Meet Narrator/Voice Actor/Storyteller Nina Price and How She Discovered Audio Books--Including Mine!

Nina has narrated several of my books, and is working on more, my romantic comedy time travel FOR LOVE AND LOYALTY with a variety of British accents (she's nailing the Yorkshire accent). Her voice is expressive and animated, and her accents include German, French, Australian, New York, Scottish, and several regional British accents. She has an impeccable sense of comedic timing and sarcasm. She really makes my characters come to life--the fictional ones I made up, and the historical figures who really lived!

 Nina's Story:

How I Came to Narrate the Audio Versions of Diana Rubino’s New York Saga Books

I’m Nina Price and I thoroughly enjoyed reading and narrating all three of Diana Rubino’s New York Saga books: From Here to Fourteenth Street, Bootleg Broadway and The End of Camelot. The characters are delightful and the stories compelling. In fact I enjoyed Diana’s books so much that I offered to do another one: For Love and Loyalty, which should be available by next fall.

Diana thought her readers would enjoy knowing more about me. So here’s a bit of the story about how I became an audiobook narrator.

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH “AUDIOBOOKS” - THE SINGING LADY

As a child growing up in New York many of the adults in my family read stories to me, but my first experience of someone reading me a story and creating special voices for all of the characters, was when I listened to Ireene Wicker, The Singing Lady on WNYC radio. Like millions of children before me, I was enchanted by The Singing Lady and her stories. Most of all, I loved her voices. At the time, I never thought that I could or would tell stories with voices, but apparently a seed was planted.

I Started Each Day in College with 30 Minutes of an Audiobook  (Even though they weren’t called “audiobooks” in those days)

I studied music as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I’m fond of telling people that when I graduated from high school, even though most kids received a typewriter for a high school graduation gift, my Dad gave me a radio. I had to borrow a typewriter each week to write a paper for my Freshman English class, and I listened to my radio each morning as I began my day.

East Lansing, MI the home of Michigan State University was also home to WKAR radio where Dick Estell, The Radio Reader read 30 minutes of fiction each morning to me through my beloved radio. Dick Estell didn’t really create voices for his characters but I loved his readings and never missed an installment, except when I was out of range.

UNBEDTIME STORIES – My Own Foray into Radio Storytelling

I never started out to be like Dick Estell, or Ireene Wicker, but in fact the Unbedtime Stories segment of my radio show Dancin’ in the Fast Lane with Ann Arbor premiered along with the show in April of 1993. My radio show was, and still is a music show on KFJC 89.7 FM kfjc.org in the San Francisco Bay Area each Wednesday morning from 6 to 10 am. I added the Unbedtime Stories segment to my show because I wanted to learn to cold read – to be able to pick up a script and just read it cold.

Dick Estell

Unbedtime Stories featured up-and-coming works by up-and-coming authors read by me. Later it included writers who participated in NANOWRIMO, National Novel Writing Month – which one of my listeners introduced me to, and which debuted in the San Francisco Bay Area. For twenty years I read (or hosted) Unbedtime Stories.

Then audiobooks came along. Since I had read stories on the radio for years, I figured I should narrate audiobooks. In December of 2015 I got started and I’ve been going strong ever since. To date I’ve produced about 40 books for Audible.

Nina Price narrates audiobooks, and is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Master Herbalist in Palo Alto, CA.  Ann Arbor continues to host Dancin’ in the Fast Lane each Wednesday morning (kfjc.org) 

Find out more about Nina and her audiobooks -- click on: her new website.  

Contact Nina

Email

Facebook

Twitter

Meet Voice Actor/Narrator/Storyteller Nina Price--And How She Discovered Audio Books

Nina has narrated several of my books, and is working on more, my romantic comedy time travel FOR LOVE AND LOYALTY with a variety of British accents (she's nailing the Yorkshire accent). Her voice is expressive and animated, and her accents include German, French, Australian, New York, Scottish, and several regional British accents. She has an impeccable sense of comedic timing and sarcasm. She really makes my characters come to life--the fictional ones I made up, and the historical figures who really lived!

Nina's Story:

How I Came to Narrate the Audio Versions of Diana Rubino’s New York Saga Books

I’m Nina Price and I thoroughly enjoyed reading and narrating all three of Diana Rubino’s New York Saga books: From Here to Fourteenth Street, Bootleg Broadway and The End of Camelot. The characters are delightful and the stories compelling. In fact I enjoyed Diana’s books so much that I offered to do another one: For Love and Loyalty, which should be available by next fall.

