Inspired Writer Collective Podcast

Audio of Episode 93: [Jacci Prior] Why Your Audiobook Narrator Choice is Important For Marketing Your Book

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In this episode, Elizabeth Wilson chats with Jacci Prior about being an audiobook narrator. Jacci encourages authors to leverage their audiobook for marketing purposes. 

At the end, get a sneak peek of Elizabeth Wilson's memoir being read by our guest, Jacci Prior, an audiobook narrator.

Jacci Prior, when talking about being an audiobook narrator says: " it truly is an acting job. If you don't live and breathe those characters and you're not conveying those emotions with your voice in a real way, that that feels authentic to the listener, it's probably not gonna be a very successful audiobook."

It's most common for authors who enjoy listening to audiobooks themselves to decide they want to turn their own print book into audio. 

Get to know Jacci Prior:

Since launching her career in 2022, Jacci Prior has lenther resonant and lyrical voice to over 75 audiobooks.Jacci maintains memberships with SAG-AFTRA, and theAudio Publishers Association. She has narrated titles forleading audiobook publishers such as: MacMillian,Tantor, Podium, Dreamscape, Aethon, Pink Flammingo.Additionally, she regularly narrates and producesaudiobooks for independent authors, adding her ownmusical flare to those passion projects.

Jacci's background is in classical guitar performance andinstruction, as well as in art history and gallerymanagement. She worked as a gallery docent for over 6years. Before that she was a tour guide & deckhand on ahistoric passenger ferry. You can often find her enjoyinglocal art walks, concerts, book signings, and escapingout to the beautiful San Juan islands with her family.

It was her daughter’s struggle with dyslexia thatintroduced Jacci to the world of audiobooks. She ispassionate about the role of audiobooks in education,making great stories accessible, and the art ofstorytelling.

Connect with Jacci Prior:
www.jacciprior.com
https://www.instagram.com/jaccipriornarrator/
https://www.tiktok.com/@jaccipriornarrator

 Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. If you've ever felt the pull to write your truth, to shape the chaos of real life into something meaningful and to share your journey with the world, you're in the right place. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie, writers, coaches, and entrepreneurs who believe in you and know how important it is to find a writing community to guide you on your path to self-publishing.

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Elizabeth:

Welcome back listeners to another, episode of Inspired. Writer Collective podcast. am your host. Elizabeth, and today is another guest episode. I am so excited have Jackie, Pryor here today because she an audio book narrator, and I have been, since we started taking guests on this podcast, audio narrator has been a box on that list of. guests that I wanted to have that I Not been able to, check. but once I got, active on threads, that's I found you, Jackie. You're active on there and you post so much great stuff. You are such an advocate for the authors that you work with, which I think is so big because not only they, you know, marketing own. books, but they're getting basically some marketing from the way that you promote yourself and the audio book that you create and the life that you bring to their story. That just seems like a win-win to me. like, I love that. For those who are watching this on YouTube, they get to, a glimpse into what your that looks up like. in your, booth you've got your headphones, you've got your high tech mic. and everything, and so Thank you for coming up the podcast today and welcome. Please tell the listeners a little bit about. you.

Jacci:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm just delighted to be here. This is a lot of fun and I know we're gonna have a great conversation. Um, I, I mean, I guess a little bit about me. I've been a narrator for three and a half years, I think. I don't know. I'll do the math later that sounds about right. It might be closer to four now. I'm not sure. But I got started. I knew nothing. I was a reader, but I wasn't on Bookstagram or book talk or any of those spaces. I knew no one in the industry. I just, um, I got started because my daughter suggested it. I guess I gave some pretty. Good retellings of bedtime stories as she was growing up. And because she has dyslexia, we would read together a lot and it was her idea that I would become one of those book readers that we listened to and I could not shake the idea from my head. So that led me on this journey and I discovered Book Talk and then later or Bookstagram, and then book talk. And just. Dove in and have accumulated relationships and coaching and experience and obviously my beautiful portfolio of titles over the years. And I feel like it all just builds on one another in the, the community i've built, um. I'm just so proud of where it is and where it's going and I, I know we'll get into all the details a little bit later, but I hope that's an adequate bio. I don't have an acting background. I, I did some like hobby stage stuff, but my background was in music performance, so there's crossover, there's a love of the stage or any kind of performance platform. I don't know. Take it away with the questions elizabeth

