Rediscovering Audiobooks

by Linda Thorne

I lived in a little town called Hanford in the Central Valley of California from July 2002 until May of 2007. During the first few years I was unemployed, read a lot of books, and then decided to write a book. I had written the first draft of Just Another Termination in 2005 when I was offered a job in human resources at a Kraft Foods plant in Visalia, California, 23 miles from my home. With a 46-mile round trip commute, audiobooks popped into my mind as a way to continue reading while adding some fun to an otherwise boring drive. Even though I wasn’t literally reading the audiobooks, they helped improve my writing skills as much as the paperbacks and hardbacks did.

The job lasted two years until the plant closed its doors in 2007. I went through many audio tapes during that period of time. My favorite was The Long Lavender Look written by John McDonald

and narrated by one of my favorite actors (now deceased), Darren McGavin. I listened to that audiobook many times over.

My husband’s five year contract job ended a few months before the Kraft Foods plant in Visalia closed, so we moved out of state looking for a home and jobs somewhere in the Deep South. We ended up in Nashville, Tennessee and soon I had another job in human resources. My drive to work was a short eleven miles, with mild traffic. I thought I could pick up where I’d left off listening to audiobooks on my way to and from work, but the commute was just too short to get into them. That job lasted nine years before being eliminated in a company-wide reorganization. I found a new job last summer, in downtown Nashville, where traffic is horrible. It’s a little farther each way, but with the traffic it’s at least an hour getting to work and getting home – sometimes longer.

It had been so long since I’d played audiobooks, I’d totally forgotten about them until my husband asked me what I wanted for this past Christmas. That got me thinking. Soon, I’d pulled up the memory and wondered why I hadn’t thought of it earlier. Of course, I thought, audiobooks, the perfect cure for a long and boring commute.

Some people say you’re not really reading a book if you listen to it in audio. To me, it feels like I’ve read the book. Sometimes I think I retain more. Also, being busy at my fairly new job, I lack the time and energy to sit and read in a relaxed state. I get stuck on sections and feel I’m working to get through them, something that doesn’t happen to me when I’m listening to the narration.


So I have been listening to audiobooks since Christmas, something I haven’t done in almost ten years. My favorite current book is The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens and read by Zach Villa. I highly recommend it.

Named as a Character in a Book for the Second Time

 By Linda Thorne

 

The first time this happened, I was named as a character in Marilyn Meredith’s book, Not As It Seems. She does book tours for each book she publishes and often offers a choice of prizes to whomever leaves a comment on the most blogs. I won the prize on an earlier book tour and chose to be named as a character in a later book. When that book was published she stopped by my blog on her tour with a post called, The Character Named Linda Thorne.

This was a fun blog post (September 17, 2015). We got a surprise visit from Hank Phillippi Ryan who dropped in and commented on the complexities of using real people’s names as characters. Another commenter told us she’d never want to be named after a dead body or an evil person. Marilyn’s response was that she’d never kill off a character named after a real person or make them too awful unless, of course, they didn’t mind. I ended up in Not As It Seems as a not-so-nice, tall, redheaded woman. For me, it made the book more fun to read.

Last February, a few members of the Middle Tennessee Sisters in Crime organization met with Carolyn Haines in Mobile, Alabama. She'd joined us in Nashville a few years earlier, but was unable to make another trip in 2016, so we went to her. We had dinner with her one night, got to speak at the Mobile Writers Guild she belongs to, and have lunch with her college students. Carolyn had been teaching creative writing at the University of South Alabama for a very long time. At some point during all this, Carolyn Haines said she was going to name a character after me. I was all for it.

So I am a crotchety insurance sales woman in Sticks and Bones coming out May 17th. I can’t wait. It's part of her Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series. I saw it online and will pre-order it.
Buy Link: Buy Sticks and Stones 

Author Carolyn Haines

She told me that she has one friend, Aleta, who has been a dead whore twice in her books. In The House of Memory (I think also available for pre-order) coming out in June, she has four friends who are dead, lobotomized whores. She joked about not being so good to her friends, but hey, I know they all agreed and are happy to be included, dead or alive.

Buy link for the House of Memory: House of Memory

I have loved each and every one of Carolyn Haines Sarah Booth Delaney bone series mystery books. The newest coming out is in mid March and can be pre-ordered now. It is Guru Bones. I guarantee you'll love it. Here's the buy link: Buy link for Guru Bones - A Sarah Booth Delaney mystery

Being named for a character in an author's book is a different experience -- a fun one for me.

Hanging Out At Writers Conferences

by Linda Thorne

Last month I wrote what I hope was a "simple" interpretation on steps to take to become an author. One of my suggestions included hanging out at writers' conferences. If you're an aspiring author, what you'll get out of a conference (and you'll get a lot) is a whole other post.

Today, Thursday September 15th, is my first day at the 2016 Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, Blood on the Bayou. I'm here now in New Orleans attending as one of the many published authors; so, although my purpose at this convention still includes learning as much as I can, promotion and networking has taken on a much bigger role.

I'm assigned to a non-traditional panel today from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. It's an interactive author panel/workshop called the Continuous Bouchercon Conversation and also referred to as the Magna cum Murder. There will be many different authors participating in this panel all day today, tomorrow, and Saturday, each coming in at their designated time and leaving an hour later.

Here are some pics from my two panels at the recently concluded 2016 Killer Nashville Writers Conference:

Session 5 Friday August 19, 2016 Building Your Network at Killer Nashville 2016. 


Left to right in the picture of all of us: Linda Sands,
me, Tom Wood, Bryan Robinson, and Kay Kendall.

The next panel I was tagged as moderator for How To Write Effective Plot Twists. Below from left to right is me, Tom Wood, Sharon Potts, Ray Wenck, and Kris Calvin.

 

Killer Nashville was a fun time. I started going in 2009 when I did not have a book published. I do now and this is the second year I've been included on authors' panels. Always a great time.