Diana thought her readers would enjoy knowing more about me. So here’s a bit of the story about how I became an audiobook narrator.

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH “AUDIOBOOKS” - THE SINGING LADY

As a child growing up in New York many of the adults in my family read stories to me, but my first experience of someone reading me a story and creating special voices for all of the characters, was when I listened to Ireene Wicker, The Singing Lady on WNYC radio. Like millions of children before me, I was enchanted by The Singing Lady and her stories. Most of all, I loved her voices. At the time, I never thought that I could or would tell stories with voices, but apparently a seed was planted.

I Started Each Day in College with 30 Minutes of an Audiobook  (Even though they weren’t called “audiobooks” in those days)

I studied music as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I’m fond of telling people that when I graduated from high school, even though most kids received a typewriter for a high school graduation gift, my Dad gave me a radio. I had to borrow a typewriter each week to write a paper for my Freshman English class, and I listened to my radio each morning as I began my day.

East Lansing, MI the home of Michigan State University was also home to WKAR radio where Dick Estell, The Radio Reader read 30 minutes of fiction each morning to me through my beloved radio. Dick Estell didn’t really create voices for his characters but I loved his readings and never missed an installment, except when I was out of range.

UNBEDTIME STORIES – My Own Foray into Radio Storytelling

I never started out to be like Dick Estell, or Ireene Wicker, but in fact the Unbedtime Stories segment of my radio show Dancin’ in the Fast Lane with Ann Arbor premiered along with the show in April of 1993. My radio show was, and still is a music show on KFJC 89.7 FM kfjc.org in the San Francisco Bay Area each Wednesday morning from 6 to 10 am. I added the Unbedtime Stories segment to my show because I wanted to learn to cold read – to be able to pick up a script and just read it cold.

Dick Estell

Unbedtime Stories featured up-and-coming works by up-and-coming authors read by me. Later it included writers who participated in NANOWRIMO, National Novel Writing Month – which one of my listeners introduced me to, and which debuted in the San Francisco Bay Area. For twenty years I read (or hosted) Unbedtime Stories.

Then audiobooks came along. Since I had read stories on the radio for years, I figured I should narrate audiobooks. In December of 2015 I got started and I’ve been going strong ever since. To date I’ve produced about 40 books for Audible.

Nina Price narrates audiobooks, and is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Master Herbalist in Palo Alto, CA.  Ann Arbor continues to host Dancin’ in the Fast Lane each Wednesday morning (kfjc.org) 

Find out more about Nina and her audiobooks -- click on: her new website.  

Contact Nina

Email

Facebook

Twitter

A Tradition of Christmas Past, Spaghetti Aglio e Olio Recipe, and My Italian Heroine, Based on my Great Grandmother

My great grandmother (Grandma to everyone) was the matriarch of the family, the mother of my grandfather. “Josie Red” as she was known in downtown Jersey City was way ahead of her time, as a bootlegger during Prohibition, a real estate tycoon, a small-time loan shark, a very good friend of Frank Sinatra's mother Dolly, and according to legend, Mayor Hague’s mistress.

Every Christmas Eve, her daughter, my great aunt Lucretia, a gourmet cook, invited everyone to her basement for an Italian feast. Grandma’s four children were grown with children and grandchildren of their own. Of course this necessitated a ‘kiddie table’ at which I sat until I was tall enough to sit with the grown-ups. Aunt Lucretia always made two types of spaghetti sauce—regular marinara sauce and aglio e olio—but what I remember is it always contained clam sauce, which I wouldn’t touch, so I went for the plain and safe marinara. Her finished basement had a small kitchen so she was able to do all the cooking right there. Kiddies weren’t allowed to, but several adults helped her carry the steaming plates to the long tables set up and covered with holiday-themed tablecloths. She served all the traditional Italian dishes—after the pasta came the ham, then the fruit and nuts, and of course, an array of desserts, always including her famous struffoli (honey balls) and Italian rum cake. My Uncle Eddie tended bar at the other end of the room. Thankfully, he’s still with us at 84.

