Title: Tropical Punch
Author: S.C. Jensen
Narrator: Jennifer Blom
Length: 7 hours and 13 minutes
Series: Bubbles In Space, Book 1
Publisher: S.C. Jensen
Released: TBD
Genre: Science Fiction; Cyberpunk
Strippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses…
All in a day’s work for Bubbles Marlowe, HoloCity’s only cyborg detective.
What do an anti-tech cult, a deadly new street drug, and the corrupt Chief of Police have in common?
It’s a question Bubbles can’t afford to ask. Last time she got curious it cost her job, a limb, and almost her life.
She vows to stay out of police business. But with a newly minted cybernetic enhancement, a semi-legal P.I. license, and a knack for asking the wrong kind of questions… Vows are made to be broken, right?
When a seemingly straightforward contract takes a dark turn, heads literally roll. Unless she wants to take the fall for the murders Bubbles needs to cut town on the double. Too bad she’s flat broke.
And now, she’s being hunted.
In a world where dreams can be made real for the right kind of dough, nothing is as it seems. One thing is clear, though. The dream is becoming a nightmare.
As the body count stacks up, Bubbles realizes she’s made a terrible mistake.
Can she figure out who is behind the murders before she loses her head?
Warning: Don’t read this book if you hate fun, glitter, sassy robotic pigs, or hard-boiled badassery. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are rolling in their graves, but this is all their fault.
S.C. Jensen is a Canadian fiction writer, sci-fi enthusiast, and literary advocate. She lives on the windswept prairies with her husband, three children, and various fuzzy friends. When she’s not writing, she can be found trying to avoid mosquitoes, sunburn, and/or frostbite in the great outdoors. She loves to talk about books almost as much as she loves writing them, and is often chatting away on bookstagram @scjensen.author when she should be working. Shhh. Don’t tell her kids that’s what she does in the office all day. Visit www.scjensen.com to see what S.C. Jensen is up to. Sign up to the VIP Reader’s Club to get free books and special deals on new releases!
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I am an audiobook narrator and actor living in New York. I have a varied background in many fields but found my passion in the creative pursuits. I have been a junior software engineer, a technical support specialist, and am involved in theater both on and offstage. I am also a singer and love playing my Ukulele. I have studied 3d animation, game design, true crime and forensic psychology, you know, for fun. I love knowing about how the world works at a deeper level.
Besides narrating, I also run Reaping Audiobooks where I lead an all female crew in the task of post production on audiobooks. I also coach others in the art of using Reaper and efficiency in general. I love helping people find the magic and joy in technology again.
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Q&A with Narrator S.C. Jensen
- Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?
- Not really. I knew if the book did well enough it was a possibility for the future, and I knew I had fans who really wanted an audiobook version… but it wasn’t something I actively thought about while writing. It will be as I move forward with the series, though! There are definitely things I can do to make Jennifer Blom’s narration job easier.
- How did you select your narrator?
- Jennifer Blom was recommended to me by my producer at Audiobook Empire when I explained what I needed—husky voice, noir style, and a great sense of humour! As soon as I listened to the sample I knew she’d do a great job. It was a very easy process and I’m thrilled with the result!
- 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?
- I wrote up a document with character personalities and details about the dynamics between particular characters, sometimes with references to well-known films to illustrate. I do feel that the audiobook is its own medium, though, and I really wanted Jennifer to get into the roles and make them her own.
- Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
- The biggest real life inspiration is from my own battle with alcohol abuse and recovery, which is something the main character, Bubbles Marlowe is also struggling with. I have a great love of classic noir detective novels, and they are full of cigar-chomping, whiskey-swilling hard boys, and I wanted Bubbles to turn these tropes on their heads. She’s tough, but she’s driven by a need to prove her worth after recovering from addiction, and this makes her very vulnerable.
- How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?
- I have three kids aged 6-8, my husband is a long haul truck driver so I’m often solo-parenting, and we had to homeschool for the last year and a half. Maintaining a work/life balance has been challenging! I often wake up at 4am to get a few hours of writing in before the rest of the house wakes up. Fortunately, my enthusiasm for writing is always there. It’s my enthusiasm for laundry and housekeeping that suffers the most.
- Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?
- I don’t have the opportunity to listen to a lot of audiobooks these days, as my kids are always with me and my tastes run a little on the dark side… I love the horror podcast PseudoPod, though, which I can listen to in bite sized chunks during those blissful moments of alone time!
- What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?
- I can see that listening is a different skill from reading, but I don’t understand how one is inferior to another. Any way to enjoy a story is valid. I love plays, movies and graphic novels, too. They’re all different and they’re all great.
- How did you celebrate after finishing this novel?
- I sent it off to my editor and got cracking on the next book! No rest for the wicked.
- What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?
- I don’t have writing slumps unless there is a problem with the story I need to solve in order to move on, or if I’m just generally exhausted. Plotting helps one and rest helps the other! Reading slumps are trickier. Usually I will grab something fun and easy and read guilty pleasures until I get over it. Or watch movies instead.
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