Lisa France voices Mary Romasanta’s immersive audiobooks

SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio author has teamed up with a successful filmmaker to transform her book series into immersive audiobooks. 

Lisa France, who directed the 2003 award-winning movie “Anne B. Real,” has become the voice of Mary Romasanta’s books, including “Avici Sagga” and “The Eternal Secret.” 

France has worked on major Hollywood projects like “Deep Impact” and “The Sixth Sense” over a 20-year film industry career, in addition to several independent movies. Now she dabbles in audio experiences. 

At first, France tried to convince Romasanta to choose someone else to be the story’s narrator. But Romasanta was convinced France was the only option that felt like the perfect fit. 

“You are the voice of my books,” Romasanta told France.

And though she was unsure at first, France agreed to voice them.

France said she actually understood what Romasanta meant; she gets the same gut feeling when she casts actors for her films.  

“I love what I do. And when I go to set and make a movie and I work with my team, I’m like the biggest cheerleader,” France said. “I tell them, like, ‘I can’t even imagine anybody else having played this role. You are the person for this role. There’s no one else.’ So, I understand it. 

“I just don’t necessarily feel like that is true of me.”

But Romasanta said she was thrilled to have such a talented, creative person lend her voice to her words. She also said their partnership was a twist of fate, one created by happenstance.

“It’s just kind of something I fell into,” France said. 

Right before the recent writer’s strike, France was attending a panel with other directors who were joking about their dream jobs. France joked hers was to be the voice of cartoon characters. 

Someone in the room took it more seriously than she did. 

After the conversation, a woman introducing herself as a dubbing director approached France and explained how she dubs foreign shows and movies in English. The woman said France would be perfect for these kinds of roles due to her “radio voice.” 

With encouragement from her wife, France made a reel with different voices, tones, accents and even monster sounds. She eventually was cast in three different Netflix projects—even landing the role of a female protagonist. 

Transitioning from being behind the camera to the center of the frame was surprisingly refreshing for France.

“It’s so weird,” she says. “And it was fun because I got to learn from another director about different ways of directing and guiding an actor’s performance. And it was wonderful that it happened right before doing the books, because it gave me new insight on how to listen to Mary [Romasanta] and read Mary’s notes.”

France went on to post her voice sample on the Audible app. 

Somehow, in some way, Romasanta came across it—and their partnership was born. 

But they faced one major problem: Neither had ever produced an audiobook before. 

Of course, that didn’t stop them. They were determined to figure out how to do this project and how to do it right.

“We were both learning how to do it together and how to be most efficient and then how to, of course, edit it and produce it. It’s a lot of work,” France said.

“It’s challenging for sure,” she went on to say. “There are bigger productions that have multiple people doing these things but in our case, we’re low-budget, we’re indie. So we’re doing it ourselves. Go ladies.”

Many of the higher-budget Audible books add music and sound effects, and boast multiple voice actors. But the duo persevered with Romasanta later hiring a sound producer.  

Despite having an acting background, France was reluctant that she could do the characters justice. But Romasanta reassured her, telling her “just do your own voice.”

“So I have tried my best to distinguish characters in the story. I’ve studied other readers and how they perform and do it,” France said.  

France admitted creating the audiobook for “Avici Sagga” was easier than “The Eternal Secret,” mainly because there were more characters, more accents, and the story was more complex.  

France said she did a lot of “punch and rolls,” which is where you go back and go over the work you already did.

She said it was extremely helpful to talk with Romasanta about the books’ characters and their intentions.

“Working with the author is very helpful because she knows what she intended. And I want to get it right,” France said. “I want to do a good job for her.”

Romasanta also provided France with a grid explaining who the characters are and the kind of people they are at their core—similar to a casting breakdown typically used in movie productions. 

France said working alongside Romasanta has been inspiring, especially since Romasanta seems to release a new book every few months.

“I don’t even have time to go record them as fast as she’s writing them,” France said. “It’s so cute and it’s so sweet, and it’s so humbling to have someone who’s this passionate and excited. I mean, I am too.”

While this isn’t France’s full-time job, she cares about the quality of work she produces.

“When I perform these books, I love doing it. And I get mad at myself when I can’t get it right,” she said.

And being a filmmaker at heart, France told Romasanta she believed the books could one day become a Hollywood franchise. 

“I just remember when I read ‘Avici Sagga,’ I thought, ‘This is very contained. It’s very interesting. It’s very cool.’ And I think it could be done for a pretty small budget,” she said.

France is currently pitching the books to multiple studios, but said these things take time. She speaks from personal experience: Just last year, Hallmark produced a movie from a pitch written by her wife 12 years ago. 

“You just never know. I never give up on my projects because you never know when someone’s going to bite,” France said. “There’s definitely been curiosity, some interest. But we need more things like a script and longer treatment.”

“You just got to keep going. And I explained this to Mary and I explain this to everyone: This is not for the impatient. This is a long game,” she said. “I think it’s just about getting somebody who gets it and sees it.”

France believes these books are relatable and would be successful in any format.  

“It’s grounded in dreams. It’s grounded in true horror. It’s grounded in mysticism. It’s grounded in religion. But sometimes there’s light and sometimes there’s dark,” she says. “And I think Mary’s work always has that light at the end. While it’s scary and psychologically terrifying, I think there’s always light.”

“One of the things that we’ve discussed together is how important it is to us that there’s always light, and there’s always hope at the end. And we don’t need to be driven only by darkness and fear but that we can find courage at the end of it,” she added.

France said she would love to continue to be the voice of Romasanta’s books. She has completed the audiobooks for “Avici Sagga” and “The Eternal Secret,” which are available on Audible.

And, one day, they hope audiences will be able to see the book series on the big screen.