For your listening pleasure...

This Son of York is finally audible! I am delighted to announce that the most talented author/actor Chris (C.C.) Humphreys http://www.authorchrishumphreys.com/ has finished laying down the tracks--all 19 hours--of what I believe is my most important book. And I couldn't be happier with the result.

Chris and I met at a Historical Novel Society conference when we were asked by Diana Gabaldon to read sex scenes from our books. What I loved about Chris's scene was the humor he brought to his reading, and together with obvious stage experience and a rich resonant voice, I think I must have known one day he would be my narrator: he is a native Brit, trained for the stage at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and--he admitted sheepishly--has been a Ricardian (Richard III fan!) since the age of seventeen. How perfect was that?

We have kept in touch over the years, even visiting each other's homes once, and he gave me a quote for the back jacket of This Son of York. Here we are on Chris's island outside his one-time writing studio.


Oddly, I have to thank the pandemic for this union in a way; being stuck on a small island off the coast of British Columbia, he took advantage of a lull in publishing obligations to set up a tiny studio in his living room and record one of his friend's books as well as his own. Aready familiar with my book, he readily agreed to be hired!

Once he was off and running, he kept up a furious pace of sending me chapters to evaluate and edit. On went my director's hat, but other than a few repeat passages for extra drama and some pronunciation corrections, I hardly found fault with his reading. (Not so in the printed version, typos which I am correcting even now!) Hour after hour, I sat glued to my seat, headphones shutting out a 21st century Florida world, and following Chris's narration along in the text. I don't know how he managed to sound as fresh as a daisy for all thirty-one chapters, but he did! I came away with backaches, brain fog, and buggy eyes.

Sadly, we didn't meet the hoped-for Christmas market, but those gift certificates might come very handy if you are in the mood for a damn fine listening experience! Thanks, Chris, for making this dream of mine come true.

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