Audiobooks | Craig Van Ness

A Bird in the Hand …

December 20, 2021

… is Coming in January 2022!

June, 1776 – On the eve of the American Revolution, Jocelyn Wright faces a dilemma – accept the unwelcome advances of a British Officer, Captain Nibley – the son of an English Earl favoured by her Loyalist parents – or pursue her budding romance with Bennet Hart, the son of a local Baker who may be her one true love.

When revolutionary tensions rise and the Captain is billeted at her Parent’s home, Jocelyn is forced to choose sides: join the Patriot cause favoured by her twin brother, Jonas, or submit to her Parents wishes and be wed to the haughty, arrogant Captain Nibley.

Janice Cole Hopkins grew up in rural Wilkes County, North Carolina, with an Appalachian heritage. She graduated from Appalachian State University with degrees in history and reading. After completing her degrees, Janice pursued a career in Education and has since published over 30 novels.

All the profits from her books go to a scholarship fund for missionary children. A Bird in the Hand is the first book in her forthcoming ‘Idioms and Cliches’ series.

A Bird in the Hand – Idioms and Cliches Book One, is Coming to Audible in February, 2022

Put Me In, Coach!

December 17, 2021

by Craig Audiobooks

Coaching for Voice Actors

Sean Pratt @SPPresents, Tamsin Collison @lovearhyme, Nancy Wolfson @NancyWolfson, J. Michael Collins @JMCdemos – just a few of the outstanding voice acting coaches it’s been my pleasure to study with and be inspired by.

Unless you’re in ‘the voice acting business’ you probably don’t know who these folks are, but, they’re all the very best at what they do – and mere mortals like me wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.

So, as we near the end of another year, I’d like to shout-out my eternal thanks to these folks and the many, many others who’ve helped to train and inspire me.

Many Thanks – and Happy Holidays to You All !

The Speed of Light, by Elizabeth Rosner

August 21, 2021

by Craig Audiobooks

Every family has a story. Every story, eventually, must be told.

For most of their lives, Julian Perel and his sister, Paula, lived in a house cast in silence, witnesses to a father struggling with a devastating secret too painful to share. Though their father took his demons to the grave, his past refuses to rest.

Yet both their lives begin to change on a Wednesday, miercoles, the day that sounds like miracles. Before embarking on a European opera tour, Paula asks her housekeeper, Sola, to stay at her place–and to look after Julian in the apartment above. Yet Sola, too, has a story.

The Speed of Light is a powerful story of three unforgettable souls who overcome the tragedies of the past to reconnect with one another and the world around them. In an extraordinary accomplishment, Elizabeth Rosner has created a novel of love and redemption that proves the pain of the untold story is far greater than even the most difficult truth.

Featuring the voices of Elizabeth Rosner as Paula, Ana Clements as Sola and myself, Craig Van Ness, as Julian, this highly-acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel is now coming to audio for the first time.

CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION – COMING SOON ON AUDIBLE

The Perfect Couple. The Perfect Secret.

July 8, 2021

by Craig Audiobooks

My latest audiobook title tells the story of a seemingly perfect couple on their seemingly perfect Honeymoon – until their dark past comes back to haunt them…

When my husband found this perfect little cabin in the woods for our honeymoon, I couldn’t wait to get away. Just us in the middle of the forest, waking up every day in the trees, ending each night in the hot tub under the stars. But now I’m not sure that I know my husband at all….

I just wish we’d gone to the police when someone left a note on the doormat saying: She’s dead; you’re next. Ryan said I was overreacting, but I don’t understand why he won’t go to the cops now things are getting worse. Can I trust my husband?

I’ve known about the terrible thing that Ryan did for years, and it’s been tearing me apart. Last night, I told him I would always keep his secret. But is the man I married hiding something else from me?

Now someone has cut the phone lines, and we’re trapped here. Ryan swears he has no idea what’s going on and just wants to keep us safe. I’m here alone in the middle of the dark forest with the man I thought I could trust. My heart is racing, and there’s no one I can call….

My husband promised till death do us part. Am I about to find out what that means?

