Hi friends! I’m so happy to welcome back the lovely Karen Cox to Austenesque Reviews today! Karen is here to celebrate the audiobook release of Undeceived: Pride and Prejudice in the Spy Game and share a little behind-the-scenes look into the creating of this audiobook! I don’t know about you, but I always love getting an inside look like this! We hope you enjoy! 🎧📖
Hello, everyone!
I just wanted to drop by and let you all know (if you didn’t already) that my 1980s Cold War-era spy novel: Undeceived: Pride and Prejudice in the Spy Game is now available in audio – narrated by the amazing Elizabeth Grace (Elizabeth: Obstinate, Headstrong Girl, 1932, Green Card.)
If you are familiar with the storyline, you’ll re
member that the novel takes place in several different locales: Hungary, East Germany, Virginia, Trinidad and Tobago. Producing the audiobook involved several new challenges (mostly for Elizabeth) that I never considered when I originally wrote the story. In an effort to be as accurate as possible, we consulted the lovely Agnes N for pronunciation of the Hungarian place names and a few phrases.
For those who are unaware (I was, at the beginning of all this) Hungarian is a Uralic language, and, according to Agnes, it is difficult for English speakers to learn it well enough to sound like a native (thus, Lizzy Bennet’s great-grandma from Hungary was born.)
Elizabeth Grace rose to the challenge, however, and last winter, the three of us had a great time hashing out some of those pronunciations. Below is a couple minutes of that conversation. As you will see, Elizabeth and Agnes are doing all the heavy lifting, while I sit there in awe – lol.
Audiobooks are fabulous, but back when I was only a listener, I didn’t realize how much work goes into them to make a top-notch production. I’m incredibly grateful to Elizabeth for her skill and professionalism, and to Agnes for her time and generosity.
Do you have any audio production experience? What do you think the joys and challenges are? If you’re a listener, what are the pros and cons of audiobooks?
This was so cool, Karen! Thank you for sharing! I love that you and Elizabeth worked so hard to present an authentic Hungarian accent!
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~ Giveaway Time ~
Karen will draw 3 commenters from this post to receive an audiobook code for Undeceived. (Audio codes are from Authors Direct* and are currently available in US, UK/EU, Canada, Australia only).
To enter this giveaway, you can answer Karen’s questions about audiobooks, or leave her a question, comment or some love!
- This giveaway is open to residents in the US, UK/EU, Canada, and Australia. Thank you, Karen!
- This giveaway ends July 16th.
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~ Learn more about Elizabeth Grace here ~
~ Learn more about Karen M Cox and her books here ~
Undeceived: Pride and Prejudice in the Spy Game is available on several audiobook platforms, including: Audible/Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Nook Audiobooks, and Authors Direct.
*If you already have an Authors Direct account, the audiobook will instantly appear in the app. Otherwise, they will create an account (they’re free) and send you a link.
I’d very much like to win a copy of your audiobook. . .very much!
Good luck!
I read and enjoyed this story. No need to include me in the giveaway. I do recommend it to other readers.
Thank you, Sheila 🙂
Karen, your story sounds so intriguing! Congratulations 🙂
Thanks, Susan: It was a labor of love, like all our books are 😉
Please don’t include me in the giveaway, as I already own an ebook copy and don’t need the audiobook. Just wanted to share some love for Karen Cox – love her books!!!
How kind, Cassandra <3 Thanks so much!
Ooh, Lizzy and Darcy as spies? This intrigues me! Another book to add to the TBR hoard!
I know, right? Mt TBR is humongous 😀
The biggest challenge for me with an audiobook is processing information fast enough. Sometimes when I read, I will go back and re-read when I didn’t fully understand a passage. This is more difficult with an audio book. Also, my husband tends to say things to me at random moments, and if I am listening to a book, it is difficult to find my place afterwards.
Ack, my husband does the same. It can get pretty annoying 😀 Funny thing is, he LOVES audiobooks, and doesn’t seem to care if I interrupt him either.
That video was so cool! Thank you, Karen, for sharing some of the behind-the-scenes work that Elizabeth did with Agnes. There’s something so beautiful about the three of you working together across space and different language/cultural backgrounds to make this audiobook! I loved Elizabeth’s narration of Elizabeth: OHG, and I’m so excited to listen to Undeceived. Meredith, many thanks for hosting this giveaway, but I have a copy of the audiobook already. Happy listening, everyone!
Thanks, Christina! We really did have the best time. If you’re interested and have a half-hour to spare, the entire recording is up on my YouTube channel.
This book sounds amazing, and the story behind the audio is very interesting.
I wrote this book with no thought of how it might translate to audio – we all had some work to do to make it happen 🙂 Thanks for your comment, Heather!
I love listening to audiobooks and am impressed by narrators who are able to do unique and distinct voices for each character so the listener easily knows whose speaking.
It takes so much talent and hard work – practice, practice, practice. I’m in awe of people who can do that!
Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in the spy world sounds amazing.
It’s interesting how the characters just seemed to “slide” into that setting – it was fun to write 🙂
Thanks for the audio giveaway. Love the premise of the book!
Good luck in the giveaway, Lily 🙂
Hi!
While I freely admit I haven’t considered owning an audiobook, the story behind making it happen is fascinating! Because I know how challenging Hungarian prononciation can be (as a French speaker I do see how difficult a “ö” can be and as a Romanian born I did hear a lot of Hungarian also), I am impressed and grateful by your dedication and professionalism! And, ultimately, your love and respect for the story and your readers/auditors!
Undecieved is a great story, but then all Karen’s books are (of course there is a never-challenged number one in the lot…) and one of the reasons I loved it is that it made me travel with them all over those places (some I knew, like Budapest, some I discovered with my mind’s eyes like the Trinidad….).
Have a great weekend and hugs to all!
Thank you, Mihaela I consulted with Agnes when I wrote the story originally. She was so helpful – told me about accuracy of details and when I missed the mark culturally. I always wanted to show my respect for the various settings and the people there. It may not be a perfect representation, but I believe it’s important to try my best. Appreciate your support – is your never-challenged #1 “1932” by chance? It is for a lot of readers
First – I want to salute the narrators in Audiobooks. Such a challenging task – imparting different emotions as well as switching from one character to the next and changing accent…
I had been listening more and more audiobooks. It helps relieve the stress of the day or add enjoyment when doing housework. Some disadvantages: Though not very often, there were times/areas, Audible will not play (not sure what’s wrong….) and there was one story (don’t know if specific to this story) It kept replaying the first sentence of the chapter.
Undeceived was such a great modern P & P variations. Thank you for this chance to win an audiobook copy.
I have already been impressed by Elizabeth Grace’s narration skills and now this! Those accents to tackle, truly impressive. I appreciate the hard work that goes into producing an audio book for the narrator, and the author and fortunately have learned this through this blog and some other Austen author sites. Oh, that video above! You were all brave showing that to us, 😀 but really enjoyable. I was thinking ‘glad that’s not my job!’ Thanks for bringing your book to us in audio form Karen. All the best…
Congrats on the release, Karen! I love audiobooks, and I am always happy to see another Austenesque book available in this format. 🙂
Love your books–they are interesting and well written–always a pleasure to read. Thanks for entering me in the giveaway.
The spy game angle sounds interesting. I listen to Audiobooks while commuting. Sometimes I’ll drive to town on the weekends so I can keep going with the story. I would like to add this to my TBR (Listened to).