Gentle Reader, I am delighted to report that the Crudrat audiobook is done! Coincidentally June is audiobook month.

For those of you unaware of the Crudrat kickstarter: it was for a full cast audio production of my YA Science Fiction novel, Crudrat. You can read all about it, and buy it now for $25, on the Crudrat website.

So tha weekend before last, while every author I know was off doing some convention or another (this is my first time in a decade with that particular long weekend free), and Amazon and Hachette duke it out, I experienced the results of a kickstarter for the first time.

I’ve been listening and enjoying it immensely, despite the fact that usually I can’t stand listening to my own work. Perhaps this is because because Dan and I are friends, so he knows my actual voice, which means the narration doesn’t bother me like it does with other readers. Or perhaps it is the amazing soundtrack. Or perhaps it is the fantastic voice acting.

Voice talent at the Crudrat wrap party, image from Linda Levy

You don’t have to take my word for it. One of the first reviews is up! 

If you backed at the $25 level or higher you should have already received an email with a link and password to download. If not, apply to Dan to rectify the situation.

The Crudrat Audiobook is now available for purchase at crudrat.com.

Questions Answered

1. I’m not a backer, how can I get the audiobook? 
You can buy it from the site right now.
But I’m married to X alternative platform (Audible, etc…)
Over the course of the summer, Crudrat will start showing up in online retail channels as both a download and on CD. I’m sorry we can’t be more precise on this date, but we’ve put it into a pending line with other self-pub items and then it takes as long as it takes for that venue to drop it. I promise to let you know when I do, and if you could keep your eye on your favorite source as well? Frankly, my best spy in this kind of information war is you, Gentle Reader.

2. Can I buy a CD of the audiobook? 
Yes. But, again, if you don’t want to use the site it may take a while.

3. How big/long is it?
Crudrat clocks in at a little over 400mb for the download (128kbps 44.1khz mp3), and runs just over 7hrs, and is available in 18 chapter-long files.

4. Can I buy the book? 
Nope. Crudrat was printed as a limited run, numbered, special edition, signed, hard cover book. This was available only to those who backed the Kickstarter at that level. It is not for sale to the general public. However you can always stalk ebay or whatever, it may show up there.

via Linda Levy March on  FB Self and my audio producer J.Daniel Sawyer, at the Crudrat wrap party

5. But, I want to READ it, precious! I wants it now! Please?
The Kickstarter was only for audio. Artistic Whispers only purchased limited audio rights for production. Print rights were not on the table, so the limited print run really was a special exemption. I still own print rights. Currently, I’ve no plans to produce this book in print for purchase.

6. But, but, but *lip wobble* WHY NOT?
So far as I know, no publishers are interested in Crudrat and I cannot spare the time from my crazy deadline schedule to format, ready, and POD this property myself. It is too much work to get it up to my standards. Nor am I entirely certain I want to. Apart from everything else, then readers will start winching on about wanting me to write the sequel. Right now, if you don’t like audiobooks, I suggest you make very good friends with someone who backed at the right level. Alternatively, you could persuade a reputable publisher that they want to produce the book. Heh heh.

7. Speaking of which, when do we get a sequel?
I don’t know. Someday? I really would love to write it, which makes the pleading hurt all the more keenly but frankly, contract gigs must take priority right now. I’m a working writer which means I write for my living, which means when I am under contract that has to be the thing I work on first. This was, from the beginning, a passion project. And like all such projects must sit the back burner until I can carve out time. I am trying to pull back a bit. Once the final two Finishing School books have launched and the first Custard Protocol, and the second one written I am going to try to pull back. I’d like to do only one book a year for a little while. I’m hoping that will free me up do do some self publishing, more short stories, and a even some at-whimsy for fun novel writing. But this is still publishing and publishing moves slowly so I for-see myself having the time to write a sequel in about three years, whether I still have the inclination is up in the air. That’s the for fun part of this equation.

And goodness with the world going the way it is, who know that the publishing industry will look like in three whole years.

GAIL’S DAILY DOSE

Your Moment of Parasol . . .

castaroundlesmodes tumblr

Twenty-two-year-old Miss E. Alice Austen poses in her Sunday best – a smart overskirt and a hat decorated with white lilacs. She holds a parasol and a silver change purse. Photo taken in June 1888 by Captain Oswald Muller.

Your Infusion of Cute . . .

Gear Bookend $55

Your Tisane of Smart . . .

Summer Corset  Royal Worcester Corset Company, 1872  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Your Writerly Tinctures . . .  

by Eliza Leslie (American 1864) 

Book News:

Recently acquired books: 2 on the right to read & 2 on the left, I’ve already read digitally, to donate.

