A Chat with Lucinda Brant & Alex Wyndham, a Giveaway, and First Chapter Listen

Lucinda Brant
Lucinda Brant

I discovered Lucinda Brant through two reviews of her Alec Halsey historical fiction series here at AudioGals written by Caz (Deadly Engagement) and Kaetrin (Deadly Affair). Both highly praised Alex Wyndham, narrator of the series, giving him an A grade. I had only listened to an hour of Alex’s narration of Midnight Marriage before I too was praising his skills which are remarkable to say the least. Kaetrin, Caz, and I all agree that Alex could give Nicholas Boulton – easily the most praised male narrator I’ve seen in the romance genre – a run for his money. You can discover more about Alex at his AudioGals Narrator’s Page.

And then there is Ms. Brant’s superb writing of both historical fiction and historical romance. It’s not cliched in the least offering the listener a detailed look into the Georgian era.

The first in the Roxton Family Saga historical romance series, Midnight Marriage, releases today. Within the next few months it will be followed by another three series entries. With Alex Wyndham’s narration and Ms. Brant’s writing, we just knew it was something we needed to celebrate.

Today, I’m chatting with Lucinda and Alex and we have a First Chapter Listen of Midnight Marriage as well. AND, of course, there is the Giveaway. We’re giving away ten sets of the first two audio releases in the series – Midnight Marriage and Autumn Duchess. Autumn Duchess will be released in mid-August and will be available for download upon release.

Also, immediately below this post, you will find Caz’s review of Midnight Marriage. So – lots to entertain you today!

 

The Giveaway

We’re giving away ten (10) sets of Midnight Marriage and Autumn Duchess (Audible downloads). Entry is simple. Just complete the easy entry form found at the bottom of the page by midnight (CST) Friday, July 31st. No comments are necessary to enter although we’d love to hear your thoughts in our discussion area. You may only enter once – anyone entering more than once will be disqualified. We’ll contact the ten winners on August 1st so watch your email as we must have acknowledgement of your win within 24 hours. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll select another winner.

 

Chatting with Lucinda and Alex

Alex Wyndham
Alex Wyndham

LEA  Welcome Lucinda and Alex to AudioGals! We’re thrilled to have you with us today.

ALEX  Thank you very much!

LUCINDA  Thank you, Lea! It’s wonderful to be here. :)

LEA  Lucinda, I know you write in more than one genre. How would you describe your books?

LUCINDA  Character driven Georgian historical romances and mysteries, with lots of drama, adventure, a sprinkling of eccentric characters and a villain or two to keep things interesting. And of course the reader/listener gets an immersive experience in my Georgian world. As one reviewer put it “When you read a Lucinda Brant novel you are THERE in the 18th Century”. Another reviewer said my stories are “Heart-wrenching dramas with a Happily Ever After”, which pretty much sums up the emotional content. Perhaps we should put Alex on the spot and ask him how he would describe them (he’s now read enough of them!) :)

ALEX  Oh sure! Well for me they had that rare Georgette Heyer quality of being smart and sensitive enough to elevate themselves above a lot of historical/romantic fiction.

LEA  I’m impressed – you know Georgette Heyer’s work!

ALEX  Oh – love it. Used to stay at a friends house as a kid and plundered their tattered old copies. Amazing cover art!

LUCINDA  Wow! That’s a lovely compliment, Alex! You know I collect first edition Heyer’s, and those old Pan paperbacks from the 50s.

ALEX  Those are the ones. I do think though that if you are trying to engage someone emotionally in that direct way, you do have to be smart and sensitive. Clumsy writing just can’t suspend one’s disbelief.

LUCINDA  That’s it – the emotion is so important to get across, and if you don’t use the right nuances of language it will come across as, well, corny (for want of a better word).

ALEX  You know what I think you do very well Lucinda? Character and motivation.

LUCINDA  Please, tell me!

ALEX  A good example for me are “villains.” A lot of the time one is expected to make do with a villain who has no clear motivations – is just some sort of bad egg.

LEA  Cardboard villain.

ALEX  Yes!

ALEX  And I think for a story arc to really work for me, I need to connect with the villain almost as much as the hero.

LUCINDA  Oh! Thank you. Yes, I do like a good villain. :) But motivation is so terribly important, isn’t it? Otherwise the reader just isn’t going to buy it.

ALEX  Yup – you’ve lost me if I can’t understand and FEEL why someone is doing something.

Midnight MarriageLUCINDA  Me too. I could always connect with the villain in Shakespeare. Take Othello for instance. Iago was such a three dimensional character, whereas I found Othello and Desdemona rather cardboard cutouts (oops, probably going to get myself in trouble with the Othello groupies).

