"Bloom of Youth" audio book finally here!

Great news! After months of waiting for news back from Amazon's Audible service, The Bloom of Youth is now available in their store! If you've already got a subscription to Audible, be sure to give it a listen. If you'd like to hear an extended sample, check out the first chapter here on my YouTube channel.

Also, I apologize for the long wait in sharing the winning submissions I received for the bloom of youth writing contest. I'm still waiting to hear back from one of the applicants (so if you submitted a story and didn't hear back yet be sure to check your email!). In the meantime, I've decided to share one of the stories today. (I'll share another one next week) Enjoy, and thanks again to all of you who participated!

My Bloom of Youth Story, submitted by M.S.

I was raised around the Truth my whole life. My mother has been faithful to Jehovah for a long time. Unfortunately my father was disfellowshipped when I was 13, so he has been away from Jehovah for 24 years.

Growing up as a teen I had influences from both my parents as well as young ones in the congregation leading double lives at school. I thought I could just lead a double life myself. And I did, or thought I did successfully up until I was 18. One of my classmates had lost her grandmother in death, so I started witnessing to her about the resurrection hope.

She looked at me and said, “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

"Yes, of course," was my reply.

She said, “If that was really true, why are you with us?”

Wow! It was like my world started crumbling. I couldn’t fool my schoolmates. I couldn’t fool Jehovah. And I needed to make a change... I decided that I needed to be either all for Jehovah or all for the world, I couldn’t do both anymore.

Fortunately I made the right decision. I have been serving Jehovah now for many years. I’ve been pioneering since 2004. (Been to Pioneer School 3 times, 2 of those times with my husband.) And I have been able to serve where the need was great up until August of this year. Now my husband and I are living with my mom in US and hopefully she will be joining us in the pioneer work soon! Serving Jehovah is the best life ever and I really wish I figured that out sooner!

Bloom of Youth Audio Book finished

Hey! Good news for those of you who enjoyed listening to the first chapter of the audio book for The Bloom of Youth! The entire book is recorded, edited, and submitted for the Audible review process. What I've found about this process, however, is that the time needed for approval varies wildly. My first audio book, FLEE, took nearly five months to go through the process. The second, The Unrighteous, took less than two weeks!

So really, it's anyone's guess how long this third audio book will take, but rest assured, I'll be letting you all know here once it's available.

Recording this audio book was quite the experience, as I did it while relocating across the globe. Due to the pandemic and sudden visa changes, my wife and I were forced to leave our previous home of eleven years and return to the United States. This means that approximately half of the book was recorded in my old office, a room in our high rise apartment, late at night when the traffic outside wasn't loud enough to show up in the audio. The second half was recorded in the home we are staying at now, which belongs to family. Living with more people and being in a new environment meant a lot of trial and error with recording times and locations, trying to find that sweet spot that would match the audio from the previous half of the book. Eventually, I managed, and I hope the transition from one recording locale to the next isn't too noticeable!

In other news, I haven't touched The Bloom of Youth 2 much in the last couple of months, but now that I'm settling in here and I've got much more time on my hands than before, I'll start chipping away at the remainder of the project. I still plan to release it this fall, so stay tuned...

Audiobook sample for The Bloom of Youth!

The Bloom of Youth was, by far, the wackiest, most neurotic of my novels. But it was also the most enjoyable to write! While most of my books start off as a thrill to write, somewhere in the middle I find myself running out of steam or needing to rekindle my excitement about the story. This usually happens again towards the three-quarters mark, when I'm trying to tie the story all together and end all of the characters' arcs in a satisfying way. Point being, writing a novel is far from a stress-free process!

The Bloom of Youth was an exception. It was such a joy to mentally revisit my teenage years and weave those emotions and experiences into Will's story. I don't recall ever worrying about what to write next, or determining how Will might react to a certain situation. The entire process was smooth and organic, a much needed break from the high intensity events of the FLEE series and the slightly darker source material.

Revisiting Will's story in audiobook format has been similarly fun. Stepping back into his world has been a refreshing break from 2020, with its global pandemic, murderous insects, locust swarms, looming financial crises, endless series of natural (and not-so-natural) disasters, and freakish weather. Will's problems may be big in his mind, but they're nothing compared to all this, and right now that's exactly what I've been needing. So it's been fun!

Unfortunately though, for this particular audiobook I won't be uploading the entire thing to YouTube. Audible's guidelines are pretty strict, and they don't allow authors to share the full content on any other sites. (This also means I'll be taking down most of the chapters of the FLEE audiobook.) Still, I hope you enjoy this little snippet. And if so far you've been on the fence about picking up The Bloom of Youth, hopefully this'll give you a good sampling of what to expect. Enjoy!

