Have you taken on any personal challenges recently? Ones that you are determined to see through to the end, however imperfectly you might do so?

My latest challenge has been to record the audiobook of my soon-to-be-published novel, Marion Hatley. It’s fairly common to hire voice talent for this type of work, but Marion’s story has become so much a part of me that I thought I should do the reading myself.

So what have I learned from this experience? That I have a really drowsy-sounding voice, with an off kind of rhythm—something that, charitably, might be called a backbeat. That, fairly often, I lisp my s’s and slur my words.

In short, don’t have the voice of an actress; I have the voice of an ordinary human–flawed yet doing its best, like the characters in my novel. So reading my own book feels like the right thing to be doing, but I’m hoping that listeners will tell me if they disagree. (If you end up being one of those listeners, please don’t be shy about registering your opinion.)

As a final bit of news, I got a really nice shout-out from Gilmore Tamny of the Boston Hassle, who included my writing efforts in her “Top 10 List for 2016.” Thanks, Gilmore!

Readers, I’m wishing you the best in any challenges that you’re tackling now, or that you plan to take on in 2017. Go go go!