Audio Spotlight & Author Interview: Rebel Without A Clause, by Abigail Drake

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Title: Rebel Without A Clause

Author: Abigail Drake

Narrator: Elizabeth Scott

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Series: The Tink Holly Chronicles, Book 1

Publisher: Abigail Drake

Released: Nov. 22, 2021

Genre: Romance; Holiday

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Christmas elf Tinklebelle Holly is a screw-up. Demoted to a job in the reindeer division after one infraction too many, she hates her job, hates her life, and despises the North Pole.

But when a surprise visitor arrives from Elven High Council and Tink is assigned to show him around, everything changes. Jax Grayson is a dark elf, and unlike anyone she’s ever met. Looking past his obvious hotness, Tink knows he has a secret, and the audit he’s supposedly performing doesn’t feel legit.

After an unexpected tragedy occurs, Tink’s life is thrown into even greater turmoil, and it seems like Jax might be the only one Tink can truly trust. Can she help him figure out what’s happening on the North Pole, or will Jax be her worst mistake of all?

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Q&A with Author Abigail Drake
  • Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.
    • After many of my readers asked for audiobook versions of my books, and my writer friends encouraged (aka pushed) me to do it, I finally took the plunge for “Rebel Without a Claus,” my 16th published novel. It was surprisingly fun and not stressful at all to turn this book into an audiobook. The first step, listening to auditions for narrators, took only minutes. As soon as I heard Elizabeth Scott’s voice, I knew she’d be the perfect person to bring my character Tink to life. I wasn’t wrong! She did an amazing job.
  • Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format?
    • I’ve enjoyed listening to audiobooks in many genres. The only ones that are difficult for me personally are books with lots of sexual content. I love reading those books (don’t get me wrong!), and writing them, too, but I get oddly uncomfortable listening to them. I guess I need to get over it. I’m working on a sci-fi romance series with a higher heat level than I usually employ, and plan to make those into audiobooks too.
  • Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?
    • With “Rebel Without a Claus” I definitely had plans early on to make it into an audiobook. I heard Tink’s voice loud and clear the whole time I was writing it.
  • How did you select your narrator?
    • Like I said, It was so easy. I went onto ACX, described the requirements, and had a few narrators apply for auditions right away. I listened to two of them, and they were both good. Elizabeth Scott was the third audition I listened to, and immediately decided she was the perfect fit.
  • 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?
    • Elizabeth Scott is a pro, and we had a great collaboration. I gave her character sketches (just a few lines), to help her out. For example, I would tell her that imagined a certain character would have a gruff voice or a soft voice. When any pronunciation issues came up, she took care of them right away. She was a pleasure to work with—and really quick, too!
  • Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?
    • Well, since “Rebel Without a Claus” is about a Christmas elf solving a murder mystery involving a drug ring on the North Pole, not really!! But I’m a huge fan of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. And if Stephanie Plum and Buddy the Elf had a love child, I think it would be Tink Holly!
  • How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?
    • I think part of the way I avoid burn-out is by writing in several different genres. All of my books are either romances, or have romantic elements, but I write everything from sweet YA to not-so-sweet sci-fi romance. Others have advised me to find a niche and stick with it, and they are probably right, but if I did that, I think I would get burned-out! As far as enthusiasm is concerned, I just love telling stories. I always have, and hopefully I always will. I also love every element of the process involved in creating a book, from the first whisper of an idea, to the rough draft, to edits, and then (my favorite part), getting it into the hands of my readers! When I hear they enjoyed my work, it’s the best thing in the world.
  • Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?
    • I am an avid audiobook listener. I love the art of oral storytelling, and it truly is an art. I also like that I can listen to a book on a long car ride, or while I’m cleaning or cooking. It gives an escape even while performing mundane tasks, and it makes them easier to complete.
  • Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format?
    • Tink Holly has such a strong voice, and she’s a really fun character. What came through when I heard Elizabeth Scott narrate the book was both Tink’s positivity and her honesty. She doesn’t make excuses for herself, and she admits when she’s wrong. I didn’t understand that about her until I listened to Elizabeth narrate. It was so interesting what elements a good narrator will uncover!
  • What’s next for you?
    • I’m finishing up my sci-fi series, and then starting on the second Tink Holly book. I think it’ll be called “Claus and Effect.” I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

Award-winning author Abigail Drake has spent her life traveling the world and collecting stories wherever she visited. She majored in Japanese and Economics in college, and is a book hoarder, a coffee drinker, a linguistics geek, and an eternal optimist. She writes women’s fiction and young adult fiction with smart, sassy, funny heroines, and she also enjoys blogging about the adventures of her mischievous Labrador retriever, Capone.

