A learning life

Before I get into some learning, I’d like to start with some giving. Thank you, my WP family for sharing your kindness over the last few days, in response to the loss of one of my dancing darlings. Some people show up with so much spirit, it seems they are destined to live forever. She was that way. Though we all know death is going to find each of us, eventually. I am blessed with beautiful dancing memories and will carry her smile and shimmies with me.

I am grateful for each of you and the gifts that you bring to this life and my good fortune for having crossed paths with everyone who shows up for a friendly visit. Even if you never leave a word or choose to remain anonymous behind an image not your own, I am uplifted by genuine caring, not just recently, but since I began this blog. Life and loss can be relentless at times and leave us wanting to retreat or sleep. After a series of emotional life events, that is what I am dealing with, however the show must go on, as they say, so I am doing my best to balance a little extra TLC with the demands of this thing called life. Now on to the learning…

A few months ago, I was notified by KDP (online book platform) that the AI voice feature was having issues reading my published poetry collections for Audible distribution. The issues had to do with line breaks – the robot voice not knowing where to pause and begin again. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was annoyed at first then delighted by the admission and acknowledgement that robots really can’t replace poets. After my little poet happy dance, I was left with a few options. Ditch the idea altogether, find someone else to do it, or set about figuring out how to do it on my own. Of course, I chose the latter which has me visiting the local library once a week, after discovering that they have a studio space available. The space offers a few things including an audio interface and two quality microphones (one is behind the soundproof curtain). The laptop and headphones are mine (in photo). What the space does not have is a sound/audio book expert to guide me through the process, so with the help of YouTube and trial and error I am figuring it out, one click at a time.

I felt overwhelmed at the start of this technical learning journey a few weeks ago. By the end of my first session, I decided to let go of that feeling and give myself the patience and grace needed to move forward, not in a stressful pushing motion, but with a discovery mindset, embracing learning and welcoming progress over instant perfection.

The audio file I’ve shared is really for my learning but if you feel like listening, that is great too. It feels a long way between where I am and uploading a quality audio book (to ACX/Audible), but I will get there. This reading includes a brief intro of this project’s purpose and the Preface from my novella, Honeysuckle Heat, shared here for the hearing impaired:

One more note about book learning… I recently fixed some margin issues with my novella, Honeysuckle Heat. If you have a copy with margins that are too tight in a few places, I would be happy to send you a revised copy, if possible. My gratitude to those who’ve read and reviewed my book and apologies for any impediment to reading that a lack of white space may have caused. The learning continues. Thanks for stopping by. Warm regards. Michele

my photos: Oregon rose, library studio space, the Preface pages from Honeysuckle Heat, and a framed quote by Eleanor Roosevelt (one of the few items I kept from my classroom)

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