Karen Commins

Has the competition got you down?

15 October 2011

To compare is to despair.

I saw this quote in Bonnie Gillespie’s recent column about competition and was thinking about it this morning after I found myself feeling that I could do so oh so much more to further my voiceover career.

Some voiceover colleagues seem to be on every social media site and practically living their lives online. Some people write multiple blogs. Others are producing podcasts and videos at a dizzying pace.

I have been a competitive person all of my life, first in school with grades, and then in the work place for projects and recognition. When I look at the wide array of activities in which some voice talent engage, it’s easy to think I need to be just as productive and do the same things in order to stay competitive.

However, my corollary to Bonnie’s statement is: To compete is to deplete.

Years ago, when I worked as a computer network administrator, the organization considered one of my coworkers to be the ultimate authority on server configurations. No matter what this man did, how rudely he treated others, or how his system changes might negatively impact the users, the organization always praised and rewarded him.

I didn’t understand at the time that competing with him simply by trying to copy his actions was not the path to success.

For instance, he avidly devoured Microsoft Technet articles, discussion boards, and every computer magazine he could find. He read on the job and every night at home.

I felt compelled to read the same stuff in my evenings. I felt extremely competitive with him and wanted to stay at his level. He criticized the rest of us when we didn’t know about a technical topic.

I hated spending my spare time that way. What’s more, these competitive actions added to my feelings of being overly stressed and under appreciated in my organization. It was a competition that I could never win and one I really didn’t want to enter.

I realized later that he read that material because computer networks were his passion. While I was extremely adept at my job, it was never my passion. I have never regretted leaving information technology positions for my true love of voiceover and communications.

All of the recent attention on Steve Jobs has made me feel a bit like I am not realizing my true potential. It’s easy to think that I haven’t done anything to change the world.

However, that’s not true. I have changed the world just by being in it. No one sees things the way I do or does things exactly as I do.

I have changed the world with the hundreds of recordings I’ve created for clients and in public service. I know that people have watched videos and e-learning projects where I was the one telling them the information they needed to know. I know people have enjoyed listening to me narrate short stories and audiobooks. Sometimes, I’m even privileged to receive their kind words of praise about my work.

I have changed the world every time I helped someone physically, emotionally, and financially.

I have changed the world every time I thought and spoke positive, affirming words to and about myself and others. In fact, I’ve often thought of myself as an advocate for people who could not or would not speak for themselves.

My impact on the world may not be on the grand scale of Steve Jobs. My output in voiceover-related activities may not be as numerous or frequent as some of my peers.

But, you know what? That’s OKAY. I am living a joyous, fulfilled life.

If you ever feel inadequate and think you need to compete with others as a result, remember these wise words from Steve Jobs:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.

Karen’s 5 Tips to Combat Clutter Before it Kills Your Career

27 September 2011

Do you ever watch the TV show Hoarders? It’s about people who have let their houses become completely overrun with STUFF. The hoarding is usually caused by some sort of traumatic loss, like a death of a loved one, a painful divorce, or children leaving the nest.

For 6 weeks during August and September, Drew and I sort of learned how hoarders live while our old kitchen died and a new one was brought to life. I also learned a few things about clutter from the show and from our experience that I want to share with you before clutter kills your voiceover career.

Before our contractors could gut the kitchen (you didn’t really think we were doing it ourselves, did you?), we had to empty the kitchen cabinets. All of that stuff had to be stored somewhere, and most of it landed on the floor in the living room. Some of it went in the hall bathroom, like drinking straws, dog food, and our printer and network components.

During a recent remodeling project, stuff from the kitchen cabinets was stacked
everywhere in Atlanta voice talent Karen Commins’ living room.

Our house was designed with a dining room next to the kitchen, with a shared doorway between the 2 rooms. Since we use the dining room for the music room, we decided we wanted to enclose that shared doorway to give us more counter space in the kitchen.

Of course, this decision meant that the music room would also need to have new sheetrock and paint. We evacuated my harp and some other fragile things from the music room and stored much of them in — you guessed it — my voiceover recording studio.

People on the TV show always say they feel overwhelmed by the clutter. They frequently go shopping to temporarily relieve those feelings of overwhelm and despair. Naturally, the items they buy only add to the clutter when they get home, and thus perpetuate the cycle.

