Media

Edna Adelaide Brown (1875 to 1944)

• A Brief Sketch of the History of Andover
• At the Butterfly House, August 1918, ©1918 (Illustrator: John Goss): https://archive.org/details/atbutterflyhouse00brow/page/n10
• Four Gordons, August 1911, ©1911 (Illustrator: Norman Irving Black; dedicated to Faith Bowen), 2018: https://archive.org/details/fourgordons00browgoog/page/n11 or https://archive.org/details/cu31924014522365/page/n6 or https://books.google.com/books?id=zt8lAAAAMAAJ
• How Many Miles to Babylon, ©1941, 1941 (Illustrator: Stephen Ronay; for E. R. R. and for the many children who have asked me to write them another story): https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39076002193691;view=1up;seq=7 or https://www.amazon.com/Many-Miles-Babylon-edna-brown/dp/B000WI06IG
• Journey's End, April 1921, ©1921 (To Harriet and Joe): https://archive.org/details/journeysend00presgoog/page/n15 or https://archive.org/details/journeysend00brow/page/n6 or https://books.google.com/books?id=CjAhAAAAMAAJ
• Notes for Miss Putnam, 1939: https://archive.org/details/notesformissputn00brow
• Polly's Shop, ©1931 (Illustrator: Antoinette Inglis; To the little cabin among the pines of Diamond Hill, where this story was written; to the memory of the boy whose youthful treasures still adorn its walls; to the little lady in fur who shared the camp, and to her who loves Diamond Hill the best of all. Thanks are due to the Beacon Press, for permission to use the chapter entitled, "The Old grandpa," which appeared as a short story in "The Beacon."), 2018: https://archive.org/details/pollysshop00brow
• Rainbow Island, 1919 (Illustrator: John Goss): https://archive.org/details/rainbowisland00brow/page/n8
• Robin Hollow, ©1924 (Illustrator: John Goss; Dedicated to Elma): https://archive.org/details/robinhollow00brow
• That Affair at St. Peter's, April 1920, ©1920 (Illustrator: John Goss): https://archive.org/details/thataffairatstpe00brow/page/n8 or https://archive.org/details/thataffairatstp00browgoog/page/n5 or http://books.google.com/books?id=oqwlAAAAMAAJ
• The Spanish Chest, 1917, 2009, 2009, 2010, 2018: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6998
• Three Gates, ©1928 (For Agatha, who wanted me to write this book): https://archive.org/details/threegates00brow
• Uncle David's Boys, 1913, 1918: https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-davids-Boys/dp/B004AY0TSA/
• When Max Came, ©1914, March 1914 (Illustrator: John Goss; Dedicated to J. E. T.): https://archive.org/details/whenmaxcame00brow/page/n6
• Whistling Rock, 1923, ©1923 (Illustrator: Antoinette Inglis; To R. R. A. who likes islands and lighthouses and the people in fur): https://archive.org/details/whistlingrock00brow

Series:
1. The Silver Bear, August 1921 (Illustrator: Antoinette Inglis), ©1921, 2009, 2018: https://archive.org/details/silverbear00brow/page/n8 or https://archive.org/details/silverbear21brow/page/n8
2. The Chinese Kitten, ©1922 (Illustrator: Antoinette Inglis; To Muff, the Dearest Kitten), 2018: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57600 or https://archive.org/details/chinesekitten00brow/page/n10

1. Arnold's Little Brother, April 1915, ©1915 (Illustrator: John Goss; To M. E. R. for "debts of love unpaid"): https://archive.org/details/arnoldslittlebro00brow
2. Archer and the "Prophet", ©1916, 2018 (Illustrator: John Goss): https://archive.org/details/archerprophet00brow/page/n8

27 Oct 2018 at 11:28pm

I had an epiphany, today. One way to get practice writing more descriptively is to write what you see. I mean, you can watch a movie, or a show, and write down what you see like it's a written story, with special focus on the things that aren't just scripted dialog. Of course, you shouldn't save your work in most cases, because the video is most likely copyrighted—but then you can practice visualizing your own work (not a movie transcription) more—and maybe that will help with the descriptions as well.

Plus, you'll probably get more insight into whatever it is that you're watching if you do this, and learn more about people and their body language.

