This author wanted a Newfoundland accent for his audio book. He found it in North Carolina

When filling out the casting call formon Audible, there was no option for author Mike Martin to specify he wanted a Newfoundland accent to be the voice of his newest book.

The closest thing on the drop-down menu was "Eastern Canadian."

When Frank Kearney saw the ad, his first thought was, "Well, how far east do they want to go?'"

Martin is a crimefiction writer from Newfoundland, currently living in Ottawa. He decided to turn his latest book,Darkest Before Dawn: A Sgt. Windflower Mystery,into an audiobook.

Kearney is a voice actor living in North Carolina, but originally from Gander.

When he responded to the ad with a sample of his best Newfoundland accent, Martin was all over it.

"The first couple of words it was just like an instant connection."

The thing about living in Newfoundland, is you never really ever lose it.- Frank Kearney

Martin wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for after all, the dialects of this province are wide and varied.

"I'm not even sure what a Newfoundland accent is," he laughed."Is it a St. John's accent or a Baie Verte accent? Is it a Gander accent?"

Kearney spent about a decade in Newfoundland, before his parents moved south for his father's work. Despite growing up in America, he never lost the accent.

"The thing about living in Newfoundland, is you never really ever lose it," he said."The accent is very much ingrained, I think, in people from the province."

Kearney can put it on thick when he wants to, but for the audio book he took a softer approach. Martin wanted something that danced off the tongue but was easy on the ears and easy for listeners to understand.

According to reviews Martin has received so far, Kearney did the job well.

"Somebody said to me that reading the book on its own by yourself is like reading in black and white. And when you hear Frank read it, it's like reading it in colour."

For Kearney, it was the perfect project a way to use his career to reconnect with his roots.

"It just flowed, and it was a lot of fun to do."

The book is availableon Amazon.

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