The Unrighteous Audiobook now available!

Hi all! Well, here's a bit of a surprise release: The Unrighteous is now available in full as an audiobook. This one was read by one of our brothers, John Eliot, from the UK. I think he did a fantastic job with it. If you're an Audible member, it's definitely worth checking out. (Here's a link!) You can also purchase the audiobook a la carte via Amazon, or on iTunes. Enjoy!

FLEE Audiobook finally here!

It's been months since I started the approval process (the files were last submitted on January 25th!), but I'm pleased to announce that my first audiobook, FLEE, is finally available on Amazon.

You may have already caught some of these chapters on my YouTube channel, but much of this audiobook has been re-recorded with professional equipment. I personally think it sounds a lot better than the old version!

So if you're a fan of audiobooks, consider checking this one out!

Tiny update!

It’s been almost a month since my last post, and I know things have been pretty quiet here since, so I thought I’d write up a short update for you all.

The audiobook (including re-recorded chapters) is finally complete and is currently going through Amazon’s Audible review process. This has been a bit more tiresome of a process than I originally anticipated, and many chapters were rejected multiple times due to minor sound issues (some of the peaks were too high, some of the narration was too soft). Each review process can take from 7-10 days, and each time new files are uploaded the process has to restart, so it’s taking a much longer time than I’d expected.

As always, jumping into a completely new medium was a tremendous learning experience, and I’ll be releasing a podcast episode soon on a few of the practical lessons I came away with. A lot of them apply to public reading and speaking, and many of you might find them useful in your own talks/readings/ministry. Reading is such an essential part of what we do as Witnesses, but there’s so much more to it than just speaking words from a page. Stay tuned for the podcast and you’ll see what I mean.

Of course, in spite of all the experience gleaned from this audiobook, I’m still a novice narrator (performer?), and there’s plenty of room for improvement in future books. My goal at present is to begin work on the audiobooks for STAY and STAND once FLEE is released. Once the trilogy is done, I’ve got other ideas for projects that I’d love to dive into as time permits. More than likely, this’ll mean that there will be no new books coming in 2020, but if you’ve been following my work for any length of time you’ll know that plans can and will change, so we shall see!

And I’m done! Sort of…

So today I uploaded the final chapter of my first audiobook, FLEE, to my YouTube channel. Recording and editing all twenty-one chapters more involved than I was anticipating, but as always, I learned so many valuable things from the process. In the end, I was able to get into a good routine (establishing routines are always so important for creative projects). I’d wake up a little early each morning, when the apartment was quiet and the traffic noises outside weren’t too obnoxious, and would record a single chapter, which I’d then edit later in the evening when I had some spare time. (Since I’m not doing any of this full time, it’s sometimes a struggle to find the time here and there to work on things)

Of course, in spite of being done with all twenty-one chapters, I’m not really finished. Since I purchased a professional microphone midway through the project (which is why everything after chapter nine sounds so much better), the quality of the two halves of the book are vastly different. In addition to the technical aspect of recording, my reading and voice acting skills also improved quite a bit as I went along. I could feel myself slowing down and really savoring the reading and getting into the mind of each character (as opposed to just reading words on the screen to get through the material in the beginning).

So all of this adds up to me really needing to redo the first nine chapters, three of which I’ve already recorded in the last couple of days. I’m working much more quickly than I was in the beginning so I’m not expecting the final six chapters to take all that long, but once they are done I’ll be uploading the entire thing to ACX, Amazon’s audiobook site. Once that’s done, I’ll probably put together a little video for those of who who haven’t used Audible (Amazon’s audiobook app) to show how to purchase and listen to the book if you’re so inclined.

As always, I want to express my appreciation to those of you who had the patience to wait for the release of each audiobook chapter, which weren’t really uploaded according to any sort of discernible schedule (I did them as I found time for them). Also appreciated were the tips and suggestions, usually in the form of comments on YouTube. This feedback is vital, and I feel it really helped me improve as I went through the process.

Although I’ve got plenty of room to grow as a narrator, this project was unexpectedly enjoyable, and I found myself doing more research than I’d originally intended to capture certain accents (Mexican, Colombian, Indian, Southern, New Orleaniean, Canadian). Some of the voice acting is still in need of improvement, but I hope the next two books will afford me exactly that opportunity for growth.

Thanks for listening!

Brand new website!

