This is my site for information about the fantasy world known as the 
Lands of Hope. I have the usual bio and buy pages, also Maps and a free Compendium of lore, plus a cool notification feature if you want to see posts in your email box. Sign up for that and you get two quick Tales for free. Because no one should have to wait for a little Hope.
Continue reading Welcome to the Lands
Greetings from the gig economy, I know it’s been awhile. I’m holding down three distinctly fun and remunerative part-time jobs now. I don’t know how long it’s been since I was this happy but probably at least since I could go to summer camp. I teach several subjects two days a week, narrate audiobooks of course, and I also picked up the strangest piece of work, writing for a local magazine. For which, I’m stunned to say, I won a writing award.
Yeah, about local things. As in, here in the Alleged Real World.
The publisher is a conglomerate, Best Version Media, which has a neighborhood magazine for over 1,200 towns and suburbs across America and Canada. I am paid for 10-15 hours of work per month. I pick a person or family to profile in the cover article, plus one to two smaller articles about pretty much anything I want, plus a calendar of upcoming events. I never dreamed anyone would pay me NOT to hear about dragons and Despair, or miracles and monsters, but there it is.
This has been a GREAT job, especially for My Lovely Wife and me as partners. Dorie jumps on ideas as they occur to her. I have a stack of stuff near my desk to pull from whenever I need it. If we review a restaurant or museum, she comes with and takes the photos (yes, counts as a date, absolutely). I scan the research she prints out, add a few dad jokes and boom.
I’ve been privileged to win awards in my other two storytelling vocations, as a teacher and narrator. But I never expected that my writing would ever be “there”. Certainly not my writing about the world everyone else knows as well as I do.
Every six months the publisher runs a contest for all Content Coordinators with an Amazon gift card as the prize. I submitted my profile of Evelyn Swenson, an incredible creative force who is still singing, directing and composing at age 95. The contest organizers said it was tough competition (hundreds of entries), but they picked mine. So I get this cool award symbol under my work email signature, and Dorie gets the Amazon gift card, the very definition of a win-win.
Here it is: 
It’s vital for authors, especially indies, to have support and validation for their work, including a writing award. Writing has never seemed like work to me. I never regarded myself as a true writer, just a chronicler of events no one else had seen. Splitting hairs? Maybe, but now I have the additional satisfaction to see writing for which I’m already paid earn some credit from strangers with no skin in the game. Lots of outlets in the world for writing gigs like this. Special thanks to John Riddle, the inventor of I Love to Write Day, for alerting me to this opportunity two years ago.
I’ve been able to work with dozens of authors, guest-posting, beta-reading and chiefly now in narrating their tales for audiobook release. I’ve authored nearly a million words on my own, read at least ten times that for others (pleasure reading, what’s that?), and I flatter myself to think I’ve seen every one of them, all the words, at least once.
But sometimes it doesn’t take too many.
“We WON!” That was the subject line of an email from Marla Himeda, the author of Master of Music a few weeks ago, alerting me that the Independent Publishers (creators of the IPPY Awards) had selected the tale as the Outstanding Audiobook of 2024 (one of eight outstanding books overall at the link, scroll down).
I’m appending my previous post below, to describe the work itself. In all honesty, I recommend fellow authors to check out the music links at the very least. This tale is an immersive experience unlike any I’ve worked on, and evidently the experts agree.
Just a few more words here, to give a sense of what Marla has accomplished with this book. Two summers ago, I was privileged to work on Crow Country, another fabulous tale (of a VERY different kind), and the publisher decided to submit it to the IPPYs for 2023. That year, there was just one grand category for ALL audiobooks, no genres or other sub-categories. Crow Country was one of two Gold Award winners and I thought I could not be prouder. The story is great, and I worked hard to bring it to sound with voices, FX and more.
But this year- the fast-growing IPPY Awards now have four distinct categories for audiobook, with Gold/Silver/Bronze winners in each category. Has to be hundreds, possibly thousands, of entries. And yet Master of Music was considered THE Outstanding Audiobook of that entire group. I could not be more pleased for Marla Himeda, who has labored with love to create a unique world setting with compelling characters, and to infuse the audiobook version with music she hears, much like her main character, songs that she simply MUST bring out.
I’m thrilled to have observed a creative process unlike any other, and of course I’m also thoroughly gratified to have played a part in Marla’s orchestra as well.
(And yes, the sequel, Cry of the Kestrel, is underway at this moment!)
The most involved and ambitious audiobook project of 2023 for me is finally hitting the digital shelves. I can’t wait for you to sample the Bardic Isles Book 1, Master of Music.
Marla Himeda has composed (and I mean that quite literally) such an original story–fantasy without swords or dragons or races–yet there is strong conflict within the major characters. There are elements of mystery, suspense, and humor (as with any good fantasy) in a tale for anyone from 6 to 96. The tone is much like Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander, but the author deals with adults, their thoughts and worries just as deeply and capably as the protagonist who’s barely a teen. A mentor and his student, learning about maturity as much as music.
All this goes to a fine fantasy book, and that’s… fine. But the music.
Here is a book actually-factually stuffed with music. Musicians are the main characters. The magic in the world comes from music. There are flowing, wonderful descriptions of flutes, pipes, harps, trios and ensembles including voices. And, see, there’s music too. You can hear it.
Because Marla Himeda, as we were working on the project, decided she would compose it all.
She worked instruments and voices into the descriptions she had previously written, in a seamless match between what I read aloud and what you can hear alongside it. It’s truly a unique listening experience. We went over portions of this word by word and beat by beat, syncing to the eighth-note and to every decibel of volume.
I have had the privilege to work on scores of books in my narration career, for dozens of authors besides myself. This has to rank as one of the most memorable, and I think enjoyable pieces yet. Very few projects I’ve worked on come up to this level. Hard to say for sure, but maybe none of them.
If you’re looking for hours of entertainment, strictly at 1.0x speed, I would recommend Master of Music. The author has gone “wide” and it’s available at all the major outlets, below are just a few. I am honored to have been asked (therein hangs another tale!) and I look forward eagerly to the sequel, as much as a reader as narrator.
Try the Sample, you won’t regret it.