The hoarders often say that they can’t do something they dream about doing because of the clutter. How can you really concentrate on furthering a dream when you have a pile of clutter in front of you, silently demanding that you do something about it before you tackle anything else? Clutter causes people to give up on their dreams before they even start.

In the past 2 months, Drew and I had to alter our routines and work harder just to do the simplest things. We constantly found ourselves looking for something we needed. Even though we had carefully placed our kitchen items neatly on the floor, we still had to look in boxes and step over things to get what we wanted.

The true hoarders always seem to have a variety of health problems. They are literally suffocating in their stuff. At a minimum, clutter can cause stress; at its worst, it can cause illness or even death.

I haven’t seen a true hoarder’s house except on TV. However, I have been in some horrendously messy, dirty offices in my professional life.

In my former job as a computer network administrator, I hated the times that I had to install something new or change out equipment due to the condition of the cubicles and offices. I didn’t want to touch anything! People often piled papers and empty coffee cups in their cubicles and offices. Every surface was snowed under in a messy blizzard of paper, and old, stinky shoes and newspapers often lined the floor. I wondered if they lived that way at home. I also wondered how they ever got any work done.

The harp, an antique lamp, the music stand, and many other fragile things from
the music room found a temporary home in the recording studio.

I still can’t answer the first question, but I have a better guess about the second one. Clutter zaps your mental energy and steals your creativity. It’s really hard to get anything done at all, much less done well, with clutter blocking your path.

While the stuff from the music room was sitting in the studio, I was very disinclined to go in there for anything but necessary voiceover work. Working on my laptop in the living room wasn’t any better because of the mound of stuff there. Blog posts, recordings for LibriVox service projects, a podcast series I’m developing, some follow-up marketing, a video I’d like to produce, even many auditions — all these projects subconsciously went on hold until the kitchen renovation was done.

My extreme clutter was temporary, and thankfully, order, beauty, and calmness have been restored to my house. However, the fight against clutter is an on-going one, so here are 5 tips and tactics I use to combat it:

1) Determine your vision for your life and figure out how each space supports that vision.

I learned this powerful tip from professional organizer, TV star, and best-selling author Peter Walsh. He says that each room should have its own function and limits. Until you know these attributes, you can’t really define what clutter is to you.

For instance, my studio serves a single function. If I’m in there, I’m doing something creative related to my voiceover career. I’m not paying bills, chit-chatting with friends on the phone, surfing Facebook, or designing scrapbook pages. My harp and the other stuff from my music room, while certainly beautiful and functional, did not further my vision for my studio. These pieces are treasures in my music room, but they felt like clutter when they were in my studio.

2) Adopt the motto A place for everything, and everything in its place.

This point is never more important than when you are faced with a life event such as job change, marriage, new child, divorce, or death. In those instances, you can expect LOTS of things to come into your house in a very short period of time. Since the life event brings stress with it, you have to be vigilant that clutter does not take root. If it does, it becomes a constant reminder of the stress from the event.

The key is to make immediate decisions about where each item will be stored, and then PUT IT THERE!

3) Ask yourself the hard questions, both for things you have and things you want to buy.

What is your attachment to this thing? I’ve seen Peter Walsh work wonders with people over this question as it’s important to understand emotions that cause us to have clutter. It’s okay to have things because they remind you of a loved one or some special time. You have to realize, though, that the thing and the memory are entirely separate. Sometimes you can part with the thing, but you will always have the memory.
When is the last time you used it? If you haven’t used it in more than a year, you might think about getting rid of it.
What is your plan for it? Saying “I might need it someday” is not a good answer and is a sure sign that you should consider letting it go.
If you actually use it and have a plan for it, is this the best place for it to live, or should it be somewhere else? We found stuff in the kitchen that needed to be (and now is) stored in the garage or in the office files. In truth, we also found stuff that needed to be (and now is) in the trash, like addresses for our wedding invitations

4) Don’t accept stuff from other people just because they want to get it out of their house.

My in-laws are notorious in giving us things every time we go over there. Drew’s mother usually wants to load us up with magazines that she wants returned, and his dad frequently gave Drew tools that Drew didn’t need. None of this stuff needs to be in our house! Even in seemingly harmless instances like these, we have to make conscious decisions every day about everything that comes in our door.

