They are recording the audiobook of The Bubble Gum Thief this week.   That is crazy.  Right now, hundreds of miles away, a woman is in a recording studio, reading my book into a microphone. 

I’d never thought about it before, but before they record an audiobook, someone has to make sure they have the proper pronunciation for every word in the book. If they don’t know the pronunciation, they have to research it, using things like YouTube to find people saying the words.  If they can’t find the proper pronunciation, they go to the author for help.  These are the words from my book that I was asked about:

66 Danschweida (name of boat)—German would be approx.          DAHN-shvī-duh I think.

88. César Gerónimo—This should be easy but everything on YouTube seems blocked.  Is it commonly pronounced  SAY-zahr, SEE-zer?     hayr-OH-nee-moh, Jәr-AH-ni-moh?  Or some other variant

164. Lanconide— LAN-kә-nīd?

188 Raul Manuel – rah-OOL  MAN-yoo-ehl  or man-WEHL ?

231 IAFIS—  AFIS is typically pronounced AY-fis, do we just say the letter I in front of that?  Ī-AY-fis?

All of these were easy for me except Lanconide.  It’s a white powder used for dusting for fingerprints on dark surfaces.  I’ve read about it, but never actually heard it said.  Suspense author Kendra Elliot told me I ought to ask fellow-author Tom Adair, who explained that he’d always pronounced it “LANK-a-nide,” which was good enough for me.  It was extremely nice of Kendra and Tom to help me out.  (I’ve been delighted to see that this kind of camaraderie is widespread among the triller author ranks.)