Supernatural Pet Sitter

Author: Diane Moat

Narrator: Barbara Goldie

Series: The Magic Thief, Book One

Length: 4 hours 3 minutes

Publisher: Diane Moat

Released: Aug. 3, 2017

Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy

Every animal can talk to you. You just have to know how to listen. Pepper Neely is better at this than most, especially because she is in charge of pet sitting all the familiars in her neighborhood. A familiar is a pet magically linked to a witch or warlock. As a gnome, Pepper is no stranger to spells and sorcery. She also knows that, despite their special name, familiars aren’t all that different from regular animals. They get anxious when separated from their people, so Pepper uses her special gnome powers to calm them down. She watches Cranky the high-strung ferret, Frank the laid-back parrot, King Arthur the elderly tortoise, and many others. Then, something terrible begins happening to the familiars. Someone is stealing their magic! It not only prevents Pepper from communicating with them but breaks their magical connection with their people. When King Arthur’s magic is stolen, his owner’s powers stop working too. Pepper can sense that the tortoise is very scared. In order to protect the animal’s magic, Pepper decides to track down the culprit. With the help of her best friend, Luna, and her brother, Jax, Pepper fights to protect all of the special pets.

Diane Moat lives in Tennessee and works as a nurse and legal professional. When not at work, she fosters Chihuahuas. Her six rescues inspired her to write The Supernatural Pet Sitter children’s series, which features a gnome who can communicate with animals.

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Barbara Goldie grew up in Northern Kentucky, and then moved to Texas for several years, before deciding to pursue her dreams and follow her heart to the other side of this great planet we call Earth! Now living in Auckland, New Zealand, she is married to her soulmate and is loving her new life. Already a very devoted full-time voice actress, she has just recently started adding audiobooks to her resume of voiceover projects.

Audible⎮Voices⎮LinkedIn

I enjoyed this story! I know it’s a book that is geared towards younger readers, I’d say middle grade, but the story itself is solid. Plus I do enjoy reading good written middle grade series from time to time, such as Septimus Heap. The writing quality is excellent and simple to understand for all readers. The characters are explored in depth than just stating who they are. There are some cute times and some twists along with the mystery that will keep you interested up until he end. A 5/5 story!

I sincerely loved the narrator of the story! She had a great sense of voice for each character and each voice was different. I always enjoy when I can make out who is speaking by the voice used by the narrator. Definitely a 5/5 overall for me!

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Diane Moat. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Q&A with Author Diane Moat

1. Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook. I researched ACX, and found good reviews for them. When I posted for applicants through ACX, on a lark, I had a dozen great voices with 15 minute trials posted within a day. It was actually the applicants who helped me learn what I needed. It became obvious who had the correct experience and equipment, and I was very lucky to find a great person who has narrated many books previously. We talked through what was needed and voila!

Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format? Adventures and suspense, definitely!

Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing? No, but it is now something I am thinking about as I write the third installment of this series.

How did you select your narrator? ACX allows you to have multiple applicants, who all leave a 15 minute reading of the book. I loved how this narrator portrayed my main character.

How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? We talked a bit after the 15 minute application, and otherwise the narrator has done great without a lot of direction. Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters? There were a few location and character names I had pronounced a certain way in my head, and we discussed that.

Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing? When I was twelve, my grandfather died, which devastated me. I spent the summer at the library, living through books. I want to give kids who need an escape (or who are just bored) that same chance.

How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing? After each book I give myself a month of not writing (even notes) at all. By the end of the month I am usually chomping at the bit to write something – anything!

Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you? Yes, I love listening to audiobooks as I am driving/travelling. It makes the time pass much more quickly.

Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format? I feel as if you might miss something in a book format, and it feels as if you “catch” a lot more with an audiobook.

What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”? I would say they haven’t really tried it. If they have really tried several genres and still believe that, then that’s okay, but they shouldn’t look down on people who love audiobooks.

How did you celebrate after finishing this novel? Pizza with my Chihuahuas.

What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump? I do a lot of dog rescue. For either slump, I get out and volunteer. There is something about helping others (especially dogs) which clears out my head and let’s me get focused.

In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a series? Good question, I am struggling with that right now. A series is a lot more pressure. You need to be consistent with your characters and storyline. A series gives you more time to develop your story, with layers over time. A stand-alone novel though, lets you wrap everything up at once.

What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors? Start somewhere, then try again and don’t give up. With all the ‘free’ advice out there, you don’t need training or classes to write.

What’s next for you? I would like to have book #2 of The Supernatural Pet Sitter also turned into an audiobook.

with Author Diane Moat

1. Waffle fries or curly fries? Curly fries

GIF with a hard g or soft g? Soft

Fantasy or science-fiction? Fantasy

Superman or Batman? Batman

Text message or call? It depends on if we are friends. Friends call.

Pancakes or waffles? Pancakes

Doctor Who or the Walking Dead? Walking Dead

TV Shows or movies? TV shows

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

Alice in Wonderland or Robinson Crusoe? Robinson Crusoe

Being too warm or too cold? Too cold

Netflix or Hulu? Netflix

Work Hard or Play Hard? Work hard

Passenger or Driver? Driver!!

Amusement Park or Day at the Beach? Beach

Honesty or Other’s Feelings? Honesty

Movie at Home or Movie at the Theater? Home

The Supernatural Pet Sitter Giveaway: $25 Visa Card

Sep. 3rd:
Dab of Darkness
Sep. 4th:
Jazzy Book Reviews
Adventures Thru Wonderland
Sep. 5th:
Lomeraniel
Turning Another Page
Sep. 6th:
The Literary Apothecary
Sep. 7th:
Desert Rose Reviews
Sep. 8th:
The Book Addict’s Reviews
The Layaway Dragon
Sep. 9th:
He Said Books Or Me
Jorie Loves A Story

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HTML Post with Narrator Interview
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Author: Diane Moat

Narrator: Barbara Goldie

Series: The Magic Thief, Book One

Length: 4 hours 3 minutes

Publisher: Diane Moat

Released: Aug. 3, 2017

Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy

Every animal can talk to you. You just have to know how to listen.
Pepper Neely is better at this than most, especially because she is in charge of pet sitting all the familiars in her neighborhood. A familiar is a pet magically linked to a witch or warlock. As a gnome, Pepper is no stranger to spells and sorcery. She also knows that, despite their special name, familiars aren’t all that different from regular animals. They get anxious when separated from their people, so Pepper uses her special gnome powers to calm them down. She watches Cranky the high-strung ferret, Frank the laid-back parrot, King Arthur the elderly tortoise, and many others.
Then, something terrible begins happening to the familiars. Someone is stealing their magic! It not only prevents Pepper from communicating with them but breaks their magical connection with their people. When King Arthur’s magic is stolen, his owner’s powers stop working too. Pepper can sense that the tortoise is very scared.
In order to protect the animal’s magic, Pepper decides to track down the culprit. With the help of her best friend, Luna, and her brother, Jax, Pepper fights to protect all of the special pets.

Website⎮Facebook⎮Twitter⎮Goodreads⎮Amazon

Audible⎮Voices⎮LinkedIn

Q&A with Narrator Barbara Goldie

When did you know you wanted to be an audiobook narrator? I’ve been a voice actress for a wide variety of projects for several years, like video games, anime, commercials, online training courses, etc. Audiobooks just seemed like the next logical step in my professional evolution.
How did you wind up narrating audiobooks? Was it always your goal or was it something you stumbled into by chance? I had been asked to do a few over the years, and decided to start
pursuing the books I wanted to record through ACX, rather than wait for an author or publishing house to seek me out.
Did you find it difficult to “break into” audiobook narration? What skill/tool helped you the most when getting started? I don’t know that it’s particularly difficult to break into, you just have to be daring enough to give it a try! If you start out with Royalty Share deals through ACX, you can have a contract easily within a day or two. You won’t make very much but it’s excellent practice so that you know what you’re doing when you finally land a higher paying project.
A lot of narrators seem to have a background in theatre. Is that something you think is essential to a successful narration career? Well, I have no such training so I wouldn’t say it’s essential at all. However, do I think it would be beneficial to have a background in acting or theatre? Absolutely.
What type of training have you undergone? Completely self-taught. I just decided I wanted to become a voice actress, starting researching it online, watching YouTube videos to learn what equipment and room setup I needed, and dove in head first.
How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for narrating? This is an issue for me, because I have so many other vocal projects besides audiobook narration. To solve the burnout issue, I only accept short stories, rather than full novels. Books under 3 hours are plenty long enough for me, I would actually have to devote 100% of my professional time to strictly audiobooks if I were going to start accepting 8 or 11 hour books, because it would completely dominate my schedule.
Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you? I myself am not a big reader or listener, however my husband and his kids all listen to them on nearly a daily basis, so I hear segments of books here and there that they are enjoying. I simply don’t have the spare time for reading/listening for enjoyment as I am too busy creating them.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of narrating an audiobook? My favorite part is the acting itself. Trying to convey the emotions of the characters, which is a skill I don’t get to use very often in my other business related vocal projects. My least favorite part is the hours and hours spent editing and mastering the audio after the recording is done. Most listeners don’t realize that it actually takes about 6 hours to produce 1 hour of an audiobook. That’s a lot of time spent listening and re-listening over and over again to your own voice, picking it apart and fixing all the clicks and breaths and swallows and mistakes you make when reading aloud.
What would you say are your strongest narration abilities? I love portraying young characters, girls in the range of 8-15. I find it so much fun to relive my youth through these characters, use my little girl voice, and try to convey their wide-eyed wonder and lack of experience and cynicism.
Is there a particular genre you feel unsuited for? Have you ever declined a project because you didn’t think you were right for it? Because recording and editing audiobooks requires such a time commitment, I try to only accept books that I am particularly interested in, or think would be fun to record. I have turned down several offers just because I didn’t want to spend a week working on something I wouldn’t enjoy. I generally don’t seek out non-fiction, history or science related books, and I cannot portray accents other than American, so I have to make sure they don’t have any foreign characters in them.
What about this title compelled you to audition as narrator? I read a bit of the book and immediately could envision my step- children listening to this as a bedtime audiobook (they both listen
to books every night in their rooms at bedtime). I didn’t anticipate how much my husband and I would enjoy listening to it as well (our nightly ritual of listening to my days work each night before bed left
us chomping at the bit for the next chapter every night!) The storyline is both intriguing and light-hearted, and I think it translates into a very enjoyable audiobook. Not all books make good
audiobooks in my humble opinion, but this one was begging to be read aloud.
How closely do you prefer to work with authors? To be honest, I’ve not really worked closely with any authors before. Most of the time they simply email me the manuscript, perhaps a few instructions about what they would like a certain character to sound like, and then leave it all up to me. Though having more input from the authors is always appreciated, because sometimes as a narrator you do a lot of second guessing about whether or not you will sound the way the author might hear it in their head when they are writing it.
Who are your “accent inspirations”? Haha… well, honestly I have zero talent for performing accents other than American. I have tried for years but it is just something that is impossible for me.
How did you decide how each character should sound in this title? Having the two young girls of the same age as leads was a challenge. I tried to make one of them more perky and boisterous and the other a bit more demure and languid in her speech, as I wasn’t sure what else I could do distinctively different. I’m not very experienced at doing a large cast of characters and having them all sound different, so I just did my best with the other adult characters by changing the pitch of my voice and delivery style.
What types of things are harmful to your voice? Long, marathon recording sessions tend to wear my voice out. I also am guilty of not drinking enough water. But the most harmful thing for my voice is reading books (or doing video game characters, etc) where I have to do a lot of shouting or screaming in a high pitch. I have injured my voice a few times because of that and have to rest it for a day or two in order to resume.
Has anyone ever recognized you from your voice? Yes, a few years ago I was singing in a bar and someone came up to me and said they recognised my voice from some readings I had released online. I thought it was a joke, that someone I knew had put him up to it to prank me, but turns out he was serious. It was unfathomable to me that someone would be able to pick my voice out like that.
If you could narrate one book from your youth what would it be and why? The book that stands out the most for me from my youth was “The Westing Game” by Ellen Raskin. When I was in the 4th grade, our family moved, and I started at a new school. My teacher was just magical. She played violin in the symphony, she was a piano teacher, and in her class we would all sit around the piano and sing
everyday. I had never had so much fun in school before. And she also would read to us, and she really put her heart into making reading time as captivating and interesting as she could. She was so passionate about everything she did, and to this day she is my inspiration for many things that I have decided to pursue. I still remember her reading “The Westing Game” to us, and it became my favorite book. I’d love to narrate something that had a lasting impact on a young adult, something they would remember fondly
when they look back on their youth.
What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”? I believe that audiobooks are an amazing source of entertainment. Not everyone has the ability these days to sit down and completely focus all their attention to reading text on a page. We are on the go constantly, commuting to and from work/school, exercising at the gym or going for a walk/run, doing housework, grocery shopping, and then collapsing into bed at night completely exhausted. The wonderful things about audiobooks is that you can enjoy them while you are doing all of the above. However I do think that, especially for children, it is still important to read traditional books, because you need to invoke your own imagination and “hear” the characters in your head rather than just through the narrator’s voice. And your brain needs to exercise that process of reading the printed words rather than just being entertained by an aural experience. Don’t bite off more than you can chew at first. Realize that recording audiobooks is a very labor-intensive undertaking. People tell me all the time, “Oh, I love reading aloud to my kids, I should be a narrator.” While this is definitely a great start, there is a lot of technical skills you’ll need to learn and put into practice in order to be able to edit the recordings you make to meet the quality standards, and you’ll need to invest in good quality recording equipment (your USB headset with mic that you use for Skype calls isn’t going to cut it.)
What’s next for you? I’ve just moved into a new house a few days ago, and have the exciting task of rebuilding my recording studio in a new and larger dedicated space. So I’m looking forward to getting that all setup before I start on any new projects.
Bonus question: Any funny anecdotes from inside the recording studio? I had my iPhone sitting on my desk while I was recording one day, and the main character in this book, Pepper, has a habit of saying “Seriously!” quite often…. which would trigger Siri on my iPhone without warning. All of a sudden she would repeat back to me a paragraph of narration out of the blue. (in your best run-on sentence-without-any- inflection Siri impersonation) “Here’s what I found on the web for: that was mega cool Jax’s smile returned that’s what Dad said too you know we’ve worked on weapons every week since I was little Kind of like how other dads toss the football around”.

with Protagonist Pepper Neely

Waffle fries or curly fries? Curly fries
GIF with a hard g or soft g? Soft
Fantasy or science-fiction? Science Fiction
Superman or Batman? Superman
Text message or call? Text
Pancakes or waffles? Pancakes
Doctor Who or the Walking Dead? Doctor Who – Mom and Dad won’t let me watch Walking Dead
TV Shows or movies? TV shows
Facebook or Twitter? Facebook
Alice in Wonderland or Robinson Crusoe? Alice in Wonderland
Being too warm or too cold? Too cold
Netflix or Hulu? Netflix
Work Hard or Play Hard? Play hard
Passenger or Driver? Driver!!
Amusement Park or Day at the Beach? AMusement Park, preferably Disney
Honesty or Other’s Feelings? Other’s Feelings
Movie at Home or Movie at the Theater? Home

The Supernatural Pet Sitter Giveaway: $25 Visa Card

Sep. 3rd:
Dab of Darkness
Sep. 4th:
Jazzy Book Reviews
Adventures Thru Wonderland
Sep. 5th:
Lomeraniel
Turning Another Page
Sep. 6th:
The Literary Apothecary
Sep. 7th:
Desert Rose Reviews
Sep. 8th:
The Book Addict’s Reviews
The Layaway Dragon
Sep. 9th:
He Said Books Or Me
Jorie Loves A Story

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