A heart-pounding, unbelievably twisty psychological thriller that will have you sleeping with the light on! Fans of Gone Girl, Behind Closed Doors, and Date Night will be utterly gripped.

Now Available on AUDIBLE

One Step Beyond …

May 6, 2021

by Craig Audiobooks

“Another traumatic blow to your head may cause hallucinations ranging from brilliancy to absurdity” …

said the brain surgeon at the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, where Staff Sergeant Travis Morgan first received medical evaluation following a mortar blast in Afghanistan. That explosion wounded Travis and killed Mojo, his German shepherd patrol dog.

Three years later, Travis received such a severe whack when Bruno Tron, a strong, young Al Capone imitator, hoped to become rich by shooting two security officers and robbing their armored truck at a Walmart Super Center near Neosho, Missouri.

The robber, a self-proclaimed squatter, intended to use the Morgan family wilderness on the Ozark Plateau to receive aerial drug drops flown from Mexico. Thus Travis, his family and Honcho, their family dog, must be eliminated.

After whacking Travis over his skull with a sack of stolen quarters at Walmart, Bruno tossed him into a sinkhole on the Morgan family wilderness and used the $400,000 for his start into crime.

Travis, hallucinating back and forth through time and space, helped the founding fathers within the colonial era; George Washington winning the American Revolutionary War, Daniel Boone cutting through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, Lewis and Clark finding the Pacific Ocean, and Wells-Fargo starting stagecoach routes to California.

His Grandma’s skeleton, sitting with her back to the wall of the sinkhole, enabled Travis’s two-way communications by way of his hallucinations. Ironically Bruno Tron met a similar, unusual, fate.

However, after his rescue, Travis finally realized his dreams – lecturing about colonial history at the University of Virginia, his alma mater, buying a house, and marrying the beautiful brunette, Abby Principe, his childhood sweetheart.

BEYOND CUMBERLAND GAP is a trippy, time-traveling tale of American History, Drug Smuggling, Deer Hunting and True Love.

COMING SOON TO AUDIBLE !

Incredible Us – Bliss Series Book 3

April 17, 2021

by Craig Audiobooks

A homeless young woman. A respected, mature dominant. And too many years between them.

Dave Adams has been alone ever since his wife left him for her girlfriend years before. Of course, he’s not alone.

Managing Bliss, an elegant members-only BDSM club, is his life, and with submissives galore, master Dave has whatever he wants, whenever he wants it.

He’s seen his son and his son’s best friend both find the loves of their lives, but Dave knows his time’s up.

But that was before he opened the back door to take out the night’s garbage and found a young homeless woman trapped between him and the dumpster. Compassionate to a fault, Dave invites here in and tries to reach out to her, only to discover that a hideousness has transpired and left her more than just damaged. As he, Clint, and Steffen, with the help of Trish and Sheila, manage to draw out Olivia’s demons and help her begin to confront them, something unexpected happens – Dave finds himself responding to Olivia’s softness and vulnerability, and her to his dominance and loving guidance.

And just when it seems their May-December romance might stand a chance, a plan gone wrong convinces Dave that the last place Olivia needs to be is in his arms. He finds a way to send her on to bigger and better things, but when her whereabouts become unknown, Dave discovers that maybe dates on a calendar don’t mean that much at all. Problem is, unless he can find her, it won’t matter.

Return to Bliss and the characters you’ve grown to love in this final instalment in the Me, You, and Us series, and find out what it takes to break into that scared, worn out heart in Dave Adams’ chest.

WARNING: Adult situations and graphic sex. Not intended for audiences under 18 years of age.

NOW AVAILABLE ON AUDIBLE !

Jake and the Hot Air Balloon

April 11, 2021

by Craig Audiobooks

Jake and the Hot Air Balloon, by Maurice Huffman is the story of an orphan named Jake and his magical journey in a run-away hot-air balloon.

The wind carries him through many adventures, some very amusing and others quite dangerous.

Along the way, Jake encounters a strange cast of characters, including a battalion of hole-in-the-Swiss Cheese Shooters, a family of Environmentalists, a Band of Pirates, a talking Toucan and one very plucky Mouse, named Milton.

The adventures of Jake and Milton originated as bedtime stories, which the author told his son.