LEA  That’s what places your writing above many historical romances I listen to. I had a hard time deciding just who the villain was in Midnight Marriage.

LUCINDA  Really, Lea? Please elaborate

LEA  In Midnight Marriage, a number of characters were clearly shown to have both good and bad motivations. It kept me guessing. The ultimate villain was not obvious to me for a good portion of the book. A troublemaker? Yes.

ALEX  That’s another interesting thing actually Lucinda… You embrace male ideas of ‘pride’ and ‘arrogance’ in your heroes as not essentially toxic things.

LEA  Ahh – yes!

ALEX  And that makes them a lot more believable for me actually.

LEA  Thumbs up!

LUCINDA  I guess I like my heroes to be flawed, well at least three-dimensional beings, with good and bad in them, so they are believable. Ah! You’ve just said that, Alex! :)

ALEX  It also feels to me more authentically of another time with social/gender behavior, which would shock the Guardian reader (by that I mean super liberal types – like myself actually!) if we saw them in action to today.

LEA  I’m one of those too…

LUCINDA  Exactly! They are of another time – and thus arrogance and pride were seen very much as qualities to be cultivated, particularly if you were of a certain class. Hahahaha! Yes the Guardian reader would be shocked – Like me!

LEA  Hard to remove ourselves from today and think like those of the Georgian era.

ALEX  I suppose maybe that’s part of the appeal. You can leave the enlightenment crusade for a little!

LUCINDA  Well, I must be good at removing myself from reality and living in the Georgian era in my headspace because I grew up in a very socialist household – my mother is an avid republican from way back – when Australians were shocked by such notions (Americans might find this hard to believe).

LUCINDA  We still have a Queen of Australia!

LEA  Living in America’s heartland, I have to say that I didn’t realize that! And I pride myself on such details. 0.0

ALEX  Well, so much has happened in the last couple of hundred years. Abolition of slavery, female enfranchisement, legalisation of homosexuality… And thank god! But it’s easy to look before that and knee-jerk judge it all as medieval and bad.

LEA  So true.

LUCINDA  Totally off topic but when I was in school the national anthem of Australia was God Save the Queen! Truly! But that said, I am not giving up my dual nationality. I have a British Passport; my Dad was in the British army during WW2 so, when in the UK, I am a happy to sing God Save the Queen! :) Yes, and a lot of that thinking about abolition of slavery, female equality, etc. all had beginnings in the 18th century! :)

LEA  Before we leave our discussion of the Georgian setting, I want to add something from a listener’s perspective. I visualize when I read or listen. And since I’m often listening to romance, I visualize the HERO. Those skirts and heels and jewels of the Georgian period are just too much for my idea of a hero. :) BUT, I accepted your descriptions – it worked. I didn’t have to make myself visualize Julian in 19th century clothing (an admittedly good time to be a hero – clothes-wise).

LUCINDA  Well, when I write I visualize all my scenes, and characters of course, and if you study 18th century clothing for men, it is not all heels, powder and perfume – except at court! Most men wore rather plain frockcoats and breeches and low-heeled black leather shoes.

LUCINDA  But I’m so pleased you were able to accept my descriptions – that’s great! :)

ALEX  You also seem to distinguish your male characters between those who love the wigs, powder, and stacked heels. And those who don’t Lucinda.

LUCINDA  Yes, that’s part of the eccentricity and individuality of the characters. I guess like today, when you have guys with manscapes!

ALEX  HA, yes!

LEA  I did appreciate that with Julian. Sorta wiping my mind of those red heels. :)

LUCINDA  There’s an interesting theory that in the 18th century there was less of a distinction between what constituted “maleness” and being “female”. So the wearing of heels wasn’t considered masculine or feminine, it was just considered fashionable. Does that make sense?

LEA  It does and I’ve seen several well-done Georgian era movies that convince me of just that. Still, it’s hard to visualize at times…

LUCINDA  And also what was considered “court wear” and every daywear was very different, if you look at the outfits worn at court. Sort of like looking at the clothes on a catwalk – which are as far removed from what ordinary people wear as you can get!

LEA  Ahh – I know about 19th century court wear – I just hadn’t transferred that knowledge to the 18th century. Hmmm.

LUCINDA  Like Belle – now that was a great well-done Georgian movie!

ALEX  It’s interesting – I think if you’ve been normalized to men dressing in that way – and for me as a Brit I feel like I’ve sort of grown up with those types – it’s easier to engage… I mean not ACTUALLY :-) But in TV shows, paintings and books.

LUCINDA  Me too! And let’s not forget Jon Pertwee as Dr. Who ran around in what was essentially 18th century gear! :)

ALEX  Yes! Even in my schools the walls were lined with old cracked oil paintings of men in heels and wigs!! (Hogwarts!)