Elizabeth:

Yes, that was a beautiful introduction. Thank you for that. beautiful and definitely we're gonna be digging into some of the background that. was what made me so interested in talking to someone, because When you, self-publish your book, a lot of times you're also deciding you're gonna create an audio gonna mm-hmm. And you have put baby out into the world in written worm, and then it becomes this question of like. Oh, well, I gonna create my own audio book. Am I gonna, someone someone to do the audio for me? What does that even entail? mm-hmm. look like? and there was, just this whole world that I knew that. I that had no wonder. of, and that's why I wanted to talk to someone like you who could. Give us who are on the indie publishing or self-publishing journey, a little bit of insight into what we could look for, what kind of questions will be ask the bus as an off who's out, and audio book narrator.'cause as you and I were chatting in our like re-interview time, there was so much I didn't even know what. options there were and like the process of going through it. So I wonder if you could walk us through like. What an author would be considering as they seek out an audio book narrator for their work.

Jacci:

Sure. Um, so more what they should consider or just a step by step kind of bullet point guide or. Either whatever you think. Both.

Elizabeth:

is is best.

Jacci:

Sure. Okay. Well, like you said,

Elizabeth:

You're the expert here.

Jacci:

like you said, you're here, you have your beautiful little book baby, and you want it to be an audio book. Uh, different authors have different reasons for wanting their books on audio. Some just love audio books and it's not. Necessarily about, you know, making money. But for most of most authors, like you want to see a return on what you've created. So I'm gonna speak to it from, from that mindset of. The business mindset. Um, what do you wanna look for? Um, a lot of people know there's different routes to getting started. You can find narrators and go for auditions on platforms like a CX, which is very common and has all sorts of payment options that you can use to filter through. The dollar sign is your number one priority, but if you are active in bookish, you know, social medias and you've maybe followed narrators, there is nothing wrong with just sending a little DM to someone you'd love to work with and seeing what their process is like. Um, the process, the step-by-step is going to be similar. Or it should be similar regardless of who you hire. Um, but each narrator has their own rhythm and then that, you know, you collaborate with them when you're producing your audiobook independently and you get to collaborate and work together and are in communication from before production to the end. Um, things, I'm trying to think of like what red flags would be. I, if it were me, I don't know that I would take a chance on someone who has never narrated a book before. Um, so I mean, everyone has to be given that chance. But I think the things you wanna look for are. Always request an audition and make sure the audio quality matches or is similar to audio books that you already listen to. If you're not an audio book listener, go listen to some samples of books that you would expect would be narrated. Well, you know, the big titles that are popular in your genre, and then compare that to the auditions that you receive. Um, because say if you are hiring someone who's brand new to the industry. You should still want to have a professional sounding end product and make sure that they're capable of it. I feel like I'm gonna call someone out on this, but like, don't, how do I wanna say this? Um, just because a guy on TikTok has an awesome voice doesn't mean he can tell a good story.

Elizabeth:

Hmm.

Jacci:

So I feel like there are people who will take advantage of that. And all I would say is they need to be, uh, tested and I wanna see a body of work from them in finished products, not just one voice snippet and, oh yeah, I just.

