Unrealistic Expectations?

I know there are some really good audible producers out there, but the best ones charge big bucks - around $500 or more per finished hour. And I've begun to wonder if we don't hold unreasonable expectations from our narrators. Is it expecting too much for a male reader to sound just like a female when reading their lines or for a female to sound just like a male? I find once I get into a book, I fall into the cadence and voice capabilities of the narrator, and unless he or she has some huge fault, I enjoy this telling of the book.

My Audibles

But I find more and more reviewers are being critical. I even saw one who said she had listened to so many audiobooks that she was getting bored with some of the narrators she used to like.  One of my Audibles recently had a review that said, "The narration I did not enjoy. His character voices were silly and a bit like a couple of kids playing dolls. I think he would be better if the voices sounded more realistic. The narrator has promise though. His speech cadence was very good and I was never unsure of who was speaking. I loved his voice when just narrating the story, but not his character voices." Personally, I think this narrator does a very good job. He is professional, wants to get it right, and works very hard to do so.

So, as an author, I make a plea on behalf of the narrators out there. Don't have unrealistic expectations of the books they produce but enjoy what they are able to bring to the story. Give them a chance before you discredit them. Once you get into the story, you may change your mind. Judge with a kind heart and gentle spirit, as you would want to be judged. And enjoy the special experience of an audiobook!

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National Read Across America Day

March 2nd is National Read Across America Day, a day that everyone can embrace. It is also targeted for school children with an emphasis on Dr. Seuss for younger children, and many schools hold special events on the day. However, it's not limited to just children. Everyone is encouraged to read and perhaps even read to someone else who needs it.

If we want our children and grandchildren to be successful academically, we need to encourage their reading. It is the key to most other learning, and it needs to start early. Hearing the reading cadence of your voice even before a young child can understand the words has benefits. Depending only on the schools to teach and encourage reading will not be enough to carry on throughout life with a love of reading. How reading is treated at home will have an even greater effect.

As both an avid reader, author, and former reading teaching, this is certainly a day I can embrace. So, you can use this day as an excuse to let normal chores go, get cozy, and do some reading you've postponed for too long. Read something you enjoy to celebrate the day, and share a good story with someone else. It will make the day one of the best for everyone involved.

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Time and Money


A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps (Proverbs 16:9)

We like to think we're in control of our lives and make wise decisions, but this isn't really true. We're not as much in control as we'd like to think because God is in control of everything. It's true that He's given us the freedom to make choices for ourselves, but we don't have command of the outcome; God does.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it (Malachi 3:10).

All things, including our time and money, are under His authority. Surprisingly, tithing won't hurt budgets. We can't outgive God, and God tells us we can test Him in this. Everyone I know who tithes has said that once they began giving at least a tenth of their income, they actually seemed to have more, and their budget never got more strained.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

This goes for time, too. I'm a pastor's wife with a family, and I've launched a second career. I stay extremely busy and often end a day with more on my to-do list than I began with. However, when I follow God's directions and give time to the things He calls me to do, it is amazing how much I still mark from my list at the end of a day. Once we recognize these truths, we will have fewer struggles and worries. Give all that you have and all that you are to God.

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Narrating Indecisions

I still struggle with whether to use the same narrator for an entire series or go with the narrator whose voice best matches the book. So far, I've gone with the voice that best matches the book, especially when considering gender. This means I normally choose a man to narrate when the male main character has a stronger role and a female when the heroine appears more often.

In The Farmers series, a male narrated the first and last books in the trilogy, and a female did the second book. Because of some unforeseen circumstances, each book in this series had a different narrator. With the In from the Storms trilogy, Douglas Birk narrated the first and last books, and Jennifer Groberg did the second book because the main character there was a female. 

However, I'm beginning to wonder if that's the best policy. Recent research shows that listeners prefer a female narrator for books in the romance genre and male narrators for most other genres. Now, Jennifer will also narrate Off the Streets, but I don't know whether or not to have her also do the second and last book in the series, Without a Dream, even though it has a stronger male lead. Does it even matter? I want to do what's best and what listeners will enjoy the most, but it's hard to know what that is.

