It’s that time of the year when I focus on my romantic/suspense HAUNTED (Originally published by Loveswept as Dark Temptation). I always like revisiting that story because it reminds me of the time I spent in Downieville, California. Years ago, Enid, a good friend of mine from college, invited me to spend a weekend with her in Downieville, I enjoyed that visit so much that when I came up with the idea for HAUNTED, I knew Downieville would be the model for Slaterville. Like Downieville, Slaterville is located in the the gold rush area of the Sierra Nevada mountains, a beautiful location with lots of history, and not too far from Sacramento.

My protagonist, Jason McLain, took form when the O.J. Simpson trial was going on. I liked the idea of my protagonist being tried for the murder of his wife and acquitted. What if  Jason has been put on trial for the death of his wife, was acquitted, but is not sure if he did cause her death? And why have other people close to him died in questionable situations? The question haunts him.

Having Jason be a three-time Oscar winner for special effects made his guilt possible and the acquittal made his desire to get as far away from L.A. reasonable. That  put him in Slaterville just when  Valerie Wiggins  needed someone who could help her create special effects for the Slaterville haunted house.

Val is a member of Slaterville’s non-profit organization WIN (Women in Need), is the town’s eye doctor, and, herself, a victim of physical abuse. WIN has been raising money by putting on a haunted house every October, but to draw in more people (and money) they need to come up with some special effects. Val suggests asking the town’s newest resident, Jason McLain, for help. All agree with her suggestion and appoint her to go to his house and ask him. .

DARK TEMPTATION was released as a paperback in  1995. I changed the title to HAUNTED and created the eBook in 2012, and I just recently created HAUNTED as an audio. I used Amazon’s virtual voice method/ and the first thing I needed to do was select a narrator. It was fun to listen to the different voices. I decided Val should narrate the story, so I listened to the choices I had for a female. Transferring a copy of my eBook file into the setup for an audio book was easy and almost instantaneous.

Once I had the search data input, I click the button to listen to the file. As the narrator read the story, I could see the printed words on the screen. There were a few highlighted words asking me if the pronunciation was correct, and I found a few errors (words duplicated or incorrectly spelled). The incorrectly spelled words were interesting. The narrator said the word I wanted even though I’d misspelled it. That made things easier for me. I couldn’t correct those words without going back to the original file and changing them there. So, for anyone who purchased the ebook for HAUNTED, I apologize for those misspellings.

Finally, I listened to the entire book, made a few easy corrections, and pushed the “publish” button. I’m pleased with the way the audio came out, and I think anyone who enjoys a romantic suspense involving a haunted house will enjoy listening to HAUNTED,. One nice feature on Amazon is you can purchase the Kindle version of the book and add the audio version for just a small amount more. Check it out. Amazon