Now in Audio: The Complete Lazare Family Saga!

It is finished! My marvelous narrator and I have wrapped the fourth and final audiobook in The Lazare Family Saga, Sweet Medicine! Here are the stats for the complete series:

526,397 total words performed

222 final audio files

60.75 final audiobook hours

14 songs performed in 11 genres and 5 languages
(Ballad, opera aria, Latin plainchant, lullaby, African-American spiritual, juba chant, American minstrel, American folk, Irish traditional, and nursery rhyme in English, Italian, Latin, French, and Irish Gaelic)

13 major accents
(General American, Charleston, Cheyenne Indian, French, Irish, African-American, British RP, Italian, German, Haitian Creole, Rhotic Southern US, Western US, Scottish)

10 spoken languages
(English, Cheyenne, French, Latin, Irish Gaelic, Haitian Creole, Italian, Dakota, Arapaho, Yoruba)

9 months of auditions, prep, recording, and revision
(on the texts themselves, 29 years of research, writing, and revision before that)

4 fat historical novels

1 exceptional voice actor!

Click on the video preview below for a peek behind the scenes of the magic* happening!

*Magic = the superlative talent and hard work of my audiobook narrator, Dallin Bradford

Dallin is like the voice of God + the nicest guy you’ll ever meet + the sexiest man you’ll ever meet. Which was absolutely perfect for my series exploring, juxtaposing, and merging sexuality, spirituality, and nice guys.

I swear, sometimes Sweet Medicine sounds like a full-cast recording and not a single actor. I’ve got a smorgasbord of characters, but Dallin is that good. Not only did he capture the accents, energy, and emotions of my characters, it felt like he was channelling me, my inner narrative voice. He deserves a combat medal for Chapter 18, and he deserves an Audie Award for Chapter 29. 

I was over the moon when Dallin sent me the following email during recording: “I just want you to know that, the other day, chapter 29 had me sobbing. I could hardly see the pages. I had to go hug my wife for a few minutes before going on.” At first, I wanted to apologize, but Dallin confirmed that he meant it as a compliment on the power of my writing. ????

Since the reason I made my narrator cry would be too much of a spoiler, here’s another snippet from the Sweet Medicine audiobook, in which Dr. David Lazare does what he does best: undress Clare. ???? 

If you’re new to my series, please start with Necessary Sins, Book One of The Lazare Family Saga. I’ve been thrilled with the reviews Dallin’s performance is receiving:

“SUPERB audiobook narrator. If you enjoy audiobooks, this is an absolute gem. There are about five million different accents and the narrator does them ALL. He also sings opera and Catholic hymns. I was absolutely transfixed by this performance.”

“I will be forever grateful to this book for instilling my new love of audiobooks. I had tried audio many times in the past without success but this book hooked me from the very beginning and it was an incredible listen.”

“Dallin Bradford’s performance was beyond exceptional. He did a great job keeping every character’s voice distinct. His accents were perfect for an audiobook – enough to get the flavor without forcing you to strain to understand him.”

“Dallin Bradford narrates a story with a voice full of emotion and a good sense of all the accents of the characters. It almost feels like he’s sitting down beside me with a glass of sweet tea to tell me the latest chapter in Joseph’s life.”

The complete Lazare Family Saga quartet is now available on Audible US, Audible UK, Audiobooks.com, Chirp, Kobo, Scribd, and all fine audiobook platforms. You can also recommend that your library purchase Necessary Sins and the rest of the series in audio. Here’s how to do that in Libby. Happy listening!