Abigail is the winner of the prestigious 2017 Prism Award for her book Traveller, and the International Digital Award for her young adult novel, Tiger Lily. In addition, she was named a finalist in the Golden Pen, the Golden Leaf, the Dante Rossetti Book Award, and the Cygnus Award for Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction. Learn more about http://abigaildrake.com.

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Book Blitz & Excerpt: Last Blue Christmas + Giveaway

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Looking for the perfect holiday read? Look no further! Welcome to the book tour for Last Blue Christmas by Rose Prendeville. Read on for details and a chance to win a $50 Amazon e-Gift Card!

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Last Blue Christmas
Publication Date: December 1st, 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Holiday Romance

The only case they haven’t cracked is how to be together.

Not on Officer Maggie Kyle’s Christmas bingo card:

• A homemade bomb in a bus station locker.
• A child, the prime suspect in the bombing.
• Her partner of ten years abandoning her to solve the case on her own.

Max St. James might be the worst cop in the world—or at least in Toronto:

• He fell in love with his partner.
• He’s the reason she never became a detective.
• He doesn’t much care who planted the bomb.

The IED’s blast ignites years of tension, sending Maggie and Max careening in opposite directions—but opposites still attract.

Can they find a way to come together to solve the case before another bomb goes off?

And will it mean another ten years sacrificing the future they want for the partnership they already have?

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Excerpt

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… four migraine headaches, three massive ulcers, two aching ear drums, and a hole where my heart ought to be,” Maggie sang quietly to herself as though Max wasn’t sitting right there. She cracked herself up and switched off the unmarked Suburban’s FM radio with a flourish, and Max could swear he caught a whiff of cinnamon.

“Maggie Kyle, your Christmas spirit confounds me,” he told his partner. He was pretending to watch a Buick creep down the street a little too slowly so she wouldn’t guess how attuned he was to the earnest timbre of her voice or the wry quirk of her lips. She was trying too hard to act casual with him, and he couldn’t figure out why.

Maggie forced another laugh. “Christmas spirit,” she repeated, skimming the crossword puzzle in her lap before glancing back across the street at the rundown residence of Bobby King. Its peeling paint, once white, was now a weathered gray, and of the four green shutters meant to frame the front windows, two were broken and one was missing altogether.

“What is a six-letter word for ‘lack thereof,’ Alex?”

“Jeopardy’s not a crossword puzzle,” she said, making sure he saw her eye roll.

“Dispatch, we need to put out an APB on Officer Kyle’s missing Christmas spirit.”

“You going to call in that Buick?” she changed the subject.

“I wrote down the plates,” he lied, squinting to make them out so he could record the vehicle in his logbook.

Maggie picked up the radio. “51-19?”

“51-19, go ahead,” another officer responded from his own unmarked vehicle around the corner.

“10-15 headed your way. Tan Buick, early 2000s model, traveling east. Manitoba plate: Yankee Lima Echo seven seven eight.”

“Copy,” 51-19 replied.

Maggie replaced the radio and turned her attention back to the crossword. “Frankie wants to enter that gingerbread contest, and her mom’s been playing Christmas carols since before Halloween. I’m not sure how much more I can take.”

“Got it. No Christmas carols.”

Max drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. When exactly had she lost her Christmas spirit? He could picture her as a little girl—in his mind she wore two long braids and was constantly shaking her bangs out of her eyes—staring up at the sky waiting for Santa to ride out of the stars like a meteor with the same patience she now bestowed on their stakeout. “But peppermint lattes are okay?”

She grinned. “I’ll allow it.”

“So you only hate Christmas a little bit then?”

Maggie snorted.