LEA  Okay – you all do live in different worlds from me. :)

LUCINDA  Really? Oh wow! I would have LOVED to have gone to your school (though it was a boys’ school right?)

ALEX  All boys boarding school – 600 years old – Winchester College. It was actually a lot like Hogwarts…

LEA  Fascinating to this American.

Autumn DuchessLUCINDA  How fabulous!!! I dreamed of going to a school like that! My husband went to a similar school in Hobart – oldest continuous boys school in Australia – but nowhere near 600 years old! He did have a magenta and black blazer. :) Crazy wonderful! Though my daughter went to boarding school and hated it.

ALEX  Looking back – it was crazy.

ALEX  And actually Lea, now when I look back on some of those environments, they seem pretty outlandish. God knows how they would come across. But yup, they sort of get hardwired into you and then when you engage with Americans…

LUCINDA  But all that history! And tradition!

ALEX  Indeed :-)

LUCINDA  I’d have loved it! :) I was Head Girl at my school, sportswoman of the year, and Girl’s Dux – a complete girly swat.

ALEX  Gosh – you would have!

ALEX  I have to tell you one funny story… There was one girl in the entire school. She was the daughter of one of the Housemasters who made the astonishing decision to send her there (with discounted fees I suppose but still!). And quite unbelievably, her name was Fanny.

LEA  HA!

LUCINDA  OMG Truly???!!

ALEX  God’s honest truth. Fanny Shorter was her name. And she was actually very pretty.

LUCINDA  Okay, I just spluttered my tea across my keyboard….

LEA  I can’t quit laughing.

ALEX  :-)

LUCINDA  But how did they allow her at the school – regardless of being the daughter of a Housemaster – I mean, I taught at a girls’ school and there is no way they would allow a boy within 50 yards of the gate!

ALEX  I believe they would allow teachers children but obviously they wouldn’t board.

LUCINDA  I bet that was a huge disappointment for the boys…

ALEX  Indeed!

LEA  Lucinda – I learned of your audiobooks through our reviewers Caz and Kaetrin. They each reviewed audios in your Alec Halsey Historical Mystery series. Both were very impressed with your narration, Alex, and longed to hear the two of your pair up again for a romance audiobook. Lucinda, I believe you had something to do with the choice of Alex for your Alec Halsey series and now your Roxton Family Saga series. How did that all come about?

LUCINDA  Something? Everything! :) I listened to hundreds of narrators’ sample audios, searching for my Alec Halsey. With an Anglo/Australian mother, Scottish father, Italian grandparents, and English cousins, I come from a long line of accents. So I think I have a pretty good ear, and so I knew what I was looking – um – listening for: a narrator who spoke with a natural RP accent for the narration and to voice Alec Halsey, but who also had the ability to inhabit different accents and sound authentic. And when I listened to Alex I knew he was THE ONE. This may surprise him, too, but it was his Indian (as in the subcontinent) accent performance that really sealed the deal for me. I was originally looking for a different narrator for each series (I have three so far). But after Alex recorded Deadly Engagement I thought, “Hold on a minute! What was I thinking? Alex would be perfect to perform my Roxton saga, too!” But as he had not narrated a romance before, I was unsure if he’d be interested. So I was over the moon when he said yes, he’d give it a go.:)

ALEX  Wow. Really?

ALEX  Well I am very glad.

LUCINDA  REALLY!

LUCINDA  Me too! Of course! :)

LEA  And there is the added allure of guaranteed good listens for those who have heard Alex narrate the Alec Halsey series.

LEA  I sometimes wonder if narrators and authors understand the degree audio listeners follow narrators. It is a very big thing.

ALEX  Again, I am so happy that people do enjoy my narration – it’s such a skill and I feel I’ve got so much to learn.

LEA  Well, we’ll keep listening as you improve and will enjoy every minute of it.

LUCINDA  At the time, I was just thinking of my characters, and who would be the best person to bring them to life. And Alex did such a wonderful job with the mysteries, I knew he could do the romances, too. I just wasn’t sure if he’d be interested because I think I was your first romance – so to speak!

ALEX  Well thanks all! I look forward to getting a lot better I hope – that’s one of things that makes narration so appealing.

LEA  But we hear no need for improvement. :)

ALEX  Very kind!

LEA  Alex, can you share with us your first dealings with Lucinda?

Dair DevilALEX  Indeed. Lucinda got in touch with me through a company called Bee Audio, a really wonderful audiobook production company who works with remote narrators, and, as they do, they sent through Deadly Engagement.

ALEX  And I believe I’d just narrated a fairly horrific serial killer novel translated from another language which was most taxing. And I remember reading Deadly Engagement and it being like a breath of fresh air.

