The Audiobook Narrator and Comic Artist of With a Little Luck: feat. Chuck Gonzales and Stacy Carolan

In this week’s episode, the first of the 2024 season, Marissa chats about her brand-new book, WITH A LITTLE LUCK, the companion to INSTANT KARMA. Featured in this episode are two special guests: Chuck Gonzales, the illustrator for the comic book pages inside WITH A LITTLE LUCK, and Stacy Carolan, the book’s audio edition narrator. 

 Discussed in this episode: the process of illustrating graphic novel panels (in black and white) as spot illustrations through a novel, illustrating a story within a story, the challenges of some of the finer details of illustrations, how the pandemic inspired the move into audiobook narration, behind the scenes of being an audiobook narrator, starting out in the industry, how narration is more acting and not merely reading a book, what makes audiobook narration fun, and so much more.

 Also in this episode, a special exclusive clip of the WITH A LITTLE LUCK audiobook!

Show notes: 

Chuck Gonzales, Illustrator https://chuckgonzales.com, https://www.instagram.com/cgonzaillo/

Stacy Carolan, Audio book narrator https://www.mrstacycarolan.com/ 

The official Marissa Meyer/The Happy Writer merchandise shops: 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/happywriterstore

https://thehappywriter.creator-spring.com/ 

https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-happy-writer 

The Happy Writer at Bookshop.org
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Order The Happy Writer: Get More Ideas, Write More Words, and Find More Joy from First Draft to Publication and Beyond https://bookshop.org/a/11756/9781250362377

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Transcript

[00:12] Marissa: Happy New Year and welcome to the 2024 season of the Happy writer. This is a podcast that aims to bring readers more books to enjoy and to help off others find more joy in their writing. And I am your host, Marissa Meyer. Thank you for joining me. What's making me happy this week? No surprises here. My new book is coming out. I am so excited. In fact, that's what this episode is about. This is a special episode dedicated to my new novel with a little luck, which is coming out on February 13. So if you're listening to this early, you have a week left in which you can still preorder the book and get some of our special preorder promo goodies. There's enamel pins, there's these really cool posters available, so check that out on instagram. And also, I will be going on book tour, which feels like it's been forever. I did not have a book come out last year in 2023. For the first time in my career, I skipped a year, so it feels a little strange. I feel rusty. I feel out of practice. But I am really excited to be going on tour. I hope you'll come out and see me. If you haven't seen the tour schedule yet, we are going through Minneapolis, Detroit, Austin, Los Angeles, Denver, San Jose, and Tacoma, Washington. So check out the schedule if you live in or near any of those cities or maybe you just feel like traveling and coming to see me, that would be awesome. I'm really looking forward to it and I cannot wait to see you. I am, of course, so excited to be talking about this book. It is the companion novel to my first contemporary romance, which was instant karma. And in today's episode, I got to interview not one, but two special guests who both helped bring this book to life in very different ways. First up, I'm going to be chatting with Chuck Gonzalez, who is the illustrator who created the fantastic artwork for the comic book pages that are seen throughout the book. What comic book pages, you ask? Hold that thought. I will explain momentarily. And then I also got to talk with the book's audiobook narrator, Stacey Carlin, who brought Jude, our protagonist, to life for all of you audiobook listeners. Plus, wait, there's more. As a special treat, Macmillan audio even sent us an early clip to include in today's episode. So keep listening all the way to the end for a sneak peek or sneak listen, I guess, of the with a little luck audiobook. Okay, what is this book about? You might be asking yourself. As I mentioned, it is the companion to instant karma. You don't have to read instant karma to understand this book. They are separate standalone titles. But, you know, there's characters in common. And this book follows Prudence's twin brother, Jude. And Jude is a teenage boy who loves to play dungeons and dragons with his friends, and he loves to draw comics and make art. And he is madly, madly in love with one of the popular girls at his school, Maya Livingstone. Well, one day, while Jude is working at his parents record store, he mysteriously comes across a beautiful, fancy, 20 sided die. And as he claims this dice, he comes to realize that every time he rolls this dice or uses it, really good things start happening to him. And he realizes this is a magical dice that is giving him the power of good luck, of extraordinarily good luck. Well, Jude uses this newfound magic power to win a pair of concert tickets and ask Maya Livingstone to go out with him. And all seems wonderful and great, but is it really? Because as it turns out, Maya may not actually be the girl of Jude's dreams. And as he slowly starts to realize, you know what? My best friend Ari is kind of the coolest, most amazing girl I've ever known in my life. And I think I may have asked out the wrong girl, the magic of the dice turns on him, and I don't think I want to spoil anything beyond that. It's a little bit of a be careful what you wish for book. It's a little bit of a friends to lovers book, and it's like, totally a nerd book, which for nerdy teen Marissa, there's a lot. There's a lot of nerdy teen Marissa in this book. And all the things that I loved growing up and getting to write Jude's character was so fun. And one of my favorite things about this book, a first for me, is that in the book, Jude is an artist, and he is taking this dungeons and dragons campaign that he is doing with his friends, and he is creating a comic book based on this story and this game that they're playing. And I asked my editor, do you think we could actually have the comic book that Judah's creating illustrated and put it into the pages of the book? And she said, yes. And so they exist. And it's one of my favorite things about this book. I love them so much. And those pages were illustrated by Chuck Gonzalez, who is my first interviewee. So with that, I now present my interview with our comic book illustrator, Chuck Gonzalez. Enjoy. I am so thrilled to be talking to today's guest. He is an illustrator who has worked in editorial and advertising as well as on numerous graphic novels. His long list of clients vary from the New York Times to Entertainment Weekly to Nickelodeon and many, many more. But most exciting for me is that today we get to talk to him because he illustrated Jude's comic book pages in my novel that is coming out next week. With a little luck, please welcome Chuck Gonzalez.

[07:50] Chuck: Yay. Hi, Marissa. Hi, Marissa. How are you?

[07:53] Marissa: I am wonderful. How are you doing?

[07:56] Chuck: I'm doing great.

[07:57] Marissa: So we were just talking before I started the recording that you have not seen the book yet. I received my uk copies. I'm still waiting for my us copies, but I have one of the uk copies sitting on my desk next to me, and it's so pretty. And the comic book pages are fantastic. And I literally squealed when I opened up and saw them because it was a little dream come true for me. So thank you.