5) Give yourself permission to sell, donate, or throw away anything that doesn’t fit your vision for your space.

We frequently donate items to charities. We also post ads on Craigslist to give things away. For instance, you may not believe this, but I gave away the Auralex pyramid studio foam I used when I recorded in my walk-in closet.

When we’ve posted ads for free things on Craigslist, people respond immediately — like within 10 minutes! People who are picking up a freebie are usually eager to come and get it, so Craigslist ads are a fast, easy way to declutter.

Your outer environment is a reflection of your inner thoughts. Is your environment orderly and serene, or chaotic and confused? Since your action follows your thoughts, a cluttered space can kill your voiceover career, while a clear space causes you to reach new heights!

Do you see any connection between clutter and voiceover success? I’d love to get your comments on the blog!

Authors: Want to Create Audiobooks of Your Books?

31 August 2011

In May, I wrote about Audible’s launch of the Audiobook Creation Exchange, or ACX.com. Audible, the leading company in downloadable audiobooks, created the site because they determined their listeners are voracious readers, and the demand for new audiobooks continues to increase. Currently,only about 5% of books are made into audiobooks. Since ACX is open to authors, I thought a narrator’s perspective might help you decide whether to list your title on ACX for audiobook production.

ACX is a marvelous tool to help you exploit the audio rights to your book, especially since the audiobooks will be distributed on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon. However, you should be aware that all books are not suitable for audio. You’ll want to consider these factors when deciding to create an audiobook of your book:

1. The 2010 Audio Publishers Association (APA) Consumer Study shows that audiobook listeners are very likely to be doing something else while listening to the book: driving or traveling, housecleaning, creating crafts, exercising, or working on the computer.

2. The Consumer Survey also showed that most people would not buy both the print and audio versions of a book. Any kind of interaction that is needed with the physical book in order to understand the content probably is not a good choice for an audiobook.

Some info could be provided as additional download material, such as illustrations in a PDF document. Still, you can’t assume that the listener has a device with a display or that they will take the time to download or view the additional material on their computer.

3. Some printed content just doesn’t translate well to audio. A narrator would be challenged to do justice to material that relies on visual aspects like photographs. This kind of material could be a turn-off to the listeners. Examples include:

Questionnaires with a point scale or essay questions — Many personal development books contain assessments and quizzes that need to be worked on paper.
Statistical graphs
Textbooks with problems to solve

One of the ACX FAQs lists other types of books that would not make good audiobooks.

4. Audiobook narrators read your book as it is written. You may need to make some changes in the text to make it more friendly to the ear, which keeps the listener in the moment. For instance, if your printed book says “you’re reading this book”, you might change the verb to be “you’re listening to this book.”

Assuming your book is a good fit for audio, you next have to decide whether to narrate it yourself or hire a professional voice talent to narrate it for you. ACX has a wonderful FAQ for authors who want to narrate their books.

I wouldn’t presume to advise you on this important decision. Instead, I can report two observations from an on-line discussion that is no longer available. Many people expressed a preference for authors as narrators on autobiographies or books written by comedians. An important comment in the thread was “how is the book best served?”

More often than not, you may decide that the book is best served by hiring a professional narrator. If you take this route, here are 4 more pieces of advice for the casting process on ACX:

5. You can query for a particular narrator’s name, like “Karen Commins”, or for certain narrator characteristics, like accent, genre, and pay rate. After you listen to the narrators’ samples, you can contact a narrator directly. For your easy reference, here’s the link to my ACX narrator profile.

6. You can post your title for auditions. In this case, narrators will record a short segment of text that you specify. You could pick a section with conversations or straight narrative text. It’s a good idea to establish a cut-off date for auditions in your mind. Otherwise, you could receive a staggering number of auditions in a short period of time.

7. You might get more auditions if you post your project as a pay-for-performance rather than a royalty-share title. While a royalty agreement is highly attractive to an author, many narrators are reluctant to enter into a royalties-only deal because the narrator bears all of the risk.

Past experience taught me that I need to narrate a book that I love. I won’t voice any kind of project just for the money, but I am even more selective about audiobook gigs. Audiobook narration tends to equate to a much lower hourly rate than narrations for corporate videos or e-learning projects.