ALEX  And I think that world was one that is fairly easily populated from people from my actual past! But yes, it was a no-brainer.

LUCINDA  How fabulous! I did wonder about that – people from your actual past! Which is really interesting considering I live in a writers’ cave – I must channel my previous life as a lay about Aristo from the 18th century!

ALEX  Well it’s funny – the education that we were chatting about.

LUCINDA  But I’m glad Deadly Engagement gave you a bit of respite after a serial killer novel! And hopefully a bit of a laugh. To tell a truth, I could not stop laughing when I first listened to your narration – your characterizations were just so spot on! :)

ALEX  Thank you. Wow that seems so long ago now actually! But yup, it’s the education – pre-prep, prep, public school and university. They were all to a degree time capsules. You would be astonished at the characters among the teaching staff and pupils.

LEA  And you “get” something else right Alex – you don’t resort to falsetto voices for your female characters.

ALEX  Ha! That’s an interesting one.

LEA  And a pet peeve among romance listeners!

LUCINDA  I’m so glad to hear you say that, Lea, as I was very particular about the female voices, wasn’t I, Alex? Probably drove you a bit nuts!

LEA  From Caz’s review of Midnight Marriage, “Every character is distinctly voiced according to age and situation, and I continue to be impressed with his portrayal of the females, who never sound squeaky or too high-pitched.”

ALEX  Again, I really hope that as a narrator people engage with what you put out there instinctively – and with female characters it just doesn’t feel right to sort of squeak. You stop short of connecting with a character and start doing an impression, which rapidly becomes a cliché.

LEA  Yes, a cartoon almost.

ALEX  Exactly.

LUCINDA  That’s right. Alex never portrays the female voices as too squeaky. And why would he need to? Females have quite a vocal range.

ALEX  Well that’s the thing too. I listen to a lot of my female friends and their voices are full and rich and fairly deep and you lose that if you go falsetto.

LEA  Women narrators can be guilty of that as well.

LUCINDA  Which is my voice, actually. I’m not at all mentally scarred by the fact that when I was a pre-teen and answered the phone the caller would mistake me for my father! Hahaha!

ALEX  Ha!

ALEX  Part of it I think is trying to capture that feminine quality.

LUCINDA  Yes! You can be feminine without being squeaky!

ALEX  You want your character’s gender to be clear. I genuinely think it’s very tough for guys to portray girls and vice versa. And honestly? I think it is a pretty searing reveal of how much you “get” the opposite sex! I say that NOT from the point of view of thinking I am especially good at it, FYI!

LUCINDA  Though I’m guessing quite a few people would be surprised by that given you went to an all boys school. But I think that helps, actually (which is probably not the politically correct thing to say).

LEA  Yes – hearing a character’s motivation in the narrator’s performance. We get that! And it is so needed in portraying the opposite sex.

LUCINDA  But you must be, to narrate a romance!

ALEX  Well possibly as I was raised by women.

ALEX  I think the sexes spend so much time pretending to be gender archetypes to each other.

LEA  Interesting thought… you are right!

LEA  Alex, do you record in a home studio?

Noble SatyrALEX  I do indeed. It’s what makes it possible for me, to be honest. As an actor, your life is so impossible to plan. And being able to fit my recording around crazy last minute request (can you be in Bulgaria tomorrow?) is vital.

LUCINDA  And are you off to Bulgaria tomorrow??? Gee, I hope not – well for your sake yes, but not for the Roxtons! :)

ALEX  Ha, no!

ALEX  It’s funny though, but that particular request has popped up twice. Lots of movies (and not always the very best ones) shoot there as you can get much more bang for your buck in production terms.

ALEX  But yup – narration is actually in a lot of ways far more fulfilling than screen acting.

LUCINDA  As an actor I’m sure you’d have to be fairly discerning then as to what you choose to take on or not.

ALEX  Discernment is a hard won privilege! I’ve certainly done a fair few murky projects.

LUCINDA  Ha! Yes. I’m sure it is. But do you find you second guess taking things on or not, as to whether they might come back to haunt you in the future?

ALEX  Well, I had quite a big choice years ago when I was starting out (he says) and I did a BBC adaptation of Alan Holinghurts The Line Of Beauty which was a novel about posh gay men in Thatcher’s 80s. And as a straight guy that was a big choice – I got the tail end! As the character was gay and there were A LOT of sex scenes.

LUCINDA  I lived through Thatcher’s 80s…

ALEX  But to be honest, although it was mind blowing actually going through the project, as an actor you do have to be careful – you can do anything once!

LUCINDA  And yes, I do know that telemovie and the part you played in it. And I am sure viewers then typecast not only you as an actor but your private life as well.

