I love doing audiobook tours, as I’m sure I’ve sand this before honestly. Thank you again so much to the team at Audiobookworm Promotions for hosting this and many other tours. Click on the banner to see the full tour schedule and to see the other tours coming up and taking place right now.

Strippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses…

All in a day’s work for Bubbles Marlowe, HoloCity’s only cyborg detective.

What do an anti-tech cult, a deadly new street drug, and the corrupt Chief of Police have in common?

It’s a question Bubbles can’t afford to ask. Last time she got curious it cost her job, a limb, and almost her life.

She vows to stay out of police business. But with a newly minted cybernetic enhancement, a semi-legal P.I. license, and a knack for asking the wrong kind of questions… Vows are made to be broken, right?

When a seemingly straightforward contract takes a dark turn, heads literally roll. Unless she wants to take the fall for the murders Bubbles needs to cut town on the double. Too bad she’s flat broke.

And now, she’s being hunted.

In a world where dreams can be made real for the right kind of dough, nothing is as it seems. One thing is clear, though. The dream is becoming a nightmare.

As the body count stacks up, Bubbles realizes she’s made a terrible mistake.

Can she figure out who is behind the murders before she loses her head?

Warning: Don’t read this book if you hate fun, glitter, sassy robotic pigs, or hard-boiled badassery. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are rolling in their graves, but this is all their fault.

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Disclaimer: I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by S. C. Jensen. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

I don’t know why I’ve never heard of this before, but I’m glad that I found out that there was a tour going on for it! I’ve always had a soft spot for detective stories, especially where it’s a rough and tough woman having to deal with the misogynistic tendencies of the industry. It’s like people forget that women make for great detectives and can do hard core work too, you know?

I also like the space aspect, as I noticed I haven’t been reading much SciFi lately, and that is one of my low-key favorite genres to get into. Gives a whole new world to explore that can be expanded so much by the author’s imagination. This one was pretty fun, and I think putting this in a tech-savvy type of world made the story more interesting. I’ve seen people describe this as something that pulp fans would enjoy, and I would have to say it makes sense after reading that.

I think having Bubbles as a PI rather than still in the police force makes her journey through this mystery a little more intriguing, since she will have to color outside the law every once in a while. Although, with what she ends up finding out about during this case, maybe its a good thing she isn’t confined to a completely legal situation. Bubbles’ snark may appeal to a lot of readers, especially those that don’t like cookie cutter women detectives, so that is something to look forward to. Jensen mentioned that this was her personal homage to old noir detective novels, and I could definitely see that in her writing. Good job with this first novel, and I’m curious to see how the rest of the series goes for Bubbles.

[1]- Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?

Not really. I knew if the book did well enough it was a possibility for the future, and I knew I had fans who really wanted an audiobook version… but it wasn’t something I actively thought about while writing. It will be as I move forward with the series, though! There are definitely things I can do to make Jennifer Blom’s narration job easier.

[2]- How did you select your narrator?

Jennifer Blom was recommended to me by my producer at Audiobook Empire when I explained what I needed—husky voice, noir style, and a great sense of humour! As soon as I listened to the sample I knew she’d do a great job. It was a very easy process and I’m thrilled with the result!

[3]- How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters?

I wrote up a document with character personalities and details about the dynamics between particular characters, sometimes with references to well-known films to illustrate. I do feel that the audiobook is its own medium, though, and I really wanted Jennifer to get into the roles and make them her own.

[4]- Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?

The biggest real life inspiration is from my own battle with alcohol abuse and recovery, which is something the main character, Bubbles Marlowe is also struggling with. I have a great love of classic noir detective novels, and they are full of cigar-chomping, whiskey-swilling hard boys, and I wanted Bubbles to turn these tropes on their heads. She’s tough, but she’s driven by a need to prove her worth after recovering from addiction, and this makes her very vulnerable.

[5]- How do you manage to avoid burn-out?

What do you do to maintain your enthusiasm for writing? I have three kids aged 6-8, my husband is a long haul truck driver so I’m often solo-parenting, and we had to homeschool for the last year and a half. Maintaining a work/life balance has been challenging! I often wake up at 4am to get a few hours of writing in before the rest of the house wakes up. Fortunately, my enthusiasm for writing is always there. It’s my enthusiasm for laundry and housekeeping that suffers the most.

[6]- Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?

I don’t have the opportunity to listen to a lot of audiobooks these days, as my kids are always with me and my tastes run a little on the dark side… I love the horror podcast PseudoPod, though, which I can listen to in bite sized chunks during those blissful moments of alone time!

[7]- What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?

I can see that listening is a different skill from reading, but I don’t understand how one is inferior to another. Any way to enjoy a story is valid. I love plays, movies and graphic novels, too. They’re all different and they’re all great.

[8]- How did you celebrate after finishing this novel?

I sent it off to my editor and got cracking on the next book! No rest for the wicked.

[9]- What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?

I don’t have writing slumps unless there is a problem with the story I need to solve in order to move on, or if I’m just generally exhausted. Plotting helps one and rest helps the other! Reading slumps are trickier. Usually I will grab something fun and easy and read guilty pleasures until I get over it. Or watch movies instead.

[10]- What’s next for you?

I’ve got a lot of things on the go! Next up for audiobooks will be Book 2 in the Bubbles in Space series, Chew ’Em Up, so if you enjoy Tropical Punch be sure to follow me wherever you do that kind of thing to get the latest updates. Book 3, Pop ’Em One, launches August 2, 2021! I will be diving into drafting Book 4, Spit ’Em Out (October 2021) and Book 5, Cherry Bomb (December 2021). After that I will be adding another 2-3 novellas to my HoloCity Case Files series, which follows Bubbles Marlowe’s early work as a private eye. In 2022, my focus will be on the re-release of my Timekeepers’ War series, which is set in the same world as Bubbles in Space, but in a low-tech, war-torn area for more of a dystopian/post-apocalyptic SF vibe. And yes, there will be audiobooks for these, too, eventually!

And that’s it! It was great to post this, and I hope that you enjoyed learning more about this new series.