Progress Report 2026 Week 22

This week, I experienced a deluge of Real Life Family Events (RLFEs). They took one look at my goals, snickered at the very idea that I’d try to make plans, and crashed through my schedule. Of the goals I set this week, did any survive? Did I manage to write anything? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Yes, the RLFEs impacted my word output.

My Wednesday night writing window got demolished. So did my Thursday and Sunday sessions. I really only had two full writing sessions this week (Sunday was an abbreviated session). RLFEs attacked my weekend outside my writing sessions, too. So basically what I’m saying is that the only thing I got done was waiting for the proofread!

Well, there was one more thing. Instead of wasting an abbreviated writing session, I prepared one of my ads for June. It’s for Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action. A couple weeks ago, I ran a BookBub that got such good results that I thought it must be an aberration. Now, we’ll see if it was an aberration or an alignment of blurb, cover, and opening chapters!

Plan for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners

I’ve come up with a plan to publish Wayland’s Hammer. As soon as I receive the proofread for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement, I’m going to check the promo sites like Book Barbarian to see their earliest time slots. Then I’ll soft publish Duty of Prisoners Book 1, confirm it’s live, and schedule the promos. I’ll also set a Facebook ad to start at the same time as the earliest promo.

Then, I’ll set Resistance Movement and Lines of Operation to accept pre-orders. I’ve never done that before, so it’s going to be a learning experience. My hope is that Amazon still offers a boost window the month of publication, and that by publishing one after the other, I’ll extend that boost. I don’t know, though, whether it’ll matter, because boosting book 2 or 3 if people don’t buy book won’t matter. Or will it increase the odds of Amazon e-mailing buyers of book 1?

I’m not sure how to measure that. I’ll watch book 1 to book 2 read-through, but that varies so much series to series that I’m not sure how accurate it’ll be. Like I said, it’ll be a learning experience.

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Write four chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament: Not done. I finished two full chapters and half of another.
2. Monitor proofreading progress for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement: Done! And ongoing.
3. Record one or two sample chapters of Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners to use in my newsletter: Not Done!
4. Test using Apple’s Logic Pro to process the audio files (to compare to Adobe’s Audition): Not Done!
5. Select the next series to advertise in June: Done!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 22

Here’s what I hope to achieve this week, despite me knowing there’re a couple of days of RLFEs coming:

1. Write four chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament
2. Monitor proofreading progress for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement
3. Record one or two sample chapters of Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners to use in my newsletter
4. Test using Apple’s Logic Pro to process the audio files (to compare to Adobe’s Audition)

What Do You Think?

How do you maintain motivation and dedication with constant interruptions? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!