How?

In April of 2011 I entered a contest to read on Neil Gaiman's 10th anniversary edition of AMERICAN GODS, and with the help of hundreds of social networking friends, I won.  I find that contests are a good way to get noticed quickly.  I don't win all the time, but if the wind is in my sails, I've found that it's a quick way to vet a project.  Everything has a contest, so why not enter?  The worst that can happen is that you don't win, and you're out a small marketing investment in your creative future.

I LOVE audiobooks, but I didn't know if I had the stamina for it.  I've read chapter books to my kids, great childhood classics CHARLOTTE'S WEB, by E.B. White, who also reads on the audiobook, WALK TWO MOONS by Sharon Creech, LITTLE WOMEN, by Louisa May Alcott, THE GIVER, by Lois Lowry, among so many others.

Voicing video game characters isn't the same as reading a whole book with lots of personalities, lots of emotional landscape.  It wasn't until I started sharing books with Annette Finestone, a friend with macular degeneration, who's also 95 years old and exquisite, that I realized I had it in me.

First we read Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, narrated by the author in audiobook.  Annette's dear friend Frances Goldin represents Barbara Kingsolver, and had sent a copy, which Annette couldn't read to herself.  It's an epic journey through the politics and mores of both the U.S. and Mexico from before the first world war though Macarthyism and beyond.  It was a wonderful read!

Annette and I have shared several journeys since then, among them, DESIREE by Annemarie Selinko.  It's my favorite book from adolescence, when the nuns at my convent boarding school let me into the adult section of the library, age 12.  Now we're on book one of THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins.

Today my first audiobook launches (I narrate) the first of what I hope will be many journeys I share with many others.

STREET: EMPATHY is available on Audible today!  Itunes and Amazon in the coming days.

If you like fast paced action in a cyber-punk world, a sassy heroine with an MK5 taser, then this may be the listen for you!