Thanksgiving is this week. As you are sitting and enjoying your day with family and friends, give a moment's thought to those who are not *able* to be with friends and family because they are standing by to care for, and protect you, your family and friends.

@dave if you or Adam know Greg Laurie, or you have some way to contact him, he needs help cleaning up his Podcasts. I was prompted to look for his show based on something I saw and although he does have multiple different shows, I see some of his shows listed three and four times each. That’s three and four times for the same show, not different shows that he puts out.

Not just dreaming of the day when I can quit working my "real" job and do audiobook narration full time, I'm also (slowly) working toward it.

I've had some real issues with Pozotron—enough to cause me to at least consider cancelling my account—but never this: subscription payment made less than a week ago, and now I'm getting an "user does not exist" message, and am unable to log into my account. This might be the final straw.

I have added Becky Wade as the second author on my "be careful when listening to their audiobooks while driving because it isn't safe to drive and cry at the same time" list.

"Congratulations" (or condolences, not sure which) Becky. 🤔

https://beckywade.com/home

First chapter re-recorded and released via my podcast feed. Is it a perfect performance? Sadly, no. Bit it is better than the first version. And every time I record I try to focus on improving specific things. I don't always remember and succeed, but I try.

I absolutely will *not* admit to having gotten addicted to romance books. Nope. Won't do it. But if *you* are, check out the books by Irene Hannon. Just don't drive while listening to them. It's dangerous to cry while driving.

https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=Irene+Hannon

I am happy to say that I *didn't* start releasing the chapters of this book (via my podcast feed) as intended.

I recorded this about 6 months ago, but it has been sitting, waiting for release. I was listening to it, preparing to release the first chapter as a podcast episode and realized…I *hated* my performance. So…I am re-recording this. Not going to claim that the new version is outstanding, but it is going to be *much* better than my original recording.

And that make me happy.

If you liked "Toenail: The Ingrown", you'll love the sequel, "Toenail 2: No Nail". 🤣🤣

Okay, seriously, having an ingrown toenail was no fun. Having the nail removed isn't a lot better. Yet. But the good news (I hope) is that I'm on my way to recovery.

A great thing happened this week: I got a rejection email for an ACX audition.

Most of the time, my rejected audition submissions go ignored. No response. After so long you realize you weren't selected for a project, but it really would be nice to have it acknowledged. I suspect that it's simply a matter of ticking a box on the part of the author/rights holder to have rejection emails automatically sent. It's a simple thing, but it is much appreciated by those whose efforts you are soliciting.

My wife and I went to Talkeetna (a couple hours away) for lunch as our anniversary "get away". On the way back I stopped to buy a bottle of birch syrup from Kahilt­na Birch­works to send to a friend as a gift. I knew the stuff wasn't inexpensive but in no *way* was I expecting these kinds of prices. I settled on the breakfast syrup (which blends in pure cane sugar) as a slightly less expensive alternative. And since I'm not rich, I also had to settle for a small bottle. 😢

As someone who is hypercritical of everything I do, editing and listening to my performances can be an extreme exercise in self-loathing. But the good that can come out of it is finding things I hate about my performances so that I can improve upon them.

Achievement and success are not the same thing. Achievement is like reaching the finish line at the end of a sprint. Success is like an endurance run with no set finish, and you decide where to end the run.

There's an old song that says, "love is lovelier the second time around." Does that also apply to performing a recording? Had an issue last week where the recording of a chapter in a book I was working on was trashed, and the backups didn't help. Had to redo the entire chapter. Was it better the second time around? I certainly hope so.

Trying to significant change to your profession—especially when you reach my age—is like trying to solve a "slide" puzzle. It's a challenge. It's frustrating. There aren't enough hours in the day/week to slide the pieces around as quickly as you'd like.

Will I ever become a full-time audiobook narrator? I don't know. Sometimes, you never solve the puzzle. But if you don't try, you never solve the puzzle; the only way to solve it is to try and keep trying. And that is what I intended to do.

Despite the delays in recording my current book (allergies, colds, sinus infections, et cetera) I already know what my next book will be. And even though I plan to continue releasing chapters of my public domain projects as podcast episodes, I am planning to re-engineer the text to publish as an eBook, which will then allow me to publish the audiobook version through ACX/Audible and other platforms.

Listening to "The Second World Wars" by Victor Davis Hanson, narrated by Bob Souer. Not only a very intricate book but enjoyably read by Souer. I'm trying to pick up ideas from Souer for my own work.

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Second-World-Wars-Audiobook/B07LB5C5T5

Getting ready to start recording another public domain project. And it's another book about baseball.

As I near the end of my basic training for audiobook narration, I have so much more to do: training for dialects, character voices, and more. In the meantime, I hope to start getting paying gigs as I continue my training and doing my public domain projects.

So many older titles that deserve to be released as audiobooks but likely never will, either because the audience is to small, or simply because they are not new enough to get noticed, by the big companies.