Cat Hipps
Narrator - Mother - Gardener - Sustainability Fledgling - Advocate
About Cat
Cat is a wearer of many hats. Some might refer to this as a multihyphenate, others may call it hyperfixation, but Cat simply calls it her life.
Cat is married to her sweetheart. While they weren’t together in high school, they did start dating in college. They just celebrated their 20-year anniversary. Some might point out that they’ve only been married for 12 years but Cat will insist she deserves credit for the eight years they were together before they got married. This relationship has provided her with her two beautiful (and tall) children. Their household becomes complete when you add, the best fur brother a kid could get, their dog Zorro and their two cats, Ollie the sack of potatoes and Velvet the brat.
Each spring Cat happily attends as many garden conferences as she can. She loves learning about and implementing the large range of information she gleans from these functions. She will not call herself an accomplished gardener though, life often gets in the way. Her goal is always to simply learn something new and maybe do a little better than the previous year. This year should be super easy as she wasn’t able to grow anything last year.
Located in the Midwest, Cat is familiar with all of the memes and will contest that they are all 100% true. Don’t like the weather? Wait an hour. Midwest goodbyes are a thing and impossible to avoid. Yes, you can see corn for miles around and we do in fact celebrate harvest season with a corn festival.
Audiobook Journey
Since Cat discovered that audiobook narration was a possibility, she has worked hard to fulfill the needs of those in the industry and the listeners of those stories. Elise Arsenault’s The Great Audiobook Adventure has been a huge asset in her metamorphosis. Since she has joined the industry, she has become a member of the Audio Publishers Association and Professional Audiobook Narrator Association. She has also taken courses with PJ Ochlan and Andi Arndt. Audiobook narration has been the fulfillment of the life dream she never knew she had.
Cat has always been an avid reader and an unknowing storyteller. As a child, when she would get in trouble her punishment would be to send her to her room. Cat never really saw this as a punishment because she would read. After all, what kind of parent would ground their child from reading? During high school she was often entertaining her friends with elaborate stories of her life experiences. You know, because high school students have such exciting stories. She also joined Forensics as an outlet to her creative storytelling. On road trips, with her friends, she would always read them passages from the “trashy” romance novels that she would bring on the trip. This was also the time that she was introduced to audiobooks. And she was hooked!
But as every good heroine of a story, Cat let the world weigh on her a touch and ended up following the sensible path where she studied Business Administration and ended up entering the corporate world. Even then she would use her voice, helping with recording the phone system. She did pretty well for herself but always felt something was missing. As her children so rudely began to grow up, despite her continuous protestations, she knew it was time to shake things up. At the encouragement of her family, she searched for her passion and that’s when she “stumbled” across audiobook narration. It was then all the pieces of her life seemed to fall into place, that she was heading for her happily ever after. Join Cat as she follows the twist and turns of her audiobook journey.
Nature
Cat is slightly obsessed with all things beautiful, especially the little things you tend to miss in everyday life. Nature tends to be the bringer of many of these beautiful things. As such, Cat enjoys, gardening, learning about all things sustainability, conservation, ecosystems and the food web. Cat is also obsessed with turtles (and tortoises) of all kinds. These have always brought her happiness, joy and peace. Are you interested in learning more? Check out her blog, www.calmmomma.com
Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Cat also supports APS awareness. APS stands for antiphospholipid syndrome. APS is a disorder where the immune system attacks normal proteins in the blood which can lead to blood clots. Depending on the location of the clots they can lead to DVT (deep vein thrombosis), PEs (pulmonary embolisms), strokes and miscarriage. In 2019 Cat found herself in the emergency room where they discovered 3 PEs. This incident led to her diagnosis of APS.
