New release… and the story of my first audiobook!

Jen Kirchner· November 05, 2025· [fiction, interns-of-magic-engineering, audiobooks]

I have a new release… and this one’s an AUDIOBOOK.

That’s right, it’s my first audiobook ever. I recorded it myself, and the Spouseditor did all the sound engineering and editing. This exclusive audiobook is free for all my subscribers, which could be you! So if you aren’t signed up for my New Release Alerts, now’s a great time to do it and receive my sweet, dulcet voice in your earholes… narrating a fresh new tale of Interns chaos.

Since the Spouseditor and I prefer the DIY method for most of our creative endeavors, this audiobook took two years to create—it started long before the new Interns novelette was a twinkling in my eye—because I first had to learn how to narrate audiobooks. There’s a lot of research, study, and practice that comes with such a project. Luckily, there’s a lot of information available. I read books and watched an untold number of videos. I checked out ebooks from the library, along with their audiobooks, and read along with professional narrators.

Finally, I reached a point where I just had to dive in and narrate things on my own.

The hardest part was listening to my recordings! I had all the normal reactions: Is that really what I sound like? Eew, do I sound annoying? I remember at one point, the Spouseditor and I were out taking a walk and he really wanted to hear some of my practice audio. I let him listen, and then I waited for him to say, “Uh, how about you practice some more?” But instead, he was really happy with how well I did! We both laughed about it because neither of us was quite sure what to expect. I was certainly struggling with being objective, so his initial feedback was encouraging.

And I just kept going after that: more research, more practice, more everything. Then the recording began.

At the time, we were living in an apartment with thin walls. The plan was to narrate the Interns trilogy, because I already had audiobook covers for them. (I didn’t order the audiobook covers; they came with the ebooks for free.) We assembled a ramshackle “booth” in our tiny bedroom closet (using clothes and blankets and towels to insulate the sound), bought a little microphone and recorder, and went to work.

I’d almost finished the entirety of A Master of Magical Machinery but had to stop because every time I tried to record, it seemed like every motorcycle in Seattle wanted to drive by. None of the chapters sounded alike, no matter what we did. After too many unusable recordings, I had to give up on the idea for a while.

But then we moved. It’s pretty quiet here. The only biker issue is the gang of ten-year-olds from down the street. And our new bedroom closet is juuuuust large enough to fit a small chair, a TV tray table, a microphone stand, and me.

As I was finishing the A Menace of Magical Machinations ebook, I knew I wanted to try audiobooks again. And the free Interns novelette was an obvious candidate.

So here we are. It was kind of a long, annoying road to get here, but we finally made it… to the start of many more audiobooks! As long as you like them, I’ll definitely release more audiobooks for you. For now, subscribe to my new release alerts and grab the very first one—an Interns of Magic Engineering adventure for your ears.

Until next time,

Jen