After dinner, Santa always showed up. My cousin Mike’s father played the part very convincingly—the kiddies scrambled onto his lap for their chance to gush about how good they behaved all year and how deserving they were of his visit later that night to surround their Christmas trees with presents to be torn open the next morning. Someone always had a home movie camera to capture these special moments on film. I remember the lights always blazing like the noonday sun when the camera started rolling.

After leaving the party, I always went to Midnight Mass with my friends and someone always threw a party after that.

Christmas Eves in the basement ended after Grandma left us, but the memories live on!

Vita Caputo, the heroine of my 1894 New York City romance FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET, is based on my great grandmother. It’s now on audio with the expressive voice of Nina Price.

FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET in paperback, on Kindle and on Audio at Amazon

Recipe for Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

      Ingredients:

One pound uncooked spaghetti

6 cloves minced garlic

½ cup olive oil

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, about 12 minutes. Drain and transfer to a pasta bowl.
2. Combine garlic and olive oil in a cold skillet. Cook over medium heat to slowly toast garlic, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low when olive oil begins to bubble. Cook and stir until garlic is golden brown, about another 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Stir red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt into the pasta. Pour in olive oil and garlic, and sprinkle on Italian parsley and half of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; stir until combined.
4. Serve pasta topped with the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

My New York Saga is Now on Audio--Quotes, Songs from Those Days, and the Dream Cast

My New York Saga is now on audio with the expressive voice of Nina Price.

Here are poignant quotes, songs of the day, and the dream cast:

FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET (1894-5)

Songs:

The Band Played On – Dan Quinn

The Sidewalks of New York – Dan Quinn

The Liberty Bell – U.S. Marine Band

My Pearl is a Bowery Girl – Dan Quinn

My Best Girl’s a New Yorker – Edward M. Favor

Quotes:

Toiling over the mind-numbing work, Vita conjured up her favorite daydream: an elegant brownstone with lacy iron gates, bay windows, polished floors, marble fireplaces. No trash flung down air shafts, no shared toilets, no backyard privies...above Fourteenth Street.

Vita went to mass before breakfast. She sat way in back and didn’t pay much mind to the priest chanting away in Latin. This was her private time for praying and remembering her mother. She looked up in the familiar far corner. The image of an angel with dreamy blue eyes looked down at her. As she pretended that angel was Mama, a protecting comfort always warmed her.

“My cousin Mike was found shot to death next to this building. Your father and brother were arrested for his murder. I’m sorry, Vita. I’m so sorry.” Tom approached her with caution, longing to hold her, to cradle her in his arms. 

* *

 Dream Cast:

Vita Caputo – Rachel Weisz

Tom McGlory – Christian Bale

Rosalia Caputo – Marissa Tomei

Jadwiga Wisen – Debra Messing

Purchase FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET in paperback, Kindle or Audio (free with your Amazon Audible trial)

BOOTLEG BROADWAY (1931)

Songs:

Just a Gigolo – Ted Lewis and His Orchestra

Minnie the Moocher – Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra

Mood Indigo – Duke Ellington

Stardust – Isham Jones

I Got Rhythm – Red Nichols

Quotes:

Billy clasped Pru’s hand, dropped to one knee, and cleared his throat for the most important recital of his life. “You’re the essence of my being. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and even after that. Now you’re carrying my child, and I want us to be a real family. Pru, will you marry me?”

“What did you name her?” Billy couldn’t stop staring. This breathing,

living child nestled in Pru’s arms was his flesh and blood. And he thought his songs were a divine creation!

“Nothing yet.” She looked up at him and smiled. “I thought I’d leave that to you.”

“Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, I can’t even think straight.” He slapped the side of his head. “I might wind up calling her Zeppo or something. You better name her.”

“I have to go, Billy. It’s my time…”

“No, Pru. Don’t talk like that.” My heart started hammering. I removed my sweaty palms from her arm. “Please. I love you, Pru. You’re my whole life.” I struggled to keep my voice even as I sobbed. “Don’t leave me!” That was an order—the only one I’d ever given her. I turned my head so she couldn’t see me bawling and swiping at my tears.

