All posts by trekelny

About trekelny

It's really Will Hahn, the chronicler of the Lands of Hope tales. www.williamlhahn.com

Master of Music

Long-Awaited Release

The most involved and ambitious audiobook project of 2023 for me is finally hitting the digital shelves. I can’t wait for you to sample the Bardic Isles Book 1, Master of Music.

Marla Himeda has composed (and I mean that quite literally) such an original story–fantasy without swords or dragons or races–yet there is strong conflict within the major characters. There are elements of mystery, suspense, and humor (as with any good fantasy) in a tale for anyone from 6 to 96. The tone is much like Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander, but the author deals with adults, their thoughts and worries just as deeply and capably as the protagonist who’s barely a teen. A mentor and his student, learning about maturity as much as music.

All this goes to a fine fantasy book, and that’s… fine. But the music.

You Heard Me. Music!

Here is a book actually-factually stuffed with music. Musicians are the main characters. The magic in the world comes from music. There are flowing, wonderful descriptions of flutes, pipes, harps, trios and ensembles including voices. And, see, there’s music too. You can hear it.

Because Marla Himeda, as we were working on the project, decided she would compose it all.

She worked instruments and voices into the descriptions she had previously written, in a seamless match between what I read aloud and what you can hear alongside it. It’s truly a unique listening experience. We went over portions of this word by word and beat by beat, syncing to the eighth-note and to every decibel of volume.

I have had the privilege to work on scores of books in my narration career, for dozens of authors besides myself. This has to rank as one of the most memorable, and I think enjoyable pieces yet. Very few projects I’ve worked on come up to this level. Hard to say for sure, but maybe none of them.

If you’re looking for hours of entertainment, strictly at 1.0x speed, I would recommend Master of Music. The author has gone “wide” and it’s available at all the major outlets, below are just a few. I am honored to have been asked (therein hangs another tale!) and I look forward eagerly to the sequel, as much as a reader as narrator.

Try the Sample, you won’t regret it.

At Amazon

At Barnes & Noble

At Kobo

At Chirp

At Google

At Libro FM

At Spotify

My First BookTok!

You’ve got to keep trying.

I was almost today year’s old when I first heard that a corner of the TikTok video platform was blowing up. Turns out it’s been the better part of a year, but hey, sue me. BookTok, far as I can tell, is a mega-hashtag that authors use to talk about books and writing, and influencers go there for reviews and commentary about it.

So, videos about books. My first thought- watching people read? Or maybe that old life-blogging trend where a writer would show you her entire day, including two hours of staring vacantly at a blank screen.

It turns out to be more than that, of course. And I’m hardly saying I know everything, or even that I know what I’m doing.

But I did one. You can see it here. I’m listed as Trekelny and WilltheWay.

There’s a Giveaway Involved

My very first video is on a theme called Book Aesthetic, which is to say, the feel of the whole fershlugginer thing. And I’m offering free audiobook codes to my seminal epic fantasy chronicle Harbingers of Hope, to folks who comment over there. First ten.

I hope you’ll follow me on TikTok. It’s still the land-rush phase over there, but I’m ignoring the advice to post once a day. Hah! I’d be very happy with one video per week for the summer; once school starts, all bets are off.  Might be a good way to get to know me, my world, the writing process.

On the one hand, these are all things I’ve been telling you about, right here with typed out words.

But you’ve got keep trying.

https://www.tiktok.com/@trekelny