Episode 29: Meet Our Narrators

Hark at those honeyed tones! 🎧

Welcome to the Pub Dates newsletter! We’re so glad you’re here.

This newsletter is released as a companion to each podcast episode, and we use it to share the visual elements of our discussion — from mood boards to design sketches, from photos to secret giveaways just for subscribers.

In episode twenty-nine, we interviewed our brilliant audiobook narrators:

Nikki Patel, who plays Selly.

Steve West, who plays Leander.

Homer Todiwala, who plays Jude.

Vidish Athavale, who plays Keegan.

Saskia Maarleveld, who plays all the Nightbirds.

(An honorable mention to Donnabella Mortel, who plays Laskia — we let her off the hook, as she gave birth right after she finished recording!)

All the actors were so generous with their time, and we both learned so much about what’s involved in their jobs from their answers — they told us all about how they prep for a role, and shared their favourite moments as well! One of the reasons we love making this podcast is that it gives us a chance to ask all kinds of questions — this episode, we were definitely learning alongside you.

If you’re interested in what a recording set-up looks like, here’s a picture Vidish took for us — we’re both considering upgrading out of sheer envy.

Now, onward! If you’d like to be a part of future episodes, we’re soliciting spoilerific questions for The Isles of the Gods. Ask us anything and we’ll answer in a dedicated spoiler episode. To avoid spoilers for those who haven’t read yet, don’t leave those questions in a comment — instead, email them to us at pubdates@gmail.com, or leave them at SpeakPipe via voice message.

We don’t have a lot of other news for you — we’re both deep in drafting and edits, and Amie’s on the road for her UK and Irish tour — but one question we’ve been getting frequently is whether we’ll be continuing with Pub Dates now that Nightbirds and The Isles of the Gods are both launched.

The answer is yes, absolutely. It’s been such a joy to form this community, and we’ve loved hearing from you all via email, in the comments, and in signing lines at events. We’re planning on taking it a little slower in the back half of the year (maybe one episode a month) before we ramp back up to full speed in 2024 — but we’re not going anywhere.

Amie has just finished exploring Scotland, living that loch life with her husband and daughter, who’s pictured here.

And finally…

If you’re in England or Ireland, Amie would absolutely love to see you at a tour stop — you can find stops in Dublin, Birmingham, Liverpool and London right here.

And one final reminder: We’re soliciting spoilerific questions for The Isles of the Gods. Ask us anything and we’ll answer in a dedicated spoiler episode. To avoid spoilers for those who haven’t read yet, don’t leave those questions in a comment — instead, email them to us at pubdates@gmail.com, or leave them at SpeakPipe via voice message.

See you next episode!