BY STEPHANIE DOMET
IN A DARK home recording studio in a suburban basement in the last days of summer, I stand in front of a microphone wearing state-of-the-art headphones and my reading glasses and holding a well-thumbed copy of Mary, Mary by Lesley Crewe (Nimbus Publishing). I’ve read the novel carefully in anticipation of this moment. It’s a rollicking rom-com/family drama with a colourful cast of characters set in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Classic Lesley Crewe.
It’s far from my first time behind a microphone. For more than a decade I was a CBC Radio broadcaster, with the bulk of that spent as the host of the afternoon drive-home current affairs show in Halifax. I’m used to conducting interviews, reading prepared scripts or riffing off the top of my head to fill time, handling breaking news, introducing tunes, and delivering traffic updates. I’ve even done the occasional turn in radio plays and sketches. But this is brand-new territory. I’m here as part of Nimbus’s audiobook pilot project – one that will eventually result in six audiobooks being released in 2018, with plans for more to come.