Heyyyyoooooo – Joel Leslie back again with my (actually on time!!) monthly ramblings.

Having not grown up in the States, July 4th is a holiday I’m still not quite used to… but it was great cuz we spent it with Mickey Mouse 🙂

And, yes, my phone case is red-glittler-sparkle-gay-tastic. Duh.

Sooooo… This week my narration of IMPERFECT MATCH by the utterly brilliant Jordan Castillo Price released on Audible. Since we love working together and her Psycop series, narrated by Gomez Pugh is beloved as one of the best m/m series in audio everrrrrrr, I thought it would be fun to pick her brain…

First here’s the IMPERFECT MATCH blurb. It’s smart and original and romantic and dystopian and really cool…

There’s a reason why Lee Kennedy is still in college—and it has nothing to do with his academic performance. He’s switched his major repeatedly and stalled on his Master’s thesis, but there’s only so much longer he can hold out. And once he graduates, it’s time to trigger the Algorithm.

Everyone in Lee’s family has allowed the Algorithm to match them with a spouse. As has everyone on his block. His neighborhood. In fact, everyone he’s ever known. Pairing with his own Algorithm match seems inevitable…until, at his sister’s wedding, he meets Roman.

The waiter lives in the Taxable District, a neighborhood that’s only a brief train ride away, but feels like another world. The seedy District is governed by different standards—different expectations—so it’s not exactly a surprise that Roman isn’t married. But it’s definitely a shock to taste his lips.

One forbidden encounter leaves Lee questioning everything. He longs for the freedom to choose not only his own partner, but his own destiny. When defying the Algorithm will cost Lee his livelihood, his family and his home, is he strong enough to take another path?

And, like every JCP book ever… the cover is amazingggggggg…

So, without any further waffling… here is Jordan Castillo Price… (and her bad-ass trademark hat).

JOEL: So, Jordan – People LOVE your work in audio. You seem to have a real knack for finding the right voice. What is that process like for you?

JCP: Thanks, I hope people love my audios—I’m a big audio listener myself so I always strive to make an audiobook people will want to listen to more than once. I must have found narrators in every possible way. Open-call audition, me scouring samples and approaching a narrator, or meeting in person and clicking, like I did with you. I think it must be a difficult thing to tick all the boxes I’m looking for. I’m really picky about production quality, fussy about pacing, and I want my narrators to really dig down and act out my books, not simply read them. I feel fortunate to have found such wonderful actors to work with.

JOEL: How do you work differently with, say Gomez, than you do with me? Are there big differences in the process?

JCP: I think because I’ve been working with Gomez for so many years, we probably have more shorthand between us. (Such as, “Yes, but bitchier.”) Since we’re focused on PsyCop now, we only need to work on the new character voices in every book. You and I Skyped to work out our new voices with the last project because I wasn’t as sure of what I was asking of you as I had been in our previous project, Hemovore. Imperfect Match seems to me like it was a demanding project at the outset because I was asking for something set in the future and I wanted to make sure the character voices didn’t reference existing accents, but without sounding so weird it would pull a listener out of the story.

JOEL: Were you an audiobook fan before you started wanting to produce them for your own titles? I think that the best author/narrator results always come when the writer is someone who listens to audio and knows the art form – you seem to know not only what you like, but also what audio fans are listening for.

JCP: Before audiobook streaming became common, I worked at a public library and I consumed lots of audios on CD, or even cassette tape. It’s hard for me to go on a car ride any longer than 15 minutes without having an audiobook playing.

JOEL:  Ok, this makes SOOOO much sense now. No wonder you’re so good with audio!

JCP: I remember a reader asking me back in 2012 if I thought self-published MM could come out in audiobook and I said absolutely not, the production cost was too prohibitive and the market wouldn’t support it. Look how wrong I was! And I love that I was totally wrong.

JOEL: Imperfect Match has such a unique premise. Where did that idea come from?

JCP: Sometimes I write short palate cleansers when I’m stuck on my main projects. Imperfect Match was inspired by the random word prompt utopia and elope. I came up with the idea that the utopia was nowhere near as idyllic as it was supposed to be, and my main characters were eloping away from the utopia, not toward it.

JOEL: You mentioned this briefly, already…there was a very specific vocal challenge to this book… In this alternate dystopian America you co-opted something which is very British – the idea of class connected to speech.  I had never had to tackle inventing that kind of vernacular in American accents…can you talk about how you know what felt right and wrong?

JCP: You were really patient with me when we were working through these ideas. Often, I have an idea that sounds great in my mind, but then I hear it out loud and it’s simply too weird. As much as I like big, outrageous characters that are immediately recognizable, sometimes subtlety is even more powerful. That’s my fancy way of saying that what I thought I wanted sounded weird, but you reined it in to the point where the characters sounded natural and appealing.

JOEL: So what are the chances of a sequel to Hemovore, gurl? Because seriously one my favorite projects that I’ve ever done.

JCP: I can’t bear to take away Mark and Jonathan’s happily ever after by plunging them into a new crisis! But I do miss Mark. I may need to go listen to that again.

JOEL: So whenever I send authors my character homework, I use your paperwork from Hemovore as a sample of what I need. You have a real skill with the idea of imaginary casting. Is that part of your writing process? I know you’re also amazing with graphic design, so do you see and hear them in your mind?

JCP: I think I feel the characters in my body first, like when you dream you’re somebody else even though you can’t quite articulate why you know that. Hemovore started with a dream of a vampire who’d been flushed out of hiding after years of successfully evading someone from his dark past. But when I started writing from Jonathan’s point of view, he sounded like a giant D-bag, so I tried out Mark’s point of view instead, and it clicked.