Time was, Max didn’t mind the odd stakeout. It beat writing parking tickets or chasing shoplifters through the snow. Play some tunes, shoot the shit, pee in a bottle if things got urgent.

With the right partner it could seem like a day off. But everything was like eggshells with Maggie lately, and he couldn’t figure out when exactly things had changed.

Today he felt a special kind of twitchy, the kind that made you want to peel off your own skin. Max loved the city—sometimes he hated how much he loved it—but sitting still all week, downtown where the Toronto high-rises blocked out the sky, he was starting to feel caged, like the buildings were closing in from every direction.

Maybe he was psyching himself out after the whole ancestry test situation. The dichotomy of an Indigenous urbanite was turning his brain against itself. Maybe he just needed a vacation.

“Do you believe in nature versus nurture?” he asked.

“What, you mean like, mama tried but Bobby King was born rotten and no amount of church or cuddles or bedtime stories could have stopped him growing up to be a cop-killing gun runner?”

“Something like that.”

Maggie shrugged at him. “You missed a button.” She pointed at his shirt. “Girlfriend didn’t catch that?”

She was obsessed with the idea that he and Selina from next door shared more than a wall. It had only happened once—okay a handful of times. But it was five years ago, and there was no way Maggie could have known, except somehow she did. Even back then there’d been something, in his gait as he walked to the patrol car or a half-guilty look in his eyes; she had known, and if he protested now she’d take it as some kind of proof.

Not that it should even matter. They were partners, not lovers, and he’d certainly been her shoulder to cry on when the asshat from college dumped her and split back to Edmonton.

Max should have made a move on Maggie then, but he was still her TO and besides, he’d been a rebound before. He didn’t want to be one for Maggie, and she didn’t want him anyway. She’d been singularly focused on making detective since her first day at Fifty-One Division. Until, somewhere along the lines, she hadn’t.

And she was right about the button. His black undershirt was peeking through. Did he bother to look in the mirror this morning? After a dozen years on the job, he knew what he’d see. Not his father, not even his grandfather—just a sad imitation, like a kid who got the wrong size costume at Halloween.

Her phone began to vibrate then, and she, too, silenced it without answering.

“Your mom again?” he asked.

She didn’t respond, which meant yes.

“She giving you a hard time about staying here for the holidays?”

“I’ll take ‘Does the earth orbit the sun?’ for a thousand, Alex.”

“Weren’t you going to invite your folks out here for Christmas?”

“That was last year.”

An uncomfortable mixture of lust and shame surged through Max, from the tips of his ears to his belly, at the thought of last Christmas. He tried to remember her parents being in town, but all that came to mind was the department holiday party and sweaty fumbling in a dark interrogation room. And cinnamon. She had smelled like cinnamon then, too.

Available on Amazon


About the Author

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Rose Prendeville is a librarian and honorary Canadian with a passion for stories about found families and flawed people doing their best.

She’s been devising such tales for as long as she can remember, including secretly in the back of her tenth grade French class (Pardon, Madame Gonzales), and she went on to double-major in screenwriting and creative writing.

Hydrangeas are her lifeblood, hot baths and hiking are her solace. She adores baking (and mostly eating) macarons, and she can’t wait to share this and future books with you.

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Book Blitz: Mistletoe & Dragons, by Kelsey Hodge

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Mistletoe & Dragons
By Kelsey Hodge
Holiday Romance,  MM Romance

Caden
I’ve been around for centuries and, although I love living with the Easter elves, it never fully feels like home. Now I’ve been asked to go and work in Geimhreadh, the one place that felt like home when I was last there. I’m excited to work with another chocolatier, but when I arrive, I discover the feeling isn’t mutual. But why can’t I get him out of my head?

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love working with chocolate, and this Christmas, I get to work on my own and create my own ideas. But then I’m informed I have help coming. Help I don’t want. So I promise myself to make his time with me in Geimhreadh as miserable as possible. Then he arrives and my plans go out the window. He’s all I can think about. I do everything I can to fight it…until what I am fighting against no longer matters.

Amazon (Available in Amazon KU)

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About the Author:

Kelsey Hodge is  an aspiring author and reader of MM romance books.

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