[08:26] Chuck: Well, I'm happy I made your dream come true.

[08:28] Marissa: You really did.

[08:29] Chuck: Of the book.

[08:31] Marissa: Yeah.

[08:31] Chuck: Very anxious to see it myself, I bet.

[08:34] Marissa: No, I'm really excited for you to get a copy as well, and I hope you're pleased with it. I know I certainly am. I remember when I first was dreaming up this book and coming up with Jude's character, and I knew that he was an artist. And I had this vision of him. He's the dungeon master for this group of his friends who play dungeons and dragons. And I had this vision of him drawing these comics inspired by this campaign that he's running with his d d group. And at one point I thought, wouldn't it be amazing if we could actually have an illustrator create these comic book pages and scatter them throughout the book? And I remember taking it to Liz, my editor, and asking, is this even plausible? What do you think? And I was so happy when she was on board with it. And then they brought you in and they showed me some of your artwork, your portfolio. And I was like, this is perfect. And it's just been such a cool experience for me.

[09:35] Chuck: Oh, good.

[09:36] Marissa: So talk to me. The first thing I want to know is give us a little bit of background as far as how you were brought into this project. How does that even work? Does an agent to you?

[09:50] Chuck: I do have an agent who's also my husband. I've worked with Liz on several different projects, and I really like her a lot. She's great to work with and a lovely person. So that might have pushed me to the front of the line, hopefully. But, yeah, I think we kind of go back about ten years or more of working together.

[10:11] Marissa: Nice.

[10:12] Chuck: But I've gotten more and more into graphic novels. I've sort of gone through different genres. I worked on a worst case scenario junior book, which really sort of got me. It was a whole set of, like, maybe eight books, which really got me more into the graphic novel series, which you may not know, but I am also a writer and have a line of. The first book is out, and I've got two more coming out. One of them is on its way to the printer. So I'm pretty immersed in graphic novels at this point in my career, which is interesting. It's what I went to school for and what I thought I would start out with, but it took a while.

[10:53] Marissa: That happens sometimes.

[10:54] Chuck: I had to do a lot of advertising. I'm sorry, what was that?

[10:57] Marissa: I was going to say, that happens sometimes. The path is never know.

[11:01] Chuck: You find your time, and whatever time it hits, it's great. I'm just thankful that it's happening now. Yeah. Does that answer your question?

[11:11] Marissa: Yeah. So Liz emails you and says, what exactly?

[11:19] Chuck: What does she mean?

[11:23] Marissa: I could find the email word by word. I would like to know.

[11:28] Chuck: I mean, generally, whenever Liz says jump, I jump. So I think she just said, would you be interested in working on.

[11:35] Marissa: Yeah, that's funny. We have that in.

[11:38] Chuck: And pretty much I started with a yes, because it's Liz. And as I read more into it, I'm like, oh, this is really interesting. And it took me a moment or two, even when I was working on the project, to realize, oh, this is a book within a book. I didn't quite get that part, which probably was written in black and white somewhere, and I just overlooked it. And then it just added another layer to it. And she was also like, well, draw it like you're a teenager, which I sort of like. Strangely enough, that's the hardest thing to do. I've done that within my own books because the character is artistic, and it's like trying to draw from a younger kid's perspective is a lot tougher than it seems. And I don't know that eventually I just gave up and like, oh, this is just, I'm drawing the way I draw because it can be a losing battle at some point, and I'll look at it and I'm just so unhappy with it if it's not up to my standards. Anyway, hopefully the end product did what it was supposed to do and works well.

[12:52] Marissa: That's so interesting.

[12:54] Chuck: The artistic sensibility of an old, middle aged man.

[12:57] Marissa: No, it's fantastic. No, I love it. You absolutely captured exactly what I was hoping it was going to capture. And it's funny to think about, because as writers, we talk a lot about getting into the voice of a character, and every protagonist that I have, the voice changes naturally based on whoever that character is and what their personality is like and the things that they focus on. It's kind of interesting to try to put that into, through an illustration lens, that if you're having to illustrate it as a different character or as a character, that would change the style, which I hadn't really considered, but that does make some sense.

[13:41] Chuck: Yeah. And also black and white. You had that great character lark, and it was very tough to get the right tone for him. He's non binary and his hair is pink or different colors.

[13:57] Marissa: Hard to do in black and white.

[13:58] Chuck: Yeah, you can't really do that. It was interesting characters to deal with, so that was a lot of fun. I never really got into dungeons and dragons, so I had to sort of do a lot of research on you.

[14:19] Marissa: Like, wait, what on earth is a teethling? I'd better look that up.

[14:22] Chuck: Yeah, exactly. So now my socials have a lot of dungeons and dragons.

[14:29] Marissa: And Google's giving you all the ads. Here's some.

[14:32] Chuck: Yeah, exactly. So they think, you know, middle aged.

[14:36] Marissa: Teenager, which, I mean, that's what I am, essentially. So one of the things that is probably strangest about this project, I'm making an assumption here, is that it's not a one continuous story. It is like various chapters that are then spread throughout the book. To me, it seems like it would be difficult because you didn't have the story, you didn't have the rest of the manuscript, you only had the comic book scripts. Were there places when you were trying to do it? And you're like, hold on, there's been, like, a big leap in logic here from this last page.

[15:20] Chuck: Yeah, a little bit. It did sort of read. It had a narrative line through the whole thing. It wasn't that disjointed, but that's kind of why I was asking you earlier, was this spread out through the book or. If memory serves me right, I do actually think Liz might have said that it's going to be spread out, but I was working on page, page for page, and it just was a single line through the whole thing, so it didn't seem that disjointed. I mean, they did seem to travel around a bit more. I would think they would be able to at that.

[15:58] Marissa: Sure. Yeah, no, they're definitely like, one moment they're in the pub, and then the next time we see them. Oh, here we are. We've made it all the way to the temple.

[16:07] Chuck: Yeah. Well, it was interesting also, because I have worked in a lot of children's publishing genre, is that you were able to put them in a pub, because so often I can't, like, oh, well, you can't show alcohol or you can't show this, that and the other. And it was really sort of great to have a little bit more.

