Can you believe that the ongoing Real Life Family Event (RLFE) from two weeks ago is still going on? I can’t — and it shows little sign of slowing down. Aside from that, my favorite first person shooter released a Downloadable Content (DLC) expansion this week. Was I able to resist the temptation to dive into it? Finally, I promised I’d keep plotting The Fissure Kings Book 2: Thyone’s Ascent. Did I finish? Before answering any of these questions, let’s look at the key performance indicators.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
I look forward to the day when I can show something other than zeros!
I still have to report zeroes for weekly word output, total word output, and number of chapters written. But that’s necessary at this point, because before I write word one, I need to know my characters and understand where they’re starting. And going.
This week, I focused on Leah Flores. She was one of the point of view characters from The Fissure Kings Book 1: Semele’s Lament. A lot happened to her, starting from that book’s first chapter. All of it has caught up to her by the time Thyone’s Ascent begins. It took me all week, but I think she let me know where she started and where she’s going.
On Sunday, I finished the first draft of her plot. That included building several new sets and doing some research into the rate of decay for human bodies under certain conditions. It’ll make sense when you read the book!
All along, I’ve been working on Trent Raven’s and Jadwiga Janczak’s starting points. They’re more established characters. Trent Raven stared in Dreams of Deucalion, and Jadwiga Janczak played a major role in several books in Evolution’s Hand and Dreams of Deucalion. So Janczak is better known in this universe than Raven.
That said, I still have work to do on their arcs. I hope I can make progress on both this week.
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
The RLFE I talked about two weeks ago, as well as last week, continued this week. Again, I won’t go into any details. But I’ll say this: mixing the profit motive with providing care doesn’t work. During the meetings with the private business’s management, I got a real sense that for them, this was an argument — an argument they were determined to win.
But for my wife and I, we weren’t making an argument. We were issuing a plea. We wanted the business to go back to treating our family the same way they did when the entity was a government institution. We wanted their decisions to be based not on corporate policy, standards, guidelines or procedures. We want those decisions to be based solely on need.
We’ve had two official meetings, and they’ve been become progressively more exhausting. I’m not sure what comes next, but I sure hope that for the sake of our family, we wrap this up soon.
New DLC for My Favorite First Person Shooter
I’m not sure how many hours I poured into the original STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl and its two official sequels. From the perspective of story, I don’t think they get the recognition they deserve. Plus, the weapons mechanics are solid and the gameplay is a blast.
Last year, after an enormous amount of time, the developer released STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl. It delivered better graphics than the original. But it stumbled a little in its A-Life engine (the AI-based engine that kept non-player characters active even if the player wasn’t near by), because the Unreal Engine wasn’t as capable in that regard as the original Xray engine. Still, it was a blast, and it continued the tradition of fascinating narrative.
Last week, they released the DLC called The Cost of Hope. I faced a choice: pour my time into plotting my novels or play the DLC. Which is a false dilemma, actually. I only traded one writing session to play, and it was the day after the above-mentioned meeting. I didn’t have the mental reserves to write, or at least it felt that way. So I dove into the DLC for a couple hours.
One way I justify playing is that the gun mechanics aren’t bad. They help me visualize scenes from some of Raven’s arc. Or that’s what I tell myself! In all honesty, I play to get my head back together. It’s a needed diversion to give me mental distance. That distance helped me get through the day. I tend to be hard on myself, and I feel guilty for allowing this. But I also don’t want to burn myself out.
BTW, if you like FPSes, I highly recommend anything from the STALKER series.
Progress Against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against my goals for last week:
- Continue plotting The Fissure Kings: Tyrone’s Ascent: Ongoing!
- Monitor Summer Foovay’s recording progress for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak: Ongoing!
- Engineer one chapter of The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone to ACX’s standards and document the process: Not done! I just ran out of energy.
- Monitor the performance of the Facebook and Amazon ads: Ongoing. The ads are doing well, and the timing’s good. The reason? The third book in Wayland’s Hammer goes live on August 25th.
- Continue experimenting with AuthorScale: Not done! I just ran out of energy.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 34
Here’s what I hope (it’s hard to type that with a straight face) to accomplish this week:
- Continue plotting The Fissure Kings: Tyrone’s Ascent
- Monitor Summer Foovay’s recording progress for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak
- Engineer one chapter of The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone to ACX’s standards and document the process
- Monitor the performance of the Facebook and Amazon ads
- Continue experimenting with AuthorScale
What Do You Think?
Do you find it easy to compartmentalize major life events from your writing? Or does it vary by event? I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments!