An interview with spicy romance narrators JACLYN KELSO & BLAKE LOCKHEART
My Christmas in Coconut Creek audiobook release day treat, smutties.
One of the most rewarding things about being an indie romance author is not only the privilege to write the characters I want to write (in the positions I want to write them) but to be given the chance to hear these imaginary friends come to life through audiobooks. (Shout out to Podium Audio)
Admittedly, I never thought I would have one audiobook, let alone two…eventually five after the Dirty Delta series comes to its end, and hopefully, hopefully, all the books I have yet to follow.
I’ve also been lucky enough to acquire the talents of Jaclyn Kelso for both my titles, (Forget Me Not, bb you won’t be forgotten) and now Blake Lockheart to perform alongside her in the dual narration of Christmas in Coconut Creek. This audiobook is materful, and Jac & Blake truly made every second of the 13 hours and 37 minutes an absolute joy ride from start to finish. I wish there was 13 hours and 37 MORE minutes to listen to.
Because I want them to get all the recognition they deserve, and I also love adding more chaos and cramming into my schedule of already crammed chaos, I decided to ask them to do a mini interview to celebrate the release of CiCC with all of you.
Enjoy, readers/listeners, and make sure to follow this to Audible and bless your ears this Christmas because let’s face it, we’re all already on the naughty list.
Q: Narrators seldom go by one name, where can people listen to your work/ under what names, and do your pseudonyms change by genre you're working on?
B- Many narrators use pseudonyms for various reasons. Many are private, and some are not. My pseudonym "Blake Lockheart" is not private, and is used primarily as an organizational tool to separate between adult/spicy romance (where explicit sex is intentionally erotic) and everything else. For the "Everything else" which contains anything from fantasy to scifi to YA LGBT, and thriller/horror/suspense (which is my favorite), I use "Andrew Gibson". I may or may not have others.
J- Yes and yes! I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity of working with 4 of the Big 5 publishing houses this past year, most of the titles being under a pseudonym! But alas, that little tidbit will remain a super-duper decoder ring state secret. The work has been incredibly rewarding across multiple genres and my alter ego has been well fed.
Q: What career background do you have that made you want to do narration? Is narration a full time gig or just one of your many talents?
B- No career background. Just grown up with RPGs and audiobooks and loved it enough to try my hand at it when COVID sorta locked me in my apartment back in 2020. Narration is just a part-time gig for me. My 9-5 full-time job is as a Chemical Engineer working in R&D.
J- I started out as a visual artist young; throughout my childhood and into my teen years I attended art schools and programs dedicated to several different disciplines. I guess drama came naturally? (For those who know me…stop laughing). But in all honesty, I had pretty gnarly speaking issues growing up. I moved into performing arts as a way to empower/enable myself and train my mouth to do what I needed it to do vocally. Getting told “you talk funny” a lot as a kid can make or break you, I guess. I’m a fighter, what can I say. I’m sure there are people who would probably still say that now, Lmao. Difference being…I’m confident in the work I’ve put in to get to where I am!
I moved into radio after school and fell in love with all things audio not long after that.
Voice work and audio engineering are my full-time job.
Q: Do you have any rituals when it comes to recording audio? Things that get you ready going into the work day?
B- I just brush my teeth and chug some water. The real ritual is honestly drinking lots of water during the day so everything is hydrated.
J- I like to move before a recording session; go for a run, clean the house. Do something physical to get the blood pumping. Often, I’ll take a super hot shower beforehand (yay for steam!), and then always brush my teeth before heading in. In the booth, I alternate between hot lemon water and ice water.
Q: Do you like to read the same genre of books that you narrate? Or, what is a genre you're a fan of?
B- To be brutally honest, I don't read romance books at all. I can count the number of romance books that I've consumed for my own entertainment on about 3 fingers. I am much more into military and grimdark fantasy/scifi. Things like The Malazan Book of the Fallen or The Black Company or The Blade Itself.
J- I do! I love romance/dark romance. I also love murder mystery, horror, and Law & Order-type procedural (that also has sexy sexy in it, bahahahaaa).
