Stevie Puckett

Category: Uncategorized

  • June is Audiobook Month

    June is audiobook month! This is a great time to try out an audiobook if you haven’t already. Of course, many of you have as Audio Publisher’s Association annual report highlighted another year of amazing growth in audiobook sales for 2016, up another 33%.

    You may find audiobooks featured in your local library this month and there are lots of activities online, of course. There is an audiobook blog tour going on throughout June. By visiting the links to the blogs featured in the blog tour, you’re sure to find some great listens!

    Audiobook narrators are being featured a lot this month too. Warren Adler is doing a narrator feature for audiobook month and I was lucky enough to get interviewed there as the narrator of two books in his Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery Series. As luck would have it, this is also the month I was featured in Pamela Morsi’s newsletter for the release of her new audiobook, Wild Oats.

    As for myself, boy do I love audiobooks! I have almost 300 audiobooks in my collection and I’ve been listening for years before I started narrating. I savor the times of the day when I get to listen, like when I’m doing laundry or cleaning or exercising or driving.

    The number of awesome audiobooks out there to enjoy can be overwhelming for sure. Especially when you may be learning to listen from your phone at the same time. Let me tell you an easy way to get started. The good news is you can try Audible and get two free audiobooks (affiliate link). Then download the Audible App to easily listen on your phone, tablet, or computer.

    Maybe you will like one of my top five recommendations below and maybe one that I narrated?

    #1 Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole

    #2 The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin

    #3 The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes

    #4 Karma by JC Andrijeski

    #5 How to Bake Pi

  • Unschooling Field Notes 1

    We are five months into our unschooling journey and life is much improved. Dare I say even very, very good. The freedom I feel in each day is refreshing. Our schedule has totally opened up and we are all experiencing more free time as well as an abundance of quality time together. The learning going on with no effort at all to plan for it is simply astounding. They are leading the way and I love it.

    At first, it felt like long tentacles from a ginormous black octopus were beginning to recoil away. Those tentacles were threaded into cracks and crevices throughout our lives. They were dragging us down. As they receded, we discovered the ability to breath unrestrained again…just like summertime. What a relief! There is magic in the resulting lightness. We feel the freedom and creativity of being ourselves and simply enjoying life with no deadlines or schedules except the ones we set for ourselves. We are enjoying realization of a whole new existence where we are calling the shots. It is, quite simply, liberating.

    Still, at the edge of my consciousness is a somewhat annoying persistent thought about the upcoming proof of progress we must file with the school administration by mid-summer. Sometimes I catch myself imagining that black octopus just bidding time to pounce and wrap us all up again. I know it sounds dramatic and I know it’s just a fearful thought, one that I consciously I kick out. There have been many times that I’ve soothed myself away from the scary idea that we’ll be challenged for trying to get away with something and then be required to justify ourselves. Which seems like a totally ridiculous thought since a previous generation has already fought the good fight to have homeschooling be an allowed option.

    Lucky for me, here in Virginia there are a couple ways to choose from in order to demonstrate educational growth and progress. Families can do good enough on a nationally normed standardized test of their choice (place in or above the fourth stanine) or have an evaluation letter from a qualified individual (a licensed teacher or someone with a master’s degree). If progress is not found to be good enough, the homeschooling family gets a year of probation to continue homeschooling then try again next year to adequately prove progress. If progress is still not good enough there will be intervention and the kids go back to school.

    I have been advised by local homeschooling gurus to “just test out” because they say it is the easiest and most objective way to jump through the required hoops. This I have a problem with because standardized testing is one reason I wanted out of the school system. Also, having done more traditional homeschool with my son in the past I know how quickly learning time turns to rote memorization and uninspired lectures while running through a checklist of what to learn to do well on the test…a frustrating exercise for me and my kids to be sure.

    So I have settled into the idea that we will show progress with a letter that I write reporting on the progress of each of my kids for this first year. The reason I can write the report is that I have a Master’s degree and regulations do not stipulate that the evaluator cannot be the child’s parent. This seems a bit risky but I’m sure it will all work out. After all, I am with them all day every day being continually astounded by their questions and creative ways of thinking.

    As a backup, I am also keeping an Evernote portfolio for each kid and their interests and activities throughout the year. Those Evernote portfolios will likely become portfolio blogs for each kid as they advance. The kids are very interested in building their own portfolios already. They love that we are collecting photos, videos, links, and audio recordings of what they are focusing on a creating and so do I. The portfolios will serve a purpose similar to a scrapbook too. The kids enjoy looking back at what they’ve done even now and it solidifies their learning as they do.

