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
A pair of recent events nudged me to look back on my gig as a storyteller. Spoiler alert: if you’re seeking conflict or unhappiness, look somewhere else. I couldn’t be more pleased at how things have turned out so far.
My work for Marla Himeda on the Bardic Isles series is probably the most significant achievement I have in narration. Both the first two books, Master of Music and Cry of the Kestrel, are multiple award winners. The most recent one, from the BookFest Awards, is
particularly dear to me because a) it’s silver (I am obsessed with grey as most friends know), but also b) you can easily read it, and c) it’s personally crafted. The BookFest Award is real, but they don’t send one out. So Marla’s husband Scott crafted two of them to her specifications, and My Lovely Wife actually located a retailer online who will send you exactly one ribbon to use it for.
When I pose with them all around my neck, Genna has to hurry and take the picture because my back won’t hold out. I’m in Mark Spitz territory… But the point here is, I’ve had the privilege to work with some splendid authors on stories of superior quality (the paper versions win awards too!).
The other thing that’s happened recently is that some of my audiobook projects are starting to be RE-published. I received notice, first that the four-book bundle of Fantastica by M. R. Mathias was now “Approved for Publication”! And then the same message came in for Debbie Bishop’s War Eagles. I had finished those books back before Covid.
That’s when it hit me. Seven years. 
When a narrator contracts with an author on Audible for Royalty Share distribution (that’s the way I started out), the author doesn’t have to pay me a cent. Instead, when the book goes on sale, after the platform takes its cut, we split the remaining royalty 50-50. It’s a great way for Indy authors to get into audiobook without money up front, and it also served me well when I was first hanging out my shingle and trying to attract work. The term of that contract is seven years: after that, if the author does nothing, Audible auto-renews the contract for another year. Aha…
I wrote to Mr. Mathias and Ms. Bishop to remind them that NEXT year they have every right to cancel and take back any future royalties for themselves now. And I thanked them again for putting me on the path lo, those many moons before.
So, I started out about, hem, seven years ago (not counting my own tales), and I’ve had some accomplishments in that time.
Put those two together and you get Hahn’s Audio Hall of Fame.
{More details to come on future social media posts}
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.