Progress Report 2026 Week 25

I’m redoubling my efforts to learn Apple’s Logic Pro for three reasons — all three revolving around my audiobooks. How’re things going in that quarter? Also, it was another week of Real Life Family Events (RLFEs). What impact did they have on my writing output? Finally, Wayland’s Hammer continues to be unpublished. Have I figured out when to change that status? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators before talking about those questions.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

I am relieved and grateful that I wrote more than 10,000 words this week. It was close!

I keep hoping that I can get ahead of RLFEs. I keep thinking that as I get closer to retirement, my schedule would somehow ease. But it seems to be the opposite. I have more to do now than ever, and that’s after taking steps like reducing the number of new posts I write for my anime site, Crow’s World of Anime.

I don’t regret anything that I’m doing. But I’ll just say that I feel like I’m wearing out. On weekdays, I start around 5:30 AM (4:30AM on Tuesday mornings) and finally get to go to bed around 11:30PM. My writing window is around 8:00PM until 11:00PM on weekdays and 10:00AM to noon on weekends. Lately, I’ve sensed my energies waning around 9:30PM, which is about when I’m half way through writing a new chapter.

It sounds like I’m complaining. Maybe I am. But I also realize how fortunate I am to have a family around which RLFEs can revolve. I’m also fortunate to be able to write at all. I couldn’t for decades, after all. I don’t want to lose sight of that.

So I’ll keep writing as much as I can, as long as I can. The new book, The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament, is coming together well. I’ll follow that muse and see where it leads me.

Audiobook Activity

Summer Foovay, the narrator for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning, has begun recording The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone. It’s sounding great! I plan to produce it so that it sounds even better than the first book, and to accomplish that, I’m going to use Apple’s Logic Pro.

I think I’ve researched which plugins I need to use. There’s one for removing breathing sounds, one for setting the floor, and one for setting the ceiling. It should reduce how much time I need to process each file. At the same time, it should improve the process I used on the previous audio files. In essence, I should be able to capture Summer’s performance and get it ready for publication with greater fidelity than I managed before.

I don’t think I did a good enough job the first time around. I hope to fix that with the new release. If I get time (ha!), I might try to re-produce Red Flag Warning. I preserved the original files from that first book, so it’s technically possible. We’ll see what happens.

But first things first. The second (of of the three I mentioned above) effort reflects that I haven’t given up on recording audio chapter samples for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners. I need to get a move on if I’m going to have it ready before I release Wayland’s Hammer. But I haven’t discounted it yet.

I hope that Red Flag Warning gets some company on the audiobook shelf soon!

And third: if I can figure out a way to build a sound booth that I can maintain without sacrificing a room, and if my newsletter readers don’t convince me it’s a bad idea, I hope to record an audiobook version of Dreams of Deucalion, starting with Book 1: Special Recon. I might be insane even considering this. But if it works, I can provide audiobooks without resorting to using generative AI. I might incorporate that idea into the blurb by saying something like “Narrated by humans for humans.” Or maybe that’s too much on the nose.

Wayland’s Hammer Lumbers Toward Publication

My proofreader made good progress this week on Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. She’s not done yet, but she’s getting closer. I used Vellum to create the e-book and paperback versions of the first two books, so they’re ready to go. The blurbs for all three are in their second revision, so they’re almost ready, too.

This week, I’ll make a final decision as to release date and will begin lining up the promotions and release marketing campaign.

Tentatively, I’m looking at no earlier than the week of July sixth and no later than the last week of July. I’m trying to get excited about it, but I think I’m to the point where if I’m honest, writing is the part I enjoy. Publishing is just the business side, and it’s just something that has to happen. I’m not sure I could call it fun.

Unless the release is a runaway success. That might be fun. It’s never happened before, so it’s hard to tell!

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Write four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament: Done!
2. Monitor proofreading progress for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation: Ongoing!
3. Decide whether to send written or audio samples of Duty of Prisoners to my newsletter: Deferred!
4. Use Vellum to compile the first two books in Wayland’s Hammer: Done!
5. Make a final decision between publishing all three books at once and using the pre-sales pages for books 2 and 3: Done! I’m going to release them about 30 days apart and see if I can make pre-orders work.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 25

Here’s what I hope to achieve this week:

1. Try again to record the first two chapters of Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners for the newsletter
2. Write four new chapters in The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament
3. Revise the blurbs for Wayland’s Hammer
4. Monitor proofreading progress for Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation
5. Monitor audiobook recording progress for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone
6. Hone my Apple Logic Pro skills

What Do You Think?

Do you have a favorite audio processing program (Digital Audio Workstation)? If so, what is it? Why do you like it? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!