Here's an excerpt from Sarah's review:

Each moment of the CDs is filled with warmth, humor, and a deep connection to those who have come before us. Sightlines is a must-have audio book for anyone who appreciates a good love story with the perfect musical accompaniment!

You'll want to read the entire review, though and see if you agree.

This was recorded in the hospital shortly after the birth of her newest grandson, Liam. Scott Kidd, the sound engineer, for our audio book.

A year later, it's still a long drive in the country (albeit on freeways) and a pretty one, to boot. The drive from St. Louis to Nashville (routes 64/57/24) takes around 5.5 hours and crosses three rivers (Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee) and passes by many gorgeous large lakes (Rend/Egypt/Barkley) where I wanted to just stop and camp. The routes down are so aesthetically constructed without billboards and with so much foliage embracing the roadway, that it feels like a highspeed Sunday afternoon drive in the country...which is what it was.

I knew I'd reached Southland in S. Illinois when I saw fried gizzards, fried bologni, and b-b-q ribs advertised.

Last year I stayed at the trendy Hotel Indigo. This year at the more budget-conscious Red Roof Inn, getting the senior rate through AARP. I chose this location because it's right across from the Sportman Grill and Lodge where we'll celebrate Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music tomorrow night.

Yvonne Perry, one of my blogging buddies I'd come to visit then, led me to Scott Kidd who became my sound engineer. Here's Yvonne's post on Writers in the Sky on my May Nashville visit..

Read my version of the visit and working with dream collaborator Scott Kidd here.

POD = Print on Demand

Click here to read Yvonne Perry's report "Janet Riehl's Nashville Visit" on Yvonne Perry's Writers in the Sky blogspot.

The Riehl Family on the Homeplace...everyone played music or wrote poetry as a matter of course. Anna Riehl, my grandmother, in foreground, wrote the poetry collection "On the Heights."

ADVENTURES IN CREATIVE COLLABORATION

Collaboration means to work together. When I chart the "greatest hits" of my life, many of these experience revolve around rich working collaborations. One of my greatest joys in life is collaborating with friends. I count good ones like the time with sound engineer Scott Kidd on one hand. (Click here to read Scott Kidd's credits on All Music.) He's one of the greats, and so humble. This time working with him was beyond anything I could have imagined or designed.

Recording the audio for "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" in Nashville with Scott was both collaboration and peak experience. Essentially, I commissioned Scott to work with me in creating an audiobook and the audio for a multimedia ebook (text and links that take you to audio, video, or external locations...an ebook that functions like a website or a blog) for "Sightlines" in what turns out to be a very active collaboration.

Scott is a dream collaborator because he's skillful, relaxed, fun, responsive, and on point. For this project, I couldn't have imagined anyone more right to work with. My father would say, "He has a good touch on it." He understood about the importance of family stories, history, heritage, and legacy. That's the undercurrent of my upbringing, my current collaborative life with my father, and the five sections of "Sightlines" 90 poems. A sound editor like Scott is comparable to a film editor who pulls a project together like a collage.

At the core of Scott's talent for collaboration is his talent for sharing his humaness. I cannot say enough good about the man, truly. At only 31, Scott is a man of heart...a man of soul...a man of quiet, efficient action. He sees the big picture and get the details right while making it all easy and fun. He's an engineer with an artist's sensibility and intuition. He really understands what collaboration is.

ADVENTURES IN COMPASSION

"Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" is a downhome family love story beyond death that won a DIY honorable mention in 2007. My sister's death in 2004 launched the spiritual process that gave birth to the book, but "Sightlines" is more than a dead sister book. It's a book of homecoming...to my family, the homeplace, and to myself and a larger sense of family.

Early in our work together Scott shared that his family had also experienced a sudden death (his uncle) and that he had found "a soft spot that wasn't there before." This statement so struck me becuase it's the very essence of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings on compassion: "The times when you are suffering can be those when you are open, and where you are extremely vulnerable can be where your greatest strength really lies. Say to yourself: I am not going to run away from this suffering. I want to use it in the best and richest way I can, so that I can become more compassionate and more helpful to others. Suffering, after all, can teach us about compassion. If you suffer, you will know how it is when others suffer. And if you are in a position to help others, it is through your suffering that you will find the understanding and compassion to do so."

