How To Record an Audiobook Step By Step (and Publish To Audible, iTunes)

Sounds easy.  As with everything else, its not.   I will embark in this journey soon.

http://bennesvig.com/record-audiobook/

The Unexpected Agony of Recording Your Own Audiobook – Atlantic Mobile

http://m.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/the-unexpected-agony-of-recording-your-own-audiobook/278957/

Chapter 21 excerpt “Where’s The Shower?”

Our trip began with the twenty seven hour flight via Cincinnati, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore, and finally arriving in Phnom Penh, the capital.  We had the best time on Singapore Airlines.  I read until I was tired.  I slept until I was hungry.  I ate until I felt like reading again.   We stopped for fuel in Hong Kong and then flew to Singapore.  It cost six dollars to take a shower at the airport in Singapore.  We would have paid twenty. 

 

Chapter 21 excerpt “My Small World”

It was a whirlwind time from August to August.   The end event of our class was a mission trip to Cambodia.  I was well-read and had done some traveling.  It’s only looking back that I see how small my world had become.  

Chapter 21 excerpt “Still Planted”

I will always be grateful to Pastor John Siebeling for planting that Psalm 92 scripture in my spirit.  Though I have moved, I am still planted with Jesus.  

Chapter 21 excerpt “My Own Road To Damascus”

I was strongly considering a move to Houston.  Over time I felt lead to stay and enroll in Life’s ministry and leadership training program called Damascus Road.  Looking back, I see that my time at Hope Church was to break open my view of my backyard.  It was also to prepare me for looking at the larger world around me.  This next season at Life was to break open my view of the world.

Chapter 21 excerpt “Where Are You Planted?”

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Psalm 92: 12-15, NIV

Chapter 21 excerpt “In A Park… Named After A Firefighter”

How ironic it was, to be sitting in a park named after a Birmingham firefighter, where the historic legacy of the rescuing mission of the firefighting profession was so badly corrupted.  

Rest In His Peace, My Good Friend, Roosevelt Coleman, Dispatcher Retired, Memphis TN Police Department

Last week I received a Facebook message from the Memphis Police Association about a retired Memphis Police dispatcher named Roosevelt Coleman having a massive stroke.   Roosevelt is one of the team that dealt with my shooting on September 30, 1994.  I met Roosevelt years ago, before I was ever hired in Memphis.    

I have always been a radio enthusiast.  Memphis used to have a UHF 400 MHz radio system.  For some reason, which I can’t explain, twenty five years later, I could actually hear MPD dispatch on my pocket scanner in Blytheville, Arkansas, where I lived, about seventy miles north of Memphis, while I was in the Air Force.  I loved listening to MPD Communications and called there for a tour one evening.  Jimmy Wilkins was the supervisor and he had me sit with a great guy named Roosevelt Coleman.  “Velt” was his nickname and described his voice pretty well.  I remember sitting with him like it was yesterday on the South Precinct console.  246D was the first officer we talked to that evening.  I loved his response to the officers with their many and varied requests, “works for me.”  I met several great people that evening.  That was 1988.  Five years later I was a police officer in Memphis and this same group of dispatchers were working the night I was shot. 

Throughout my time at MPD they were always a blessing to me.  I sat with Roosevelt occasionally and he worked my North Console quite a bit.  One time I was upstairs visiting and he turned around while I was talking to him.  I couldn’t help but act like I was pushing the transmit button and said “The North End Charlie Shift Can Signal C…”  It was around 7 p.m. and several hours before we actually got off.  I loved listening to his voice and loved his Signal C message every night.  Over time he bid to the day shift and I got to talk to him before they went home.  One morning he was working early overtime and his voice boomed over my East Precinct radio.  He gave me and my patrol partner a call.  The call was easily resolved and I called Roosevelt on the radio and had him “pre-empt my partner.”  The phrase the officers used was “disregard my partner.”   Pre-empt was actually a dispatcher command on their CAD.  It was one of those private jokes we had.  He gave a quick laugh and said “works for me.”  Then he sent  me to a traffic wreck. 

Too often we hear about good people who are taken from our clutches, far too early it seems.  I’m grateful that have been blessed with his wonderful friendship.   My world is better because of him. 

We prayed for healing for Roosevelt.  My idea of healing would have been survival of my precious friend.  If you ponder our wishes, they are mostly selfish and self-centered.  They lack very little acknowledgement of the quality of life of our loved ones and friends.  I’m grateful for Jesus’ kind of healing.  I’m grateful that my friend is in no pain anymore.  I asked my precious Savior for healing and Jesus gave me exactly what I asked for.      

There may not be a statue of Roosevelt built in Memphis.  His name and face may not be molded onto a bronze plaque.  There may be no street name or other accolades that we reserve for our politicians and our community’s leaders.  His true legacy is one we are familiar with, quietly serving others in the background.  There is no better example of John 15:13 we can find then in Roosevelt.  In the scripture, the word friends means neighbors nearby.  As he laid down his own life for many years to serve the police department, neighboring departments, the citizens, and visitors to the city, he served a whole lot of neighbors.  We’re a better group of responders and people because of our association with this great man.  

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”    John 15:13, NIV

Signal C again, my friend.  Others have your watch.

   

Thank You For Your Great Support….

Hello Friends:

It’s still kind of surreal to me to see the Amazon website and see my book title, my name, and my book cover.  With each page written and each page edited, I could picture this day, but still, it’s surreal when it actually happens.

The book in all forms is available.   Amazon even has it on sale.  Thank you Lord for that.  Friends have ordered the paperback and other friends have ordered the e-book version on Amazon or at the Apple store.

I have a few friends who are kind of weary of buying items online.  We were able to confirm that your local Barnes and Noble store can order it with no problems.  I will talk to the Booksellers at Laurelwood on Poplar Avenue in Memphis and am in the process of having the book available at Books a Million! in Southaven, MS.

I’m not exactly a famous author so they have to see the local “interest” to have the book on their shelves.  Until they see the demand, they can order it.  Unless book stores order the book, it is printed on demand, which may cause a day’s delay in the shipping.  My publisher can print my 312 page book in about 21 seconds.  Print on demand seems to be the wave of the future in publishing.  

I have heard some great comments from friends.  Please also post a review on the amazon website.  This is a difficult group of topics and we’re a wondering bunch by nature, as we ponder if this book will give some perspective about life, and especially life as a public safety responder.  There is nothing like hearing from actual responders.

I’ll be in Memphis this week to attend the funeral of a precious friend who was an integral part of my story there.  I’ll be able to take care of some of the book store details during my visit and will let you know details as they are confirmed.

Thank you for your prayers and support.  For my friends at Memphis Police, we stand with you.  This book hopefully tells the rest of the story about your great work.

God bless you all and stay safe!
Jeff