Although we’ve enjoyed favorable coverage and critical reviews (AUDIOFILE Mag., May 2020, ARGUS-COURIER, PRESS-DEM, etc.), we are no less humbled by one error in judgment that we’ll never — never — make again: Keep your cat out of studio during an Audiobook Narration session. When we’ll-just-call-him-Merlin meowed at just the right moment while tracking a scene in a comedic mystery series featuring a 20-something Cincinnati detective petting her cat ‘Leonard’ (named in honor of Spock’s alter ego), we figured, “Eh, just leave it in. Who will know? Besides, it’s cute.” Within a month, we were eating those words when some Audiobook purist Reviewer ripped us to shreds for violating some unwritten, let alone unspoken (strange, that) Audiobook creed: ‘Absolutely, no SFX. Absolutely, no music.’ Well, hey, we hail from radio theatre (The Petaluma Radio Players?) where sound effects and music are de rigueur. Not in audiobooks, apparently. Whoa. Needless to say, the cat made no royalties on the project. Indeed, he was fired. (Good thing he wasn’t Union.)