BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: 'How to Be a Man' Out in Audiobook!

I am so honored to announce that the fantastic P. J. Morgan voiced my short story collection How to Be a Man!

P. J. Morgan, voice actor

P. J. is amazing.  She has a bachelor's in linguistics ~ English Geeks Rock! ~ with an emphasis on phonetics. She is fascinated by speech sounds and language as both a phenomenon and a science, which you can really tell by the way she expresses narrative and dialog.  You see, I was worried going into this process that the voice professional would try to have that forced over-the-top commercial quality to her or his voice, which would be so wrong for the Wyoming characters in the book.  Wyoming is understated and laconic.  P. J. nailed it!  She even made me realize I've been pronouncing a few words wrong all these years. Who knew?!

She also has years of stage and screen experience and is a puppeteer and an author with six novels under her bed. I'm confident that one of those novels will be published (ahem, publishing industry, take note!). She's done NaNoWriMo since 2008 ~ talk about your stamina.

I have a confession to make, though.  Her excellent voicing of the project coincided with me falling into a bit of a hole, which I apologize now and and forever for! P. J. was so patient and wonderful. She must have been very exasperated, but she never showed it.

But, to the project!  If you remember, How to Be a Man is about what it's like to live in the West today.  

A girl whose self-worth revolves around masculinity, a bartender who loses her sense of safety, a woman who compares men to plants, and a boy who shoots his cranked-out father. These are a few of the hard-scrabble characters in Tamara Linse’s debut short story collection, How to Be a Man. Set in contemporary Wyoming—the myth of the West taking its toll—these stories reveal the lives of tough-minded girls and boys, self-reliant women and men, struggling to break out of their lonely lives and the emotional havoc of their families to make a connection, to build a life despite the odds. How to Be a Man falls within the traditions of Maile Meloy, Tom McGuane, and Annie Proulx.

So, are you about to take a long car trip? Looking for some Christmas presents?  Need something to distract you while you're doing data entry?  Here it is!  Hear what it's like to live in today's Wyoming.

And in case you're swayed by what others have said about it:

“Linse writes as if flexing her own ranch-toned muscles, creating intense, original characters and letting them loose. The result could fill a novel—or two. All bodes well for Linse’s future work.” ~ Kirkus

“In this winning debut collection of short stories, Linse presents a vivid portrait of life in the American West.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Linse’s wide array of believable characters, and her ability to return to the same set of themes without becoming repetitive or predicative, makes her a notable literary force. ... HOW TO BE A MAN is a notable debut from a very promising writer.” ~ IndieReader

  It's available from Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Get your copy today!