“I have to learn to let the story breathe. I am performing. I am acting as I read.” — I.M. Aiken on recording audiobooks
For I.M. Aiken, writing is a process that isn’t just about writing. It is also about speaking her vision and characters to life. As a author diagnosed early with dyslexia who struggled mightily discerning words/stories/information from those symbols we call letters on the page, “reading became joyful” for Aiken when she “started getting books-on-tape.”
She says, “My first memory of an audio book is a record album set (LP) of EB White reading Charlotte’s Web. I would listen often. I also had a recording of the Velveteen Rabbit, but that was so sad.”
Her collection of physical audio books is massive and includes a course on Shakespeare from the 1980s and copious amounts of fiction. “There are over thirty years of audiobooks in this house,” she reveals.
After writing three Trowbridge Vermont novels in rapid succession—The Little Ambulance War (2024), Stolen Mountain (forthcoming, 2025), and Captain Henry (forthcoming, 2026)—IM Aiken has turned her pen to short stories—or as her publicist refers to them, “micro-masterpieces”—for The Trowbridge Dispatch (2025, 2026), offering readers a deeper, more intimate look at Vermont and the Vermonters who populate the novels.
The main characters in Aiken’s work are ambulance drivers, first responders, rescue workers, military folks, people who have something to stand for, people who do for others, though always in a nonchalant, “this is just my job” sort of way that masks their discomfort, physical and emotional pain, and trauma, even if they manage to ask, “Who is rescuing we rescuers?”
Given the love affair between Aiken and the audiobook, it’s only natural that she would want to offer that level of joy and access to her own readers. She records her own audiobooks for all her works. As effortlessly as the words seem to flow from her tongue, the amount of work that goes into recording one’s own audiobook might be surprising—from initial recording, to painstaking editing, to sending it off to a sound engineer for final polishing. Aiken has also recently revamped her sound studio with state-of-the-art equipment, which she is kind enough to describe for us:
“My studio is a niche in a dormer window draped with wool. To my left is my radio-voice mic (a Shure SM7B), in front of me is my laptop with the manuscript displayed, to my right is the small multi-channel recorder/mixer. I tend to fail with fidelity between my reading and the words I wrote. After recording, I adjust text and I adjust audio. I want to feel something when I read.” Aiken continues:
“Should I admit to embarrassment when I make myself laugh? I cannot read the final paragraphs of The Little Ambulance War without choking up—which I then later hear on the tape.
The first pass editing happens in my office where I have four monitors. Audio waves here, narrative there, annoying email being annoying. On the “tape”, I trim small mouth noises, and add silence. Yes,I add silence. Having now recorded two novels (twenty-six combined hours) and a dozen short stories, I must remember, the effort to record a book is likely treble the effort of simply reading silently.”
Aiken says that when she reads a work aloud in the recording process, speaking each character’s lines, a next level of magic happens, and the story more fully reveals itself in her sometimes deadpan, sometime intense emotion; hear her break into joyous song in the decadent, buttery “First Corn” (2025, Trowbridge Dispatch), or hear her voice break in pain with the ever-so-intimate “The Joker” (2025, Trowbridge Dispatch -13 minute audio/written short story at Amazon, Libro.FM and others).
At once hilarious, gorgeous, honest, elegant, messy, comforting, visceral, painful, immaculate, much of Aiken’s work sticks close to Vermont, its land and roads and mountains and hills, its laws and its history, its traditions, its needs and wants—and gives it all the attention it deserves. (Yes, we can surely taste the maple syrup and breathe the piney air.) This becomes all the more a treat when read by Aiken in her ever-delightful brogue.
According to the American Audiobook Association, audiobooks were born in vinyl, in the spirit of accessibility, starting with the Talking Book Program, in the early 1930s, which saw test recordings (in vinyl) of works by Helen Keller and Edgar Allen Poe. This was followed by a steady climb in popularity and production, aligned with the emergence of new technologies, and we now spend billions a year on audiobooks, which have become a go-to format for people of all ages. We listen while we drive, jog, cook, play, work, workout, relax, and educate ourselves.
All that being said, we pass the mic back to Aiken:
“My last confession… I will listen to my own audiobooks and my own short stories. It is centering and soothing. Sometimes, I surprise myself with phrasing, emotions, or movement. That’s not supposed to happen is it?”
To fully experience Aiken’s works, even print lovers will be wise to read along with the audio book version—her wit, sardonic humor, deep love for humanity, and intense passion for life cannot be fully experienced without it. For those of you who live for your audiobooks, please put these on your list—your ears will thank you.
Click the links below to get to Aiken’s work, and keep your eyes and ears peeled for Stolen Mountain, which is available for preorder now.
