Ideas love speed…or do they?
It was 5 years ago today — 18 March 2021 — that I first heard about the situation that inspired my forthcoming book.
Away From the Mic
Digitizing My Journals With Evernote
Updated 4/4/26
Inspired by this article about how John Steinbeck used his diary while writing The Grapes of Wrath, I’ve been documenting my progress in researching and writing my non-fiction book in my daily journals. My journals are much more interesting as a result!
I then photograph my journal entries related to my book and use Evernote to transcribe them. Longtime readers know I’m an Evernote evangelist and use it for everything. I love it even more since Evernote actually transcribes my handwriting!
Authors who write in longhand could use this technique to quickly generate editable text rather than having someone laboriously type it.
I store these transcriptions in the Evernote notebook I created to house my book’s 1900+ (and counting!) research notes.
I tag the journal entries to be able to easily find them later. Once I launch the web site for the book, I’ll re-purpose all my journal entries into a new blog devoted to the book! The blog will certainly improve my SEO ranking for my book’s topic.
Since I was already doing that, I thought, “Why not transcribe the entire journal entry?”
I’m Writing a Book!
After 20+ years of narrating books written by others, I’m thrilled to announce that I am writing my first book!
I’ll share more as I continue with this project.
Change Starts With Your Thoughts and Words
I can vividly remember feeling discouraged, angry, and upset about things — especially career objectives — that didn’t happen when or how I hoped they would, or even at all. I know I wasted incredible time and energy during my IRS years of desperately wanting the life I now have and feeling extremely frustrated about not having it.
Rather than making New Year’s resolutions that were quickly abandoned, I’ve absorbed and applied a few guiding principles and actions over many years. Changing my thoughts and words have made a dramatic positive difference in my overall happiness and throughout my life.
[Read more…] about Change Starts With Your Thoughts and Words
PANAcon Panel and Q&A on Self-Producing Your Work
Updated 1/3/26
I’ve been a proud member of the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association (PANA) since its inception. The organization offered its first convention PANAcon last month.
When I was asked earlier this year to speak at the first PANAcon on a panel about self-producing your work, I couldn’t say “yes!” fast enough!
If you attended, you should have received an email with links to the videos from all of the sessions. Download all the videos now because they won’t be available after 1 September.
This article and its resources should benefit attendees and non-attendees alike.
[Read more…] about PANAcon Panel and Q&A on Self-Producing Your Work
Living with No Regrets
A few days ago, I happened to see this tweet from @CeliaBedelia:
My daughter asked, “Do you ever have any regrets, Mom?” And while I know she was asking this question on a philosophical level, my mind immediately went to this puffin sweater I saw in Iceland. It’s been 3 years since I saw it in a shop there, & I still regret not buying it.
Her comment struck a chord with the Twitterverse. Her post received hundreds of replies about similar missed shopping opportunities and garnered thousands of likes.
I have my own story about the same sort of regret, along with some ideas about living with no regrets.