The other odd thing happened while recording Sweet Baby Lover, my memoir.
Recording the audiobook was more challenging than polishing the text. For the text refinements, I read the words from a distance. For the audiobook, I went back there.
In order to say things the way I said them back then, and try to sound like others as they sounded back then, I had to put myself back there mentally. When I recorded the audio of the negotiations between Trent and Doreen regarding Jenna moving in with us, I can still see that aqua sculpted carpet, feel the teak table under my fingers, my stomach tight.
Because it is quieter at night, I record at night, typically from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. A voice can hold out for only so long before it goes raspy. Plus, the podcloset gets hot. No ventilation.
One night, I quit early because I knew what was coming next. Chapter 35, when Trent is on the ground, and chapter 36, when he is gone. I wanted to be fresh.
To record in the podcloset, I drag a 75-foot ethernet cable from my modem to the laptop in the closet. The recording quality is better if it’s a hard connection rather than wifi.
The recording for chapter 35 went smoothly. For chapter 36, when I got to the part where it’s clear that Trent cannot be brought back, a window popped up on my screen, saying “Connected.”
It was the same window that pops up when I’m at my desk and turn on my detached keyboard, and it shows an image of the keyboard.
But this time, the pop-up displayed an image of my laptop. I didn’t understand. Of course it’s connected. The keyboard is part of the laptop.
The pop-up blocked the text and stopped me from recording. I closed the window, went back to the beginning of the paragraph, and started over. The window popped up again. “Connected.” I closed it. It popped back up. I closed it. Pop. Close. Pop.
“Why are you doing this?” I whined, frustrated.
I looked up at the ceiling, surrounded by the blanketed walls, and sighed.
“Oh.”
It occurred to me that maybe it was Trent, and maybe he was reminding me that we were still, in some way, connected.
I took a deep breath, a long swallow of water, and went back to recording. The pop-up never happened again. Not that night, nor any other.
The logical explanation is that in the moment of recording the part of greatest grief, I was doing something with my finger or fingers on the keypad that I eventually stopped doing. The woo-woo explanation is that it was Trent.
As a reader pointed out last week, those two need not be mutually exclusive.
Sweet Baby Lover update!
They’re here!
Reading left to right, we’ve got Sweet Baby Lover, in ebook, large print, and paperback, with headphones to represent the audiobook. I’m ecstatic with how they all turned out. Like all good modern authors, I have a book launch giveaway!
I’m giving away:
- 3 copies of the paperback
- 3 copies of the large print hardback
- 5 copies of the audiobook
Here’s where you can enter the drawing for a free book. (Given the size of this email list, your odds are very good!) Enter by end of day this Friday, March 31. Winners will be announced next Sunday, April 2.
You can find out more about the book on Amazon.
If you’ve already read the book and there’s someone you know who would like it, I’d love it if you’d tell them about it.
Thanks!
Chewing the Cud of Good
Thankful for the fruits of my labor.