  • Audiobook Release Day for Just Different Devils

    It’s audiobook release day for Just Different Devils by Jinx Schwartz, narrated by Stevie Puckett. Jinx Schwartz is a talented comedic writer who has created a fantastic duo in high school friends Hetta and Jan, now in their forties, who sail the ocean on fun adventures resulting in crazy antics. The book is another in the very funny Hetta Coffey Mystery Series. Hear the retail sample below and find it on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

  • When Unhappy at Work

    There’s a difficult time between where you are now and where you want to be that requires extra focus when you are unhappy at work or when you plan to change jobs or careers. If you are unhappy at work you have a few options.

    • Quit right now with no notice, telling them to take the job and shove it as you walk out the door. Feel a few moments of joy and freedom until you take yourself to your next opportunity and, most likely, recreate the same unhappiness you had before.
    • Stay with a bad attitude. Tell the story every day of how you hate your job, the people you work with, and how you are underpaid, under-appreciated, and have no options. The more you practice this outlook the easier it becomes.
    • Stay and tell a different story. Talk about what you appreciate about your job or career. Practice looking at the bright side and you will see more bright side. Heck, your co-workers and boss might even start treating you differently.
    • Stay and tell a different story while defining what you want in your next career move. Be on the lookout for the next opportunity all the while appreciating your current position and building more skills and contacts.

    One thing that helps is to focus more on what you want next rather than what you don’t like about where you are currently because that makes the current day-to-day very difficult and keeps a negative vibe going. So during times of change, it’s important to focus on the excitement for what is coming but with an ability to be appreciative of where you are now and how far you’ve come. Instead of leaving your current position in anger or hastily, think in terms of going to the next step in your career out of excitement and interest and let that guide your actions.

  • Informational Interviewing: A Career Research Technique

    Choosing a career direction is a complex process involving many steps, including exploring your interests, skills, values, and personality type, plus lots of time to learn and strategize a career development plan. After the beginning steps of self-assessment, you choose a few of the career fields that seem to have the most promise and do more intense research.

    Researching career fields begins with looking at the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the O*Net to learn more about specific career fields. If a particular career field is still being considered, it is time to go out into the field to learn more. One of the most important aspects of choosing a career path is to get out in the real world and study real people, people who are doing the kind of job that you might want to do someday. One way to do this is through informational interviewing.

    Typically, the informational interview process looks like this:

    • find people in the career of interest to talk to
    • schedule a time to meet with them for 30 minutes or so
    • ask questions about their career, and then
    • send a thank you note.

    There are several ways to find people for an informational interview. The best method is to use your network of contacts to find people in the line of work that you want to learn more about. Begin asking family members, friends, and other people who they know working in the career. For example, you might approach your aunt and ask her, “Who do you know who works as a civil engineer?” Once a member of your network knows someone to refer you to, ask for that person’s name and phone number. You will be surprised how many people your contacts know and how easy it is to find people to talk to about all kinds of careers.

    Next, call the new contact. Please give your name and how you know about them. Tell them that you are interested in learning more about their career field and hoping they could help. Ask if you can schedule a time to speak with them for 30 minutes because you would like to ask them how they got into the field and their recommendations for people considering entering the profession.

    Following are some questions typically asked in an informational interview. Remember, you most likely will not ask them all since you want to keep the talk to only 30 minutes. Be sure to take a pen and paper for quick notes and recommendations and to assist you with writing a thank you note the following day. Be sure to note the correct spelling of their name and their address by asking them the information and writing it down in your notes or checking their business card.

    SAMPLE INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

    • How did you develop your career path?
    • How did you get into this job?
    • What are your duties as a ____?
    • How long have you been in this position?
    • What do you like best about this career?
    • What do you like least about this career?
    • How would your strategy change if you were starting over in this field knowing what you know?
    • What are the educational requirements of this field?
    • What is the typical salary range for this career field?
    • Can you recommend some professional associations for this career field?
    • What do you read to stay up-to-date?
    • What further education do you like and recommend?
    • What are the advancement opportunities in this field?
    • What do you see as the future of this career field?
    • What is your career goal for the future?
    • What is happening in this industry?
    • What kinds of companies make up this industry?
    • Where has growth taken place in this field recently?
    • Who are your customers or clients?
    • How do you promote your products and services?
    • Who are some of your competitors?
    • What has helped to make companies successful in this industry?
    • What recommendations do you have for a person interested in this field?
    • Do you know others I should speak to about this career field?