Elizabeth:

Let's diverge from there because there's so much that goes into the voice, right? I mean, it's an instrument

Jacci:

Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth:

got tone, you've got rate speech. You've got, you know, uh, loud. or quiet you get Mm-hmm. You significance to, a moment. So I'm, I just imagine there's a lot that goes into how you articulate, um. The scene and the emotions and the, you know, author's intent as they've, you know, translated it to you for their, That chapter into the way that you say words, but not just about saying those words. in a beautiful Yeah, or in a resonant voice. no. There's so much that goes into it, but I think could also point to or discourage, the a con against use ai an AI generated

Jacci:

absolutely. Um, I mean, I, I know it'll probably get there. I know that right now with ai, you know, the person who has their audiobook generated by AI can go in and individually modify each line of dialogue if they want to. But right now, AI isn't sophisticated enough to do that on its own when it's interpreting your book. Um, but no, it, it really is an acting job. It's not just. Reading the book out loud, it's, there's, um, a narrator, any narrator that you work with, you should have the expectation that before they. Narrate your book that they've read it and hopefully they, they've prepped it. When I am prepping a book, before I record it, I have a PDF and I highlight every line of dialogue and each character that speaks has a color that's unique to them. And I make notes in the margins. And I'm, you know, reaching out to the author with questions about pronunciations or if maybe I have a hint that. A character who seems good now is gonna be a villain in a later book in the series. I'm gonna ask that. Um, you know, there's, I, I try to be really like, connected to the story during prep so that when I get in the booth, I know it inside and out and I know where it's going down the road. Um, because, you know, authors often like to put Easter eggs and anyways, but, but it truly is an acting job. If you don't live and breathe those characters and you're not conveying those emotions with your voice in a real way, that that feels authentic to the listener, it's probably not gonna be a very successful audiobook.

Elizabeth:

And I would just imagine that Saves time time. Then on like the editing piece. You know, if someone. if, uh, you hire an. Audiobook narrator, and Don't ask you. all those upfront questions and they just record it They think it's Oh yeah. what makes sense them, or how they read it. then there's gonna be Much working you have to do on backend, to make it match the way that you as the the author hear it as you. read it in your mind, in

Jacci:

It's so true. It's so true. Before I narrate any book the author gets a five to 15 minute sample of their book, even after the audition. And part of that is to make sure that they hear the tone and the pacing that I'm giving it after having prepped it. And it gives us another chance to be like, Hey, are, are we setting the stage correctly for your story? You know, and just make sure that. Especially for things like first person, the narrative feels just as real and on beat with where the story is as the dialogue does. Um, every. Every word matters. It's all there for a reason. These books have been edited and you know, authors have spent potentially years building this story and crafting it, and now that it's ready, I just think it all deserves to be honored to the author's intention, to the best of our ability. Describe

Elizabeth:

I love that and it you just, the way you that. Sounds like just such a, a support for the author, you as an author of. memoir. Especially difficult when I think about, a future like audiobook you know, because when you get at least all the you know, name memoirs, everyone uses their own voice. everyone, I get it. Because at the very personal story and your voice is a part of your brand mm-hmm. You know, you know best how you you know, scenes went down because you've lived them, you know, this is actual lived experience. Yeah. But at the same time, there's just much to from a technical standpoint and uh, you having the right equipment that. Feels out Reach for someone for. who plans to like Mm-hmm. Um, so I That amount of intentionality you have, with your making sure. that you're helping them deliver a product to the readers that they can be super proud of. I think it's important. much, you get much reaction, you know, and, and follow up from your authors like. Are, is there a level of like, you blowing their minds? because I I'm so excited. Gives you know, listener, some insight you've actually reached recorded last week. A snippet my, memoir and We'll put that on the end of this this episode so episode. Oh, I love that. if that's okay with

Jacci:

Oh, that's fine with me. What a great idea.

Elizabeth:

yeah. Yeah, so. I, I'm, I'm so excited to be able to have a chance to hear it and like, it. You, my story come alive. And I just can imagine that that must give authors like tingles. What kind of feedback do you hear from your authors as you, know, present to them their audio book?