[16:27] Marissa: Yeah. Oh, that's funny. It had not even occurred to me. But you're right. I guess it is kind of strange because they are teenagers in theory, and yet, yeah, they're definitely drinking ale in.

[16:38] Chuck: Bork's pub or whatever it is, which was great. I thought I was like, oh, okay. All those little details sort of go into the creating of the characters and what level of sophistication they are, and while at the same time making it look like a 17 year old draw through them.

[17:00] Marissa: Yeah. No, and it's funny because on one hand, for me, it's very meta. It gets to be very meta what we're doing here, where you've got the characters who are in high school, but what you're creating is not the high school students. It is their adventurers, personas and their elves and their orcs and all of these things. It's like trying to capture what teenagers care about and what's going on in the story outside of the comic. But also, it's still like an adventure comic.

[17:37] Chuck: Yeah.

[17:37] Marissa: Were there any moments that jumped out at you that you really loved? Like, do you have any favorite panels or favorite scenes? Or alternatively, were there any moments that challenged you?

[17:50] Chuck: I would say that all the scenes that took place in the castle were probably my favorite. And the pub, it's just a personal thing, but I have such a tough time drawing tables with people around them, and I end up having to do it a lot.

[18:07] Marissa: Oh, how funny.

[18:09] Chuck: And it's just like, yeah, they're not for some. Even though I'd like the storyline, I'd love the dialogue that was going on in the pub. It was very funny. And lots of back and forth and the flirting with lark. It's just a personal thing. You then have to draw what's on the table and in each frame, you have to duplicate it over and over and over again.

[18:35] Marissa: I can get that. No, I can get that. I know nothing about illustration, but I can see how that would get tedious.

[18:41] Chuck: It could get tedious. And I really tried to not just cut and paste and make sure that you're looking at it from a different angle each frame. Otherwise it just looks like I've cut and paste the whole thing and just sort of move their hands around a bit. Yeah. I'd have to say that just drawing, like, the exteriors and the night scenes and things like that, those were probably the most fun for me. And conjuring up this castle and what it would look like and did a lot of research on various castles. And then you just winged it myself.

[19:16] Marissa: Yeah. I love that. I love that. I got to say, I'm trying to decide. I've got two favorite moments. When Starling opens the treasure chest and then falls into a trap. I thought that was.

[19:31] Chuck: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[19:33] Marissa: And then also when we meet Ezra in the pub at the end in one of the later scenes, and he's like, being such a terrible show off. And it's so like to think that it's actually Jude drawing it and he's so angry at Ezra in this moment. And it's just hilarious. I really loved how it turned out.

[19:53] Chuck: That was a funny relationship.

[19:55] Marissa: Yeah. Well, thank you. Again, I cannot express to you how grateful I am that you were a part of this project and how much I just love how it turned out. It really adds a really fun and unique element to the book that makes me quite giddy. So thank you for being part of it.

[20:16] Chuck: Glad I made you giddy.

[20:17] Marissa: Yes, you really did. I'm not lying. I'm giddy even just sitting here looking at it. Again, I have two quick finale questions before I let you go. The first thing I ask all of my guests, what is a book that makes you happy?

[20:34] Chuck: Oh, gosh. It makes me happy. Let me see. I'm right now reading Snapdragon, which I'm enjoying a lot. I also like robot dreams, which they're now making a movie out of, apparently. But I like both of them. I mean, I try to read a lot of graphic novels just to keep abreast, but Snapdragon is Kate Lee. Do you know the book at all?

[20:58] Marissa: I'm not familiar, no.

[21:00] Chuck: Yeah, it's lovely and a fun read and sort of has a lot of mystical elements to. Anyway, yeah. Right. Now, if we go historically, but they don't necessarily make me happy, but Persepolis. Is that the name of it? I think so, yes. Persepolis is a beautiful series of books, but I can't say that it makes me happy. I mean, it's about a young Iranian girl during the 70s, but it's a great read. Anyway, I'm giving you a list and you asked me for one book.

[21:34] Marissa: I know how that can be. It's hard to stop once you've gotten started sometimes.

[21:40] Chuck: Yeah, once I get started, it's a little tough, but, yeah, I highly recommend Snapdragon.

[21:47] Marissa: And then, actually, I lied. I said I had two questions for you, but then I remembered that you had mentioned that you have the second in a trilogy that you were writing and illustrating coming out, and I don't think you told us what it was called. So tell us.

[22:00] Chuck: I should be promoting myself, shouldn't I? The first book, which is out. It's been out for a couple of years, is called Carlos Gomez. Freestyles heavy on the style, and it's about a young, gay latino boy growing up in South Dakota. And he's pretty flamboyant and wears a lot of pink. And he gets, in an effort to get more involved, he gets in a BMX exposition, although he doesn't know how to ride a bike. And the bike that he's riding is his sister's Barbie bike with training wheels. And it's semi autobiographical. And the second one that should be coming out this spring, it's at the printer now. Let me see. The name of it is Carlos Gomez attack of the trash can zombies. And both of them got the junior library guild award, so I'm super happy about that.

[22:51] Marissa: Oh, congratulations.

[22:53] Chuck: It's allowed me to go to all the library conferences, which I don't know if you've been to any of them, but they're amazing.

[23:01] Marissa: They are so fun.

[23:02] Chuck: Oh, they're so fun. Love library librarians. I mean, they're on the. They're on the front. They're on the front lines. I mean, they're. They're fighting the good fight, and they're wonderful people.

[23:11] Marissa: 100% agreed. Well, those sound super fun. I will definitely get my hands on a copy. Thank you. That brings us to my final question. Where can people find you?

[23:24] Chuck: Those books are, sadly, not in Barnes and Noble, because I don't know why they're selling well, but I'm on Amazon and all the others. The publisher is called Raycraft Publishing, and they sell them through their website. But Amazon, if you don't hate Amazon, they're there.

[23:44] Marissa: Okay. And then. Are you on social?

[23:46] Chuck: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm on Instagram, and I think it's Gonza Ilo. And I'm on Facebook, and I'm also on. Oh, gosh, I should have written all these down.

[23:58] Marissa: I love it when people don't know their instagram handle.