In his own direct and honest way, this is what Scott has done. He's infused his technical expertise with such gentleness that you may enter as a client, but walk away feeling as if you've made a friend. Scott said that in the beginning of his career he'd tried to model someone who was extremely businesslike. But, that just wasn't him and caused undue stress. "I just had to be myself," he told me. That's been the cornerstone of his success in working with many of Nashville's music royalty.

Our work sessions were bookended by playing with his Boston Terrier Tucker, eating Sushi together at Peter's, and marvelling over the pro-quality wedding album his father-in-law gave them as his present.

What I learned about doing business in Nashville from working with Scott, listening to his stories, and lunching with Hal Manogue and Yvonne Perry at the Yellow Porch (where it felt like we were just hanging out on our front porch, jabbering, watching the world go by) is that it's very relational...very old school...old world.

BLOG DUET WITH YVONNE PERRY OF WRITERS IN THE SKY

Click here to read Yvonne Perry's report "Janet Riehl's Nashville Visit" on Yvonne Perry's Writers in the Sky blogspot.

Find out:
1) Why I wanted to make an audiobook of "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary"....and how long I've had this dream.
(Yvonne is one of the folks who inspired me in that direction when I appeared on her January 12, 2007 podcast)
2. Audiobook and multimedia ebook products from the recording session...what's next?
3. The music and poetry and stories and humorous asides used.
4. The recording session and process.
5. Did I practice?
6. Why go all the way to Nashville? Relational business as a way of life.
7. Hints for tackling an audiobook project

At PIVR click on the March 31, 2008 archive recording where my name and my book's title appears. March 31, 2008 Janet Elaine Smith PIVR (Passionate Internet Voices Radio) "Marketing for Fun and Profit spoke with me and I read my poem "Crocus." (Which you can read on the sidebar of Riehlife under "Sightlines" and "Sweet Little Dove," my mother's section.)

PODCASTS

A. January 12, 2007 Yvonne Perry, Writers in the Sky Podcast (Parts 1 & 2) invited me to read many poems from "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary." Note: Scroll down on this site to click on Part I and then Part II.

B. February 4, 2007 Fascinating Authors Podcast with Penny Sansevieri (Author Marketing Experts) gave me a great chance to talk about my downhome family love story beyond death and share some poems from "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary."

AUDIO LINKS FOR UNITARIAN SERVICES: MEMENTO MORIi: Life and Death, Moment by Moment
March 16, 2008, Riverside, California, gives the entire recording for Memento Mori plus flute and cello music provided by Dennis Detloff.

September 2, 2007, Alton, Illinois
Memento Mori Sermon Audio includes violin music provided by Janet Riehl and her father Erwin Thompson.

Memento Mori Full Service

"Getting to know you,
Getting to feel free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to say"

That's the essence of the "Getting to Know You" blogging meme which Isabella Mori of Change Therapy has just tagged me to participate in.

Poinsetta, December-child's flower

DECEMBER

12 characteristics...one for each month of the year.

1. Loyal and generous. Honest and trustworthy. These would comprise a primary character cluster. On-lookers think me daft at times to the extent I go in holding to these values which my father has modeled strongly throughout my life.

2. Sexy. Some have thought me a sailor's dream in bed...but who knows? What kind of vessels were the beds: barques? Ships? Canoes? And, what kind of waters did they sail upon?

3. Patriotic. "I'm always true to you, darling in my fashion. I'm always true to you, darling in my way."

4. Active interactions I'm interactive. Connective.

5. Impatient and hasty. When I'm overly-filled, I dart, like a hummingbird.

6. Ambitious. I'm a visionary who champions her visions and brings them forth into the world..."As I expand my own offerings in the world..." I pray for balance and dedicate whatever merit may arise.

7. Influential in organizations. Yup. In my 20s founded Tswaragano Craft Center in Gabane, Botswana. Started community projects in Decatur, Illinois. In my 30s developed curicula for All Indianan Pueblo Council in New Mexico, edited a regional alternative energy newsletter for Solar America, Inc., served as vice president of programming for Training and Development, edited an in-house newsletter for a major computer company. I learned a heap about organizational development, especially in nonprofit organizations. I made good contributions.

8. Loves to socialize and fun to be with. Yes, but usually do better one to one or in small groups and with folks who already know me a little bit. My father and I both have strong loner tendencies, and at the same time, strong connective tendencies. I call it "autonomy with connection."