Jacci:

everyone's a little different. Um, but for the most part I get, I get just the most incredible messages from authors. I usually on Instagram. I feel like that's where we all chat. Um. You know, it just, every time I, I get feedback like that from an author that's so positive and they're just so grateful for the work I've put in and for our journey together, producing these audio books, it just reaffirms my decision to take the time, um, to get to know them and their story. You know, you, you have this memoir that you are publishing and you know, the reality is, I. I try to treat a lot of books like a memoir because most authors who are writing first person in any genre are really drawing on things that they've gone through in life. Um, I've talked to authors about that over and over again where these hard things that they have weathered, they. You know, really used their book as an outlet to channel it into something that they can put out into the world and share with people in a way that's, you know, therapeutic or just, you know, healthy for them to process and relate to others who've gone through similar things, even in a high fantasy context. Right. So, absolutely. So I think that almost. I think that most books should be treated that way with that kind of reverence, um, and respect and, and one thing, there are plenty of memoirs out there not narrated by the authors. I just listened to one. Oh, it was incredible. It's called Educated by Tara Westover, and it was narrated by Julia Whelan, who I'm such a fan girl for. She's incredible. But I just, I don't know. I was thinking about that as I was listening to this audio book recently that. Really, the elements of the memoir are in almost every story I've narrated as I've gotten to know the authors I've worked for, not just as you know, their clients or they've hired me, but many have become friends and I, I just can't say that enough. Like that book, it's fantasy, but it's real.

Elizabeth:

I love that. And Yes, it's such a good reminder.'cause we talk about All the time on this podcast about the matter, whether you're writing memoir or you're writing fiction, there's so much a personal narrative that goes you're writing. Mm-hmm. There's so much, many therapeutic elements that happen as you maybe in fiction, explore an explorative, ending what you experienced in life and maybe that gives you sense. of. resolve Something, and it, it's beautiful and I love that you've shared that perspective with us.

Jacci:

yeah.

Elizabeth:

I would love for you to talk a little bit about the different Types of narration, but I didn't realize they were all these like all, duet and how that could affect potentially the timeframe or the cost of the ultimate audiobook and how you then work with other narrators? what all that looks like.

Jacci:

Yeah, happy to. Um, I, I've gotten to a point. So when an author reaches out to me and wants an estimate for their book, I now include. At least three of the types on the estimate that I include. I include the solo, the dual, and the duet. And I've done that because it usually sort of, uh. If they don't know the difference between dual and duet, it makes them ask, I dunno, the difference between

Elizabeth:

share

Jacci:

let's do it. So solo narration is obviously one narrator reading the entire story start to finish, and it's most appropriate in a book that doesn't have multiple POVs. I have narrated books with multiple POVs as a solo narrator, and I probably won't do it anymore because while I'm very proud of my male voice. It's just better to have a male narrator on for the project. So that's,

Elizabeth:

hear a can we hear a sample? Uh, sure, Will you do our male voice for us?

Jacci:

yeah. Let me, uh, pull something up for you. I have to have a script. This is one of the fem audio takeover snippets. Alright, so let's see. Here we go. I quite enjoy the look of wrath on you. There we go. That's like the one line.

Elizabeth:

nice.

Jacci:

That's the one line. And then he says like, I see you've been practicing with your power goddess. So you know, it's a fun little party trick. Okay, so that,

Elizabeth:

is that a part of solo narration then Changing your voice to voice do like the dual, dual POV?

Jacci:

um, yeah, so it's. Anytime, any character solo narration, I'm voicing all of them regardless of POVs. If the author has asked for solo narration,

Elizabeth:

Okay.

Jacci:

and if there are alternating POVs and they've asked me to narrate solo, then I'll adjust my voice to a degree for the narrative to give it more of that feel. I won't go as extreme. As I will for the dialogue, but I'll still try to capture that masculine essence. But again, I'm probably not gonna do those anymore. Those at the bare minimum, if there's alternating male and female chapters will at least be a dual narration, which is where you have two narrators typically, one female, one male, not always the case, but two narrators, and they each have, um. They narrate every character within their chapters. So like in the female POV chapters, I'm narrating all the characters like solo narration. And then my co narrator in their chapters narrate all the characters.

Elizabeth:

so then you're dividing like chapter the chapter? Mm-hmm. Doing the female dialogue in their chapters. They're doing the male. dialogue in your chapters. It's just you can kind of divide and conquer by chapter.

