It’s been so long since we’ve had any audiobook news, I’m inviting everyone to make some.
I very much need your vote and opinion in this little poll to determine the future of Anty Boisjoly audiobooks…
Auditable (finally some audiobook news)
Tag Archives: audiobook
Safe Harbour
There’s another new newsletter in the archive.
I say new, but it’s new rather in the way a washing up liquid is new and improved, which is to say not at all. This number dates back to April and even then it was meant to be the February edition, delayed and then delayed again while powers greater than I struggled and ultimately succeeded in keeping the audiobook of Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast from appearing on Audible.
But the little vessel fought bravely back with a fearless strategy of wandering blindly and wondering idly, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, we abandoned the distributor and signed up with another and, three weeks later, the audiobook of Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast is available on all platforms.
To find your favourite among them, have a click…
Oo ‘arr
There’s a new newsletter, finally, in the archives, which means that the latest number has been sent out to subscribers after an unprecedented but unsurprising delay while we meditated and sacrificed a perfectly good bottle of Merlot and a night’s sleep in supplication to the sacred, secret rites by which an audiobook somehow makes it onto Audible.
Which is not to say that Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast has been anointed after fully eight weeks, we just got tired of waiting, and also recalled that last time we whinged in print about Audible looking at the horizon and pretending not to see us Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling was made available the next day. Maybe it’ll work again.
The good news is that the eighth Anty Boisjoly audiobook, the one in which Tim Bruce finally gets to do his pirate voice, parrot and all, is available everywhere that isn’t Audible.
Foreboding Foretelling Finally Found on Audible
Literally the day after I sent out a newsletter passive-aggressively whingeing about Audible’s delay in releasing Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling, Audible released Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling. It’s nice to know they’re listening.
The no-news newsletter makes this newsworthy, but Anty Boisjoly’s seventh stumper has been on most platforms for weeks, for example…
…and there’s a good chance that it’s on your library app.
Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling is Anty’s twistiest mysteriest manor house mystery in history, and it has the largest cast of characters that Tim Bruce has heretofore given voice. Of course it’s another tour de force from Tim, helped only slightly by a cast list, a redacted version of which is in the September newsletter, already available for download in the archive.
While there, why not take the opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter — you’ll immediately get the current issue, which includes a cast list of the first Anty Boisjoly mystery, The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, soon followed by the much-anticipated Christmas edition, featuring two exclusive cartoons and a cover reveal.
New Newsletter Feature
The newsletter archive has another entry and the September number introduces a new feature.
The audiobook version of Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling has been released (almost everywhere — Audible, presumably, is still playing it backwards, listening for subversive messages) in which the action unfolds in a richly and eccentrically populated Cotswolds manor house, and yet Voice-of-Anty Tim Bruce manages to track and trace all the accents and attitudes.
This is because Tim is a professional — a professional who has an annotated text and a cast list provided by the author who, it is widely rumoured, tends to over-share. A clever reader suggested that listeners might appreciate having a similar leg-up, and that the cast list be made available to newsletter subscribers.
Which is the new feature that you’ll find now in the latest newsletter added to the archive. Subscribers know this already, and they’ll also be getting the November newsletter featuring a custom-written cast list of the first Anty Boisjoly, The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, along with new cartoons and exclusive announcements.
The Ides of Audible
The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich launched officially on March 1st, unofficially on February 21st, was on most platforms by February 23rd, and it’s available as of today, the ides of March, on Audible.
Tim Bruce assumes the voices of a cast of almost all Scots in the sixth Anty Boisjoly Mystery, in which two impossible murders eliminate both master distillers of Anty Boisjoly’s favourite tipple. Anty must navigate a literal divide between two ancient communities, ruthless rivals in whisky, history, and golf, to identify the killer and save the spirit of Glen Glennegie.
A Twisty Misty Listeny Mystery
Production is sufficiently advanced to lay claim to a publication date for the audiobook of The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich, Anty’s twisty misty whisky mystery.
Tim Bruce returns this time as Anty and Vickers and two entire Scottish villages, sheep included, and manages to keep everyone distinct and distilled and delightful, even after the whisky kicks in during a golf match which is frankly hilarious on paper but which Tim raises to a pro tour de force.
In The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich, Anty travels to the timeless source waters of Glen Glennegie to help decide the fate of his family’s favourite ferment, but an impossible locked room murder is only one of a multitude of mysteries that try Anty’s wits and witticisms to their northern limit.
Time trickles down on the traditional tipple as Anty unravels family feuds, ruptured romance, shepherdless sheep, and a series of suspiciously surfacing secrets to sort out who killed whom and how and why and who might be next to die.
We know from experience that the universe laughs at those who announce specific publication dates for their audiobooks, so let’s say that The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich will be available on audio from around March 1st. In practice, it should start appearing in your favourite storefronts from February 21st and then gently age in a barrel of Audible until some special moment in early March.
Release of the Riviera Royale
UPDATE to the UPDATE: Reckoning at the Riviera Royale is now live on Audible at https://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-Riviera-Royale-Boisjoly-Mysteries/dp/B0CLMPPZS5
UPDATE: It turns out that new titles can take as much as thirty days to reach the shelves of various platforms. I’m sorry that I didn’t know that when I announced the 13th as the launch date, but I’ll leave it as it is because a) the real date is now ‘sometime in the next thirty days’ and b) it’s my mistake and I should own up to it.
Production is now complete on the audiobook of Reckoning at the Riviera Royale and it’s due to make itself heard on the 13th of October (that’s Friday the 13th, quite deliberately — the gods of gaffes and scheduling have been so kind to us we felt it just had to be some sort of sign).
The talented Tim Bruce returns, again and again, as a wide cast of accents and eccentrics, to narrate Anty’s fifth impossible poser in which his mother features among the accused when what appears to be a simple matter of a clown dressed as a mouse trampled by a kind-hearted elephant turns out to be a case of locked-room murder.
This milestone also represents a return to regular releases of Anty Boisjoly in audiobook. Next will be The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich in time for Christmas. This also means a closer collaboration between author and actor, including a new tradition of quick and quirky bonus features (keep listening after the conclusion of Reckoning for The Curious Encounter at a London Counter).
Production on Reckoning at the Riviera Royale was done by Raconteurs LLC (https://raconteurs.co.uk/) and their calm, confident competence is why we’re meeting the release schedule without a single hiccup or hitch.
Reveal of the Riviera Royale
This headline is so wildly inaccurate that it amounts to a bait-and-switch. This isn’t a reveal of the cover of Reckoning at the Riviera Royale, which came out six months ago. It’s not even a reveal of the cover of the audio version of Reckoning at the Riviera Royale, unless a square version of the existing cover counts as something deserving of a reveal.
It is, however, the official announcement of the rebooted audiobook release schedule, starting with Reckoning at the Riviera Royale in, we hope, October.
The long pause in audiobook publication has been due to the original publisher’s frankly baffling decision to concentrate their limited resources on titles and series which actually make money. Their contribution will be missed, but only so much because the talented Tim Bruce has agreed to remain the voice of Anty Boisjoly.
As long as this has taken, it’s only come this far this fast because of the encouraging words of readers and listeners. I’d very much like to express my appreciation for the patience and, for that matter, the impatience, and delightful messages of support.