I often have to search for voices that might work after the story has been written. Cartoons are good places to find voices, and YouTube videos, too. I do tend to “say” words in my head as I read—I’m told this is inefficient and I should be grouping word-phrases and understanding them as concepts, not mentally saying each one—but I suspect that even though it makes me a slow reader, it’s helpful once my stories are at the audio stage.

Now, I’d like to ask you a few questions!

JOEL: Ohhhh, I ask for one little book sequel, but YOU get to ask questions now???

(ugggg, fine…)

JCP: Which was your favorite scene to narrate from Imperfect Match, and what was it about the scene that made it interesting for you to perform?

JOEL:  I WOULD say the opening scene – because the banter is so great… but it was nerve wracking finding the right accents and voices for the guys… so I couldn’t enjoy the journey quite at that stage. Once we had that first couple pages down, it was smooth sailing. I love Lee’s character arc. It is such a lovely journey. So I think his job interview scene and then the first time the two of them are together in his new digs were my favorite. That scene is really beautiful. Your books create such specific worlds with really wonderful detail – it’s almost tactile.

JCP: Nothing pulls me out of a scene faster when I’m listening to an audiobook than a narrator who puts the emphasis on an illogical place in a sentence. You always hit the emphasis right where I heard it in my own head, but you told me once that often involves multiple takes. Does the way you need to find the prose’s rhythm vary from writer to writer? Do you start to get a feel for a writer’s tendencies as you spend a few days with a project?

JOEL: Oh definitely. Some writers rhythmically just fit like a glove. And it has nothing to do with their skill level – it’s just the music of the lines. Definitely the more books you do with an author the easier it gets. I can only think of narration as acting, ‘reading’ doesn’t enter into it… so if the intention of the line isn’t clear… if it doesn’t feel honest, I’ll keep going until I feel it. Also as a director and a theatre professor I LOVED text analysis… I love finding subtext and the meaning behind a line. And I think that really informs how I approach 3rd POV narrative in particular. But the subtext always dictates the emphasis for me. It was really interesting that one project we did together was 1st POV and the other was 3rd.

JCP: It can be hard for me to change gears and work on two books at the same time. Do you have that “change over” time in audio narration too?

JOEL: YESSSSS. I hate it. I much prefer to be locked in one groove and focus on one book at a time. But recently, my schedule has become so crazy that I’ve been doing one project in the day and one in the evening. I’ve discovered that the more different the two books are, the better my brain will make the gear shift. Last week there was a day where I was working on four books in one day – recording two and doing pick-ups (corrections and fixes) for another two – and my brain was gonna explode. I can do it… but it’s not my preference lol.

JCP: I find writing sex scenes challenging, but at the same time I really love writing them because they really showcase the characters. A lot of times I have to write the first half, then let my subconscious figure out what I’m trying to say, then come back the next day and write the second half. (Sometimes this process takes multiple days.) How is it for you to narrate those scenes? Other than obvious things like vocabulary, are sex scenes different from reading any other action scene?

JOEL: You know sex scenes are actually some of the easiest things for me to narrate. Once you’ve done several of them and gotten over the initial blush-factor, they can be the most straightforward parts of a book to voice. There usually isn’t tons of dialogue… it’s mostly quiet and intimate. They tend to require a specific tone and rhythm. I realized a few weeks ago that shaping the narration of a sex scene is exactly like performing an epic Shakespeare monologue – you have to find the build and the the musicality of it. The success of it is actually a very technical thing. There are certain words that I, personally, find difficult to make sound sexy – that I think might work better on paper than out loud (both in m/m and m/f sex scenes). When those come up I can struggle. lol. (And no, JCP, you’ve never used them lolol). For me, at least, action scenes are much trickier… I think because an action scene doesn’t have the same kind of slow burn and crescendo… a car chase doesn’t have foreplay! It kind of starts at 11 and goes from there. Sex scenes have a definite build and arc.  But out of everything, epic battle scenes are the WORST. Those are really challenging. They are exhausting and a real challenge to pace and shape… create ebb and flow.

JCP: Thanks so much for chatting with me about Imperfect Match, Joel, it was so fun! And I’m always eager to shout our projects from the rooftops because you bring my words to life so gorgeously.

JOEL: Well, I’ve said this before, but I still can’t believe I’m lucky enough to narrate for you. The first project we did, Hemavore, I was utterly terrified of screwing up your genius – but you’re the most incredible cheerleader and the best possible partner in crime. I hope it’s a long time before you get fed up of me! xoxo

Ok, guys – I hope we kept you entertained for a bit. If you’ve never listened to any of Jordan Castillo Price’s audiobooks, do yourself a favor and take the leap! Her work is truly some of the best, original writing you’ll across in any genre and IMPERFECT MATCH is no exception.

It’s out now on Audible.

And if you haven’t listened to Hemovore, I’m pouting.

You can find all of JCP’s brilliance here.

Author and artist Jordan Castillo Price writes paranormal thrillers colored by her time in the midwest, from inner city Chicago, to small town Wisconsin, to liberal Madison. Her influences include Ouija boards, Return of the Living Dead, “light as a feather, stiff as a board,” girls with tattoos and boys in eyeliner.

Jordan is best known as the author of the PsyCop series, an unfolding tale of paranormal mystery and suspense starring Victor Bayne, a gay medium who’s plagued by ghostly visitations. Also check out her new series, Mnevermind, where memories are made…one client at a time.

OK, guys… see ya next month!

xo

Jojo.