Jacci:

Correct. So that's dual. And what happens in the background during the prep is we will talk, we'll discuss character voices together. Uh, usually we'll have like a Dropbox or a Google Drive folder. And as we collaborate on those voices and create them together with. The instruction of the author because we're given character notes and we're both reading the book before narrating, we'll upload. Each version of our voices to somewhere where we can reference them. So I can hear, you know, oh, what's his version of this male character's voice? And then he'll listen to, oh, how is she voicing that female character? And it will inform our acting decisions and choices as we encounter those characters in R POVs.

Elizabeth:

Mm-hmm.

Jacci:

And then duet. So duet is again, typically two narrators. Um, and regardless of POVs, the female narrator is covering all of the female characters and the male narrator is doing the dialogue for all the male narrators. So if there is alternating POVs, I'm still doing the female dialogue in his chapters and vice versa. So, um, and then, so that's duet and that's very, very popular with readers right now. And then you have multicast and then you have audio dramas. So multicast, you might have maybe a handful of narrators and like, you know, three or four, and each narrator has maybe. A couple voices that they're responsible for. Um, I just, we, I just finished recording an audio book and there's three narrators on it. It's me, Brandon Francis and Anthony Palini. And. I am the lead female main character. Brandon is the lead male character, but that's the only male character he voices and then Anthony comes in and he's voicing all the random guards or you know, just random male characters that pop up in the story. Um, so it's gonna be a really fun, and I would call that, I don't know, a multicast, a duet, multicast. I don't really know what it's called, but we did it and it's cool.

Elizabeth:

That sounds cool.

Jacci:

Then we have audio dramas, which would be like a graphic audio book, graphic audio, audio book production, um, where every single character is voiced by an individual voice actor, no crossover. Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth:

That seems like the editing to compile Would be. Mm-hmm. I can't. I can't even imagine. And then you're adding in the music that they do and it's so much, but the end product is incredible. You know, their marketing slogan is a movie in your head, and it's accurate so. as we've talked through those low at, dual duet as we we are, those like increasing in expense

Jacci:

Um, a little bit. Dual and solo are very similarly priced. Um, there might be like some narrators will charge maybe a, you know,$200 prep fee for the extra collaboration to match voices as closely as possible. But the, the per finished hour rate, um. Because audio books are charged based on the final runtime. Um, that will be very, very similar to solo, almost no difference.

Elizabeth:

Okay.

Jacci:

is a little bit more because the audio has to be stitched together. Um, most of the male narrators I work with are on the opposite coast from me and. Um, we are not on camera together, we're not on discord. I've worked with all of them enough to get a real feel for how they read a story and vice versa. Um, so when I'm recording a duet, narration, I'll skip their lines and instead of reading it, you get to hear this lovely noise. What that does for anyone with, uh, any kind of savviness with GarageBand or any kind of audio recording is it creates a vertical line where that dialogue goes. So then when our files get sent to a post-production engineer, they have these visuals that mark every line of dialogue. So it makes it a little bit easier to stitch in. His dialogue into my chapters and my dialogue into his chapters. If this is a multiple POV book. Um, but it still is sitting there in, you know, matching the audio levels because we have different recording setups. And then yeah, weaving it all into a cohesive sounding audiobook.

Elizabeth:

Wow, it's so impressive. I, I think this is gonna like, be so informative

Jacci:

Good.

