We’re so pleased to welcome author Joe Cosentino today on the audiobook tour for his book Drama Muscle, a Nicky and Noah Mystery. Also be sure to check out the details below for a chance to win an audio copy of Drama Queen.
Welcome, Joe!
The Making of an Audiobook
Most people who read my Nicky and Noah mysteries tell me they should be made into a television series. Actually, first they laugh hysterically. Next, they tell me they couldn’t figure out the identity of the murderer. Then they mention about the television series. Well, I totally agree! While I wait for television producers to appear at my open and welcoming front door in droves, I decided to do audiobooks, the next best thing.
As a college professor/department head, I have always been aware that colleges are rife with mystery, romance, and humor. If you haven’t read or heard a Nicky and Noah mystery (and you should!), I’ll tell you that the Nicky and Noah mysteries, published by Lethe Press, are set in an Edwardian style university founded originally by a gay couple (Tree and Meadow) whose name the university bears: Treemeadow College. It is a gay cozy mystery comedy series, meaning the setting is warm and cozy, the clues and murders (and laughs) come fast and furious, there are enough plot twists and turns and a surprise ending to keep the pages turning, and at the center is a touching gay romance between Associate Professor of Directing Nicky Abbondanza and Assistant Professor of Acting Noah Oliver. Along the way, Nicky and Noah fall in love, as I’ve heard the readers fall in love with them. In the first novel, Drama Queen, college theatre professors are dropping like stage curtains and amateur sleuths/college theatre professors Nicky and Noah have to use their theatre skills, including impersonating other people, to figure out whodunit. The paperback and e-book did very well. Michael Gilboe did a terrific job with the audiobook, bringing out the humor, building the suspense, and playing over twenty wacky characters. I was thrilled when the readers of Divine Magazine voted Drama Queen their Favorite LGBT Mystery Novel, Humorous Novel, and Contemporary Novel of the year!
I have always been fascinated with bodybuilders. The concept of eating protein every two hours, lifting weights for three hours a day, shaving every body part, spray tanning, and posing in tiny gold trunks is amazing to me. What dedication! I quickly noticed the link between bodybuilding and theatre. So I realized the second Nicky and Noah mystery would take place in the Bodybuilding Department at Treemeadow College. In book two, Drama Muscle, Nicky and Noah don their gay Holmes and Watson personas again to find out who is murdering musclemen in the Physical Education Department. Since I work out every day (yet see very little results!) and am enamored of the real bodybuilders who are so big they don’t even need to iron their shirts, Drama Muscle holds a special place in my heart. In the novel, Nicky is directing bodybuilding students in Treemeadow College’s annual Bodybuilding competition on campus. Bodybuilding students and faculty drop faster than barbells until Nicky figures out the identity of the murderer, as well as Noah’s secret revolving around Van Granite, one of the bodybuilding professors. Noah’s hysterically funny parents visit from Wisconsin and are drawn into the action, and Nicky and Noah reach a milestone by the end of the novel. Again the paperback and e-book did well, and received a Rainbow Award Honorable Mention.
Scouting around for someone to perform/produce the audiobook, I was thrilled to find actor Chip Hurley who had recently turned to audiobooks. What impressed me about Chip’s work was his crisp diction, warm and sexy voice, spot on comic timing, creative character voices, and crystal clear connection to the Nicky and Noah style of humor. After hearing some of his work on other audiobooks, I contacted Chip and asked him to do the audiobook. I was thrilled when he said yes. Next, I gave Chip a character biography for each character, and we discussed the humor in the series. Then Chip went to work on his state of the art equipment to record and edit the audiobook. When he sent me the files for approval, I was overjoyed. Don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself. Chip does an amazing job bringing out the sweetness, comedy, mystery, and romance in the novel. It’s laugh out loud funny. His character voices are spot on, and his timing is perfect.
It is my joy and pleasure to share this audiobook with you. So take your front row seat. The curtain is going up on young bodybuilders at Treemeadow College. Lights (and weights) up!
And look out for the audiobook of Drama Cruise, the third Nicky and Noah mystery, releasing this summer!
About the Audiobook
Narrated By: Chip Hurley
Run Time: 6 hours and 6 minutes
Genre: Mystery, Humor
Blurb: It could be lights out for college theatre professor Nicky Abbondanza. With dead bodybuilders popping up on campus, Nicky, and his favorite colleague/life partner Noah Oliver, must use their drama skills to figure out who is taking down pumped up musclemen in the Physical Education building before it is curtain down for Nicky and Noah. Complicating matters is a visit from Noah’s parents from Wisconsin, and Nicky’s suspicion that Noah may be hiding more than a cut, smooth body.
You will be applauding and shouting “bravo” for Joe Cosentino’s fast-paced, side-splittingly funny, edge-of-your-seat entertaining second novel in this delightful series. Curtain up and weights up!
Buy the Book: Audible || Amazon || iTunes
About the Author
Bestselling author Joe Cosentino was voted Favorite Mystery, Humorous, and Contemporary Author of 2015 by the readers of Divine Magazine for Drama Queen. He also wrote the other novels in the Nicky and Noah mystery series: Drama Muscle and Drama Cruise (Lethe Press); the Dreamspinner Press novellas In My Heart: An Infatuation & A Shooting Star, A Home for the Holidays, The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland; the Cozzi Cove series Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward, Cozzi Cove: Stepping Out, Cozzi Cove: New Beginnings (NineStar Press); the Jana Lane mysteries Paper Doll, Porcelain Doll, Satin Doll, China Doll, Rag Doll (The Wild Rose Press); and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Eldridge Plays and Musicals). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. Joe was voted 2nd Place for Best MM Author of the Year in Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2015. He has won many Rainbow Award Honorable Mentions, including for Drama Muscle. Upcoming is Drama Luau (the fourth Nicky and Noah mystery).
Connect with the Author: Website || Facebook || Twitter || Goodreads || Amazon
The Giveaway
Post a comment about why you like listening to audiobooks. The one that tickles our funny bone the most will win an audiobook of Drama Queen, the first Nicky and Noah comedy mystery, by Joe Cosentino, performed by Michael Gilboe, published by Lethe Press.
*Comment Deadline: 11:59pm Pacific Time on March 19, 2017
*Must be 18 years or older to enter
*No purchase necessary to win
*Void where prohibited by law
The Novel Approach Reviews 
I like to listen in the car. It helps to pass the time and I get to hear some good books.
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It brings the characters and story to life. It’s interesting to compare how my own interpretation differs from the author and narrator’s own.
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I like to listen at work. It makes the work day go by quicker & I can drown out the chatter of my co-workers.
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