Easter is a short three weeks away and everyone is preparing for a trip to see family. Smaller children, although bored more easily, can be a bit easier to tame on long trips. The teenagers, not so much. They want to pull away from the fray while the family, nostalgic for old times, continuously try to draw them back in to the fold. Cajoling and demanding, talking and fighting…I know sometimes, I would be tired of a trip before I left just trying to prepare everyone.
Saturn’s Moon Press just released their first audiobook this week. Secrets of Bayboro Mansion (Fiction YA, Mystery/Thriller) is our first experience with an audiobook targeted to a teen/young adult audience. As a publisher, I had to ask myself if a teenager would actually be interested in an audiobook. Yes, they love to listen to music…all day on their earbuds…but a story? Then a memory slowly developed and I had the answer to my question.
While growing up in the seventies, our family traveled often. More often than most since my father was in the military and we moved every two years then. Travelling in a car filled with three siblings, two dogs, and a cranky driver became a way of life for me.
I never minded the traveling until I started into puberty. Then, the smelly dogs, loud siblings and HORRIBLE music (my father loved the old-style country music…Conway Twitty, his favorite) caused me to become more obstinate and irritable than normal. This is not an acceptable behavior in a car packed with people, so I had to find an escape from my misery…books.
Books became a temporary escape from my mundane and irritating life. I believe this is where my love of books developed. I don’t know if I was born to love them as some would say, because at that age, I didn’t love anything until it served me in some way. Books became my counselor, my friend, and my teacher – all in one.
I never felt alone when I had a book in my hand.
So, returning to present time, I realize how an audiobook would have catapulted me to book-heaven as a teen. I could have closed my eyes and completely tuned-out, putting more imaginative and interesting stories into my world… if even for a moment.
By Lily Gianna Woodmansee; Executive Editor for Cactus Moon Publications
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