9. Loves praises, attention, and loves to be loved. Well, heck yes! My mother trained us to pass on compliments and that was one of her favorite hobbies. She's say, "Janet, I've got a compliment to pass on to you." And then her face would just glow!

10. Unpretentious. Sure. It's the country breeding, natch!

11. Hates restrictions Whoo girl! Don't you know it.

DON'T FENCE ME IN!
Words and music by Cole Porter© & Robert Fletcher,
©1942, from the film Hollywood Canteen:

[C]Oh [G7]give me [C]land, lots of [Am]land
Under [C]starry skies a[Am]bove.
[C]Don't [F]Fence Me [G]In.
Let me [G]ride through the [G7]wide open
[G]Country that I [G7]love.
[G]Don't [G7]Fence Me [C]In.
Let me [C]be by myself in the evening [C7]breeze,
[F]Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood [Dm7]trees.
[C]Send me off for[C7]ever,
but I ask [F]you, [C7]please[F],
[C]Don't [G7]Fence Me [C]In.

12. Loves to joke and has a good sense of humor. You just have to be tuned to my brand of humor, but, like my father, I'm very playful and mischiveous.

______________________

LYRICS "GETTING TO KNOW YOU" from THE KING AND I

[ANNA]

[Spoken] It's a very ancient saying,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a teacher,
By your pupils you'll be taught.

[Singing] As a teacher I've been learning---
You'll forgive me if I boast---
And I've now become an expert,
On the subject I like most.

[Spoken] Getting to know you.

[Singing] Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to like you,
Getting to hope you like me.

Getting to know you,
Putting it my way,
But nicely,
You are precisely,
My cup of tea.

[ANNA AND THE MOTHERS]

Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to like you,
Getting to hope you like me.

Getting to know you,
Putting it my way,
But nicely,
You are precisely,

[ANNA]

My cup of tea.

[ALL]

Getting to know you,
Getting to feel free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to say

Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm bright and breezy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day by day.

Getting to know you,
Getting to feel free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to say

Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm bright and breezy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day .. by ... day.

3. You can either copy the 12-month traits or link to Phil Gerbyshak's post on his blog "Make It Great" that shows the traits for all 12 months

4. Look at the birth-month traits and copy the ones that apply to you or otherwise write about the list of traits and how they apply to you.

5. Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them. (Im pretty busy right now so that might take some time; I hope that the people I'm mentioning will notice it by looking at their trackbacks or other wonderful techie doodahs)

6. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve done it!

_________________

I'm tagging these 12 bloggers, one for each month:

1.Billy the Blogging Poet

2. Brenda Johima at Creative Nudge

3. Damaria Senne, South African tech-goddess and heart-friend

4. Alethea Eason, author of the children's book HUNGRY.

5. Gwyn Ramsey, author, and Women Writing the West pal

6. Hal Manogue, Living an Ordinay Life in a Non-Ordinary Way, and author of "Short Sleeves: A Book for Friends."

7. Jane Kirkpatrick, best-selling author,woman of substance and merit.

8. Janet Muirhead Hill, author-publisher

9. Kathryn Petro-Harper, artist

10. Ken Traska, poet and educator

11. Susan Gallacher-Turner, artist-writer

12. Yvonne Perry of Writers in the Sky, winking brightly away to complete our internet birthday constellation.

Velda Brotherton, author, "Fly with the Mourning Dove"

"Yvonne has uploaded another show to Writers in the Sky podcast. Her guest today is Velda Brotherton..a native of Arkansas, and for the past twenty years has been writing historical articles and books. She is the co-chair of a writer's critique group that recently celebrated twenty years of success helping fledgling writers. Her historical articles appeared in The Washington County Observer for many years and are now published in The White River Valley News."

I hope you visit this site to listen to the podcast interview with Velda. In addition to Velda's work as an author, in 2004 she "was honored with a 30-minute documentary featuring her work to preserve Arkansas history. It appeared on PBS and was shown at several film festivals. Her latest book is Fly With The Mourning Dove the true story of a young girl who grows up on a homestead in New Mexico."

Velda and I know each other through Women Writing the West. Riehlife interviewed Velda Brotherton about "Fly with the Mourning Dove" in July 2007, and, I may have been the one to introduced her to Yvonne Perry...could be...love those connections. You can read our interview on Riehlife by clicking here.

P.S.
Yvonne interviewed me, almost exactly a year ago (January 12th) and you can listen to our interview at this link, here, in which we discussed "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary" and I read poems from the book.