The APA announced the nominees for the 2016 Audie Awards on Tuesday, and we’re thrilled to see that ACX authors and actors received seven nominations across four categories! We checked in with a few of our finalists to get reactions from some of ACX’s accomplished creative talent.
Category: Inspirational, Faith-based Fiction
Finalist: Come to Me Alive: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel, written by Leah Atwood and narrated by Pamela Almand
Summary: Country music’s hottest star, Bryce Landry, and newly single, risk-averse Sophie Thatcher discover that finding each other was easy, but holding on will be a different story.![Come to me Alive](http://web.archive.org./web/20160322100904im_/https://acxcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/come-to-me-alive.jpg?w=165&h=165)
Memory: When asked about producing Come to Me Alive, Pamela Almond recounted a unique challenge she faced during production:
“Leah Atwood wrote beautiful lyrics to a country-western song, also called Come To Me Alive, and as the narrator, I had to sing it as bad-boy country star Bryce Landry, singing along to his radio hit, then as his girlfriend…and finally as a duet between the two of them! This was more a credit to my editing skills than my singing skills, for sure! But I loved doing the book, a very uplifting and well-done contemporary Christian romance, and Leah was great to work with. I am so honored and humbled at being named an Audie Award finalist for it.”
Category: Erotica
Finalist: Beta, written by Jasinda Wilder and narrated by Summer Roberts and Tyler Donne.
Summary: The sequel to Alpha, last year’s Audie winner in this very category, Beta finds main characters Kyrie and Roth traveling around the world when a mysterious tragedy strikes.
![Beta](http://web.archive.org./web/20160322100904im_/https://acxcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/beta.jpg?w=165&h=165)
Memory: Author Jasinda Wilder stuck to her guns with the follow up to her genre blending Alpha:
“I personally love Beta. I love the way it plays with the accepted boundaries of romance and erotic suspense, or erotic romance or whatever category you want to slot it into. We made it different and a little darker than our usual fare on purpose. Not all of our fans appreciated Beta, though. I get that it’s not for everyone, and that a sequel can’t ever totally live up to the first book. So putting Beta into audio was a little scary, because we weren’t sure how it’d be received.”
Narrator Summer Roberts shared the excitement of tackling the sequel to an Audie winner:
“Erotica can be a really hard genre, but Jasinda’s writing is so rich and her characters are so multi-layered, that it makes narrating her work really fun. I think Tyler and I were just as excited as listeners to find out what was going to happen to Kyrie and Roth in Beta.”
![Beg Tease Submit](http://web.archive.org./web/20160322100904im_/https://acxcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/beg-tease-submit.jpg?w=165&h=165)
Finalists: BEG TEASE SUBMIT, written by CD Reiss and narrated by Jo Raylan & CONTROL BURN RESIST, written by CD Reiss and narrated by Jo Raylan and Christian Fox.
Summary: In BEG TEASE SUBMIT, Jonathan Drazen is a known womanizer and a gorgeous piece of man who’s more capable of domination than love. In CONTROL BURN RESIST, his partner in pain Monica struggles with the discovery that love can be just as painful as submission.
Memory: Author CD Reiss recalled the casting process and the relationship she’s forged with her producers:
“I got a great selection of professional auditions to choose from. But I had an idea in my head and every one that didn’t meet that idea was painful to hear. Jo Raylan had a certain something that was spot on, and she let me know right away she’d do whatever she had to to get it perfect. It was obvious she had the talent, so I scooped her up. Christian’s audition for Jonathan was a home run right out of the gate. I would have walked on a bed of Legos to get him on the production. Fortunately, my feet were spared. ![Control Burn Resist](http://web.archive.org./web/20160322100904im_/https://acxcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/control-burn-resist.jpg?w=165&h=165)
I’ve developed a wonderful friendship with Jo and have a deep respect for what she does. She wants it perfect. She wants every word to express the right emotions, and we spoke about the character of Monica for a long time. What she wanted, how she sat, where her fear was. It was deeply creative and deeply satisfying.”
Want to create an audiobook worthy of the Audies yourself? Check out our recent tips for rights holders and producers, then head over to ACX to get started.
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