I tried this out, today, for the first time, and I really liked it. I like that it gives me a lot of realistic ideas on how to describe character interaction, and body language—plus, the scenery, clothes, hair, visual personality, visual feelings, etc.

LibriVox (librivox.org) is a place where you can volunteer to narrate public domain audiobooks (for everyone to use for free as if the recordings themselves were public domain). You can also download and listen to audiobooks that others have recorded.

Useful links:
* https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/1-Minute_Test (You need to do this test and get approved before you can start recording audiobooks for LibriVox.)
* https://forum.librivox.org/viewforum.php?f=21 (You can post your 1-Minute tests here.)
* https://cgjennings.ca/checker.html (This is the checker software to see if your files pass the technical specifications tests; yes, the checker is available for Linux, too; yes, you can use this on your 1-Minute Test MP3 to help you see if it's in order; however, someone still has to approve your test.)
* https://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?p=6430#p6430
* https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Amplifying#3.1_Normalize (volume should be between 86 and 92 dB according to the checker; the wiki says ~89 dB)
* https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Noise_Cleaning
* https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Newbie_Guide_to_Recording

You may find that your files have a sample rate different from the desired 44,100hz (mine with my digital voice recorder are 48,000hz). To change that without changing the pitch of your voice, import your file into Audacity. Then look at the bar at the bottom of the screen. There should be an option to change the sample rate there (in the lower left of the screen). Once you change it then after you export to a 128kbps constant bitrate mono MP3, the MP3 should be 44,100hz. If you change the sample rate through the thing higher up on the left side, it will change the pitch of your voice.

The digital voice recorder I use can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KBWN8L1/ (it's the 16GB black version). I don't particularly recommend this device for LibriVox recordings, but it does seem to be quite functional for the purpose if you're willing to do some adjustments with Audacity afterward. (I record in the highest quality WAV, edit in Audacity, and then export to MP3 when I'm done.)

For noise reduction, in Audacity, highlight a portion of your recording where you're not reading; then, you can go to Effect->Noise Reduction->Get Noise Profile. Then select the whole recording; then go to Effect->Noise Reduction and click okay. These are the settings I use for my files from my digital voice recorder (your ideal settings may vary):

Noise reduction (dB): 8 (the default of 12 made mine sound synthetic a bit)
Sensitivity: 6.00 (this was the default for noise reduction)
Frequency smoothing (bands): 3 (this was the default for noise reduction)

Using the built-in microphone, I don't seem to need to amplify the sound.

Also, you may find that the LibriVox wiki says you need your sample size to be 16-bit. I'm not sure what they mean by that, but it sounds like they want the WAV files to have the format of 16-bit PCM instead of 32-bit float. I don't know if that matters for the exported MP3 or not. Anyway, Audacity probably defaults to 32-bit float and says that no matter what the format of your original file was. So, you can change the setting in Audacity once and it should stay that way. Open Audacity, go to Edit->Preferences->Quality->Default Sample Format. I'm not sure if the checker checks the sample size.

After putting the checking program where you want in Linux, you can run this command to put it in your path (change PATH to the actual path to your checker program):

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/checker checker PATH 0

Here is a selection of websites and resources that I’ve personally found useful in finding free e-books and audiobooks (note that some free books offered at some of these sites may not be family-friendly):

• Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ (large selection of primarily [#]public_domain e-books, in various formats)
• LibriVox: https://librivox.org/ (large selection of public domain, volunteer-read, human-read audiobooks)
• The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/texts (large selection of scanned public domain books, among other things)
• Google Books: https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search (large selection of scanned public domain books, among other things)
• Hathi Trust Digital Library: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?type=author&inst= (has a good selection of scanned public domain books, among potentially other things)
• https://manybooks.net/ (Similar to Gutenberg, but smaller, and somewhat different selection)
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: https://www.lds.org/study/lib?lang=eng (you can get free e-books and audiobooks for scriptures, Church magazines, Church manuals, and many other publications; there is quite a selection; also see the Gospel Library app for mobile devices for another nice way to access e-books and audiobooks)
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/ebooks?lang=eng (another place to find e-books on the Church’s website)
• Online libraries that your local libraries let you use (I've used at least one of these for audiobooks; you don't get to keep these forever, but they're free for a while).