* *

Dream Cast:

Billy McGlory – Leonardo DiCaprio

Pru Muller McGlory – Gwyneth Paltrow

Greta Schliessmeyer – Scarlett Johansen

Rosario Ingovito – Joe Pesci

Al Capone - Chazz Palminteri

Purchase BOOTLEG BROADWAY in paperback, on Kindle, or Audio (free with your Amazon Audible trial)

FROM HERE TO CAMELOT (1963)

Songs:

Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash

From Me to You – The Beatles

You’re the Devil in Disguise – Elvis Presley

Louie Louie – The Kingsmen

Walk Like a Man – The Four Seasons

Quotes:

“Vikki, it’s Linc Benjamin.” His ragged voice came over the line. “I have terrible news. Jack is dead.”

“What?” She couldn’t have heard right. “What did you say?”

“Jack was found in the bathtub of his hotel room this morning—”

She dropped the phone and slid down against the wall. Her glasses fell off her face. The room spun. Sunlight glared. She smelled the new coat of wax on the kitchen floor.

Vikki read over her father’s transcript, Jack’s voice echoing through her mind. “I’ll find you, you bastard, whoever you are,” she said reverently, like a vow. “If I have to die doing it.”

Al lowered his lips to Vikki’s, and everything converged into a blur. Her arms wound around him. She wept, for her loss, for fear of the future, of the unknown, of this man whose mouth claimed hers. This time she didn’t ask Jack to forgive her. She hoped he was tripping the light fantastic with Marilyn Monroe right now.

Dream Cast:

Vikki McGlory Ward – Christina Applegate

Billy McGlory – Harrison Ford

Aldobrandi Po – Vincent Irizarry

Rosario Ingovito – Edward G. Robinson

Greta Schliessmeyer McGlory – Michelle Pfeiffer 

Purchase THE END OF CAMELOT in paperback, Kindle, or Audio (free with your Amazon Audible trial)

 * * *

An Interview About Me & Audio Books

Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook. 

My publisher, The Wild Rose Press, auditioned some narrators and sent me samples. When Nina finished narrating it, Wild Rose released it and put it on sale with retailers.

Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format? 

Adventure and suspense translate well, as long as the narrator has an animated voice. My books, with characters who have different actors, came out really well, because Nina does great accents and different voice inflections.

Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing? 

No, I never thought of it at the time.

How did you select your narrator? 

When I heard Nina’s sample, I knew she was the best narrator for my books.

How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters? 

We spoke on the phone a few times, and discussed the characters and their backgrounds. When she had a question about the pronunciation of a word, I either spelled it out phonetically or sent her a video of someone saying the word or phrase.

Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing? 

Yes, FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET’s heroine Vita is based on my great-grandmother, a businesswoman, wife and mother. She was way ahead of her time. I always have historical events as backdrops for my books. BOOTLEG BROADWAY is set during Prohibition, and THE END OF CAMELOT is centered around the John F. Kennedy assassination.

How do you manage to avoid burn-out? What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing?

I pace myself, I write 2500 words a day and sometimes more if I’m on a roll. My enthusiasm never wanes, because I’m a huge history buff, I love doing the research, and my passion for it comes out in my stories.

Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you? 

I listen to audiobooks on long car trips. It’s convenient to listen to books while doing something else, driving, as a passenger in a car, doing chores, etc.

Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format? 

The dialogue is very animated and authentic throughout all three books. Nina does great New York and ‘wiseguy’ accents.

If you had the power to time travel, would you use it? If yes, when and where would you go? 

I’ve always wanted to spend a week in ancient Rome, Greece, or Pompeii.

What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”? 

It’s as much cheating or inferior to ‘real reading’ as watching a TV show or a play instead of reading the script.

How did you celebrate after finishing this novel? 

I always celebrate by recharging my batteries—usually by reading my favorite genres, biographies, mysteries, and paranormal novels.

What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump? 

I’ve never been a slump; I make sure I reach my 2500-word goal every day, even if it’s not my best output. I can always go back and rewrite.

In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a series? 

A series allows the reader to get to know the characters and become familiar with them. Stand-alones don’t have that advantage.

Have any of your characters ever appeared in your dreams? 

Yes, but they’re historical figures—Richard III and Henry VIII.

What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors? 

Keep writing. Keep practicing. Most of all, don’t ever give up on your dream. Just having a dream makes you very special. If you get impatient because it’s taking so long, just ask yourself this: Why does 16-year Scotch take 16 years? Some things are worth waiting for.

Do you have any tips for authors going through the process of turning their books into audiobooks? 

Ask your publisher if they do audio books, and if not, remind them that audio books are booming!