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Leap Year

Because the way our calendar is set up, about every four years is a leap year. In that year, February has 29 days, instead of 28, and February 29th is referred to as leap day. That will be on this Saturday in 2020. Julius Caesar started leap years in 46 B.C. All kinds of traditions, customs and superstitions have grown up around the day since then. Here are a few:

The town of Anthony, Texas, has declared itself the "Leap Year Capital of the World."

In Ireland, Britain, and the United States, a woman can propose marriage to a man anytime during a leap year.

In Finland, if a woman proposes to a man on leap day and he refuses, he must buy her enough cloth to make a skirt.

France has a satirical newspaper that is only published on February 29th in the leap years.

In Greece, it's considered unlucky to marry in a leap year.



Here are a few things that happened on February 29th through the years:

In 1468, Pope Paul III was born.

In 1692, the first warrants were issued that would become the Salem witchcraft trials.

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt established the commission to see to the completion of the Panama Canal.

In 1916, Dinah Shore was born.

In 1940, Gone with the Wind won 8 Oscars, including Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress. She was the first black performer to ever win an Oscar.

In 1952, the first "walk" and "don't walk" signs where put up in Times Square, New York City, for pedestrians.

In 1968, the discovery of the first pulsar star, emitting regular radio waves, was announced in Cambridge, England.

In 1968, "Up, Up and Away" by the Fifth Dimension won record of the year at the Grammy's, and The Beatles won album of the year for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

In 2004, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won 11 Oscars.

Will you do anything special to celebrate leap day this year? Does your family have any special traditions? 

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Scarlet Cords


Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by.... And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window (Joshua 2:18a & 21b).

Scarlet and red are used in the Bible to symbolize different things. In Genesis 38, the midwife used it to denote the firstborn of twins. In Exodus 25-39, it is used in the descriptions of the cloth for the tabernacle and priests' clothing because red, blue, and purple were the color of kings. But perhaps the most remembered scarlet thread is the one that Rahab is to hang out her window to mark the house the Israelites are to spare when they invade Jericho in Joshua 2.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).

Other Old Testament books that talk about the color or of the sea which is that color, are Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1Kings, 2 Kings, Nehemiah, Esther, Psalm, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zechariah. However, Matthew, Acts, and Revelation also mention it in the New Testament. Red came to represent a blood sacrifice.


For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28).

As Ray Pritchard writes in The Next Man Up, "The scarlet cord reminds us of the blood of the Passover. The color was no coincident. It was a scarlet cord that guaranteed her [Rahab's] deliverance from otherwise certain death" (The Next Man Up - Ray Pritchard, loc. 309). Christ's blood also ran in scarlet cords to deliver and save us. It has great significance for all believers and binds us all together in unconditional love.

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Without a Dream

My latest novel, Without a Dream, has just been released. This is the second and the final book in the Another Chance series. It mainly features Brandon and Lesley, two of the secondary characters in Off the Streets. Brandon is also Gwen's son, and she was the main female character in Off the Streets, so she and Hunter still have a presence in book two. However, as with all my books, this one can be read as a standalone, but you should read them in order if you plan to read them both.

In Without a Dream, Brandon McAllister has fallen hard for Leslie Baggett and she for him, but Leslie’s mother moves her family from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Dallas, Texas, and keeping in touch becomes hard. According to their agreement, Brandon goes to Dallas for Leslie’s junior prom, but Leslie doesn’t come to his senior one the next year. A confusing, vague letter gives little information. The series of events to come next leaves them both reeling. How do you face a future when all your hopes and dreams have been shattered?

Feedback has been very positive with these two books. A recent reader contacted me to tell me how much she loved them. In fact, she read Off the Streets was on pins and needles waiting a couple of days for Without a Dream to be released. That's what I like to hear! 

Off the Streets - https://www.amazon.com/Off-Streets-Another-Chance-Book-ebook/dp/B082SYS7KZ

Without a Dream - https://www.amazon.com/Without-Dream-Another-Chance-Book-ebook/dp/B084MM5FCM

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