As a narrator and producer, I would be spending a large amount of time with the book — at least 5 hours for every finished hour of narration. Therefore, a book with a finished time of 10 hours requires 50 or more hours for me to research, record, and edit the recording. For a full explanation of the time needed for audiobook preparation and production, I refer you to this article.

Given the time involved to narrate and produce an audiobook, I would consider a royalty deal if I’m passionate about the book and want to promote its message in the world. The narration can be its own reward in those instances.

8. Pick a narrator whose vocal qualities best match the way you hear your book in your head. Just as all books are not suitable as audiobooks, all voices are not suited to read the same material. Wanna hear what I mean? Read this article titled Read Me a Story Brad Pitt: When audiobook casting goes terribly wrong.

I look forward to your comments the blog. If you do decide to post your book on ACX, let me know. I just might audition for it!

3 pieces of email marketing research

19 July 2011

When I wrote the article 5 pieces of e-mail marketing advice, I was referring to those times when you send a personal message rather than a general newsletter to your voiceover clients and prospects.

As you might expect, an e-mail newsletter has its own considerations. Since newsletters can be a great way to unobtrusively remind people that I am a voice talent, I have just started publishing a monthly newsletter. I want to share 3 things I learned in this process in case you want to create one, too.

1. Automated software is a must.

Lately, I’ve been hearing radio ads from ConstantContact — yes, RADIO ads about email marketing! I’ve also been seeing banner ads for multiple email solutions on numerous other sites. Email marketing systems have obviously become a big business since people continue to have success in using email as part of their marketing plan.

You could send mail to your list using your own database and email client like Outlook. Another, more popular approach is to upload your database to an on-line service. Since on-line email services are so prevalent and offer an array of built-in features including templates and tracked statistics, it makes a lot of sense to use one if your finances can accommodate it. You can try the systems at no cost for a limited time or number of users in order to decide the best one for you.

Here’s some research that may help you decide which one to use.

Earlier in the year, I saw a question in a LinkedIn group in which the participants were asked for pros and cons about email marketing systems. An assistant started compiling the results for me and got through 254 of the hundreds of responses. I had no idea so many email systems exist! If you’re interested, here’s the full list from those 254 comments.

Of the 84 companies found in those first 254 responses, the top 5 companies, representing 73% of the total votes in my list, were:

ConstantContact 41 votes

iContact 23 votes

MailChimp 22 votes

AWeber 18 votes

MyEmma 11 votes

Aside from this list, you can do a Google search and quickly find a chart like this one that compares numerous features across multiple systems.

2. Permission-based marketing is a BIG deal. A VERY BIG DEAL.

You’ve probably noticed that most emails from companies include a link to unsubscribe to mailings. That feature is mandated in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Beyond that law, though, people have extremely strong feelings about being added to mailings without their permission. In fact, adding someone to your mailing list without asking them first is quite the polarizing issue.

I can make this assertion after reading questions about creating mailing lists in multiple LinkedIn forums. Each time, the question elicited extremely passionate responses. I decided to create a LinkedIn poll in which I asked the question:

“When is it okay with you if someone adds

your e-mail address to their e-mail newsletter?”

I offered several choices for answers:

You’re connected on LinkedIn or other sites
They gave you their business card
You have exchanged e-mail messages
All of the above
None of the above — they need permission

Of the 14 respondents, 9 voted NONE OF THE ABOVE, with ALL OF THE ABOVE being the choice of the other 5 participants.

The comments on the poll page linked above and in a similar question I asked in 2008 when I first considered a newsletter give you a good snapshot of opinions on both sides.

I decided to use iContact for my newsletter host, and I felt they went overboard on ensuring that you have permission to send the message to each contact. You have to click a checkbox in several places to validate that you have the reader’s permission.

Here’s what happened to me when I set up my contact list in the system:

I removed from my database a number of voiceover clients that I’ve dropped and prospects with whom I hadn’t established a relationship. In some cases, I had been out of touch with a person for 2-3 years, so I removed their names, too.
I uploaded my list of solid contacts from my stand-alone database.
I couldn’t add a name to my iContact mailing until the person confirms I have their permission, so I decided to let my contacts confirm their mailing addresses could be added to the newsletter list before sending them the newsletter.
iContact made me initial that I could contact the person even when I was sending the pre-addition confirmation letter! That’s a Catch-22 if ever there was one!

