking/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/14/impatiently-jerking/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:43:21 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=584 A minute later, she was dragging a heavy marble-topped table across the floor, its rusty castors screeching in protest. She rolled the table under the window, gathered up her skirts, climbed on it and tiptoed to reach the heavy curtain pole. It was almost out of her reach and she ]]>

A minute later, she was dragging a heavy marble-topped table across the floor, its rusty castors screeching in protest. She rolled the table under the window, gathered up her skirts, climbed on it and tiptoed to reach the heavy curtain pole. It was almost out of her reach and she jerked at it so impatiently the nails came out of the wood, and the curtains, pole and all, fell to the floor with a clatter.
- from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Yes, waiting is hard, Scarlett!  But tomorrow is another day, and the passage above is a teaser for tomorrow’s blog bounty.

In the meantime, why don’t you sign up to win a galley of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, or perhaps ask  Jo March, Lizzie Bennet, and Scarlett O’Hara for advice to life’s pressing problems (and win a book as well)?  And if you see the book in the wild before its publication date, won’t you let me know?

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/14/impatiently-jerking/feed/ 2 6 Days… http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/13/6-days/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/13/6-days/#comments Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:05:45 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=580 She was sitting there waiting for something or somebody and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all her might and main. Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery The countdown continues…and today you can not only sign up to ]]>

She was sitting there waiting for something or somebody and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all her might and main.

Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery

The countdown continues…and today you can not only sign up to win a galley of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, but you can now turn to Jo March, Lizzie Bennet, and Scarlett O’Hara for advice to life’s pressing problems on The Roaring 20s.

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/13/6-days/feed/ 1 Anticipation….and a Contest! http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/11/anticipation-and-a-contest/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/11/anticipation-and-a-contest/#comments Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:47:40 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=540 “What are you doing up so late, Prima Donna?” he asked. “It’s not Saturday night, you know.” “I was sitting at the window,” she whispered, “waiting for my arm to drop off.” - Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Is the release of one’s first book as anguishing as ]]>

“What are you doing up so late, Prima Donna?” he asked. “It’s not Saturday night, you know.”

“I was sitting at the window,” she whispered, “waiting for my arm to drop off.”

- Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Is the release of one’s first book as anguishing as Francie’s midnight vigil?  No way, but it’s fun to look back at passages about waiting from my favorite heroine tomes.

While you wait (just eight days to go) for The Heroine’s Bookshelf to hit your shelf, why not participate in a contest? 

Tell me who you can’t wait to tell about THB and why, and I’ll enter you in a drawing for one of five now-rare galleys of the book! *

Stay tuned for more prizes, guest posts, and anticipatory delights as we inch forward to October 19…and don’t forget to tell a friend about upcoming events in Colorado, New York, and Massachusetts  (details on the right-hand side of the blog)!

*Drawing will end Friday, October 15.  United States residents only, please!

P.S.:  GoodReads and LibraryThing members can win a finished copy of the book here: http://www.librarything.com/er/giveaway/list or http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/5865-the-heroine-s-bookshelf-life-lessons-from-jane-austen-to-laura-ingalls

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/10/11/anticipation-and-a-contest/feed/ 11 Winners! http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/08/09/winners/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/08/09/winners/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:24:36 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=281 Random.org has spoken and we have two winners of two sets of galleys of The Heroine’s Bookshelf! Congratulations to Laurie A-B of Six Boxes of Books, who chose Rosemary and Barbara from Sister of the Bride by Beverly Cleary as her favorite literary duo, and to Katherine of November’s Autumn, who notes “the unlikely friendship of Emma Woodhouse and Harriet Smith…what a pair they make! And how much mischief they cause each other.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Thanks for playing, all, and look for more giveaways soon!

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/08/09/winners/feed/ 1 Contest Time…Two Is Better Than One http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/08/03/contest-time-two-is-better-than-one/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/08/03/contest-time-two-is-better-than-one/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:54:34 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=272 I was laying in bed this morning after my first fully restful sleep in a while and thinking about literary duos.  Not necessarily titular (though Betsy-Tacy is not to be ignored), but those great pairings that make my favorite books so juicy to read.  You know…Scarlett and Melanie, or Marianne ]]> I was laying in bed this morning after my first fully restful sleep in a while and thinking about literary duos.  Not necessarily titular (though Betsy-Tacy is not to be ignored), but those great pairings that make my favorite books so juicy to read.  You know…Scarlett and Melanie, or Marianne and Elinor.  Pairs that prove that opposites attract (or never do), who must go through life as heroines or as enemies or, even better, both!

