Interview with narrators Wen Ross & Kai Kennicott

1 – How did you come to narrate romantic novels?

 My girlfriend at the time, and my now wife (Kai Kennicott) starting dating back in 2013, and we both worked in the service industry. Kai heard about a website where you could audition and become an audiobook narrator for a living. (ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange). We started messing around with narration in our spare time, and the rest is history. We’ve been professional narrators for over 7 years now, and have produced over 300 audiobooks over that span.

2 – Have you narrated books from different genres?

Absolutely. Kai and I have each dabbled a bit in Science Fiction and Suspense. We’ve narrated numerous titles for Dark Romance, BDSM, and just about every other type of romance you can think of. Contemporary Romance is our bread and Butter though.

3 – What was the most fun\easy book you narrated?

 Our favorite fun/easy title that we’ve ever narrated was called ‘His Temporary Assistant’ by Taryn Quinn. A grumpy boss romantic comedy that was a lot of fun to bring to life. The Main characters Preston (hero) and Ryan (heroine) were a blast to narrate, and their banter was hilarious and sexy.

4 – What was the most challenging book/character you narrated, and why?

I narrated a character one time named Obrecht Ivanov. He had a menacing Russian Accent and a very commanding tone, so for those reasons he was probably the most challenging character that I’ve ever narrated. The book was called Savage Tracker by Maggie Cole

5 – What are the preparations you make before each job? Do you read the whole book in advance? Do you rehearse out loud before the recording itself? or maybe something else?

So either one of us read the entire book before each narration. Kai likes to skim through scenes, and get a feel for the plot, whereas I am more character focused. I like to focus on getting deep into my character motivations and history before starting my narration. We’ll each read small bits aloud while prepping for accents.

6 – Is there a genre/book /character that you won’t agree to narrate?  If so – why?

No. We are both open to pretty much anything, and narrating any one type of character. As long as it’s consensual, we’re fine with it.

7 – How long does it take you to record an entire book?

 It Depends on the length of the book, if there are accents, how many other narrators we’re working with, etc. Typically though, we can narrate 1 book per week, or between 3-5 per month.

8 – Are you working on more than one book at a time?

Not usually. We have narrated multiple books simultaneously when we’re in a time crunch. Given the choice, however, we prefer to narrate one book at a time.

9 – What is the genre you like to read in your free time?

 Kai likes to read historical romance, self help and Science books. Old Carl Sagan stuff. I like to read horror. (Steven King is my favorite), Dean koontz. I also read a lot of self help and Mycology books

10 – Is there a writer you particularly like?

To read or to work with. To read: Steven King, Malcolm Gladwell, Julie Garwood, Joanna Lindsay.

To Work With: Taryn Quinn, Adriana Locke, KL Grayson, Kym Grosso, Natasha Knight, Jane Henry.