This is a mystical story about a magical circus.  Not the kind of magic that involves pulling rabbits out of hats, but the kind where individuals' inner talents manifest into genuine magical abilities—known as sparks. These sparks choose to use their gifts not for conquest but to inspire and bring joy to those who need it most. But, this story is not all whimsy and light. This historical fantasy takes place in the hopeful but ominous years between World War 1 and World War 2.  We’re talking about the audiobook for The First Bright Thing with narrator Petrea Burchard and author JR Dawson.

You’re going to hear author JR Dawson (Jen) open up about her personal experiences with theater, which served as an outlet for her creativity and weirdness. She speaks passionately about how theater education validates and how it influenced her characters and setting in this debut novel.

You'll also hear from narrator Petrea Burchard about her performance and how she connected to this magical story. She and Jen both gush about her co-narrator's (Tim Campbell) performance too. You'll hear a clip from Tim voicing the dark Circus King.

Thanks to all the fine folks at Tor Publishing Group including producer Steve Wagner for sharing the spellbinding clips and for bringing The First Bright Thing audiobook to life. I hope you’ll want to listen to the rest of the story wherever you get your audiobooks. When you buy your audiobook from libro.fm you can can chose a local book store to support and when you follow this affiliate link you also support this pod.

I also want to sincerely thank this episode’s sponsor Pozotron. Pozotron provides fantastic services for audio artists and producers like me. I use Pozotron for prepping and proofing the audiobooks I narrate. I use exactly what I need each month through their subscription service. You can sign up for a free demo of all they offer at pozotron.com. 

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