…the nagging thoughts that wake me up two hours before I want to be up.

First, I have to recommend a book, Dark Beyond the Stars. I finished it last night, and it was fantastic! I have no commercial interest in the sale of this book, only my interest as a reader. Loved. Check it out.

Second, the organization of the “sections” I’ve posted for the novelette, Sensitive: The Abduction of Jubilee Wistler, is bothering me. They’re too short, and I want to take them all down to post again. I would do that, but I haven’t similarly organized the section lengths for the entire piece, so I might end up restructuring it again. I think I began posting before I was ready.

Third, there were changes I wanted to make in the story, For Love of Amber, that I’m writing/editing. I was afraid I would forget before I got to my first cup of coffee this morning, so I’m up…at my computer…fixing words.

Now I’m being subjected to an OpenOffice update…

Update complete, which reminded me of the fourth thought waking me this morning, NaturalReader, which I downloaded last night, just the free version. I was impressed with how accurately it read my sci-fi story full of weird, made-up words. It pronounced my main character’s name a little oddly, but anyone might. It’s my understanding that Kindle has the same capacity to read stories out loud with an automated voice. I’ve never checked it out. I should.

What’s cool about the NaturalReader (at least, I think it might be if I ever splurged on the paid version) is the ability to sync it with my phone. With earphones, I could listen to books from my phone on the go—not that I ever go anywhere.

I like this idea, which had me thinking of how to produce audio versions of my stories. Maybe I wouldn’t need a human narrator, just something like NaturalReader. In a couple of years, these apps should sound just like a real voice. With the paid version, there’s already an option to tweak pronunciation, which would be perfect for names of people and planets and alien “things.”

Well, that’s it.  I’m on my second cup of coffee though it’s not 7 am yet.  Looks like I won’t be going back to bed.