Elizabeth:

people like me who, you know, Not had to go into this step yet. What, um, let's see, what do I wanna ask? How do your authors justify the cost of the audio book? it. because they know they have a, a They're writing in a genre that's really big in audio books, like I imagine like the Man genre, is big for audio books. I'm sure fantasy is probably big for audio books. Or is it the way that they fit, promote that helps them justify the, the cost of

Jacci:

having print? Mm-hmm. Um, there's, there's a lot of different schools of thought. First off, most people can agree that marketing your audiobook is deceptively hard. It's something a lot of, it's kind of hard to figure out. Um, it needs to be marketed equally with the other versions of your book. But as far as how people justify the cost, um, there's people who want audiobooks because they are avid audiobook readers. And they, they want to make money with it, but they're also just passionate about it. So maybe they'll do a Kickstarter campaign to help fund it or they'll just save for years. I do payment plans for authors, try to make it accessible while me still getting paid fairly. There are the people who just do it because they love it. They just love that their audio, that their book can be accessible in these other formats and they want it to be accessible. That's their priority.

Elizabeth:

Mm-hmm.

Jacci:

Um. Then you have the people who are a little bit more business-minded, like, okay, if I get an audiobook produced, not only is that another product that I'm getting income from, you can pull snippets from it for marketing. And those snippets, if you make reels with them, can help sell the other formats of your book too. Um. You know, I mean, how many times did we hear the Ro Danon Crown Prince of the Val Baran Fay, and then the, I mean, we all heard it, right? When that was the big trending sound, right? And I mean, if you can find some parts of your audiobook that really catch your reader's attention and it, it can generate sales. I think genre has a lot to do with it. Most of the books I narrate are somewhere in the romance genre, some sub part of it, whether it's contemporary or fantasy romance I think that's a big factor. It's definitely easier to market your audiobook if there's a love story in the heart at least on social media. But if you look on Audible, there's audiobooks in other genres that are really successful too. So, I don't know. I just know that when I, when I do produce an audio book for authors and then I don't see it getting marketed. It's like, what are you doing? Use it. You know, you have this very expensive marketing tool full of audio clips that you could use to help push your work. Use it. I, I want it to be successful and I do what I can to help. I don't have a. Huge account, but I do have a hype team of about 30 audiobook readers who will sign up for advanced listener campaigns. We'll share release day posts, we'll share book reviews that are positive only. We do what we can to get the word out there and come alongside the authors I work with and support them in that way. Um. So I don't know if that

Elizabeth:

Uh, I the question. It does and I think that's such a great reminder. Jacci that you Sure an additional call with and now you have an an additional, you know, format sell. your work in. You can use that for thing. It's the same thing that we, when we mm-hmm. Designer that she talked absolutely. Ahead of your, your book being released and make the cover design reveal like a marketing. thing. You know, like it's, it's all, you know, visual or Audio, whatever these different, you know modalities mm-hmm. like Use them to the maximum Because you're already for it anyways, and Might help justify some of that cost if you're then able to spin it for marketing purposes.

Jacci:

Yeah, I'll, I mean, I'll also, if authors reach out and ask, like, I'll do TikTok lives, excuse me. Like I said, I'm in between books right now, so I'm on a bit of a vocal rest break. Um, I'll do TikTok lives with them. If they send me promo snippets that maybe are for future books in the series, or I'll do promo snippets, um, before the audio book is released. I, I do. Everything I can to be a supportive resource for the authors because I know these books are expensive. Um, I know it's expensive to produce and I want authors when they work with me to feel taken care of and to feel like they got, you know, the most bang for their buck. Um, absolutely. Yeah,

Elizabeth:

Um, so my last question before we close for sure. What is that lead up time? How far in advance of a publication date does an author need to be an out and starting process of auditioning, narrators and choosing, what would they want for their, their audiobook?

Jacci:

