Author: Nicholas Harvey
Narrator: Kim Bretton
Length: 7 hours and 57 minutes
Publisher: Harvey Books, LLC
Series: AJ Bailey Adventure Series, Book One
Released: Aug. 13, 2020
Genre: Suspense
AJ Bailey was destined to run a dive boat on the beautiful island of Grand Cayman, the Mecca of Caribbean SCUBA diving.
As a young girl in England she was captivated by a story her Navy veteran grandfather told. Now, as she’s closer than ever to discovering the long-lost submarine from the story, a wealthy Argentinian arrives; a treasure hunter who’ll stop at nothing to steal the prize.
Can AJ find the wreck in time?
Or will the Argentinian hunter and his ruthless crew beat her to it?
It’s a race against time at treacherous depths to uncover the real secret of the lost submarine.
Raised in England, working in America and heading for Grand Cayman. That encapsulates Nicholas Harvey’s career that’s been dominated by motorsports from an early age as a driver, then race engineer, to senior manager at the top level of motor racing in the States. Poised in the background has been a second career in writing that flourished into his debut novel, Twelve Mile Bank, the first of the AJ Bailey adventure series which combines a passion for diving, an obsession with military history and a love of the Cayman Islands.
Nick and his wife Cheryl can be found touring the world in search of adventure on motorcycles, mountains and dive boats.
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Kim is an accomplished and award winning actress and director with West End/Broadway theatre credits. Kim has narrated over 35 audiobooks and counting. She is also an in demand voice over talent in the commercial and corporate arena and owns her own class A recording studio in Nashville. Kim is from the UK but has lived in NYC, L.A. and now Nashville TN. She continues to work in Theatre, Film and TV as an actress and a director alongside narrating audiobooks and commercial voice overs.
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Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.
It’s a wee bit terrifying committing your beloved characters to the audio format where they now have a voice! Finding your narrator is fun, scary and incredibly important. I got really lucky!
Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format?
I think good stories, read well, make entertaining listening. If they don’t have those two qualities then they don’t translate well!
Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?
Not at all! I wrote the book with no idea of genre, publishing, marketing, none of it. I wrote TMB because I wanted to write it. Everything else has happened after I decided I’d like to write another book.
How did you select your narrator?
I listened to what felt like a million ACX samples and narrowed it down to two narrators. They had to be female (as AJ Bailey is female), and had to be English (same). I contacted Kim and immediately felt a connection. She provided a sample from the book but I’d already chosen her before I listened, it just confirmed my choice.
How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters?
We talked a lot and I provided character files for all the main characters. Kim was incredibly open to how I saw the characters or thought they should sound like, and then she surprised me with some. Especially AJ herself. I was nervous and unsure about how my main character should sound but Kim played her brilliantly. When I heard the first scene I remember saying to my wife, “that’s not how I would have expected AJ to sound and it’s perfect!”
The Caymanian characters were the toughest as two are also male. AJ’s deckhand, Thomas, was really difficult to get right and we went back and forth a fair bit (mainly me driving Kim bonkers!) We Zoom called a friend of mine in Cayman and had him read Thomas’s lines and Kim recorded them. After that, she told me she wanted to try a few things and the next recording she sent me was spot on.
Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
How much do I give away??! AJ is a mixture of people I’ve met over time, especially through diving, but the main influence is my wife, Cheryl. I used one of my grandfathers and one of my grandmothers as inspiration and one of the German characters is named after a wonderful German friend.
Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?
Occasional. I actually love listening to books while driving long distances but when we toured for 6 months last year in the RV we now call home, it was too noisy to hear a book properly! To me the narrator is key. If their delivery of the story and the characters is engaging, then I get drawn in and don’t want to hit pause. Kim did that for me which is why she’s narrating my series.
Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format?
Arthur, AJ’s grandfather telling her his story about the submarine. Kim had Arthur on the first try and I had a hard time reviewing the recordings because I just wanted to hear her tell the story!
If you had the power to time travel, would you use it? If yes, when and where would you go?
Man, so many things to see and people to meet. Hell yes I’d use it! I lost my father in an accident last year so I would give anything to spend more time with him. I owed him some conversation. I would go back and meet Jim Clark, Francois Cevert and Aryton Senna – 3 race car drivers that lost their lives and were heroes of mine growing up. I actually met Senna, but I’d like to have a real chat with him. I would see Elvis in concert, comeback stuff 1968/69. I could go on…!
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