Q: Obviously you narrate a lot of romance. Which means there are a lot of intimate scenes. How do you get into the headspace of a character going into that when it's just you and the manuscript?
B- I just follow the mood of the characters and am channeling their emotions and feelings and such as I go along. Then, when something spicy shows up, I'm already in the mindset of the characters, so things tend to flow easily. The caveat there is when the spicy scene shows up out of nowhere and doesn't really fit. Then it's more of a challenge, but it's not a big deal.
J- One of my favorite things about audiobook narration is that the answers to most of the questions you would find yourself asking in relation to a performance, as an actor, are provided for you. The HOW and WHY motivations of your character are intricately laid out in the story that the author has dreamed up. So, when it comes to intimacy and sex scenes in general, I’ve read the book. I know what led us here. And getting to that headspace comes easy.
Q: There are many characters in Christmas in Coconut Creek, and in the Dirty Delta world in general. Mateo in particular has a bit of a New York twang on his voice. How do you approach accents in narration? Are there certain ones you enjoy more than others, or things you won't do?
B- My motto with narration and accents, especially for contemporary romance, is "Less is More". If I can vaguely hint that maybe someone is from a general region, that's enough. I let the script do a lot of the heavy lifting there. If the character is super "New York" or whatever, then it will be that way in the script and the character's vocal parts don't need to hammer it in even more. The exception is if the character is intentionally being a bit of a caricature or comically exaggerating things... then I'll play it up harder. For the most part, hinting at it in the character's voice is enough and avoids the risk of it being a distraction to the listener, pulling them out of the scene every time the character talks.
If the book is fantasy, scifi, or even sometimes horror (though horror's nuance is in the subtleties), then you can have much "larger" characters that are a bit more cartoonish and exaggerated.
J- When I’m taking on an accent from somewhere I don’t reside, the last thing I want to do is insult those that have it by being over the top, or a caricature of someone from there. Subtlety is key for me. And we actors don’t always get it right. But making a concerted effort matters to the job. I have had the opportunity to work with several dialect coaches in the past, and I always refer back to them and their lessons on the more pressing challenges. In dual narration productions, if we don’t get the chance to hear our co-narrator’s interpretation of a character that calls for an accent before recording ourselves, it can be challenging. Again, subtlety is key for me!
Q: What is the most challenging thing about going into a project that you know has multiple POV's/voices? How do you keep the voices separate from each other in your head?
B- I skim the manuscript, pick out the different characters, and make quick notes about them in a spreadsheet. Most of the time, like I mentioned before, the manuscript can do a lot of the work for me. Technically, you can do multiple POV's without changing the pitch or tone of the voice at all, just by acting like those characters in the scene. However, it is definitely better, in my opinion, to add some flair or differentiating qualities to the vocal tones of the characters. As long as the listener can tell who is speaking in a scene, then the character separation is successful. Going over-the-top can just become exhausting and detract from the story.
J- Stamina. Have you ever had a conversation with yourself? It can be daunting. Lol. Setting a pace and finding a rhythm helps. And an audio cheat “sheet” helps keep character voices straight. An easily accessible file that contains about a 10 second clip in each voice; listen, do some exercises to remind my mouth what their sound felt like, then boom. Go.
Q: Bouncing off that, have you done both dual and duet narration? If so, which do you prefer? Do you find certain things more challenging about one or the other? Or with dual narration like in CiCC do you read through the chapters that aren't yours to narrate to understand what's going on?
B- Between dual and duet, I prefer dual. Duet is just more hassle on the production side and, if you can't record simultaneously with your partner, things get a bit disjointed and the banter doesn't feel as natural.
Overall, by far, hands down, I prefer solo, 3rd person narration. I can be myself as the storyteller, but model and morph myself into the characters as I go along, capturing their emotions in the 3rd person narration while still keeping my own style of storytelling in the flow. In 1st person narration, I have to be the character constantly, and for a lot of the darker romance books, where my character is some alpha-hole that's angry all the time, it's exhausting, both vocally and mentally.
