Category: Books
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Chilly Tuesday, Audible Dreams
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in ACX, Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Audible, Audiobooks, Audiobooks, Autumn in Florida, Books, Brandon Padilla, Bryan Haddock, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Life in Central Florida, Life in Florida, Life in Madison (NH), Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaTuesday, November 11, 2025 – Orlando, Florida It’s a chilly late autumn day in Central Florida, courtesy of the season’s first strong cold front. As I write this, it’s 52°F (11°C) under sunny skies. Not quite New Hampshire cold—Madison, my former stomping grounds, is sitting at 32°F (0°C) with light rain—but still brisk by Florida…
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Adventures in Audiobook Production: No News, Just Nerves: A Quiet Check-In
No News, Just Nerves: A Quiet Check-In Friday, November 7, 2025 – Orlando, Florida Earlier today, I shared a hopeful update about my audiobook submissions to ACX. Tonight, I want to offer a more honest reflection—not of progress, but of the quiet act of looking for it. I haven’t heard anything from ACX. No emails.…
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Adventures in Audiobook Production: No (Bad or Good) News About My In-Review Projects…Yet
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in ACX, Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Audible, Audiobooks, Books, Brandon Padilla, Bryan Haddock, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Reunion: A StoryFriday, November 7, 2025 – Orlando, Florida Hi, friends. It’s already late afternoon here in Central Florida, and I’m still refreshing my inbox like a hopeful kid waiting for a letter from summer camp. So far, no news from Amazon’s Audiobook Creative Exchange (ACX) about the two Jim Garraty titles currently in their quality assurance…
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Adventures in Audiobook Production: Waiting, Wondering, and Hoping for ACX Approval
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in ACX, Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Reviews, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Audible, Audiobooks, Audiobooks, Books, Brandon Padilla, Bryan Haddock, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Stefan (Steve) Lee, The Jim Garraty ChroniclesThursday, November 6, 2025 – Orlando, Florida “We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” —Voltaire Today marks the first full day since I approved Brandon Padilla’s audiobook adaptation of my novella Reunion: A Story on ACX, Amazon’s platform for independent audiobook production. The project—47 minutes of audio paired with a cover…
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Adventures in Audiobook Production – In Review: On Waiting, Vigilance, and the Quiet Hope of Release
In Review: On Waiting, Vigilance, and the Quiet Hope of Release Wednesday Afternoon, November 5, 2025 – Orlando, Florida There’s a moment in every creative journey when the work feels complete — or nearly so. The narration is done. The emotional cadence is intact. The cover art has been finalized, checked, and rechecked. The story…
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Omnibus in Progress, Comfort in Limbo
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in ACX, Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Audible, Audiobooks, Autumn in Florida, Books, Brandon Padilla, Bryan Haddock, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Computer and Video Games, Creative Writing, Garratyverse, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Kiri Sings Kern, Kiri Te Kanawa (Dame Kiri), Life in Central Florida, Life in Florida, Life in Madison (NH), Life in South Florida, MicroProse Software, Military History, Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Rick Atkinson, Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, Stefan (Steve) Lee, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780, The Jim Garraty Chronicles, Things I MissMonday, November 3, 2025 – Orlando, Florida “Work. Don’t Think. Relax.” — Ray Bradbury There’s a certain comfort in structure, especially for those of us who live by stories. As much as I love the creative process—and I do, or I wouldn’t be doing this—I try to keep my writing life tethered to a Monday-through-Friday…
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Adventures in Audiobook Production: Square One, Again
Saturday, November 1, 2025 – Orlando, Florida A dispatch from the trenches of self-publishing “The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean…
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A Story That Insisted: Approving ‘Comings and Goings’
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Thursday, October 30, 2025 – Orlando, Florida Great news! As of yesterday afternoon—at exactly 5:49 PM—I officially approved the audiobook production of Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen: A Jim Garraty Story, a companion to The Reunion Duology. The timing felt serendipitous. Just hours earlier, I’d received another message from Audible’s Audiobook…
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‘Comings and Goings’: Audiobook Submitted for Review
As of today, Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen is officially in the final stretch. I’ve just approved the completed audiobook, and it’s now in ACX’s quality assurance queue. Barring any hiccups, it should be live on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes within the next 10 business days. It’s a quiet milestone, but…
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I Wrote the Book, Now I’m Trying to Read it
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Reviews, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, Books, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Writing a First Novel, Writing as a CraftHow one missing passage reminded me I’m still editing—even when I’m reading “We write the books we most want to read; so it is of no surprise that we may still want to read those books sometime later.” — Hannah Fielding I’m a writer. Not a household name, not a bestseller (yet), and certainly not…
A Certain Point of View, Too 