I've yet to have one of my books made into audio, but...Aimee's Locket, published by the Wild Rose Press, is being made into an audio book. So excited and looking forward to the finished product. Originally, the narrator was a woman but some family issues occurred and she had to back out. Now, the narrator is a man. He has a wonderful, western sounding voice, deep and interesting and I think he will do well for my book, simply because Aimee's Locket is a time travel novel, set in 1847, on the Oregon Trail. For a glimpse at Aimee's Locket, check out the trailer on youtube. If you like cowboys, Indians, and Oregon Trail stories, I think you'll like this one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtEyO0r6P0c&t=28s
Hope you add Aimee's Locket to your audio book library when it is available!
Patsy
P.L. Parker
www.plparker.com
I've always had a fascination with the history surrounding the Oregon Trail. Emigrants gathered at Independence and formed trains, leaving around mid-April to May and if they were lucky, made it to Oregon City before winter set in. How long was the Oregon Trail? Approximately 2,000 miles. Travelers were lucky if they could make 10 to 20 miles per day, taking into consideration, the weather, the condition of the trail and a hundred other factors that could affect their travel. Today, August 15, I made some general calculations based on information I found, and where I imagined the emigrants would be today based on those general calculations. If the travelers left on April 15 and made 15 miles per day, I calculated they would be at the top of the Blue Mountains in Oregon, part of the Oregon Trial. Interestingly, Wikipedia says: In the mid-1800s, the Blue Mountains were a formidable obstacle to settlers traveling on the Oregon Trail and were often the last mountain range the emigrants crossed before passing down the Columbia River Gorge to the end of the Oregon Trail Oregon City.
Between 1840 and 1860, from 300,000 to 400,000 travelers used the 2,000-mile overland route to reach Oregon City, Puget Sound, Utah, and California destinations. The journey took up to six months, with wagons making between ten and twenty miles per day of travel. See: https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_trail/#.WZNAQLpFyUk
Life on the wagon trains was harsh. There were many hardships and challenges along the way on the Oregon Trail. Some hardships of the journey were death of relatives due to accidents, Indian attacks, supply shortages, weather, drowning, disease, terrain, and even medicine. A challenge faced by most travelers was to steady their usage of money along the Oregon Trail. These hardships were fatal, but not as much as the problem of reaching and passing the mountains before winter begins. Some of these problems were not as harsh as others, but each posed a dangerous threat to them finishing their journey.http://oregontrailrus.weebly.com/hardships.html
Overlanders on the Oregon Trail, in contrast, quickly learned that Conestoga wagons were too big for their needs: the huge, heavy wagons killed even the sturdiest oxen before the journey was two-thirds complete. Their answer to the problem was dubbed the “Prairie Schooner,” a half-sized version of the Conestoga that typically measured 4′ wide and 10′ to 12′ in length. With its tongue and neck yoke attached, its length doubled to about 23 feet. With the bonnet, a Prairie Schooner stood about 10′ tall, and its wheelbase was over 5′ wide. It weighed around 1300 pounds empty and could be easily dismantled for repairs en route. Teams of 4 to 6 oxen or 6 to 10 mules were sufficient to get the sturdy little wagons to Oregon. Manufactured by the Studebaker brothers or any of a dozen other wainwrights specializing in building wagons for the overland emigrants, a Prairie Schooner in good repair offered shelter almost as good as a house. https://www.historicoregoncity.org/2016/11/28/wagons-prairie-schooners/
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Aimees-Locket-P-L-Parker-ebook/dp/B002TG4NJC/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502825016&sr=8-1&keywords=aimee%27s+locket+by+p.l.+parker
Aimee is a modern girl, living in Seattle. She buys a locket from an antique store in Pike's Market. Shortly after, she faints (she thinks) and ends up landing on her face in a pile of horse dodo in 1847 St. Louis. Alone, penniless, all she wants is to go home. Enter Jake, wagon train scout, gorgeous, rude and very interested in the whore who lands at his feet. He offers to pay for her services for the evening, numerous times. When he finally realizes she isn't a bawd, he takes pity and helps her. Unfortunately, he is bound for the Oregon Territories. Aimee is terrified. What is she going to do? With no other possible alternative, she begs Jake to take her with him, offering him her diamond earrings in exchange for a wedding of convenience. After some soul searching, Jake agrees. They marry and the long journey begins. Jake and Aimee experience the first stirrings of passion, then love. But Aimee can't give up on her dream of returning to the present.
Research:
Actually, I've always had a real interest in the Oregon Trail. I grew up in Idaho, then moved to Huntington, Oregon. Parts of the trail wind all around that area. Right outside Huntington, there is a spot where a family bound for Oregon finally met their maker. They were set on by Indians outside of Massacre Rock (by American Falls) and made it that far on foot before the Indians killed the rest. The bones were so decalcified from starvation, it took a lot of time and digging to find them. Sad story, but there were a lot of sad stories along the trail. Some of the events in Aimee's Locket were taken from my family history. Charlie Tuttle's experiences with lye soap was one such utilization of family history.Main characters, Aimee and Jake.
Aimee is a young college-age woman of the present, studying to be a teacher. Her red hair accentuates her feisty and determined nature. Jake is a hard working guy, a gentleman when needed, and ultimately Aimee's savior. He is nothing like the men she usually dates. She liked men who bent over backwards to please. Jake is nothing like that. He is a man, not a kid.
Would I like to be transported back in time to that era in history?
Nupe – never in a million years. I like my TV, my hot bath at night, all the conveniences of modern life. I would make a terrible emigrant. They'd shoot me and leave me by the wayside to quell my whining and then they'd have to break my cold dead fingers to leave me behind.
