My new experiment: audio. It’s part of my effort to get my writing out to as many people as possible. I’ve done digital and hard copy versions of my first release, Peace, Love, and You Know What. Oh, why not audio?

A friend recommended a microphone to go with my Mac. I’ve read a lot about the process. And I have a relatively easy project for starters: the very-soon-to-be-released Professor Groovy and Other Stories on Kindle.

To backtrack a bit, Professor Groovy is a collection of four stories that have the same characters as Peace, Love, and You Know What. I wrote them before I was inspired to write the novel. Actually magazines picked up versions of two of them. My hope is that people who read or listen to Professor Groovy will want to do the same with Peace Etc.

I decided to do audio for Professor Groovy first for a practical reason. The word count for the four stories totals 10,000. Peace, Love, and You Know What is much heftier at 80,000. I will tackle that one soon along with the first in the Los Primos bilingual series (with my collaborator Teresa Dovalpage).

Then I had to learn how to do it. I am using the GarageBand program so, of course, I had to play around with it. After some small issues (had to put reverb at zero to eliminate an echo), I think I’ve got it down in my practice sessions.

The funny part about this project is listening to my voice. I’ve learned that readers, or in this case, listeners, like to hear authors read their work. I know I did when I was listening to books “on tape” when I commuted Back East. And frankly, I don’t have the bucks yet to hire a narrator.

So what’s my voice like? When I play back the practice sessions, I believe I’m listening to a pleasant one. It isn’t professional or a nice radio voice.

I still use R’s in the odd ways people from New England do. (My former newsroom staff thought my pronunciation of words like “idea” hilarious. Of course, idea needs an R at the end.)

I’ve used my voices in various ways: public speaking, talking on the phone, one-on-one conversations, group settings etc. There are my inquisitive, persuasive, and calming voices.

I would say this is my reading voice, the one I used to tell my six kids, and now my granddaughter, a story. I wanted to make my voice interesting so they stayed with the book, but not corny. This isn’t Dr. Seuss after all.

PEACE ETC.: Thank you to everyone who has bought my novel Peace, Love, and You Know What. Here’s the link on Amazon for those considering it: Peace, Love, and You Know What

ABOUT THE PHOTO ABOVE: That’s a bit of the flower garden inside the fence. Note the sagebrush on the other side and my neighbors’ homes on the hill.