ALEX  But audiences I think instinctively want you to be a particular version of yourself and I think for really high profile actors that can be a real problem.

LUCINDA  Well, I think there are actors out there that lend themselves to becoming the particular version they think the audience wants, which is just giving in to your own hype!

ALEX  It’s true – and there’s always the loft conversion that needs doing. :-)

LUCINDA  Hahahaha!

LEA  Recording in your home studio is impressive – again – in that the production quality is high. From what I know of home studios, you are responsible for most of the production?

ALEX  Again – I have to give a shout out to Bee Audio. Yes, it’s important that I have a good Neumann mic and a decent recording environment and kit. The editors and proofers that I send my files to are the ones responsible for the end product and they do a fantastic job I think.

LUCINDA  I will too! Bee Audio production quality is second to none. :)

ALEX  I think their model is a bit of a dream for everyone involved actually.

LUCINDA  To be frank, I’ve listened to some auditions (always with my headphones) and there have been dogs barking in the background, air conditioning units humming, a car driving past… Truly! Whereas Bee Audio is so professional, and the sound quality superb – and if I have any queries, etc., they are onto it pronto!

ALEX  Gosh, really?

LEA  Yes – the background noise can ruin a listen although the background noise we hear most often is a persistent hum.

LEA  How did you get started narrating audiobooks?

ALEX  I started narrating… well, the truth of an acting career is this: Endless Waiting. Thus, a whole lot of time. And even when you are on a project it can be such a small amount of involvement. A whole morning in make up for two pages. So, I just felt very strongly I wanted to get more performing done. More characters, more voices.

LUCINDA  It seems to me you need to be a very patient personality type to be an actor.

ALEX  Ha, yes – but no one is!!

ALEX  But yes – the appeal of having a huge volume of character interpretation and using your voice over months and months was huge. I remember on Rome, we would sometimes be called at 4:30 a.m. to get into make up before the girls who needed hours for a wigs and the like and then your scene would get bumped back and back and several days – I did not work at all. Just sat in a trailer till 7:00 p.m., mind slowly melting.

LUCINDA  So you’d be sitting around in your toga and sandals for hours right?

ALEX  Exactly! In a bloody toga!

LUCINDA  OMG the boredom would be awful…

LEA  We viewers have no idea!

LEA  Did the two of you have any contact before or during the recording of those first two books in the Alec Halsey series?

ALEX  No! But we have emailed since and it’s been a pleasure. :-)

LUCINDA  If I remember correctly, I sent along my detailed production notes (I do like to be helpful!) to Jennifer, Alec’s producer at BeeAudio, with the first Alec Halsey book, and then when the review from AudioGals came out, sent that along too. Of course I’ve been much more “helpful” with the production notes for the Roxton series, given it is a saga and the same characters continue on and grow older with each book. Alex has been so charming to take my notes on board. Every author who sends off their book to a narrator must feel they are sending their “child” off to be scrutinized. And it’s rather personal, well it is for me, because when you read a book it’s all in your head. Here was Alex reading my words and interpreting my characters out loud, and that was rather confronting and held a certain amount of trepidation. Would he get my characters? My sense of humor? Would the characters sound like I imagined? And oh boy! Do they! He’s done a terrific job, and I am quite comfortable now, and really look forward to hearing him perform my books.

ALEX  Yes – that must be tough. Letting go after bleeding into those characters for so long. And having another layer of interpretation whacked on top and then shoved out into the public domain!

ALEX  I’d better not think about that actually. I might salt my game. Is that a real phrase?

LEA  It is now!

LUCINDA  If it isn’t, it is now! :)

ALEX  !

LUCINDA  Snap!

LEA  Lucinda, Midnight Marriage, the first audiobook in your Roxton Family Saga Historical Romance series released today. Can you first give us an overview of the series? And what is the setup for Midnight Marriage?

LUCINDA  Sure. The series deals with the lives and loves of an English aristocratic family during the mid 1700s. The Duke of Roxton is equivalent to a billionaire in today’s terms, with all the trappings and toys that come with such wealth – mansions, carriages, fast horses, fabulous clothes, lots of hangers-on, women throwing themselves in his way, etc. But, of course, like any wealthy family corporation it comes with responsibilities to see that his estates, wealth, family, and employees, all prosper. But as we all know, you can’t buy love. And while you can choose your friends, you are stuck with your relatives. Which all makes for lots of drama. And all set within an authentic historical framework. And there is the main character – Antonia – who is in all the books. She’s the light in the room, and the silken thread that binds the family together, and who you get to see develop from a bright and bubbly 18 year old right through to matriarch of the family.

