Hi everyone. Today I am featuring A.L. Hawke's new release "The Hawthorne University Witch Prequel." Dive into the details and check out this exclusive guest post written for A.L. Hawke herself. Read all about the series and how to start it today. Happy reading :).
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What made you decide to get the book made into an audiobook?
My books are very dialog driven. It’s really all about the characters and having them come to life via audio has been such a blast. All the books in both the prequel and the standard series will have accompanying audios. And what’s truly exciting about Book of Shadow and Walpurgis is that it’s dual narrated again (just as Alondra was). So you get Alexa Elmy’s magic of multiple voices coupled with Preston Geer’s narration and reprisal of Liam making for an awesome prequel trilogy. Duets are harder to produce but I had already done this for Alondra, so I wanted to carry it over to the three prequel audiobooks.
Who did the narration on the audiobook and what made you choose them?
First and foremost, I was looking for narrators who could act because even the narration, when in 1st person, is acting. Both narrators are professional actors. Preston Geer did the main narration and played Liam. Alexa performed Alondra and all the other voices, including the possessed girl Melanie.
What goes into making an audiobook?
Much of the hard work isn’t done by me. Actors are commissioned. I do get a final to gloss over. The thing that’s different about an audiobook versus theater or movies is that there’s no director. The narrators are their own directors, so they have to interpret the books. But sometimes, the interpretation is off and I have to work on revisions. That’s the only time I’m directly involved when finalizing the product.
How many audiobooks do you currently have and are there any more on the horizon?
18 . Sure. I absolutely love the format.
Do you have a favorite scene from the audiobook? What makes it special?
I don’t really want to give anything away. What I would say is that multiple characters coming together at once, like during witch battles and such, were super hard to do because you have to be able to differentiate different voicing by the voice artists and you have to make sure the timing is done right in an action scene. So the busy battle scenes were probably my favorite. Only because Alexa mastered so many voices and my engineer, Zach Grappone, was able to tie it in perfectly with Preston’s performances.
Did you have to adjust/change anything in the book before getting it narrated?
Very little. My narrators are top notch and I just send out a tweak or two.
What was the first audiobook you ever listened to?
Oh… probably Tolkien. Lord of the Rings. Not sure.
Do you prefer to listen to audiobooks or read a book?
I prefer to read because I skim and read far faster. I wish I had more time to enjoy an audio performance, especially ones performed like mine.
Have you written any other books that are not published?
I don’t like unfinished things. I only have two not published. One is a side epic fantasy novel from my Azure series featuring a “Conan-like” character. It’s a good story, but I haven’t had the time to finish it. The other one is memorable to me because it’s the first book I ever wrote. That one was a dystopian sci-fi book about a man with powers connected to a mainframe. It was very similar to The Matrix. I never completed it because I felt like it was too much of a downer. It also didn’t have the fun felt by the bombastic ruthless supreme leader, Elise, in my sci-fi Candy Savant series.
What did you edit out of this book?
You might be surprised to find that it wasn’t much. From Book of Shadow, I deleted a dinner scene with Liam and Alondra meeting Alondra’s dad. It was fun but it really was unnecessary in moving the story.
How did you come up with the name of this book?
In the series, Alondra is the introduction to the character Alondra in college. Book of Shadow represents the name of magic books for witches, which are named your book of shadow, or grimoire. Walpurgis is about witches and a little girl hunting them all to burn them. Walpurgis is a bit harder to understand, I guess. Basically, Walpurgis is the name of Saint Walpurgis, a saint who helped rid people of diseases and “witchcraft”. Well, on Walpurgis night, villagers for hundreds of years have burned effigies of witches. So I felt it’s a perfect name for a girl hunting witches (interestingly, the book takes place on Halloween, not Walpurgis Night. That was because I wanted to bring in our familiarity with Halloween for the final book).
If you could spend time with a character from your book, who would it be and what would you do?
I think I could spend time with any of them. Even the evil antagonists. In order to write about characters, you have to have a little bit of them inside yourself. So there’s a bit of a familiarity with all of them. If I was to pick one, it’d be Cadence from the main series. And Liam. Because both represented me. In the series, it’s always been me as the outsider, watching all the magic come about just like the reader.
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Walpurgis
The Hawthorne University Witch Prequel Series Book 3
by: A.L. Hawke
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Romantasy
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BLURB:
Burn the Witch.
Allie and I were meant to have a future together—one built on love, not fear. But here in Hawthorne, shadows lengthen, and whispers drift through the woods like curses. So when Alondra falls mysteriously ill, I know exactly who’s behind it.
Desperation drags me into the darkest corners of my magic—places where I no longer fear the spells I once vowed never to cast. Even joining a coven of the wicked no longer feels like betrayal. The deeper I descend, the more I uncover about the witch who haunts me… and the shadow that may not belong to her alone.
Walpurgis Night approaches—the night witches burn. But what happens when it’s the warlock who strikes the match… willing to burn everything—my heart, my soul—to save the one I love?
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Book of Shadow
The Hawthorne University Witch Prequel Series Book 2
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BLURB:
Cursed the moment I fell in love with her.
While home in Raleigh for semester break, I didn’t expect my girlfriend, Alondra, to ask me for a favor: present my Book of Shadows to the leader of a satanic cult. She was looking for a new male witch for her coven. Of course, she knew it wouldn’t be me.
But when a curse took hold of our college campus—and the spirits I thought I’d left behind came back—I realized I couldn’t keep the book closed much longer.
Now something dark surrounds me. Is it the work of the wizard with the devilish goatee? Or is it a little girl possessed by something far worse?
I lit a dark shadow, and now I feel only confusion. Whatever this darkness is, it’s coming for Alondra, our family, and every witch in Hawthorne.
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Alondra
The Hawthorne University Witch Prequel Series Book 1
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BLURB:
I fell in love with a goth, but she’s a witch.
Starting school at Hawthorne University was not going well, until I met my classmate Alondra. Allie was different. She was goth. But she was also mysterious, confident and fun. I was into that. My name’s Liam. My friends call me Lee.
Things got weird after I accompanied her to her haunts. Poltergeists and demons attacked little girls. I watched Alondra help exorcise these ghosts, but some of their evil stuck to me.
Well, being attracted to a witch was one thing; dating one was quite another. It seemed the closer I got to Allie, the more her witchcraft endangered my friends. And my soul. You decide. I chronicled everything here in her book.
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A.L. Hawke
A.L. Hawke is the author of the bestselling Hawthorne University Witch series. The author lives in Southern California torching the midnight candle over lovers against a backdrop of machines, nymphs, magic, spice & mayhem.
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