[24:02] Chuck: It's terrible. Oh, forget it. That's going to take me too long. Just put in Chuck Gonzalez illustration. I'm sure you'll find it.

[24:09] Marissa: It'll pop up.

[24:10] Chuck: It'll pop up.

[24:12] Marissa: Awesome. Chuck, thank you so much for joining me. And again, thank you for doing these fabulous illustrations for with a little luck.

[24:18] Chuck: Well, thank you very much for interviewing me. This has been fun. It's really great meeting you and good luck with the book. I can't wait to see it.

[24:26] Marissa: Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[24:29] Chuck: You too.

[24:31] Marissa: And for our next interview in this very special WITH A LITTLE LUCK- themed episode, I am so excited to introduce this guest. He is a professional actor, trumpet player, humorist, and most relevant to today's interview and audiobook narrator. He is, of course, the narrator of my newest novel. With a little luck bringing Jude to life, please welcome Stacy Carolan.

[24:58] Stacy: Hi.

[24:59] Marissa: Hello. How are you? Welcome.

[25:02] Stacy: I am good.

[25:03] Stacy: Thanks so much for having me on.

[25:04] Stacy: This is great.

[25:05] Marissa: Thank you for joining me. I am super excited. I'm so curious about audiobook narrating, so I'm just going to start with asking, how does one become an audiobook narrator? How did you get here?

[25:21] Stacy: Well, I have always enjoyed reading. I've always enjoyed sound and telling stories and doing things like that. I'm a musician by training. I am a trumpet player with performance degrees and have been doing that my whole life. I sang with an acapella group where I was on stage 250 shows a year. So performing has always been a part of that. And I guess I've always enjoyed the story part of it. So actually, when the pandemic hit and I was home with the kids and we were doing homeschooling and everything, I was looking for something to do. And this seemed like a really great opportunity to jump into something that I had sort of been thinking about for a while, but it just seemed like a very prime time to do it and start to learn about it, start to make connections, start to see what it really involved, rather than just having a microphone and speaking into it for hours on end. And that's really it. Yeah. I should come up with a more interesting story, really. But that's really it.

[26:23] Marissa: That's the story. It is what it is. So you've only been doing audiobook narrating then for a handful of years?

[26:30] Stacy: Yes. Like I said, I started researching and kind of planning to do it, literally march of 2020 when everything shut down. I was able to go full time with it. I believe the following summer. Sorry, 2021. The following summer.

[26:51] Marissa: You have so many books under your name.

[26:54] Stacy: I feel like I've made really good choices. I feel like I've made really good connections. Yeah, there's a lot of right place, right time kind of thing. I don't discount that at all. But I have also planned it out pretty. What I hope is pretty well. And a lot of it has paid off for me.

[27:09] Marissa: That's awesome. I love it. So our listeners can't see you, but I can see that you were in a very fancy sound booth.

[27:17] Stacy: My padded.

[27:18] Marissa: Did that already exist as a part of your musician career or was this created for audiobook narrating?

[27:25] Stacy: The structure itself did not. I was able to order this. There are a lot of premade booths. There's a lot of brands that make recording booths of various sizes. I mean, some can fit an entire drum kit in or an entire band. I mean, at some point they're just an extra room in your house. I don't know where that boundary is. I did have a lot of the equipment. I had the microphone and the interface and a lot of the software, because when I was singing, I did a lot of the arrangements for the group, so I would record them myself. So I had kind of a foot in the door already as far as the tech goes. But then once I decided to do it, and my kids are twelve and nine and they're not rambunctious, but they're also kids and they run around. So it was worthwhile to invest in a pretty solid booth with some pretty thick walls. And we're in the basement out here in the woods, and that works out pretty well. But this kind of takes care of all the other sounds as well.

[28:18] Marissa: Yeah, no, that makes sense. I've got nine year old twins.

[28:20] Stacy: Oh, nice.

[28:22] Marissa: And their favorite thing is to interrupt me in the middle of recording a podcast. So I actually sent them off to grandma's today. Oh, nice.

[28:30] Stacy: When they were at home school, I had a sign I would hang on the door that was available for hug breaks and not available for hug breaks. And they were allowed to interrupt me anytime they wanted for hug breaks when the sign was flipped over, but had to kind of shut it down every once in a while. And they actually enjoyed that too. So that is a universal kid thing.

[28:51] Marissa: I guess that makes sense. Kids love a sign. There's something about having a written word that I think speaks to them.

[28:57] Stacy: Yeah.

[28:58] Marissa: Okay, so you're now a full time audiobook narrator, true? Yes.

[29:06] Stacy: Correct.

[29:07] Marissa: So how does it work? How do you go about choosing, do you get to choose your projects that you work on? Does someone just say, here's the next book that you're reading. How does that work?

[29:18] Stacy: Well, I imagine for some of the more famous names in the audiobook industry, you get to choose a lot more. But for most of us humble mortals in the audiobook realm, it's always a hustle. You're always looking for auditions. You're always looking for authors that you can bring to different platforms or different publishers if they don't have an audiobook. A lot of times we'll approach authors and say, hey, I really love your book. Have you thought about doing an audiobook? I can help you go through that process if that's something you're interested in. Even if I don't end up being the voice for that, I still like to be a valuable part of that, and that helps the industry as a whole. And then there's also publishers rosters that we get on. Like I said, a lot of networking, a lot of contact making so that you're on their mind. And if they have a book that comes up that they think you might be a good fit for, such as this one. That's actually how I was approached about this book as well. Then they will think about you when this book comes up and say, hey, I want this person. Either I just want this person, or I want them to audition on a short list of auditionees for a book like this.

[30:26] Marissa: Yeah. And I will say, so this is. What is this, like, my 17th book? It is my first book that is 100% from a male narrator. So for all of my other books, I was with Rebecca Solaire, who I love and adore. And part of me, I was a little sad and afraid that, oh, no, I'm going to get a new narrator. It's not Rebecca anymore.

[30:51] Stacy: No, I get that a lot. People get sad and afraid. I've gotten used to it.

[30:57] Marissa: Yes. And the people at Macmillan audio did send a handful of clips. I don't know, there was maybe like three or four different narrators that had auditioned, I guess. And I was on a writing retreat, and so me and all of my writer friends sat and listened to all of the different auditions, and yours was the top choice from all of us. You were such a great fit for Jude, and I was just so excited when I heard that you were the one.