This book combines the adventures and were finally written down as advised by the author’s son Miles, who also provides the illustrations.

The adventures of Jake and the Hot Air Balloon is a delightful journey through the imagination, destined to become a Children’s Classic.

NOW AVAILABLE ON AUDIBLE !

Number 90 – A Christmas Ghost Story

December 23, 2020

by Craig Audiobooks

Full of young man’s bravado, a gentlemen accepts a Christmas wager to spend the night in a notorious haunted house, Number 90, located somewhere in the vicinity of Charleston’s Battery in South Carolina. After an eventful night he resolves to endure a second… but could it also be his last?

Number 90 is a standalone enhanced audio tale from B7 Media’s Victorian Anthologies series, featuring short stories by classic writers of the spooky, the scary and the supernatural. Guaranteed to give you the shivers, each collection includes familiar and loved creepy tales as well as those less well-known.

B7 Media is multi award-winning independent producer with an international track record in developing, packaging and producing content and formats for radio, theatre, television, film and digital platforms (SKY, BBC, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, Audible/Amazon, Kew Media, UKTV, SPACE, Eastlink TV and Syfy Channel).

B7 Media’s output ranges from the popular indie film romance Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont starring Joan Plowright, Anna Massey, Zoe Tapper and Rupert Friend; to a range of audio dramas with a distinctly cinematic edge, produced for Audible, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Notable audio dramas include Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, cult BBC sci-fi series Blake’s 7, the critically acclaimed series Dan Dare (inspired by the 1950s Eagle comic) and the multi-award-winning dramatisation of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. B7 also produces highly topical drama including the recent adaptation for Radio 4 of Sumia Sukkar’s debut novel The Boy from Aleppo who Painted the War and the upcoming documentary-drama series revealing the untold story of The Space Race.

Find out more at: www.b7media.com

Jake Parker is BACK! …

December 1, 2020

by Craig Audiobooks

The Patriot, Book two in Nick Thacker’s Jake Parker Series, is here!

“I can help you find the man who killed your wife.”

It’s the last thing Jake Parker expects to hear from an old friend from his military days at West Point, Lt Colonel Douglas McDonnell.

Officially, Jake’s wife Mel was an unlucky bystander during a sudden terrorist attack, but Jake has always felt there was a missing piece of the puzzle.

When McDonnell tells him that his team has been tracking the group responsible, it’s Jake’s opportunity to finally lay Mel’s ghost to rest.

McDonnell believes that the terrorist cell is linked to one of the big pharma companies operating out of Puerto Rico, and he needs Jake’s skills on his team for one specific task: find the link and take them down. But as soon as Jake arrives, the plan begins to crumble. Focused on targeting the group members one at a time, the team on the ground won’t listen to Jake’s insistence that they look at the bigger picture.

When Jake meets bio-chemist Veronique, they hit it off. But when she confesses her fears that her employer is manufacturing a drug for the US market with deadly side effects, Jake realises that the terrorists have raised the stakes, and more innocent lives are at risk if he doesn’t act fast. Then Veronique is kidnapped. Unable to trust anyone around him, Jake is pushed as never before to find Vero while taking down the evil organisation before they strike at the US population…

A non-stop action thriller from a USA Today bestselling author. An unputdownable read for fans of David Baldacci, I Am Pilgrim and Jack Ryan.

Listen to a sample on: Audible.com

The Way English is Supposed to Sound…apparently

October 28, 2020

by Craig Audiobooks

Apparently, no one *thinks* they have an accent, but my dialogue coach friends assure me, everyone does!

My accent, a product of classical vocal training during my childhood in suburban New Jersey and an adult life spent living and working all over The World, is best described as Mid-Atlantic, Trans-Atlantic, International or – my personal favourite – ‘American but not too American’.

Whatever you hear when you hear me, it’s always given me great pleasure to be invited to provide recordings for English Language Training (ELT).

I now provide ELT Study Materials for the state education systems in several European countries. The latest is a primary school guide for one of my absolute favourites, Italy – Ciao Bambini !!

This has led me to conclude that, although some may think that I *have an accent*, in several European countries, at least, I am – The Way English is Supposed to Sound … apparently!