Back when we published Black and Blue, it occurred to me that we should probably have an audiobook version of it – particularly for accessibility reasons, given that most of my clients have low or no vision.

We looked at a few voice actors, but had trouble finding someone:

• with the right ethnic and cultural background (if you’ve read the book, you’ll hopefully understand why a white person probably shouldn’t be reading for Jade’s mum in the 21st century),
• who could stay in a convincing Australian accent 99% of the time,
• with a good home recording studio setup,
• that we could actually afford.

Long story short, a few people suggested I should just read it myself. So I did, but it ended up taking a few years to complete, lol. That’s what happens when you don’t pay people what they’re worth.

In all sincerity, thank you to my colleagues at VisAbility for volunteering their time to bring an audiobook of Black and Blue into the world.

That meant, among other things, painstakingly listening to my voice. For hours. Hours. You think I’m sitting around listening to hours of myself talk? Hell no! But these amazing humans subjected themselves to it willingly.

Right now, the audio is just available at VisAbility Library – so you’ll need to have a print disability to download it. But I may make it commercially available in due course if that’s what people want. 😉

Download Black and Blue from VisAbility Library.

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer or any other staff members.