I listened to the audio version of Forsaken By Shadow this week. It was beyond trippy to hear my words being read by other people. So amazing. Tamara McDaniel absolutely nailed Embry. I almost cried a couple of times (which was the point of those scenes). There are a few tiny things that have to be fixed–a couple of pronunciation issues and 3 lines of dialogue for a character toward the end where the voice just didn’t fit his character–which wouldn’t have mattered except that we’re going to be seeing him in Edge of Shadow and it becomes relevant.
Listening to it in audio made several things apparent:
- I really love my book. I was afraid that I’d listen to it and find a million things I wanted to change. Authors are always saying that they’re never finished, never satisfied, even when a book has gone to presses. Other than one or two places where I used the same word a bit too close together, there wasn’t anything I wanted to change. I can see that there was definitely ROOM for a full chapter devoted to the rest of their cross country trip and recon, but even now, nothing REALLY occurs to me for that, so I figure folks can use their imaginations. Lots of awkward silences and a big metaphoric brick wall. Wasn’t action really and didn’t seem to move the plot forward, so I left it out.
- Gage uses the F word a lot. I didn’t notice this when I wrote it or read it on paper.
- I left just enough threads dangling at the end to lay the groundwork for Edge of Shadow, which will pick up just before the great escape at the end of Forsaken By Shadow, from the perspective of someone we haven’t met yet. It makes me excited for that story. It really solidified for me that EoS is the right next step in the series, that there are things that need to be covered before I get to Revelation. I’m not ready to write it yet–deep into Red right now–but I think I’ll give this another listen through when I get ready, just to get myself in the mood again and to get back to the right feel.
- It’s not perfect, but I’m not embarrassed of my work. I think this is a pretty decent first foray out there that will largely appeal to my target audience. Which is exactly what it was intended to do.
Now I just need to finish figuring out the details of the new plot twists for Devil’s Eye…
2 thoughts on “Reflections on Forsaken By Shadow”
I think when you read your own work 7 billion times, it feels “wrong” even when it’s not. Because you aren’t able to read it in the same way someone totally new to the work can. I think when someone else reads it to you… in professional audio… you get a more true experience of what your readers get. Which I think is a cool thing about audio. I can’t wait for my stuff to be in audio. 🙂
Oh… I also think when a pro narrator nails it… it gives you more confidence that readers are hearing it in their head how you wrote it.