Not the Path I Expected

Friday, July 24, 2026 – Orlando, Florida

Hi, everyone.

Here we are, at the end of another workweek and on the brink of another month’s end. As you might expect, it’s a stiflingly hot summer day in Central Florida. As I write this in the early afternoon, it’s 94°F (34°C) under mostly sunny skies. The humidity and a 9 mph (14 km/h) easterly breeze are making it feel like 101°F (38°C). Today’s forecast high is expected to reach 94°F (34°C), and the skies should remain mostly sunny. So if you’re reading this in Central Florida, stay indoors, drink plenty of fluids, and don’t venture out unless you absolutely have to.

Today is Laundry Day for me; I’m currently washing my bedding so my landlady doesn’t have to do that chore. She doesn’t mind doing it, but I’ve told her that I’m willing to handle the tasks I’m physically able to do. Washing my own clothes and bedsheets is not particularly fun, but it is necessary, and I would rather do it than feel totally dependent on others. I did laundry in Miami, Tampa, Madison, New Hampshire, and then Miami again during the short time I lived there before moving here, so it’s not as though I’m learning a new skill.

On the literary front, I have both good news and bad news.

I’ll start with the good news.

This morning, I ordered a replacement copy of the paperback edition of The Jim Garraty Chronicles: A Life in Four Movements. I figured that now that the Kindle edition reflects the latest batch of revisions I uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing earlier this week, the paperback edition should, too. After all, when I sent the edits through the KDP republishing pipeline, I updated the paperback edition before tackling the Kindle one. It’s been four days since I finished the republishing process, so I’m about 70% sure that I’ll get the right version of the Chronicles when it arrives on Sunday.

And now, the bad news.

As you may remember, I reluctantly decided to have audiobook versions of the first three stories in the Jim Garraty series produced through Amazon’s ACX for Audible. I’m not a fan of the format and was initially opposed to adapting the Reunion Duology and Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen; I can’t afford the more professional producer-narrators, and the ones who accept Royalty Share contracts that waive upfront payment are a mixed bag—at best. I got really lucky with the producer of Comings and Goings; Bryan Haddock did a magnificent job with the narration, and I could not be happier with the Audible edition.

Reunion: Coda? That’s another story altogether.

I’m not going to get into the details; it’s too long and complicated a story to tell in a blog post. Let’s just say that the producer for my novel did an okay job recording the early chapters but didn’t do so well after the midway point of Reunion: Coda. In one chapter, the recording quality is so poor that one listener—who no longer reads print books—reached out to me and complained, rightfully so.

There are, of course, several ways to fix this, including contacting the producer and asking him either to re-record the entire book or, if that is not possible, to dissolve the current contract—which is binding on both sides for seven years—and revert the audiobook rights to me so I can hire a new producer and commission a new Audible edition.

The other option—and the one I’ll probably pursue—is to publish a second, revised version of Reunion: Coda and bypass any possible legal issues with my original producer. The new edition will have to be at least 10% different from the original novel, but that should not be a problem; I’ve already removed an entire section of Reunion: Coda’s back matter. I’ve also corrected scores of clunky passages that needed smoothing out and reduced the number of continuity problems, such as Jim Garraty wearing a New York Yankees cap at the start of a vignette, then sporting a Star Wars cap for the rest of the scene.

In the end, I won’t pretend I’m happy about having to revisit Reunion: Coda yet again, especially after the long revision cycle I just finished for the print and Kindle editions. It’s frustrating, and honestly a little disheartening, to realize that the Audible version—something I never wanted to produce in the first place—has now become the weakest link in the chain. But if there’s one thing this whole publishing journey has taught me, it’s that the work doesn’t stop just because you wish it would. Stories deserve to be presented well, in every format, or not at all.

So yes, I’m disappointed. I’m tired. And I’m not thrilled about the prospect of redoing an audiobook that should have been done right the first time. But I also know I can fix this. A revised edition of Reunion: Coda is already taking shape, cleaner and stronger than the original, and once it’s ready, I’ll be able to move forward with a fresh Audible production—one that won’t run afoul of ACX’s rules and won’t leave listeners wincing at uneven audio quality.

It’s not the path I expected, but it is a path. And for now, that’s enough to keep me moving.