‘Three hundred years ago, the Great Goddess sent a storm to destroy
mankind. She nearly succeeded. One Island survived.

These days, the Goddess stops the spread of evil by sacrificing the Island’s
rotten teenage souls. Or so the story goes…

When Jamie Tuff survives her Taking, she thinks her worst nightmares are behind
her. But then her soul starts wandering into other people’s bodies, and she
discovers that the Island harbours a deadly secret.

Now, she must save her little world from a fate worse than— well, worse than
what the Goddess has already done to it.

Join Jamie Tuff and friends on their adventures through land, sea, and sky, in
a world where stars walk and Halfhawks fly.’

Upper middle grade fantasy ‘The Summer Sacrifice’ will be available to
buy from major online retailers as of June 21st 2014. Available in ebook and
paperback form. (Audiobook to follow.)

Click here to read Chapter one of ‘The Summer Sacrifice’.

Click here to listen to the first chapter of ‘The Summer Sacrifice’
audiobook.

Click here to watch Holly visiting Dancing Ledge: the birthplace of ‘The
Summer Sacrifice’.

“The present world is often terrifying to a sensible
adult. Hinton reflects it’s effect on youngsters in a powerfully imagined world
that hums with poetry. In its pages, in the words of Yeats, a terrible beauty
is born. Herein lies empathy, barreling adventure and an iconic heroine, Jamie
Tuff.”

Charles Bane Jr., award winning author of The
Chapbook, and Love Poems; creator of The Meaning Of Poetry series for The
Gutenberg Project, and nominee as Poet Laureate of Florida.

“I just happen to
drop into other people’s bodies now and then, but don’t worry, I can’t control
it!”

 “Symbol my arse. That is a dead and stinking bird, attached to a dead and stinking snake!”

 “If I go to Askerwell I’ll be dragged down to hell!
Can I take anyone with me?”

“Did you see me smash it? Blake didn’t know what was coming when I wrestled him to the ground!”

“Transparent means being honest, rule-abiding, nice and good. I’m all those things, aren’t I?”

  

The actor in me wants to read everything out loud. Reading The Summer Sacrifice aloud resulted
in multiple revisions being made to the book. Voicing the text let me get close
to my characters, see the world from outside of my own head, and it helped me
gauge flow, pace and tone. Recording an audiobook seemed a natural conclusion
to the publishing process. I looked forward to bringing The Summer Sacrifice to
life in this way, and was excited about the potential the book would have to
reach a broader audience. 

When I was researching how to make and produce an audiobook, I found
a podcast on The Creative Penn website, a great site for
writers created by author Joanna Penn. During this podcast, acclaimed audiobook
producer and author J. Daniel Sawyer talks prospective producers through the process of
recording an audiobook, from preproduction to distribution. 

The Island. Designed by Joel Sams.

Sawyer’s advice is fantastic. Though he stresses it’s a time-intensive
and potentially expensive enterprise, he gives clear examples of how to go
about creating your audiobook so that neither its quality nor your sanity is
compromised.

On his list of things you need, I already had my voice, a good
microphone, a basic knowledge of Audacity (an open source sound editing program), a
wonderfully geeky boyfriend with a not-so-basic knowledge of Audacity, and a
quiet room. I was so excited to commit the story to tape, but on the first day
of recording, my preamp broke.

Luckily, my boyfriend gave me a Zoom sound recorder for my birthday. 

The actual recording was a bit of a learning curve, and it took twice
the time I had anticipated. I was much more adept at the process towards the
end of recording the book. With the knowledge I had gained, I then rerecorded
The Summer Sacrifice from the beginning. 

The audiobook  has some sound effects and original music. A few
of the sounds are sampled from Sound Jay.  Most of the sounds are recorded by me. For
example my cat Max has a starring role. He can deliver up indignance, joy and
“please feed me!” on a sixpence. 

As soon as I know when the entire audiobook will be available to buy,
I shall shout loudly about it here. Until then, I hope you enjoy Chapter one!

Holly grew up in a small, sleepy village in Suffolk. The
acting bug hit her at age nine, when she was asked to play Baboushka in the
school nativity. That same year she played the lead role of a naughty
black poodle in a pet parlour themed ballet, and she thought she had made it.
Years passed, but the acting bug didn’t. She went to
Goldsmiths, University of London to study Drama, after which she completed
her actor training at Arts Ed.

Writing a book was never part of the plan. But life’s
full of swerves and surprises and ideas dropping into people’s heads. Holly had
an idea drop into hers, and that idea became The Summer Sacrifice, and The Summer
Sacrifice became the first book of the Master Game Series.

For more information about Holly Hinton and ‘The Summer Sacrifice’ please visite her website, Goodreads, Tumblr or Pinterest. Or look for Holly on Facebook and Twitter.