[31:25] Stacy: Oh, thank you.

[31:26] Stacy: And sometimes it happens like that. Like I said, sometimes you have to really work to find your way into a character or character, several characters within a book. This was a very easy character to relate to. I absolutely was this kid growing. I was Jude only without maybe the eventual confidence, without the maybe light at the end of the tunnel. But it was one of those reads that just really spoke to me right away. It's like, oh, I get this character. You wrote him so well, he just leaps right off the page. You know exactly who he is. And that's such a fun way to do it for the narrator. So thank you for that.

[32:09] Marissa: Oh, gosh, my pleasure. I'm so glad you liked him. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. I was really curious because I know a lot of the books you've done, you've narrated across many different genres. Not a ton of ya that I was seeing in your portfolio.

[32:26] Stacy: This was my first, yeah.

[32:27] Marissa: Oh, I didn't know it was your very first. Oh, that's awesome. So was it different getting into a teens mindset or a teen narration?

[32:36] Stacy: I will say, like I said, I do have experience having been a teen.

[32:40] Marissa: So I could call on that.

[32:42] Chuck: Yes.

[32:42] Stacy: Way back. Way back when. Way back when.

[32:45] Stacy: No. A lot of people see audiobook narration as just reading a book, but it.

[32:54] Stacy: Really is an acting job.

[32:55] Stacy: So whenever we're presented with a character, that's exactly what we do. We try to get into that mindset. I would say it's not so much difficult to get into different kinds of.

[33:06] Stacy: Characters mindsets as it is.

[33:08] Stacy: Honestly, to get into poorly written characters mindsets, that's the hardest. So if the character is well fleshed out and it's clear that the author has a very clear idea of who they are, it's so much easier to act a character like that because it's all there on the page. You provide everything that we need to know about this character to portray them as a real person. I will say doing younger voices can be a little bit of a strain vocally because I'm placing them a little higher, especially the female characters. I put a little more breath in the voice when I do that. So changing that, I would say was more of a struggle than finding my way into the character because the characters were just, like I said, right there. Everything I needed to know about them was right there. But I did have to take a few more breaks every now and then, especially Ari. I think I placed her really high and with a lot of breath. And that one, I couldn't do that one over and over.

[34:03] Stacy: I had to pause.

[34:04] Marissa: No, that makes sense. Did you have a favorite character?

[34:11] Stacy: Against my better judgment, I liked Ezra. I thought Ezra was really.

[34:15] Marissa: I like Ezra too.

[34:18] Stacy: He was just know and just one.

[34:21] Stacy: Of those forces of nature that just.

[34:23] Stacy: Frolics through life and just people see him like, oh, here he comes. And you're either really excited about it or really don't want to deal with it right now and possibly both at the same time. Just one of those really great characters that is just a lot of fun to play and to hear and to experience.

[34:41] Marissa: I'm happy to hear that. He was one of my favorite characters to write. And he was in the first book, Instant Karma as well. And I was excited to have him back on the page because he's such a goofball and I just adore him.

[34:54] Stacy: Like an old know. Oh, here comes Ezra again. Come on in.

[34:57] Marissa: Exactly. No. And it's like preparing for this chat today and thinking, what questions am I going to ask and talk to Stacey about? And I admit it's impossible to do this and not be a little self serving. I'm a little bit like, so what did you like about the book? But I do have to ask, was there a favorite scene or a favorite moment in the book that you thought was really fun to narrate, or were there any scenes that particularly challenged you that you can remember?

[35:31] Stacy: That's a great question. Let me see.

[35:36] Stacy: I really enjoyed the constant missing of the point of how much am I allowed to talk about the book?

[35:44] Marissa: We don't want to spoil anything. Edit it out.

[35:47] Stacy: Okay. All Jude being this. He's got this goal in mind. He's got this girl that he thinks he's in love with. And it turns out that the one.

[35:59] Stacy: He really loved was right there the whole time.

[36:03] Stacy: But one of those things. But that constant missing of what's happening that Jude always had all of these clues that were dropped that he just is oblivious of. So to play them as important, but to also play them as just going right over his head was a very fun kind of acting challenge and kind of a balance to achieve because you don't want to highlight them too much. You don't want to hit a reader or a listener over the head with it. You want to say you want them to hear it and see what's going on and then see that he's missing it. But as a first person narrative, you can't lean into that as much because his perspective isn't getting these clues. So that was, like I said, kind of a fun tightrope to walk.

[36:45] Marissa: I'm just going to pause you there because I love that answer because it was also one of the biggest challenges of writing the book.

[36:51] Stacy: All right.

[36:52] Stacy: On.

[36:52] Marissa: Yeah, I mean it exactly how you described it. Like, doing it first person. We're in Jude's head. He's so obsessed with Maya. He's just convinced that she's the one for him and trying to be authentic with those emotions and that desire while also cluing the reader in to like. But obviously, she's not actually the one for him. You described it as a tightrope. It was very much a tightrope to walk.

[37:20] Stacy: And the things that Jude convinced, the ways that Jude dismisses all of those clues as well, like, oh, this must be that, or, I don't understand why she was doing that. You don't, right? Obviously, yeah. Hindsight. Like I said, I was that kid, and I would like to go back and slap myself at that age. Pretty.

[37:40] Marissa: Okay. So it read pretty believable. And I also want to talk, because also in this episode, I got to interview the comic book illustrator because there are certain portions of the book that are illustrated in comic.

[37:56] Stacy: Oh, my goodness, they're beautiful.

[37:59] Marissa: I was wondering if they actually sent you the artwork, and you got to see.

[38:03] Stacy: They were in the original prep version that I got to see. And then I understand you went in and sort of narratified the panels so that they could be read more in audiobook format. But, yeah, I initially saw those panels in the prep version, and it was, oh, they're just beautiful. I love them.

[38:21] Marissa: I love them, too. They're definitely one of my favorite parts about this book. How was that narrating? Because, like you said, I did eventually go and provide a script to read, but I didn't know. I'd never done that before. And that was kind of a strange ask. Did you change anything about your narration style going into the comic book pages, or how did that work?

