That’s Rosie at the park today, with impatiens blooming in the background. After getting our flu shots, and treating ourselves to breakfast as a reward, we hit the local Saturday Market and stopped for a walk at the park. Early fall days are often gorgeous here in the Willamette Valley and today was no exception. My heart goes out to people in Florida, who just experienced quite the opposite of gorgeous. (Boy, that’s the understatement of the year, isn’t it?) We have our own worries as far as natural disasters are concerned (every heard of the really big one?) but hurricanes are not one of them.
I do have some neat news: Looking for Little Red, already available in print and as an ebook, is now available as an audiobook … narrated by me! It’s available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes for immediate download. And yes, except for narrating a short story as a way to learn how to do this (“The Red Scarf,” a little holiday tale that was originally published in Cicada magazine) I’ve never done this before. I’ve worked with narrators on many of my other books, of course, but I’ve never done one myself.
Will I do it again?
Very likely yes, though how often, and for which projects, remains to be seen. It was was very time-consuming, which I expected, but I also enjoyed it more than I thought I would. So it will probably be on a case by case basis. There are still many of my books (like the first two Karen Pantelli novels, for example, read by the excellent Jennifer Pickens) that make a lot more sense for someone else to narrate.
Other than that, a lot of good writing days in lately. After the writing retreat I mentioned last month, I came back even more committed to making sure I’m spending the bulk of my most productive hours on what Cal Newport calls “deep work,” and that’s been paying dividends.