3. Timing is [not] everything.

Voice talent live by the clock. Radio and tv ads need to be 15, 30, or 60 seconds. Agents need auditions at a certain time, and clients expect a fast-turnaround for recordings.

Email has its own timing. I’ve read that the best time to send your message is on a Tuesday morning. I planned for my first issue of Success Leaves Tracks to be distributed on Tuesday, 5 July.

The only problem was that I didn’t realize that I was going to hit the permission-based wall.

I thought I could add my database during the July 4th holiday weekend and have the newsletter appear in mailboxes when people returned to work on Tuesday. Nope. I needed their permission. I ended up sending out the “please confirm it’s okay to mail to you” messages on Friday, 1 July.

Let’s just say that I didn’t get quite the enthusiastic response I had hoped for!

In hindsight, I wouldn’t have sent my confirmation notices on any Friday, particularly one before a holiday weekend! I’m sure that many people deleted the message and moved on, which limits my potential to send them messages through iContact.

Even though my timing in setting up the database could have been better, I’m confident that the newsletter will find the right audience. After all, in the words of Buddha:

An idea that is developed and put into action
is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

If you’re planning to start or are already publishing a newsletter for your voiceover business, please leave a comment on the blog!

Launch of “Success Leaves Tracks” Newsletter

5 July 2011

For years, I have wanted to produce a newsletter as a gentle way to keep in touch with clients and prospects. When I started writing this blog 5 years ago, I thought it might take the place of a newsletter. However, I see now that my voiceover business can benefit from both tools.

This blog focuses primarily on topics dealing with voiceover, audiobooks, and marketing. Many of the articles are prompted from specific questions that I receive about working as a voice talent. I also have started a discussion board on Facebook where people may wish to pose these kinds of questions.

Long-time subscribers of this blog probably know that I draw inspiration from reading lots of biographies. I often find myself repeating things I’ve read while in meaningful conversation with people who are looking to make positive changes in their lives. I didn’t want to change the focus of my blog, but I still wanted some way to share inspirational stories with others.

I wasn’t sure that a newsletter would fit the bill. Most marketers would probably say that the purpose of a newsletter is to keep readers informed about your product and services. To me, this viewpoint seems self-indulgent when marketing myself and my services as a voice talent. Just as I don’t fill my blog with entries about my voiceover projects, I don’t want to create a newsletter with that kind of content, either.

Instead, I want to offer something that people would want to read, something they would actually look forward to receiving each month, like they did when I sent postcards in the mail.

You see, I would would highlight a successful, famous person who had nothing to do with voiceover. I loved picking a person and doing some research about them. Then, I would write about their accomplishments and include some of their best quotations on the postcard. People actually called and emailed me to tell me they appreciated the mailing. I stopped the postcard mailings due to the ever-increasing printing and postage costs associated with mailing to a large database.

I don’t know why it took me so long, but the lightbulb finally went on — why not publish a monthly newsletter using the same general idea so that it serves as a virtual postcard?!

And so I am, starting with the inaugural issue of Success Leaves Tracks, to be published today.

In addition to a short biography, the newsletter will include a Success Track that may help you on your path to success. If it sounds interesting to you, I invite you to sign up for the mailing list from my Facebook page. If you don’t receive the July issue, you’ll be able to find it in the newsletter archives.

Now that I’ve told you about my newsletter, my next post will provide some info I learned that may be useful to you if you intend to include a newsletter in your marketing mix.

Simple math about audiobook rates

13 June 2011

Last updated 2/7/21

My email inbox continues to provide fodder for blog articles. Last week, someone sent me this question:

I’ve been asked to record a 200 page audiobook. I’m not in a union or guild. I do have some voiceover experience. What do you recommend I charge?

Original Answer

While the question you asked seems simple, the answer requires more explanation, as found in this blog post and the one from Paul Strikwerda linked within it.

As basic info, you need to know the WORD count, not the page count, of the book you would narrate. You can figure out the finished run-time based on the word count. For instance, Audible uses an average rate of speed of 155 words a minute, or 9300 words per finished hour.