[38:44] Stacy: Well, that speaks a little to the process. And there's me in this box, and there's you as the writer, but there are so many other people involved in the production of it as well. There's the editors and engineers and Macmillan side of it and all that stuff. And Katie was absolutely fantastic to work with. And in situations like that, there are choices, I guess, that have to be made, because some things just don't necessarily work as seamlessly across a written book as they do an audiobook. When I'm doing nonfiction, for example, it's always expected that if I come across a passage that says, as you're reading this book, think about blah, blah, blah. There's sort of this unspoken rule that you are allowed to change that as a narrator to. As you listen to this book, think of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You just do that. That's sort of expected that you're going to take care of each little one of those as they come up in a book for something like this. Like I said, this is my first YA book. Certainly I haven't done a graphic novel either. So it was a big question at the beginning as to how we were going to tackle those comic book panels. I would say for changing the narration.

[39:53] Stacy: I did try to grandiose it a.

[39:56] Stacy: Little bit more, and this was talk about a little bit of self aggrandizing. One of the funnest parts I'm going to edit a previous answer I had. One of the funnest parts in this book, for me was the fact that there were all of these characters, all of these prepubescent, current pubescent, I don't know what the term is, characters in this book, and that maybe like eight.

[40:19] Stacy: Or nine of them also had dungeons.

[40:21] Stacy: And dragons characters that were voiced in the book as well. So it had to be that character, but them playing a character in this other thing. So there's like these wonderful layers.

[40:33] Marissa: It's very meta.

[40:34] Stacy: Yeah, exactly. So in that instance, I used Jude's voice, which was essentially, I tried to make that my default voice, but younger, and I tried to use his voice in a more, I'm telling a grandiose story style of voice. Like, this is what he thinks a Grandiose story should sound like. So that was kind of the narrator voice for the comic panels, and I haven't heard the final product yet. I don't know if there was anything added to them. Sound effects, music. I'm not sure how that'll turn out. So I'm really excited to hear what the production team will do with that, like, if they set that off in some other way, because I heard some really great ideas being floated around, and I'm really excited to see what happens on that. So as my job as the narrator is just kind of stay out of the way of it and see if there's going to be something that they add to it later that I'm not in the way of that, and that they can do what they want with that.

[41:32] Marissa: Yeah. I also have not heard the final, and I also am very curious to hear if they decided to add anything, because I also have ideas, but I'm not a producer. I don't know.

[41:45] Stacy: No, it's going to be great. This is one that I do a bunch of boring nonfiction books. I'm in the middle of some action, kind of political, military, thrillers. I've done a lot of romance books, a couple of other Sci-Fi books. Really not a ton of books that I can really want my kids to listen to or that they would want to listen to. So I'm actually really excited that this is one that I think my kids will actually dig quite a bit. So I'm really looking forward to this.

[42:14] Marissa: Oh, I hope they do. I hope they do. My girls, they're nine and they just started reading cinder, my first novel, which is like a really weird thing for a parent. And I keep saying, like, you don't have to read it if you don't like it, it's fine. And okay, mom, just like, step back, let them do what they want.

[42:33] Stacy: They're going to do it.

[42:33] Chuck: They're not going to do it.

[42:34] Stacy: They're going to do it anyway.

[42:35] Marissa: Exactly. All right. Just a handful of final questions for you, one that I ask all my guests. What book makes you happy?

[42:45] Stacy: As in like a personal reader, as a reader of books, a consumer of literature? Oh, it's a very interesting thing about this job. I love this job so much.

[42:53] Stacy: One of the only downsides is that.

[42:56] Stacy: I don't really have a lot of time to read recreationally anymore.

[43:01] Stacy: I think it has to be a.

[43:02] Stacy: Book that has everything in it. It can't just be one thing. It can't just be a thriller or a horror novel. I'm a big Stephen King fan. I came up reading a lot of Stephen King and Clive Barker. So I've got to place my heart for horror books. But it's got to be more than that. It can't just be that. It has to have some humor, some know, some know, sort of surreal moments mixed in with everything. And I guess that goes for everything that I read. What have I finished recently that I enjoyed? Oh, back in October, I think was the last time I finished a book recreationally. It was the fourth Thursday murder club.

[43:40] Marissa: That's a fun title.

[43:42] Stacy: Goodness, if you haven't read them, it's such a great series. Richard Osmond. The first book is called the Thursday Murder Club and it follows these octogenarians in a retired assisted living space in England and they solve murders on Thursdays. I love, it's just, it's everything. It's funny, it's heart wrenching, it's surprising, it's exciting. It's all of those things. So for me, I think it has to be all of those things because like I said, I don't have as much time to devote to recreational reading anymore. So I'm a little more choosy now, I guess, than I have been in the past.

[44:21] Marissa: I get that. No, I do a ton of reading for this podcast, and of course I choose books for the podcast that I'm excited to read. But then there are also times when it's like, I would really love to read something that I'm not going to have to interview somebody about. And it can be hard to fit that reading.

[44:37] Stacy: Yeah.

[44:37] Stacy: Just to read it.

[44:39] Marissa: And lastly, where can people find you?

[44:43] Stacy: Well, do you want my address?

[44:45] Marissa: And like, yes, that'd be great.

[44:48] Stacy: Wouldn't be creepy at all. No, exactly.

[44:50] Marissa: Are you on social media?

[44:52] Stacy: I am. I am on Facebook. My narrator stuff isn't really necessarily available. It's kind of more just a profile to connect with other narrators really don't even have that many authors on there. Social media a little bit, I guess. All my titles are available on audible that are on there, as well as Libro FM, which is kind of an audible counterpart. They kind of do the same thing. Although Libro FM supports local bookstores, so big fan of that one as well. My website, ww mrstacycarlin.com, that's all there. You can check out demos and whatnot and portfolio of stuff that I've done, and that's really kind of just. I'm just a guy in a box. I mean, if you can find the.

[45:35] Marissa: Box, you're literally in a box.

[45:37] Stacy: I'm literally in a small padded room talking to myself for hours on end in different voices.

[45:43] Marissa: Oh, the life of a narrator. Awesome. Stacey, thank you so much. This was such a pleasure.

[45:48] Stacy: Oh, thanks so much for having me on and thanks for bringing me on in this book. I absolutely loved every second of it.

