Black Rapids Press Introduces a New Voice in Dark Fiction; Plans April Launch of New Novella in eBook and Audiobook Editions.
Robbinsville, NJ (April, 2013) – Dan Maurer (www.danmaurer.com), award-winning producer and director of stage plays and musicals, recently completed work on the horror novella Snow Day. Black Rapids Press will publish the title as both an ebook and audiobook on April 30th through Amazon.com, Audible.com and iTunes, other online retailers will be added in the fall. In addition to authoring the story, Maurer also directed the audiobook edition, which features the voice talents of award-winning actor Allwyn Baskin. “With reading going digital, and tablets making it easy to combine different forms of media to deliver a richer experience, it made sense to launch Snow Day in multiple formats,” Maurer said.
Snow Day is a novella that blends equal parts nostalgia and nightmare as it takes readers back to 1975. It recounts the tale of ten-year-old Billy Stone, who played carefree in the snow until an adventure gone awry left him far from home, staring death in the face, and running from a killer bent on keeping a horrible secret.
“Setting things in 1975 gives the story a whole different frame of reference when it comes to children; how they were treated, and how they were supervised,” Maurer said. “It was a time before Amber Alerts and printing a missing kid’s face on a milk carton. Back in those days, you sent your kid out to play in the morning and didn’t see him again until the sun went down and he came home for dinner. You wouldn’t think of doing that today in this age of play dates and the highly scheduled lives that we create for our children. Looking at that period of time was both nostalgic and frightening for me. I hope readers will feel the same.”
The story, running about 30,000 words, and about 3 hours in recorded form, is fiction written in the style of a memoir so it lends itself well to audio interpretation.
Maurer said: “I’m very fortunate that Lynn Baskin came on board for this project. He’s an accomplished actor with an engaging style and a voice that fits the material well. His reading really gave Snow Day a whole new dimension – very accessible, yet very creepy. Once I heard the finished recording of his reading, it gave me chills.”
The audiobook edition of Snow Day marks the third time Maurer and Baskin have collaborated. Most recently, Maurer directed Baskin in a 2011 production of Elton John & Tim Rice’s AIDA. Before that, they worked together in the same capacity on a production of Driving Miss Daisy, for which Baskin won the NJACT Perry Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play.
Dan Maurer is a 1988 graduate of East Carolina University and a resident of Robbinsville, NJ. He spent seven years in trade book publishing including stints in the editorial departments of both Doubleday and Houghton Mifflin. In recent years, he has divided his between being a full-time digital marketing strategist and a part-time theater producer and director. Snow Day is his first published work of fiction.
Allwyn (Lynn) Baskin, an award-winning actor based in New Jersey, has appeared in a variety of musicals, comedies and dramas. He has performed voiceovers for commercials and public service announcements. In addition to his great love for the spoken word, he is also an interpreter of American Sign Language and received his theatrical interpreting training from the Julliard School.
Snow Day is written by Dan Maurer, narrated by Allwyn Baskin, and published in ebook and audiobook by Black Rapids Press. The ebook edition will be available for sale from Amazon.com April 30, with copies available from Barnes & Noble.com, Smashwords, and the Apple iBookstore this Fall. The audiobook edition will be available for sale April 30 from Audible.com, Amazon.com and iTunes.
NOVELLA DETAILS:
TITLE: Snow Day
AUTHOR: Dan Maurer
eBOOK LENGTH: 30,000 words / 100 pages (estimated) eBOOK ISBN: 978-0-9889946-0-7
PRICE: $2.99
AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR: Allwyn Baskin
AUDIO RUN TIME: Approx. 3 hours
AUDIOBOOK ISBN: 978-0-9889946-1-4
PRICE: TBD
LINKS:
Amazon Catalog Link: https://amzn.to/10f4imW
Sample Chapter: https://bit.ly/10kyoW1
Audiobook Sample: https://snd.sc/109Rag8
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/danmaurer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danmaurerauthor