I made a sobering discovery about my house this week, and it affects my goal to record two sample chapters from Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners. Did I meet the goal of recording those two chapters for my newsletter? Also, there’s some other progress to report on Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement and on The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament. Before getting into any of that, let’s take a look at the week’s key performance indicators.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
Not a bad word count, all things considered!
I worked through all sorts of Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) this week, including taking to take my 2021 Ford Bronco Sport to the dealership. Did you know they have a tendency to eat 4WD modules and water pumps? It was news to me. Fortunately, I had invested in Ford’s extended warranty. Plus, the water pump was covered by a technical bulletin. So it only cost me time. But it was a lot of it.
Still, I managed to crank out 11,833 words this week, and they were split between five chapters. The characters are speaking to me, and that includes Trent Raven. He’s been a challenge in the past. I think he has a good foil in Gary Johnson, the Secretary of the Air Force, and their interactions are helping me see the character more clearly.
I’m having a lot of more fun than I expected writing Leah Flores as she interacts with deaf high school students. She learned some American Sign Language (ASL) years ago, and I’m able to draw on my experience with my son and his friends to write those chapters. I hope the readers enjoy her character and her arc.
Based on where I am in the outline, I think I’m about 2/3, maybe a little less, of the way done. I’m guessing it’ll end up around 110,000 words.
Wayland’s Hammer Takes Another Step Towards Publication
My proofreader returned Resistance Movement this week, and I’ve already incorporated her edits into the manuscript. Investing in the MacOS read-aloud stage paid dividends not only with fewer issues for her to find. It reduced proofreading fatigue, so she was able to be more thorough.
She’s already started on Lines of Operation. Ideally, she’ll wrap it up in another week or two. That means I’m closer to ever to launching.
But in that context, I’ve hit a snag. I had wanted to give my newsletter readers a couple of audio chapter samples from Duty of Prisoners, but that is not likely happen in the near term. I tried to scout locations in my house to record using my laptop. I had hoped to use my wife’s sewing room. It has several bookcases filled with fabric, and the acoustics are great!
Did you know that air conditioners are loud? And that my neighbor’s motorcycle is, too? It doesn’t help that we just had to replace our AC. It’s louder than it used to be. Plus, I tried to consolidate software packages and use Apple Logic Pro to not only produce the audio, but to record it, too. It has two drawbacks when compared to Adobe Audition: a different mindset drove its architecture and its interface is different.
Yes, yes, I know — of course its interface is different. I only mention it because it’s something I’ll need to spend time learning. But before that, I need to get my head around its architecture. By that, I mean I need to understand the assumptions that went into its design. It’s a professional package, and lots of people use it for demanding tasks. It’ll do what I need. I just need to invest the time to learn it.
Instead of two free audio chapters, I might offer two or three sample chapters to get folks interested. I’m still thinking about that.
Progress Against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Write four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament: Done! I actually wrote five chapters.
- Monitor proofreading progress for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement: Done! And the edits have been applied, so the manuscript’s ready for Vellum.
- Record one or two sample chapters of Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners to use in my newsletter: Not done! I’m going to have to substitute written chapters unless a miracle occurs.
- Test using Apple’s Logic Pro to process the audio files (to compare to Adobe’s Audition): Not done! I’m learning the tool, but it takes time. I doubt I’ll be ready to record even sample chapters before launch.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 24
Here’s what I plan to accomplish this week:
- Write four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament
- Monitor proofreading progress for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation
- Decide whether to send written or audio samples of Duty of Prisoners to my newsletter
- Use Vellum to compile the first two books in Wayland’s Hammer
- Make a final decision between publishing all three books at once and using the pre-sales pages for books 2 and 3
What Do You Think?
Do you record audio books at home? If so, how did you manage to get things quiet enough? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!