The Audible version of my latest book just came out, and everyone seems to be asking me the same question:

“Why didn’t YOU read it?”

Those of you who’ve heard me speak aloud can’t be blamed for posing such a question, since you’d likely agree that my rich, velvety voice would caress the ears of listeners far and wide. (As my college voice teacher once said, in what I’m sure was a compliment: “I know you think your voice is candy for the ears, but it’s giving me diabetes.”)

But that’s just the problem. In this book, I am in my teens and early 20’s. And “rich and velvety” does not particularly describe the sound of a kid in his teens and 20’s.  (Sadly, I must report that in real life, I’m in my Extremely Late Early 30’s, or, as my friend Robert says, PREPOSTEROUSLY Late.)

And since I feel like the voice should sound as close to the age of the character as possible – it makes for a better listening experience – I chose someone else to do the narration, a wonderful actor named Kirby Heyborne. Kirby has a sweet, hilarious innocence to his voice that works perfectly.

So, much as I’d love a chance to ham it up on audio, I decided, in yet another example of my typical graciousness and benevolence, to give someone else the opportunity to shine.

Plus, Audible didn’t ask.