Paul’s article shows you a formula to calculate finished time. My article shows you how to calculate the real time required for editing to produce the book. As Paul points out in his comment to my article, you also need to add time for preliminary research.

You’ll have to consider all of these factors about the time commitment along with your experience, relationship with the client, training, and studio equipment to determine a rate that is fair compensation.

Small publishers only pay $50-100 per finished hour. I would only perform an audiobook at that very low rate if I wanted to build commercial credits.

I hope these thoughts are helpful. Best wishes for your continued success!

New Answer (WARNING: MATH IS INVOLVED!)

Apparently, I overwhelmed this person with good information that would require her to actually do some research because she re-posted her question on a voiceover forum within an hour of receiving my reply.

Here’s the simple mathematical formula for solving this problem:

1. Divide the word count of the book by your rate of speech per hour to get the estimated number of finished hours. If you don’t know your rate of speech, Audible uses 9300 words per hour, or 155 words per minute (WPM), in its calculation for books posted on ACX. Your actual rate of speech and finished time may vary significantly from the estimate due to the complexity of the text and your acting choices.

Some narrators have reported that using 9000 words per hour (or 150 wpm) is a better average rate for more people. If you’ve done some projects where you were given a word count, divide the word count by your finished time to learn your average words-per-minute rate of speech.

If you don’t have the word count available, you can estimate the finished time by following these steps:

Let’s say you a have a 300-page book. To estimate finished time, start a stopwatch as you read 3-5 representative pages aloud as if narrating. Keep going when you have errors, and stop your timer when you’re done.

Divide the time you obtained doing the sample read by the number of pages in the sample to get the average time to read each page. For instance, if it takes you 10 minutes to read 5 pages, your average time per page would be 2 minutes per page. (10 / 5 = 2)

Multiply the total pages in the book by your average reading time per page from your sample read to see the total estimated minutes. (300 * 2 = 600 minutes)

Divide the total number of minutes in the previous step by 60 to get the finished hours. (600 / 60 = 10 finished hours)

Real life examples usually aren’t so tidy with whole numbers. You find it helpful to use a decimal-to-time calculator with your finished hours figure to see the minutes and seconds.

2. Multiply the number of finished hours by 6. This number is a very conservative estimate of the number of real-time hours you and your team will spend in recording, editing, and transmitting your book. For instance, a 10-hour book may require at least 20 and, if you are doing your own editing (which I don’t recommend — instead, outsource it), 60 or more hours of your life from the time you record the first word until the last byte is uploaded or mailed to the client.

The general breakdown of hours for experienced narrators is:

Recording: 2 hours for 1 finished hour

Editing: 3 hours for 1 finished hour

Proofing: 1.2 hours for proofing

Note that preparing to read (pre-reading the book, looking up pronunciations, etc.) is NOT included in this calculation, so you will need to add time for that process.

3. Multiply the real-time hours by the hourly rate of pay you need to survive. Chances are very good that you will come up with a pay rate for this audiobook that is $1000s MORE than your client wishes to pay. You have to decide how to negotiate a rate acceptable to both of you.

Even with this formula in hand, you still will want to research current audiobook rates. Be aware that the SAG/AFTRA union minimum on ACX is $250 per finished hour. which is an all-inclusive rate. If you are producing the retail-ready project, you need to factor in costs for an editor and proofer as you will pay those out of your PFH rate. (Each publisher has negotiated contracts with SAG/AFTRA, and only the ACX rate is publicly available. The narration rate with other publishers varies.) If you want tips for negotiating a higher price, check out my article Cruising for a competitive advantage

Once you know the amount of time you’ll invest in the project and the amount of money you need to get for your time, you’ll know whether to accept an audiobook project.

For instance, I would voice a royalty-share book only if I’m willing to bet that based on from the book’s ratings and reviews that I would earn back my fee over time. Otherwise, I might do a RS book if I were passionate about the topic and had the time available for the project. I’m much more interested in a hybrid arrangement of a PFH payment up-front and a RS contract. On ACX, this type of arrangement is called a Royalty Share Plus contract.

It’s always good to be working and gaining credits if your survival needs are being met.

If you have more thoughts on this topic or questions on other topics related to voiceover, marketing, or just living your best life,, I’d love to get your comments on the blog!

Photo: iStockPhoto.com/STEVECOLEcc