Then I got up and learned from Beyond Little House that today is Carrie Ingalls (Swanzey) Day and thought, “I’m on to something!”  Who can forget Laura rocking the seat for an exhausted and humiliated Carrie?  I’d call that a literary match made in heaven.

So what better way to celebrate literary duos than with a contest? 

I have two sets of two galleys of The Heroine’s Bookshelf to give away to two lucky winners…one to read, one to pass on to a friend.  To enter, all you have to do is post in the comments here and tell me a literary duo you love, and your email address.

This giveaway is limited to USA only, unfortunately (there have been and will be international ones), and I’ll close entries at 5 p.m. MDT on Friday, August 6…so tell a friend!

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/08/03/contest-time-two-is-better-than-one/feed/ 28 Great News – I’m Huge In Korea (dare to dream…) http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/03/31/great-news-im-huge-in-korea-dare-to-dream/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/03/31/great-news-im-huge-in-korea-dare-to-dream/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:24:32 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=163 Just got word that I can announce something that’s put an extra spring in my step for about a week now.  The Heroine’s Bookshelf has sold in South Korea! It will be translated and published by Minumin at some point (I’m thinking in 2010) and I’ll have the pleasure of ]]> Just got word that I can announce something that’s put an extra spring in my step for about a week now.  The Heroine’s Bookshelf has sold in South Korea!

It will be translated and published by Minumin at some point (I’m thinking in 2010) and I’ll have the pleasure of seeing my book in an alphabet and language I have no hope of ever understanding!  Naturally, I am over the moon…and very grateful to the fabulous and hard-working people at HarperCollins who made the sale.

There’s still time to enter the Lorelei King Audiobook Giveaway…in fact, I’d like to beg you to do so!  Details below:

Lorelei King Tallgrass Contest

To celebrate my recent interview with audiobook superstar Lorelei King and to give readers access to a great heroine book, I’m giving away one copy of Lorelei’s Audy and Audiophile Award-winning reading of Sandra Dallas’s Tallgrass, a poignant story of the Japanese-American internment of the 1940s as told through the eyes of a young girl.  Here’s how to enter:  click here and leave a comment on this blog post telling who you’d have voice your favorite heroine (voice actress, actress, friend, mom…just make sure to identify her!) and why.  Comment with a link to your tweet, blog post, or Facebook “share with friends” about the contest and I’ll enter you twice! I’ll choose the winner at random at close of business this Friday, April 2.  Contest is open to United States, Canadian, and U.K. residents only.  Good luck!

]]> http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/03/31/great-news-im-huge-in-korea-dare-to-dream/feed/ 1 Heroine Exclusive: Interview With Audio Superstar Lorelei King http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/03/29/heroine-exclusive-interview-with-audio-superstar-lorelei-king/ http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2010/03/29/heroine-exclusive-interview-with-audio-superstar-lorelei-king/#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:17:41 +0000 Erin Blakemore http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/?p=154 As you may have heard, the audio rights to The Heroine’s Bookshelf were recently sold to Blackstone Audio, which got me thinking…what’s a day in the life of an audiobook narrator like?  Luckily, I have a great resource in my Twitter friend and new heroine Lorelei King, who just happens ]]> As you may have heard, the audio rights to The Heroine’s Bookshelf were recently sold to Blackstone Audio, which got me thinking…what’s a day in the life of an audiobook narrator like?  Luckily, I have a great resource in my Twitter friend and new heroine Lorelei King, who just happens to be an accomplished actress and the multiple-award-winning narrator of an astonishing number of audiobooks and BBC Radio 4 programs (we’re talking the books of Margaret Atwood, Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, and even Louisa May Alcott…click here for an impressive list).  Lorelei isn’t just fabulous, she’s gracious…and she’s agreed to answer some of my niggling questions about the life of an audiobook narrator in my never-ending attempt to assuage the longstanding pain of waiting (in this case, to find out who’s going to narrate my book!).