Well, it's long overdue, but I finally went out and purchased a domain and set up a proper, professional website at Ekjonathan.com In the future, all books will be released on this site (check the Now Reading tab), which will mean no more jumping around from this blog to that trying to hunt down information. Blogspot has served me well in the past, but it's really not a viable long-term solution, so I'm happy to be moving on.

On the My Books page you'll find my entire catalog of books, with brief descriptions or synopses of each of the novels and links to the respective Amazon pages. The Blog page will function in the same way as this site, and in fact will feed directly from here, so if you prefer to visit this site, you'll be able to. However, since the new site will have all the features of my current sites combined, I'd recommend bookmarking it and checking regularly for updates. Any news and announcements will be sure to appear there first.

Other cool features of the new site include a Podcast page, where you can stream episodes from my YouTube channel by category, as well as an Audiobook page, where you can listen to the latest chapters from FLEE, and where you will eventually be able to purchase full audiobooks once they are ready.

Speaking of which, my new microphone arrived in the mail this morning, and I was able to record and upload a new chapter to to FLEE this afternoon, which you can listen to here. I've also had to switch audio editing software to get the most professional-sounding quality I can manage, and I think you'll agree that the difference is huge (especially if you use headphones)!

Finally, in case you're wondering, you won't find any pictures of me on the new site (or anywhere else for that matter). I've always felt that my anonymity is important to maintain, and I've been fearful of cultivating a celebrity status around my real persona. I don't mind my books and other creations gaining attention, I just don't want to attract that kind of attention in person. I would be absolutely mortified if someone were to recognize me at an assembly and ask for an autograph! (FYI, EK Jonathan itself is a pen name based on my real name.)


Since this new website is still a work on progress, you might find some typos, broken links, and other small issues. If you do, feel free to drop me a line and let me know so I can continue to polish it up. Thanks, and enjoy!

I’ve decided to bite the bullet!

Hi all! Well, I’ve jumped straight into a new project since the completion of STAND, and in the last three weeks have produced about half of the audiobook recording for FLEE. It’s been a fun project, and has provided a unique challenge quite unlike anything I’ve attempted before.

I’ve come to realize that audiobook readings are less reading and more performing. It demands a lot more energy than writing the original story, and can take quite a few takes to get just right. Often, a single line of descriptive writing or dialogue can be read in a multitude of ways, and picking the right take can be challenging. In addition, performing this particular story, with its varied cast of characters, has meant performing various accents and ethnicities, requiring some amount of research (ie, watching videos of various speakers on YouTube) to capture. I’m not completely sold on my own performances, but I’m certainly learning from the experience, and it’s forcing me to improve in my reading skills. (This is particularly useful for me, since I’ve been in a foreign language field for the last twelve years and rarely read aloud in English.)

Since I’m enjoying the audiobook process so much (and there seems to be significant interest in full audiobook versions of my books), I’ve bitten the bullet and purchased a professional-grade condenser microphone. I’ve also purchased the materials to build a small acoustic box for my home office to dampen out any ambient noises. This has been a real pain for me in previous recordings, because our apartment building is right beside a busy highway, and the traffic noises inevitably seep into the audio. (Please excuse the occasional honks, beeps, and screeches!)

Once the new microphone arrives (an Audio Technica ATR2500, if anyone’s interested), I’ll use it to record the rest of the chapters, uploading them as usual to my YouTube channel. Then, once that’s done, I plan on going back and re-recording the initial chapters. With the experience and practice I’ve gained from the last few weeks, I know I’ll do a much better job the second time around, and the audio quality should be much higher.

When all twenty-one chapters of FLEE are completed, I will be uploading them to ACX, Amazon’s audiobook publisher site. Once that’s done, the full audiobook will be available for purchase on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. I have not determined what I will set the price at, but it will likely be a few dollars more than the paperback version of the book. After doing some research online, I feel this is a fair and affordable price, as audiobooks can range from $20-60. While I’ve never primarily been focused turning this into a career, I do need to make it worth my time investment, and those who would prefer a lower-quality version can always listen for free on YouTube.

After FLEE is released, I will see about doing other books, likely starting with STAY and STAND. Many readers have expressed interest in having the entire collection of this series in audiobook form, so we’ll see if I can set that as a goal for myself.

Mark your calendars, STAND is almost here!

Hi all! Well, I'm happy to finally announce the release date for STAND, the final book in the FLEE trilogy. It's been a long and somewhat arduous process, but the book is completed and the editors have written back with their final feedback. As always, it's proven invaluable in helping me to deliver the best possible reading experience.

