I had told myself that I’d make a post every two weeks…. -_-
Anyway, I’ll make this a quick update.
WHERE IS THE FLWL AUDIOBOOK? ←– I hit approve and all that good stuff for it a little over a week ago. At this point, it’s just a waiting game with Audible/ACX to officially approve it and upload it. Apparently, they like to check and make sure we aren’t uploading BS. According to their website, it can take anywhere from 5-14 business days. In the past, I’ve had it take about a week or two. (I say ‘in the past’ like I’ve published more than just two audiobooks myself, ha.)
So the answer is: KEEP CHECKING IT. It’s coming at any time.
The truth is, I loved it. If you’re a member of my Facebook group (Mariana Zapata’s The Slow Burners), you already know that Callie Dalton is back… and this time Teddy Hamilton is joining her again. “Say what?” you ask? Callie is doing all of the main narration like she typically does, but Teddy is doing all of the Ivan dialogue.
Between us, Chris talked me into experimenting with this. I was scared. Producing audiobooks is expensive in the first place. It’s why I sold the rights to most of them up until WFI. But having two narrators doing a duet? I had acid reflux there for a second when I got the quote. But I had loved Callie/Teddy doing Dear Aaron, and I love their work even more with the FLWL audio. And because I’m a firm believer that the world is for those who take risks, I decided to take a chance and do the entire book with a duet narration.
I have to say, I think it’s my favorite. I hope you all enjoy it too. If you don’t… sorry?
What else? I’ve started writing again. I took a few weeks off because of a family emergency I had come up at the beginning of April and really, I wasn’t in the mood or the state of mind to write. (While I’m very private, I’m also super nosey so I’ll tell you that my aunt, who is basically my second mom, the same person whose romance novels I used to ‘borrow’, was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of cancer of the blood. I knew she had been sick, I knew she’d had a tumor removed, but I had been under the impression it was benign. I was at the airport flying back from DC after my event in BoonsBoro when I got the news she was having serious complications.)
I was/am been devastated by it. If that wasn’t enough, this last month has been one of ‘those’ months in the Internet world, where people decide to be assholes, and I’ve been in the serious dumps. My middle name has turned into “sensitive as hell.”
I was writing one book before everything happened, and my brain and my heart just said “no thanks.” I’m never not in the mood to write, and I know it’s been alarming for me and for everyone that knows me. I’m trying to be a big girl, and have started working again, but on a different story that isn’t the happy thing I was trying to write before. I hate starting new ideas, but it isn’t the first time this has happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Anyway, wish me luck on this new adventure. I’m sure I’m doing the right thing for the sake of the story, but it is cutting into my idea of when my deadline would be. Oh well. I usually do my best work under pressure.
Hope you guys are kicking ass and taking names. Do it for me.