[45:54] Marissa: I'm so glad to hear that. And I'm just thrilled that you enjoyed it and thrilled to have you as its narrator. I'm sure I'll reconnect with Rebecca soon.

[46:05] Stacy: Oh, right on.

[46:06] Stacy: Right on.

[46:06] Marissa: Listeners, don't hit pause yet. Macmillan Audio did generously provide me with a clip from the with a little luck audiobook narrated by Stacey Carlin. And we will be playing that's you. And we will be playing that for your listening enjoyment at the end of this episode. Bye, Stacey, thanks again.

[46:28] Stacy: Thank you so much.

[46:29] Marissa: Bye, readers, thank you so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed our special with a little luck episode and my interviews with Chuck and Stacey. I know I had a blast talking with them and getting to hear some of the behind the scenes stuff that us authors don't always get to know about again with a little luck is coming out next Tuesday, February 13. I hope you will check it out. If you want some of those preorder gifts, preorder it now and you can get the details for how to claim those gifts on Instagram. Of course, we encourage you to support your local indie bookstore if you can. If you don't have a local indie, you can also check out our affiliate store https://bookshop.org/shop/marissameyer. We also have recently uploaded some brand new with a little luck and Fortuna beach merchandise on our Etsy and pages. Huge thanks to the amazing Taylor Denali, aka Kiwi and the bird on Instagram for designing those and helping out and making our merchandise so cool. You can find the links to our shops also on our Instagram profile next week. I am excited to kick off our 2024 season with Dinesh the roo talking about his debut novel, into the Sunken City, which is an apocalyptic retelling of Treasure island. If you're enjoying these conversations, please subscribe and follow us on Instagram at Marissa Meyer, author and at Happy Writer podcast. Until next time, stay inspired. Keep writing whatever life throws at you today. I hope that now you're feeling a little bit happier. And of course, stay tuned now for our clip of the with a little luck audiobook. Enjoy.

**WITH A LITTLE LUCK**

[48:28] Stacy: Writt upon these hallowed pages is the epic tale of the great wizard Jude. His power was rivaled only by his immeasurable charm. His life was a series of grand adventures, battles won and battles lost, evil vanquished and goodness restored. He was a true hero of legend. His story, as penned on this brittle parchment, is a worthy one, a quest for the ages, a destiny built on fortune and misfortune, blessings and curses, and a love that has inspired the music of bards across the centuries. Or, depending on your interpretation, it could also be the story of a 16 year old boy halfway through his junior year at Fortuna Beach High School, who.

[49:17] Stacy: Works four days a week at his.

[49:19] Stacy: Parents vinyl record store. The sort of boy who draws comics when he's supposed to be taking notes on the industrial revolution. The sort of boy who isn't sure he'll ever be able to afford college. Or a car, for that matter. The sort of boy who would rather take a lightsaber to his nondrawing hand than risk the rejection that comes with asking out a girl he likes and thus has never asked out a girl, no matter how many times he's imagined how it might go. If he did the possible good and the far more likely, almost inevitable bad, but it's fine. I've got a decent imagination, which is almost as good as epic quests and true love. Imagination surpasses real life, what, 90% of the time? Tell me I'm wrong.

[50:09] Stacy: You're the one listening to an audiobook.

[50:11] Stacy: Right now, so I know you agree with me on some level. The temple of Torna Gorthit, says Ari, startling me from my targeted destruction of the fourth wall theater joke. Don't worry about it. She's reading tonight's open mic night flyer over my shoulder. The flyer I've been doodling on for the past ten minutes sounds ominous. Jude. It is rife with danger, I say. The ballpoint pen scratches across the white paper, transforming the clip art of a vinyl record into a black sun hanging over a tree studded horizon. I've altered the letters in open mic to look like ancient temple crumbling from time. I'm still working on the name. Naming things is hard. Ari leans closer. She has her hair pulled back in a loose, messy bun, but one strand falls out, brushing across my forearm before she reaches up to tuck it behind her ear. Is that supposed to be me? I pause and study the flyer. Ventures vinyl presents open mic night 06:00 p.m. The first Sunday of every month. All musical styles welcome. The bottom half of the page used to be taken up with a line art sketch of a girl playing a guitar, but I've changed the guitar to look more like a medieval loot, lengthened the girl's hair and given her a cloak and riding boots. Very medieval chic. Um, no, I say, tapping the drawing. This is Aracelli the magnificent, most renowned bard in all the land. Obviously. Ari widens her eyes knowingly and whispers, I'm pretty sure that's me. I lift up the page and turn it to face her. This is a loot, Ari. Do you play a loot? Do you? No, she says, studying the drawing before adding, but I bet I could.

Yeah.