I'm excited to let you all know that STAND will be available on August 10th! That's just 6 days from now, and in the remaining time I'll be finishing the cover design, setting up the products on Amazon, and submitting the final documents for paperback printing.

At the same time, I've finally gotten around to recording an audio book for FLEE. The test reading I did a few days ago was a success, (thanks for your feedback), and I've released the second chapter on my YouTube channel. Now that I have what feels like a good grasp on the recording and editing of a reading, I'm a little more confident to say that more chapters will be released soon. I'm still not sure if I'll do this with all my books as I'd prefer to use the free time I have to create new stories, but we will have to wait and see. Perhaps, if the audio book of FLEE proves to be popular, I'll continue it for the rest of the series.

For those who've asked for the audio version on another platform such as Audible, I'm not yet certain I will go that route. I'm currently leaning towards the idea of leaving the audio recordings on YouTube. It's completely free to listen to and does not require a whole lot of work on my end (going the Audible route would require a whole other registration and validation process). However, we'll see how it goes!

A test reading of FLEE

For the last three years I’ve thrown around the idea of doing audiobooks for my novels. A lot of readers have asked for this over the years (some have poor vision, making reading difficult, others are simply too busy to sit down with a book and would rather listen on the go). I’ve always said no, because it was simply too big of an investment in time and resources.

In spite of all that, with STAND finally in the bag and about to be released, I’ve decided to do a ‘test reading’ of one of my books. This means I’ve recorded one chapter (the first chapter of FLEE) and uploaded it to my channel. Depending on its reception, I will either continue to upload chapters or not.

Going into this project, I knew that one of the most daunting aspects would be that of voice acting. While film, directing, and acting are all interests of mine, I don’t believe I have the chops to portray characters on camera, and I’m not sure I’d do much better on a solely audio format.

So, this is a test. If you enjoy this snippet, help me out by leaving a ‘thumbs up’ on the video. If you feel it’s lacking, don’t be afraid to give it a ‘thumbs down’. In a few days I’ll look at the votes and decide how to proceed. Thanks, and I hope at least some of you will enjoy! (I’ll admit, it was fun to do!)

The daunting world of audiobooks

So apparently, audiobooks are a thing.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, audiobooks are audio recordings of entire books that can be purchased and downloaded online. Typically the books are read by professional voice actors or the authors themselves. About a decade ago, I downloaded a few audiobooks to try it out myself, but didn't get very far before giving up. I chalk this up to the fact that I'm a very visual person. It's the sense I'm most in tune with. It's the way I write (I blogged about this very topic here) and it's the way I read. If the words aren't in front of my eyes, my mind is apt to drift to other matters. So I prefer reading over listening.

For a long time, I suspected I had this in common with most people, but it turns out that I am wrong. A LOT of people love listening to books read aloud. I guess part of this is the hectic pace of people's lives these days. It's rare for readers to have the luxury of a few spare hours to sit around thumbing through a book, so instead, they listen to bite-sized portions of a book while driving, jogging, or running errands. It's not the way I like to enjoy literature, but I get it.

Anyhow, for years now I've been getting emails asking if I've considered doing audiobook versions of my novels. I dismissed the notion outright at first, because recording my own book (obviously I'm not going to hire a non-Witness reader, and I would hardly be able to afford one anyway!) would be a tremendous investment in time and resources. Of course, in the digital age it's much easier for people to record audiobooks at home. Gone are the days where only expensive, state-of-the-art studios could produce quality recordings. Believe it or not, more than a few professional authors use a room in their house, set up a mic and a laptop with some recording software, and throw blankets over everything to absorb the sound and get right to it.

So for me the real cost is in time. It's no small task to record and edit a reading of a 100,000 word novel. Also, there's quite a bit of skill involved, as I've learned while doing research on the topic. A lot of this is encompassed in our Benefit book, but with a reading as dramatic as that of a paperback, there area also other skills that need to be refined, like being able to quickly switch between voices so that the listener can easily tell when the speaker changes (I tried, it's hard!) and conveying the right kind of emotions in dialogue so that the result isn't A) too lackluster or B) too overboard. So really, it's a mix between reading and acting. And I'm not sure my acting chops are up to the task!

But never say never, right? Anyway, I'm looking into it. It's actually kind of an intriguing idea, and if I get enough requests, it'll probably happen. I've set up a little poll to the right of this blog where you can give me some feedback regarding the possibility of audiobooks. (Please keep in mind that due to file management issues, I would need to host them on an external platform like Amazon, so they wouldn't be free of charge.)

So, do you like audiobooks? Feel free to let me know in the comments!