Quote of the Day:

“Last evening we were all in such a gale!”

by Eliza Leslie (American 1864)

So I passed out a few business cards at WorldCon and the word has slowly been leaking out but here’s the offical announcement…

Crudrat is coming!

OK, so we hope Crudrat is coming.

We’ve begun a Kickstarter for a full cast audiobook of my pet YA sci-fi project chronicling a tough young woman in space.

Crudrat may be familiar to you as the formerly-referred-to-on-this-blog as Girl Ass Kicks Everything In Space. I posted about it in the project files for a while there, a few years ago. So, I’m hoping you are now rife with questions.

Many of your questions are answered in the most awesome video for the kickstarter. But below are a few in detail for those of you who prefer to read.

1. Why did you write this book?
When I was a young reader I felt that the barrier to entry for a female to read sci-fi was too high. I couldn’t identify with the main characters or the style of writing. I picked up Fantasy fast because of authors like Robin McKinley and Tamora Pierce but it took me much longer to learn to love science fiction (despite being a science geek) because I felt I had nothing in common with the main characters. I waited for someone to write this book. Someone with a strong female voice. And then gave up and wrote it myself.

2. Why aren’t you writing our next Parasol book instead?
Crudrat was finished years ago, don’t worry it’s not distracting me. Right now I’m working hard to complete the Finishing School series so I can turn my attention to the Parasol Protectorate Abroad books. Everything is on schedule. Trust me, I am genuinely typing as fast as I can without burning out. Sometimes a girl needs a breather.

3. Why an Audiobook?
I happen to adore audiobooks and am an avowed podcast addict. I consume most of my day to day information via podcasts these days. I think the narrative voice in Crudrat favors audio. Most of my books do. You see I grew up without a television listening to books on tape. I read at least one draft of every book I write out load. For me audio is an intimate part of the author’s medium.

4. Why the kickstarter?
Because of #2. This book is very dear to me and so different from my Parasol Protectorate universe, Crudrat gave me an opportunity to stretch my writing muscles in different ways but I can’t take the time to produce this book myself. Publishers aren’t interested in it but I happen to love it. So does Dan of Artistic Whispers Productions. He offered to whisk it away into a full cast audio. However, I want Dan and the talent to be compensated for their time, hence the kickstarter. This is a way for me to pass the project over to someone I trust, so that I can continue writing and make my deadlines for you.

5. What should I expect from Crudrat?
A fantastically smart, capable, and independent outcast wreaking havoc on a space station in order to save a big fuzzy alien. I’m melding such desperate elements as child labor in the UK cotton mills of the industrial revolution, caste systems of Ancient India, and cultural eccentricities of the Inka and the Wari of Highland Peru. Oh and lots of Parkour. And blue hair.

Crudrat is nothing like the Parasol Protectorate or the Finishing School series except that it takes a smart young woman and places her in extraordinary circumstances. It’s not steampunk and it’s not a comedy of manners. Yes there’s the expected witty quips, it is me after all, but adrenaline is high and murmmel’s are screaming, so there isn’t much time to sit and sip tea.

6. A little more please?
My best friend and I came up with the science behind the space station and space travel of Crudrat when we were in high school and the universe has been percolating in my brain for nearly 20 years.

If you are or were a young woman who dislikes science fiction, who isn’t inclined to read it, and who never understood the appeal, I wrote this book for you.

7. But I want to read your books, not listen to them.
One of the kickstarter rewards is a limited edition publication of the book, and another includes an ebook version. And if the kickstarter does well and people seem to like the book who knows… a publisher could take interest. Or I could build some time into my schedule to type set it and put it out there myself (always remembering that you need your Parasol Protectorate fix).

If you want more about Crudrat go ahead and poke about the website. There’s a lot there about the project and the universe. You can sign up for the newsletter if you’d like to stay abreast of the latest information. As I said, I have passed off production and such to Dan, so you’ll get an occasional blog here, but mostly it’s in his capable hands. You can ask him any questions you would like.

Or, if you’d prefer you can leave a question bellow and I will . . . eventually . . . formulate another blog post on the subject. I’m awful slow to respond to things these days, for which I appologize, remember those deadlines we talked about?

GAIL’S DAILY DOSE

Your Moment of Parasol . . .

Your Infusion of Cute . . .

via Brian Kesinger’s Tea Girls FB

Your Tisane of Smart . . .
I wrote Crudrat a while ago, before Parkour was everywhere, but in line with that please enjoy this YouTube: Assassin’s Creed Meets Parkour

Your Writerly Tinctures . . .  
Pornokitch on what is science fiction?

Book News:
Go, find out more on the Kickstarter.
Also here’s Dan and Kitty talking about making that fantastic kickstarter video via podcast on The Next Ten Thousand Hours, Ep 02.

Quote of the Day:

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”

~ E. M. Forster