I think a minimum of six months at least for, you know, I would say my peers are very much the narrators who are. Part of the bookish community on Instagram and TikTok. And I feel like that's probably the minimum, um, in advance that you need to initiate the conversation. But I would just say as soon as possible. Um, and I really do think that finding narrators on social media who are. You know, if having that collaboration and that additional marketing that you get just from working from someone who's showing up regularly on their platform, if that's important to you, I would reach out as soon as you know that they're the right voice for your character. Um, a lot of the authors I talk to, um. You know, maybe they don't even want an audition for me. They've been following me for a while, and I feel like they're their character to them. Um, and I, I've heard that from many narrators where it's, there's no audition. They just, they're known as an established narrator and they feel like a character for the author. Um, and it's a very emotional decision. And so I would say if you're an author and you have a voice in your head and you find a narrator who is all green flags, um, that you would love to work with, reach out as soon as possible. Ask them for a quote, ask them about their availability. Um, you asked earlier, Elizabeth about what questions should authors expect to get from narrators when they reach out. The questions would probably be mainly word count. Um, if you are wanting to hire two narrators, an estimate of the breakdown, how many of those words are gonna be for the female narrator? How many for the male? I'll ask about how many POVs are there because that's gonna include a little bit of extra prep time. What style of narration do you want? What genres your book? Are there any accents that appear in your book? Do you have an ideal publishing schedule? Is there a target date? Are you, you know, you're reaching out six months in advance because your book is releasing in eight months. Um, and you wanna try to have, you know, simultaneous release. Um ha. Okay. I read too much romance. Um, oh God. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. That's great.

Elizabeth:

No, it's I love a candid moment. Um, but you wanna have matching, uh, publication schedules. That's the clean way of saying, it, Jackie,

Jacci:

gosh, I almost made it through the whole thing. Um,

Elizabeth:

too funny. Uh, well, where. can people find you? I know you said you're on Instagram, where give us your, your website and we'll also put all that in the show notes as well. But I want authors who are interested to be able to connect with you.

Jacci:

Sure. Um, Instagram and TikTok. I'm under Jackie Pryor, narrator, J-A-C-C-I-P-R-I-O-R narrator, and my website is www.jaccipryor.com and I've got samples on there. I have a form for authors to fill out, like an inquiry form if they want an estimate or if they have questions. I'm also on Threads and I actually just discovered that there is a DM on Threads. Is that new? It's new. Okay.

Elizabeth:

It's

Jacci:

I got an author reached out to me there and I was like, when did this happen? Cool. So, yeah, so I just, uh, I will eventually funnel you over to email. That sounds terrible funnel. Um, but for anything that needs to be, um, remembered later that's pertinent to the production, it'll happen in email because dms are too hard to scroll through. So,

Elizabeth:

Absolutely.

Jacci:

so yeah, those are the places. Thank you.

Elizabeth:

for being here today, Jacci And I'd like to present the listener with Jacci Pryor narrating a scene from my memoir. This my book is called Lonely Girl, and this scene is called Coffee on the Window.

Jacci:

There's coffee on my window, mama. Ember's voice chimed from the backseat. That's not. I paused and turned around to see what Ember was talking about as the realization hit me in my distraction of getting her buckled while updating my sister on the recent relationship whiplash. I had abandoned my coffee cup on the roof of the car. I had intentionally sought out that hot vanilla latte viewing it as a reward or token of self care after a mostly sleepless night of anxiety and worry about Heather's latest career confession and the impact it could have on our family. Even though the cascade of worries and mental negotiations had me carefully analyzing our family's finances. I had used the last dollars in our Starbucks account to buy the latte. I needed to prioritize myself in a time when Heather wasn't in that wave of realization of the lost latte. I couldn't hold my emotions steady any longer. I relayed to my sister what had just happened. She encouraged me to turn around and buy a new one, even offering to Venmo the funds. But I couldn't face the embarrassment of walking back in now with tears stained cheeks and red eyes. The disappointment was current, but the tears were laced with thoughts and concerns that had been circling all night, like Hungry Vultures waiting for the last signs of life to fade so they could feast. The latte had been a temporary lifeline and it was ripped away. They were tears of mental and emotional exhaustion as I wrestled simultaneously with how to move forward and also why Heather and I seem to keep ending up in the same spot. Why does this keep happening? Sissy, I pleaded, it's not fair. She responded in solidarity. Becca knew all about the revolving door of ideas Heather had presented to me over the past year and my previous attempts to support them. She had to watch from the sidelines as I struggled to keep my footing on the ever crumbling foundation of our marriage and shared vision of the future.

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Elizabeth Wilson

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Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D.

Host