Marti has a new bug and it’s catching. She’s discovered a new use for audio books: bedtime stories. Now that might sound like Chandler’s involved, but he’s not. No, these are bedtime stories for adults. We actually go to sleep most nights now being read to.

It all started some time ago with The Chronicles of Narnia and an audio CD series we acquired a few Christmases back featuring all seven stories stunningly read by various English actors. One thing led to another and now Marti can hardly go to sleep without a story being read. (It takes quite a while to work your way through a whole book because you only hear a few pages before you fall asleep.) We’ve gone through the Chronicles until we know every nook and cranny of every story. Then there was Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and other stories by Roald Dahl. (We were purveyors of The Fantastic Mr. Fox before George Clooney brought the wily Mr. Fox to the big screen.) Most recently it’s been the book version of the 2010 “Robin Hood” movie starring Russell Crowe that has given us bedtime fodder.

And now we’re starting a new treat, an audio version of my fourth novel, Ashes on the Wind, read by David Case, a seasoned audiobook reader with over 800 titles under his belt. In the process of preparing this version to offer as a download on our website, I ran across the following paragraph:

When he wasn’t worrying, Jack found himself remembering his own childhood and wishing for a favorite kite reel his brother had made in wood shop that had a crank and a platform for the spool so you could set the whole contraption on the ground and reel in your kite like a big fish. The thought of that reel made him revel for a minute in his love for kites – the force of all that weight of string, the pull of the wind, the kite wanting to break free, not knowing that to have its own way would be its demise. It was the tension itself that kept it flying, the trying to pull free against the hands holding it that made it soar. Pulling against someone – even God – wasn’t so bad as long as you stayed connected.

Look for this story soon on our website and maybe you too can fall asleep listening to your own bedtime story.