I'm a writer, not a...

I'm trying not to get too frustrated. It's hard but I am trying to control my temper.

I have just spent the past two hours recording the fourth Abigail story in podcast format. I am using my iMac and the podcast program that comes with it, Garageband. It's working really well. For the most part, I am happy with the ease with which the program works and the quality both of my reading and the recordings themselves.

When I play my recorded stories back on the computer, in the Garageband program, they sound really good.

But the problems arise when I try to burn the files onto an audio CD. First of all, it turned out that the file for the four stories together were too big for the normal 700 MB burnable CD. Crap. These files are huge in their raw format, much larger than the average CD file.

OK. So I go back to the Garageband program and I try the "Save As" function to check out what options I have. Well, this seems promising. I can save the files in their raw version or in "small" format "for easier sharing".

Sounds good. The files are suddenly about 1/5 their original size. I could fit all twelve of the original stories (one I've recorded the rest, of course) on one CD in this format. That's good.

Except none of my CD players will actually play the resulting disc. They find the files but don't find anything inside the files.

Crap number two.

And this is where my frustration arises. I'm a writer, for crying out loud. I'm not a sound engineer. I'm not a computer tech. I don't know what to do now. I need the files to be smaller in size but still readable on normal stereo systems.

And I have no clue how to accomplish that.

When you're a writer of middling success, with no publishing house behind you, you have to wear a lot of hats, mine the talents of a lot of friends and family members, and, when push comes to shove, learn learn learn.

So that's what is in store for me. I've got to go back to school (on the internet, of course) to figure out how to convert the raw Garageband files into a format that is smaller but still readable.

Wish me luck. (Or a publishing contract!).