[52:08] Stacy: Aracelli the magnificent likes to show off, too. Ari laughs. So what happens in this creepy temple? A group of bards compete in a music competition to the death. Yikes. She hops up onto the counter. She's short, but somehow she makes it look easy. Do lots of bards sign up for that? It's either compete in the tournament or have your video go viral on YouTube and be subjected to the comments of a hundred thousand trolls. Literal trolls. The smelly kind I see, says Ari, legs swinging. Death sounds preferable. I thought so, too. I pick up my pen again, adding vines and foliage around the base of the temple. I'm actually still figuring out the magic of this temple. I know there's going to be a statue in the last chamber, and I've got this idea that maybe there was a maiden who was cursed and turned to stone and only someone deemed worthy can break the spell. If they succeed, they'll get bonus points on future skill checks. Like magic that gives you uncanny good luck. But if they fail, I'm not sure yet. Something bad happens. Humiliation by smelly Internet trolls? I nod earnestly. It's a slow, painful death. The record player clicks off. I'd forgotten it was playing, but I start at the sudden absence of music. You're a really good artist, Jude. Ari reaches for the beat up guitar case, leaning against the counter. Thought any more about art school? I scoff. I'm not lucky enough to get into art school. Oh, please, she says, unclipping the latches on the side of the case. You have to at least try. I don't respond. We've had this discussion half a dozen times over the last year, and I have nothing new to add to it. The people who get into art school on full ride scholarships are incredible, like the sort of people that bedazzle their own bodies with Swarovsky crystals, call them blood diamonds, and host a faux human auction in the middle of Times Square in order to make a point about immoral mining practices. They are artistes french pronunciation whereas I mostly draw dragons and ogres and elves in kick ass battle armor. Ari pulls out the acoustic guitar and settles it on her lab. Like most of the clothes Ari wears, the guitar is vintage, inherited from a grandfather who passed away when Ari was little. I'm no expert, but even I can see that it's a beautiful instrument with a pattern of dark wood inlays around the edges of the body and a neck that looks black until the light hits it in just the right way to give it a reddish sheen. The glossy finish has been rubbed away in places from so many years of play, and there are a few dings in the wood here and there, but Ari always says that its historic patina is her favorite thing about it. While she tunes the strings, I lift the lid on the turntable and slide the record back into its protective sleeve. The store has been slow all day, with just a few regulars stopping in and one tourist family who didn't buy anything, but dad insists that we always have music playing because we are a record store. I'm reaching for the next record on the stack, some 70s funk band when dad emerges from the back room. Whoa, whoa, not that one, he says, snatching the record from my hand. I've got something special picked out for our inaugural open mic night. I step back and let dad take over, especially since choosing our music selection on any given day is one of his greatest joys. It's not actually our inaugural open mic night. Ari had the idea last summer, and with dad's okay, she officially started hosting them sometime around Thanksgiving. But this is the first open mic night since my parents finished signing the paperwork to officially buy ventures vinyl. The business itself was always theirs, but as of six days ago, they are now also the proud owners of the building, too. A 1200 square foot brick structure in the heart of Fortuna beach with old plumbing, old wiring, old everything, and an exorbitantly high mortgage payment. Proof that dreams do come true. Should be a good crowd tonight, dad says. He says this every time, and while we've progressively become more popular over the months, it's considered a good crowd if we top more than 20 people. It's been pretty fun, though, and Ari loves it. She and I both started working here last summer, but we were friends for years before that, and she used to spend so much of her free time here that dad often refers to her as his 6th child. I think she would work here even if he wasn't paying her, especially on open mic nights. Ari tells people these shindigs are a team effort, but no, it's all her her passion, her planning, her effort. I just drew some flyers and helped assemble the platform in the corner of the store.

[57:29] Stacy: I guess it was my idea to.

[57:31] Stacy: Frame our makeshift stage with floor to ceiling curtains and paint a mural on the wall behind it to look like a night sky. Dad says it's the best looking part of the store, and he might be right. It certainly has the freshest coat of paint. Here we go, says dad, flipping through the bin of records beneath the counter, the special or sentimental ones that he keeps for the store but aren't really for sale. He pulls out a record with a black and white image of two men and a woman standing in front of the London Bridge. It takes me a second to recognize Paul McCartney from his post Beatles days. All we need is love, dad goes on, pulling out the album and flipping it to side b before setting it tenderly on the turntable. And a little luck. Don't let mom hear you say that, I say quietly. Dad has always been the superstitious one, and mom loves to tease him about it. We've all heard it from her a million times, and I parrot now luck is all about perspective and what you do with the opportunities you're given, dad says. Yes, yes, fine. But you know what?

[58:41] Stacy: Even your mom believes in luck.

[58:43] Stacy: When Sir Paul is singing about it, he lowers the needle. The record pops a few times before some deep, mechanical sounding notes start to play over the store speakers. I cringe. Really, dad, watch it, he says, jutting a finger in my direction. We love wings in this family. Don't criticize. You don't like wings, Ari says, shooting me a surprised look as her feet kick against the side of the counter. I don't like. I consider for a moment in my family we're pretty much required to have a healthy respect for the Beatles, and that includes the fab Four's solo careers. I think my parents might actually disown me or my sisters if we were to ever say something outright critical of John, Paul, George, or Ringo. I don't like synthesizers, I finally say, but to each their own. I'm going to start setting up the chairs, says dad. Let me know if you need help with anything else. He wanders toward the front of the store, humming along with the music. I glance at Ari. She has one ear tilted toward the closest speaker as she plays along to the song. I can't tell if this is a song she already knows or if she's figuring out the chords by ear. It wouldn't surprise me if it's the latter. Pretty much all I remember from my brief stint taking guitar lessons years ago is how to make an A major chord and how much my fingers used to hurt after pressing on those brutal strings for an hour. But Ari speaks the language of notes and chords as fluently as the Spanish she speaks with her family at home. So, I say, folding my arms on the counter, are you going to start the night off with an Ari original? Not tonight, she says dreamily. There's a really beautiful cover song I want to do first. But you will play at least one of your songs, right? That's kind of the point of open mic night, to play original stuff while your captive audience can't escape. That's rather a pessimistic view. Here I thought the point was to support artists in our community. That's what I said. My grin widens. I like it when you do originals. I stan you, Ari, you know that. She starts to smile but then diverts her attention back down to her guitar strings. You don't even like music that much. Hey, only psychopaths and Pru don't like music you can't put me in that group. Ari gives me a side eye, but it's true. I like music as much as the next guy. My appreciation just pales in comparison to the absolute obsession my parents have. And Ari, too, for that matter. My 14 year old sister, Lucy, has pretty eclectic tastes and has been to more concerts than I have. My ten year old sister, Penny, practices her violin for 45 minutes every night without fail, and my littlest sister, Eleanor, aka Ellie, sings a mean rendition of Baby Shark. Only prudence, my twin sister, missed the music gene. She does like the Beatles, though. Like really, really likes the Beatles, though. Again, this could just be her attempt to not get disowned. Okay, says Ari. Then tell me your favorite song of all time. Hey Jude, I say, no hesitation. Obviously, it's like the song that made me famous. She shakes her head. I'm serious. What's your favorite song? I tap my fingers against the countertop glass, under which is sandwiched an assortment of collected memorabilia, ticket stubs, guitar picks, the first dollar this store ever made. Seaglass, I say. Finally. Ari blinks. My seaglass. I'm telling you, I am your biggest fan.

[01:02:45] Stacy: Pru likes to claim that she's your biggest fan, but we both know she would pick a Beatles song as her favorite.

[01:02:53] Marissa: Thank you for listening to clip provided to you by Macmillan Audio. To hear more, look for this title wherever audiobooks are sold.