LUCINDA  I should say Antonia is 18 in Book 1, Noble Satyr, the prequel to Midnight Marriage. In Midnight Marriage, she is in her 40s. :)

LUCINDA  As for Midnight Marriage, it’s about what happens when an arranged marriage between two noble teenagers must finally become more than a marriage in name only. The heroine has no recollection of her marriage, and our hero wants to finally make it a marriage in every sense, so he can have an heir to show his dying father the line will continue on after him. But they fall in love, and this complicates matters for both of them, particularly when Society believes him to be a conscienceless libertine.

ALEX  Conscienceless libertine :-)

LUCINDA  Although Kendrick/Alex now has no name at all…

LEA  I hear it is inspired by real events…

LUCINDA  Yes! Truth is always stranger than fiction. Charles Lennox (later 2nd Duke of Richmond) was 18 and his bride Sarah Cadogan 13 when they were married in 1719 to settle a gambling debt between their fathers. They learned they were to be married on the day of the wedding. They’d never set eyes on each other, and he wasn’t too impressed with her looks at the time. After the ceremony he went off on the Grand Tour, and she went back to the nursery. Years later he was at the theater and noticed a beautiful girl, asked who she was and found out it was his wife! They had a very happy marriage, were devoted to one another, and had 12 children.

LEA  Oh wow!

ALEX  Great “how we met story”.

LUCINDA  Yes!

LEA  And one can’t say “That sort of thing would have never happened!”

LUCINDA  Exactly! And reason I put an author’s note in the book! :) But I don’t think I’ll be giving Deb and Julian 12 children!!!

ALEX  That’s amazing.

LEA  I understand that Midnight Marriage is actually Book 2 of the Roxton Family Saga. What is Book 1 – will we see it in audio format?

LUCINDA  Midnight Marriage can be read as a stand alone (did I mention it is a perms-free eBook?) and is the natural starting point for the rest of the family saga. Book 1 is set some 25 years before Midnight Marriage, and is actually the prequel to the series (but Amazon’s numbering system starts at 1 not 0!) And yes, Noble Satyr will be released in audio format soon.

LEA  The audio release order of the first four Roxton Family Saga books is Book 2 – Midnight Marriage, Book 3 – Autumn Duchess, Book 4 – Dair Devil, and Book 1 – Noble Satyr. Do you know the approximate release dates?

LUCINDA  One a month for the next couple of months, beginning today with Midnight Marriage, mid-August for Book 3, Autumn Duchess, with Dair Devil due for release mid-September, and with Noble Satyr sometime in October. And then the Roxton letters, after that. And of course, Books 5 & 6 and more letters next year.

LUCINDA  So lots for Alex to narrate yet! :)

LEA  Yay!

LEA  I tell you Alex – we’re going to WISH romance narrations on you.

ALEX  Well I hope I get a chance to have a go at them.

ALEX  There are a few passages in Autumn Duchess… well suffice to say I get to play every single part of the hero Jonathon Strang. Bar none.

LUCINDA  Hahahaha! I told you I was looking forward to your performance of his organs!!!! Tastefully and respectfully written and narrated naturally…

ALEX  A conversation between them no less. But actually one of the tough things about actually reading sex scenes is perfect timing.

LEA  I think I’ve already established the fact that romance listeners have been waiting to hear you narrate a romance, Alex. Your narrations of Deadly Engagement and Deadly Affair each earned an A here at AudioGals and your narration of Midnight Marriage garnered an A+ from Caz and I have to say that it was an A+ narration for me as well. I predict you will quickly develop a fan base among romance listeners if you haven’t already. Hey – we do appreciate exceptional male narrators. I believe this was your first romance narration. Did you find narrating a romance any different from your other fictional narrations?

ALEX  Yup – it is different. It’s a real pleasure because it’s very unpretentious in a certain way. In a lot of fiction there is almost a sense that it can’t entertain you too thoroughly! As though it wasn’t the done thing – hence the pretension. The tough thing is knowing how to read sex scenes… I think as a narrator one is always concerned about sounding sleazy. After all, you are describing an intimate act right into someone else’s ear.

LUCINDA  Hahahaha! I never thought about it that way before – an intimate act right in someone’s ear!

ALEX  But yup – whispering sexy stuff into a mic on your own gives you a keen awareness of your own potential creepiness! So I guess, for me, it’s important to try and keep it genuine and from the heart and not arch or affected. Cos who wants that guy whispering in your ear??

LUCINDA  If I may say, you read the sex scenes in Midnight Marriage very sensitively. And I loved the way you narrated the scene after the ball, when Julian visits Deb in her bedchamber to finish his confession and gets distracted by her nightgown being all askew. Definitely NOT creepy but lovely.

LUCINDA  Actually, everyone will want you whispering in their ear, trust me! Hahahaha!

