Feedback Needed! My First Selection of Regular Voice Notes

Finding fun & useful ways to use short audio pieces on Substack. What do you think?

Listen up, literally!

I’m testing out voice notes. Below is a selection of quick audio pieces on various subjects. I aim to do more of these, maybe in different styles, maybe every day, maybe once in a while…who knows?

This is quietly published, not to my email list, but direct to Substack only, to work out how well I can share each note independently, especially on Substack Notes.

It may not be worthwhile, but I’m still up for sharing more of these spoken moments.

I’ll give a brief summary for each audio masterpiece just in case you’re in a rush. Or, more likely, you’d rather not hear my beautiful voice. Your loss. 😁

Drop a comment and let me know what you’d like in the future, what you think of these, and if you’d like to do some back and forth voice notes with me. Will you be making more voice notes?

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#1 - Welcome!

Summary: Quick thoughts, low tech, not the same as a podcast, but still warm and inviting! A way for you to get to know me…And maybe you’ll make your own recordings and we can share our minds and voices. Either way, you can choose to listen to none, some, or all of the voice notes. I’ll probably do most of them without a script or planning, but we’ll see as we go.

Ooh, and a glitch in the automated audio mastering leads to a random sound of what sounds like a ghost-child in the last couple of seconds. Very strange!

#2 - My thoughts behind writing the post, “A Special Delivery”

A Special Delivery

Summary: I don’t write many personal narratives, especially those with simple language and basic storytelling. Since my family had just been a part of a strange encounter with a delivery, I wrote it up as a test and tried it out with them. My eldest laughed, which is high praise indeed, since he’s a teenager. My 11yo enjoyed reliving the encounter. My youngest found it quite like the stories he’s used to reading. Makes sense, since Hemingway Editor graded it as Level 1 comprehension (out of 20).

The challenge was to write a story that was engaging, clear, and simple. Not an easy task, but a fun one. I’d like to do more of these to build up the skill. Practice, practice!

#3 - Temporary/Permanent &

Samantha Dion Baker

No. 35: The Great Pencil and Eraser Debate

Summary: Scrappy could be the perfect look you’re going for. Context matters. Like with my voice notes, I’m not working out scripts and the perfect audio setup. There’s no intro, no music, no podcasting polish. But they work within the context I’m looking for.

Sometimes we do well with pencil and eraser. Sometimes we want a marker to bring that instant hit of permanence. The toolbox contains a vast selection so we needn’t be limited.

Samantha Dion Baker

offers up fantastic food for thought, not only for artists, but for all creators and anyone looking to make choices. When you want to get out of your own way, or if you want to place new limits on yourself, you should take on board Samantha’s sage and balanced advice.

#4 - Celebrate all your wins and don’t forget about them even decades later

Is publishing in a magazine's online arm the same as publishing in the magazine?

Summary: I still remember minor publishing wins from decades ago. I talk about getting “Letter of the Month” in a magazine in my early teens (back in the 1990s). I won an expensive prize at the time…And that was probably the least important part of the whole thing for me.

Good debate over at

Lit Mag News

- check it out for more.

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So, would you like to hear more of these? Do you have any suggestions? How would you use voice notes yourself here on Substack? I’m all ears!

Actually, maybe I’m all mouth, given they’re audio notes…