J- Yes! I have done both dual and duet narration. Full disclosure, I have never had a listener tell me that they prefer dual over duet. And I totally get it. Nothing compares to the entertainment of real-time conversation between complex characters to paint the picture.
Dual narration is challenging in that every actor’s portrayal of a character is their interpretation of the text. Mel Gibson’s Hamlet was not Keanu Reeves’ Hamlet, whose Hamlet was not Ethan Hawke’s, whose Hamlet was not Kenneth Branagh’s, etc etc. If that makes sense. Dual sometimes runs the risk of taking the reader out of the story. I exclusively engineer duet narration, and the challenges with those productions for me lie purely in the edit itself. It’s a puzzle I love completing.
Reading the book in its entirety is a must! All chapter POVs. I’m a book nerd through and through, and often must pinch myself over the fact that I get to *read books* as part of my job. I mean, pull my arm, why don’t ya.
Q: What are you working on now? Anything coming up in the New Year? Can we expect more Blake Lockheart and Jaclyn Kelso for the Dirty Delta series?
B- Currently chugging through a few more quick romance titles this week and next, and then getting into a backlog of horror books that I am looking forward to so hard that I cannot even describe it. Horror, whether audiobooks or for my podcast "Tales to Terrify", serves as a palate cleanser and breath of fresh, albeit probably fetid, air.
More Dirty Delta for Blake Lockheart? I dunno, that's out of my hands! You'd have to talk to the production company! But I'm down if you are.
J- More Dirty Delta is the plan! I’ve been honored to be a part of CiCC, both you and Blake are so infinitely talented, I’m like a little kid on a roller coaster hanging on for dear life, enjoying the hell out of the ride.
Just this past week, I wrapped production on another Podium title (hockey, anyone?), and a gothic fairytale retelling I independently produced was published to Audible. I am currently pouring my heart and soul into a beloved passion project, a fantasy series co-narrated with Zach Webber, by yet another ridiculously talented indie author (you notice a trend? Like how I’m one of the luckiest motherfuckers to have ever worked?) and a Christmas duet is in the audio production queue this week!
Because I’ll be heading back to school in 2024, deep diving into production certifications and advancement, most of my voice work will be fulfilling trad pub and animation/gaming contracts I’ve had the privilege to be included in. A giant leap in that direction. I’m saving open schedule slots sprinkled throughout the year for indie authors who want to approach me for production though! I already have 6 lined up with co-narrator’s contracts signed and sealed. Lots of good things coming! Working on indie titles remains one of my greatest joys in this line of work.
And book Cons! I will be out and about next year, traveling the country on the roster of a couple (maybe more in the near future here) cons. I’m super pumped about upfront face time with the community.
Q: Final Q, if you could choose one person to narrate your life, who would it be?
B- Steven Pacey. No question. The man is an absolute master.
J- This…is an impossible question. I’m a June Gemini.I need more details. (calm down, I can *feel* the eyeroll folks). First, can I choose a theme? Is my life Wes Anderson coded? Or like, Jane Austen? A24, perhaps?
If we’re talking quirky retro vibes with my own distinct, bold color palette and symmetrical compositions: Jon Hamm. But if it’s more like, fairytale vibes on an English countryside in which everything is vexing:
Florence Pugh. Austen-esque but foreboding? Rosemund Pike. Without question. Sophia Bush would be a close second. I’d like to inhale the smokey fry in her voice, don’t even get me started.
My late teens early 20s? Horror vibes. But like, slow burn horror. Think southern gothic. Frailty. Ethan Hawke would nail it. Maybe Will Patton. Right now? In this very moment in my life as it is? Jennifer Tilly. The absolute chaos. Love it.
Thank you infinitely to Jaclyn and Blake for taking on my world and making it audibly beautiful, and I’m so sorry for all the filthy things I made you say. (I’ll definitely be doing it again.)
You can follow Jaclyn and Blake on Instagram.
The Christmas in Coconut Creek audiobook is available on Audible!