LEA  Uh, yeah – listeners will definitely enjoy you whispering in their ears.

LUCINDA  You know, one thing I did not count on going into audiobooks is that now when I write there is a little voice in the back of my mind saying “Alex is going to read this out loud”. And I have to make a very conscious effort to send that voice away so I can just get on and write what I want to write, and I’ve never had to worry about that before…

ALEX  Yes, please do send it away!

LUCINDA  It was the same when I first started reading my books aloud to my husband. Now I just do and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, it’s a good thing!

LEA  Alex, how do you go about preparing for your narrations of Lucinda’s books? Do characters from previous books appear in the newer books necessitating the need to plan for characterizations of an entire series?

ALEX  Well actually the best fun I have preparing the characters is when I head off down to Exmoor where my family has a little cottage right in the middle of the moors (it’s a national park) and I wander off into said moors muttering to myself usually snippets of Shakespeare which I learnt at drama school and gradually sort of form voices.

ALEX  I always think how utterly insane I would appear wandering around muttering and flailing.

LEA  A sight for sure! :)

ALEX  But it’s a lot of fun cos there’s no one around to see you.

LUCINDA  The moors would be the perfect place to mutter to oneself! And then you can appear out from the mist and really scare some hikers! :)

ALEX  I await the day!

ALEX  So that’s the fun part actually. The real work is ensuring they are consistent and genuinely do-able over a sustained period of reading.

LEA  Can you do that in your head? Or do you have recorded reminders?

ALEX  Well you can always go back and listen which is important to do. But if all is going well, your brain stores the “feel” of the character and when you come to read the dialogue, it just emerges without you having to think about it too much.

LEA  Not being an actor, that sounds remarkable.

ALEX  You know I guess I never really think about how it all works but I think a lot of it is using your instinct and subconscious.

LUCINDA  That’s like writing the dialogue for a character. When that character appears on the page, I just know how that character will talk.

ALEX  Yes I think there must be a lot of parallels across the artistic board.

LEA  We probably wonder about it too much! Being reviewers and all…

LUCINDA  I always have a soap opera going on in my head! Which is probably why I don’t say much at the dinner table! LOL!

ALEX  Ha :-)

LEA  Lucinda – I discovered you on Pinterest. Wow – what a treasure trove for your readers. What can one find there?

LUCINDA  Thank you, Lea! :) I use Pinterest as a visual repository for all my historical research on the 18th Century. And each of my books has a dedicated board where my readers/listeners can delve deeper into the historical background to people, places, and things mentioned in the story. Although I have a library of books on the 1700s, my readers don’t have access to these, and I don’t have a blog either, so Pinterest has become my way of showcasing the Georgian era and sharing why I find it so fascinating. Being a trained historian, and an ex history teacher, I am very strict about the curation of my pins (images) and boards (where images are pinned). Each image must link to a reputable site (such as a museum, art gallery, historian’s blog etc.). And of course it is also such FUN to share my love of all things Georgian.

LEA  I want to encourage out listeners to go take a look!

LUCINDA  Yes, please do! https://www.pinterest.com/lucindabrant/

LEA  Alex, please share with us some of your current or upcoming audiobook projects or your acting career in general.

ALEX  Well I am looking forward to continuing on with the Roxton Saga. It’s always great to build up characters over several books. Outside of audiobooks I’ve had an eclectic year. I’ve done my first two video games – one motion capture in those crazy suits, part of the Hitman series, and the other video game which is very interesting set in a 60s dystopian Britain with a population addicted to mood suppressants to block memories of a WWII which was lost.

LEA  Oh wow!

LEA  What book are you working on now in the series?

ALEX  Autumn Duchess, which I am thoroughly enjoying. Watching the characters grow is such a pleasure.

ALEX  Other than that, I don’t want to jinx it but I have my fingers crossed for another BBC gig.

LUCINDA  Fingers and toes crossed!

LEA  Can you tell our listeners what you have done for BBC?

ALEX  Sure. Umm – well. There was Little Dorrit – playing the painter Henry Gowan. The Line Of Beauty playing Antoine Ouradi. Rome I think was a BBC-HBO co-production, playing Gaius Maecenas. And most recently The Crimson Field – playing a WWI surgeon. Also tons and tons of Radio plays which are always a lot of fun for BBC Radio 4. :-)

LEA  Listeners can see your bio on your narrator page but while you were mentioning BBC, I thought we’d clue them in now… in case they didn’t already know.

LEA  I’m now going to be watching The Crimson Field.

ALEX  Oh yes – I think that’s on iTunes now in the states actually.

LEA  Oh good!

