Progress Report 2025 Week 38

The world decided I needed a reminder of how precarious plans can be. Or that i needed to be reminded that Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) can come in bulk. Or ultimately, that having a family in which RLFEs happen is the whole point. There’s also some writing news, too. But before we get into any of that, let’s look at the modified key performance indicators.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Still no words in the new manuscript. I’ve added my post-publication extra proofread for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver as a KPI..

A multi-stage RLFE intruded on multiple writing sessions this week. Actually, it rampaged through my schedule. The only thing I managed to do is make progress on the Virtual Voice version of Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver. I’ve prioritized that work since Dreams of Deucalion has been published and I want to correct typos that got through. Tweaks I made in my writing process during Dreams of Deucalion introduced errors that I didn’t catch until I began reviewing Special Recon’s Virtual Voice edition. I’ve since fixed the errors in Special Recon.

Now, I’m working through Flanking Maneuver, with Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait & Bleed up next. I know how to prevent this issue going forward. I’m going to replace my next day read-aloud with MacOS Spoken Content reading it back to me. In addition, before sending the manuscript to a alpha readers and before I run it through ProWritingAid, I’ll add another MacOS Spoken Content pass.

This should produce a manuscript with the minimum number of typos or grammatical errors. I think my recent changes introduced so many errors that they overwhelmed/fatigued my proofreaders. Only after I published corrections for all three books will I restart other operations like audiobooks. Or writing the new trilogy.

Speaking of Audiobooks

The Sword of Sirius is Still Alive

This week, I did manage to produce/edit one more chapter of Summer Foovay’s audio narration for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning. I’ve gotten into a rhythm and can make fairly rapid progress through a chapter.

I’m going to put that effort on hold until I can get Dreams of Deucalion whipped into shape. That’s going to take at least two more weeks. It’s really frustrating, because I want to get this audiobook in front of folks! If it works, I still want to explore the next two books. I want to get back to writing Wayland’s Hammer. And sprucing up my marketing. And and and…

So many ands.

I’ve put a decision about the audiobook versions of Dreams of Deucalion on hold until I get through the revisions and the audiobook publication of Red Flag Warning. I’m still inclined toward Royal Sharing with ACX. But I’m not sure.

I’m listening to Johnny B. Truant’s The Artisan Author (affiliate link). It releases in November, but I joined the Kickstarter program, so I have the book now. The author reads the audiobook, which works well for this topic.

Pros and Cons But Mostly Pros

First, I want to say if you’re a writer lamenting the current state of indie publishing, I think this book is something you’ll want to read. I’m about 1/3 done, and I can confirm that how Mr. Truant presents history is accurate (I was there when it happened!).

But the part where he talks about the evils of rapid-release? I agree with his point, but I think he’s laying it on awfully thick. I’m strongly tempted to paraphrase Star Wars and say, “Many straw men died to bring us these plans.” I get that casting Amazon as a villain makes for a great narrative. But the business part of my brain is really annoyed in those sections. But that’s just me nit-picking. His points are valid.

I’ll talk more about the book when I finish it. But I’m not even to the “artisan” part, and the book already has me thinking about how to give my readers a better, more personal experience. For example, I mentioned that Mr. Truant performs his own audiobook. I know that other writers have done the same thing. You can’t get a much more personal audio version of the work than the author reading it. I’ve talked myself out of doing that before because of time. But if I could pull it off, it’d be another way to connect with readers.

Maybe I’ll record a chapter or two of some of my books and offer them to my newsletter list. That might help me gauge how quickly I should move on it. It would also give my newsletter readers a chance to embrace the idea or save humanity from such a thing.

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:

1. Produce four more audiobook chapters for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning. Partial. I finished one more chapter.
2. Finish Moritz Lehner’s arc revisions in Point of Extraction. Not done! RLFEs vigorously attacked my schedule.
3. Begin processing the Virtual Voice version of Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver so I can potentially position it for an AI narrator release and enumerate errors. Process four chapters this week. Started! I’m about 40% done.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 38

Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

1. Finish the Virtual Voice pass for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver.
2. Review the Scrivener version of Flanking Maneuver and recompile the manuscript.
3. Create the Vellum versions of Flanking Maneuver.
4. Update the Amazon ebook and paperback versions of Flanking Maneuver.
5. Begin reviewing the Virtual Voice version of Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait & Bleed.

What Do You Think?

How do you keep business and creative parts of your process separate? Do you have any techniques you can share? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!