learning automator and the text to audio file action

[Darcy Burnard]

Hi.  I've decided to learn to use automator.  I played with it briefly  
a little while ago, but never did much with it.
I was thinking that I wanted to make an automator workflow that could  
use Alex to convert the contents of a text file to an aac file that I  
could then put on my ipod.
I have a couple questions about the text to audio file automator  
action.  First and foremost, is there any way to change the speed of  
the voice?  It defaults to a very slow setting.  I thought this might  
be changed under the speech section of system preferences, but no go.
Also, is there a way of getting the contents of a text file in to that  
action without having to use text edit?  I was thinking there must be  
an action that could get the contents of a text file and pass that  
text along to the following action.  The only action I could find was  
one that got the contents of the front most text edit document.
Anyway, as I said I'm just learning automator, so it's very possible  
that the answers to my questions are obvious, but I'm currently stumped.
Thanks.
Darcy