When I was tiny, I still read before I could read.

In the dark and under blankets, voices whispered from foamy, tinny speakers, telling me of other worlds, pirates, monsters, and talking mice. 

Then everything would go “ssshhhhhwipwip,” and I’d have to spend ten minutes or so reaching into the bowels of the sony walkman, desperate to untangle the cassette tape to learn what happens next.

Over the years, the walkman might have faded into disrepair, and the need to untangle the mysterious has become less tangible. Still, my love of listening has never really gone away. I love to read, I love the feeling of a book in my hands, but audiobooks have continued to be a part of my connection to literature as an adult. Often, I find that if I want to revisit something I’ve read before, there can be a joy in getting an audio version, to delight in someone else’s take on the words (and see what I might have been mispronouncing. But I also almost always have both a paperback and a separate audiobook on the go. Audiobooks remain a delightful way to discover stories uniquely.

Listening to stories is an essential touchstone of literary cultures. Some people will tell you, “that’s not really reading” But I think you’ll find that they have gum in their hair. Like, all the time.

With all this in mind, I’m sure you can imagine how much it means to me to bring an audiobook of my own into the world.

Narrated by the incredible Dawn Watson, you can now listen to all 8 hours and seventeen stories of my book What We See in the Smoke!

Available on:

Audible

Amazon

and iTunes (though I can’t figure out a link for that one)

also, if you are already a member of Audible, you can get the book for free with one monthly credit!!

Back in 2019 it was an honour to bring this book to shelves, so in a way, I’m very happy for the opportunity to do so again. I hope you enjoy listening as much as Dawn and I enjoyed putting this together.