LUCINDA  All of which I have seen and can thoroughly recommend! (though the historiography of ROME left a lot to be desired). Crimson Field is on in the States now! :)

LUCINDA  We get all the BBC stuff pretty much at the same time as the UK. :)

LEA  And can I say that I have been thinking about re-watching Rome?!

ALEX  Gosh I wish that had gone for a couple more series!

LUCINDA  It’s fabulous entertainment. :) Yes so does the rest of the planet!

LEA  I feel like such a fan asking this but, why oh why, did it end so suddenly? Was it cost as I have heard?

ALEX  It was indeed I believe. Shooting in Cinecittà studios with everyone living in Rome. It was a crazy amount of money per episode.

LUCINDA  And didn’t they want to film one of the series in Egypt?

ALEX  They did I think. But you should have seen the sets. A couple of square km of streets forums, temples. AND they had Egypt too across from the fake Pantheon!

LUCINDA  A bit different to the I Claudius sets! LOL!

ALEX  Yes indeed. I think everyone was very sad.

LEA  Lucinda, what else is in the works for you?

LUCINDA  I’m working on the edits of the third Alec Halsey Mystery, Deadly Peril, then I’m off to the States to the Novelists Inc. conference, then it’s back to the 18th Century and my Roxton Family for Books 5 & 6. And of course I’ll have more audiobooks for Alex to work his narrating magic on!

LEA  Thank you both for joining us! This is one of the most fun chats we have had!

ALEX  Absolute pleasure – has been really fun.

LUCINDA  It’s been an absolute pleasure, Lea! And Alex! I’ve had such a fun time :)

 

First Chapter Listen

 

 

Time to Enter

You may only enter once – anyone entering more than once will be disqualified.

Giveaway closed.

 

 

This is the perfect opportunity to discover Lucinda Brant and Alex Wyndham!

Lea Hensley

 

16 thoughts on “A Chat with Lucinda Brant & Alex Wyndham, a Giveaway, and First Chapter Listen

  1. Thanks so much to all three of you for a wonderfully entertaining and informative interview! As Lea knows, I’ve been eagerly awaiting it ;)

    It’s lovely to read Alex’s insightful comments about the genre we so love (and that is so often misunderstood) and I think his perceptiveness is one of the things that has made his narrations of Lucinda’s books so successful.

    And I can only endorse both ladies’ comments about enjoying the whispering ;)

  2. I hope authors looking to produce their own audiobooks will take notice of Alex and have him record some additional historical romances. There are some titles I would have loved to listen to, but the quality of the narration just isn’t worth the money.

    1. Amen to that, Moriah! I know I keep saying there aren’t enough good male narrators of HR, but it’s true! I’m so grateful to Lucinda for introducing us to such a talented performer.

  3. Thank you both for stopping by and giving such an engaging interview! :D I was too impatient to enter the contest! My pre-ordered copy of Midnight Marriage downloaded this morning and cannot wait to start it!

  4. What a wonderful interview. Regardless of whether I win, I will be tracking down books by Lucinda and narrations by Alex. Thanks for sharing some new favorites.

  5. What a delightful conversation! My friend Caz encouraged me to check out Lucinda’s books, and I have now read all but two and listened to all of Alex’s audiobooks. I encourage everyone to try them. Lucinda and Alex are definitely in Laura Kinsale/Nicholas Boulton territory.

    I am no even more enamored of Alex than I was before (although I’m old enough to be . . . well, his older sister). First, like you, Lea, I am impressed to find a man who is familiar with Georgette Heyer. Second, yes, more whispering, please. I’m looking forward to listening to Autumn Duchess next month.

    Thank you, Audiogals, for this entertaining and informative visit with two of my new favorite artists.

  6. A wonderful entertaining and informative interview. I have Caz to thank for starting me on audio books and then recommending Lucinda’s fab writing and now with AW on board…what a dream team! I’m really looking forward to listening to the Roxton series and the final book/audio in the Deadly series too – Alex Wyndham will forever be Alec Halsey to me. Perhaps he needs to do the Salt duo too Lucinda – I’d listen again!

  7. An excellent interview … bravo! Alex Wyndham is a new actor for me, I just saw, ‘The Crimson Field’ series last night.

  8. in the past year my vision has deteriorated and I have difficulty reading. I have unread ebooks that I feel I had to download and pay for again.. Can you tell me how whisper speak woes and how I go about using it. I constantly have issues with I tunes, although I have many books ordered through them and want to move on to a different way to order audiiobooks in the future. Would you please send me new pricing charges and how I can determine if the I books that are in my library can be used with whisper sync.? Thank you, Bette Butterick

  9. And our tenth winner has confirmed! Congrats to Beatriz, Candace, Heather, Irene, Lisa, Louise, Melissa, Robin, Steph, and Linda!

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