To make things fun, I’m giving away one of Lorelei’s award-winning audiobooks to a lucky winner (details below).  But be sure to read Lorelei’s fabulous insights before scrolling down:

Erin Blakemore: Tell us a bit about the path you took to a career in voice acting and audiobook narration.
Lorelei King: Like most things in my life, I stumbled into it! I was living in London and working as an actress when I got a call from a friend who owned a recording studio; he was recording an ad for a client, and the US voiceover hadn’t shown up. Could I get there in 10 minutes? I did. Hurrah! I loved the experience, and found I had a knack for it. Audiobooks came about in a similar way — someone who knew my animation work asked me to do a book. Again, I loved the experience and definitely had a feeling of “coming home.” And my voice career then, as now, ran in parallel with my acting career.

EB: How does audiobook narration differ from acting for the camera?
LK: When acting for the camera, you normally only play one character. With an audiobook, you might be playing hundreds! Also, in front of the camera your character is normally engaging with other characters, which speads the load a bit — whereas an audiobook is essentially a very, very long monologue. And of course for tv you have to be ‘camera ready’ — no dark roots, no spinach in the teeth, full makeup. Recording an audiobook, I could turn up looking like a troll and it wouldn’t matter. Not that I turn up looking like a troll. Very often.

EB:  How do you prepare to perform an audio piece?
LK: To prepare the book for record, I read it through once and make a cast list on one side of a piece of paper, jotting down and clues about the kind of voice that character might have. Some authors are very helpful in that regard, telling you a character’s accent, voice quality and so on. If there are no clues, I have to make an educated guess! On the other side of the paper I make of list of any pronunciations I want to look up. A good producer will check all that for you, but I like doing my own research.

EB:  What’s the most challenging part of your job? Do you have any disasters or horror stories you’d care to share?
LK: The most challenging part of the job is maintaining stamina — having the same energy level at the end of the day that I had at the beginning of the day! Horror stories? The most horrifying thing is if the engineer makes a mistake and deletes the morning’s work. It’s only happened twice in my career, but I cried both times!

EB:  What do you like best about your job?
LK: I get paid to read books! What could be better?…. And I love being a storyteller. Audio is a particularly intimate medium — and I feel so privileged that people are wiling to listen.

EB:  What are your personal reading habits like? Who are some of your favorite authors and why?
LK: I get very little time to do reading for myself as I have to do so much reading for work! Of the books I read for work, I love the funny ones (like Janet Evanovich) and the crime fiction (like Tess Gerritsen). As for personal reading, my favourite author of all time is Gerald Kersh –Song of the Flea is probably my favourite of his books. I’m also very fond of horror — I like Stephen King, Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison, among many others. I’ve always had a soft spot for Somerset Maugham — The Razor’s Edge had a HUGE impact on me when I was 11 — and of course I have to mention my Greek boys, Homer (I prefer the Illiad to the Odyssey) and Herodotus (it’s like reading Hello magazine)! For enjoyment I read them in English, and for torture I read them in ancient Greek.

EB:  What surprises you about the audio world? Are there any trends to watch for?
LK: I’m surprised at how much it’s growing! It’s wonderful that people are integrating audio into their lives, listening to audiobooks the way they might listen to music.  As for trends, I think digital audio publishing means we’ll be using audio in new and original ways: shorter titles, individual short stories and poems, getting to market much more quickly with subjects that are trending, publishing in digital download only, embedding audio into eBooks … I am co-founder (with Ali Muirden, former head of audio at Macmillan UK) of a digital publishing company, and we’re exploring some of these things already. It’s a scary and exciting time!

Lorelei King Tallgrass Contest

To liven things up a bit and give one of my readers access to a great heroine book, I’m giving away one copy of Lorelei’s Audy and Audiophile Award-winning reading of Sandra Dallas’s Tallgrass, a poignant story of the Japanese-American internment of the 1940s as told through the eyes of a young girl.  Here’s how to enter:  leave a comment on this blog post telling who you’d have voice your favorite heroine (voice actress, actress, friend, mom…just make sure to identify her!) and why.  Comment with a link to your tweet, blog post, or Facebook “share with friends” about the contest and I’ll enter you twice! I’ll choose the winner at random at close of business this Friday, April 2.  Contest is open to United States, Canadian, and U.K. residents only.  Good luck!

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