Audible Update: Chapters 8 and 9!

I just recorded Chapters 8 and 9. they were short, so I decided to combine them into one episode. I fixed the technical difficulties that prevented last week’s recording and fiddled with some settings that have improved my overall sound quality. As far as the story goes, things really start picking up speed, and gets pretty crazy from here on out. If you haven’t started listening, you’re missing out. Of course you can read it for yourself (Link embedded on the cover art). Feel free to comment or just say hi! Id love to hear what you think so far!

Character snapshot,Visual edition: Barney Derrick

I really enjoyed writing Barney’s Character. I wanted to make a character that you love to hate. I am sure everyone has met a person like Barney.

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The sound of Barney’s boots echoed down the quiet hall with a hypnotic cadence. The overhead fluorescent lights seemed to flicker in time with his footfalls. He arrived at the lab and pushed through the door, causing it to bounce off the wall.   Drab faces looked up from computer screens at the abrupt entrance. A soldier rushed over with a handful of disheveled paperwork, trying to organize it into a manila folder before handing it off to his superior. Barney grabbed the folder out of his and studied the file briefly.  The soldier watched as he scrutinized the file, flipping pages, eyes scanning. Barney’s nose crinkled against his mustache, causing the soldier to wince.  He held the folder out for the soldier to take it, allowing the pages to slip out with a whoosh onto the floor.   

“What is this? Is this how I am going to get all of your reports? Is this how you show your respect to your country, to me?”   

“Sir! No Sir!”  

“This report is not even in order! Do you expect me to finish your work for you?”  

“I understand, Sir, no Sir, I apologize, Sir.”   

“Well–What are you waiting for?”  

“Umm …yes, sir,” the soldier said as he scrambled to collect all of the paperwork and organize it all at once.  

“Umm, yes, Sir? That’s how you address a superior officer? An umm? You Sure this is the right career for you, boy? How did you manage to crawl your sorry ass out of basic training?”  he scolded, then turned away so that he could smile without being seen. Ah that felt good, better than coffee, and I’ll never get a bad report from that kid again. He took a few steps before turning around to see the soldier standing at attention, holding the folder in his shaky hands.   

“Sir, your report is ready for your review Sir.” The Airman forced his words out.  

 Barney snatched it out of the soldier’s hands. Again, the soldier watched his eyes and fingers do their work.  “That’s better, Airman. You’re dismissed.” The young Airman made his way to his desk and sat down, all the while avoiding eye contact.   

Audible update

Chapter 7 is recorded. As a bonus I recorded a sneak peek episode of Emergence Ascended.

Check it out on Spotify!

Audible update: Chapter 6

Today’s recording went well. I’m getting the hang of it, I think. Chapter 6 is a short one; I had intended to push through and get chapter 7 recorded this morning but ran out of quiet time. This is one of my favorites chapters, Frank and Barney meet and Frank goes spelunking. When I wrote this I referred to it as “The story of Frank”. The story of Frank is one of my favorite parts of the story. I think once we get into chapter 7 you might agree. Thanks for reading I hope you enjoy!

Audible update: Chapter 4 in the can!

I recorded Chapter 4 of Emergence collective. Every episode I record sounds a little better, I think. The Audio quality has improved, and my edits are less clunky. At least, that’s how I feel about it. My reading skills are also getting better too. I still have a long way to go before I feel that it meets my personal standards and that of Audible.

Chapter 4 is where the story really starts to gain momentum. You can check it out by clicking the link below! If you enjoy it, be sure to subscribe to my Spotify channel to get updates on episode releases! Thanks for reading!

Emergence collective, Chapter 4

Audible Update: New year’s edition

Audible Update: New year’s edition

                Now that the holiday distractions are over my project to record “Emergence collective,” for Audible is back on track. Hopefully you have been following along. My project has not been a smooth ride. In summary, I decided to record my book for audible, but hiring voice actors/narrators is cost prohibitive, and since my writing is a passion project (and that I am poor) its hard to justify that expense, especially since I have already spent easily two thousand dollars just to publish and haphazardly promote it.

                That being said, I spent more money on recording equipment and asked my friend who is an aspiring voice actor to record for me. After about 2 months of waiting (too many things derailed that, personal family crises, nerves, bad recording environment) I decided to just give it a go myself.

                Its harder than it sounds. If you are not used to reading aloud, it’s a skill that you probably never thought about. And of course, I also had to get used to hearing my voice recorded.  There are a lot of things that go into recording audio books, timing, sound quality (My main struggle as you can hear in the first couple of recording) editing etc.

                Well I pushed through and gained some confidence, my sound quality is improving and I am excited to get chapter 4 recorded on Sunday (No promises, sometimes what I want to do and what actually get accomplished are two different things). Hopefully you are excited to hear it.

you can check out these first 3 (cringy) chapters on Spotify by clicking the links below. If you want to be notified about new episodes be sure to subscribe to my channel.

Emergence collective Chapter 1

Emergence collective Chapter 2

Emergence collective Chapter 3

Audible update Chapter 3

Chapter 3 has been recorded! I am pretty happy with it. Though still not up to quality standards to submit to Audible, but I am improving, both with my narration skills and editing. Give it a listen and let me know what ya think!

In retrospect…

If you are an artist, you must know the urge to “fix” your work from the past. As your skills progress, you start to see the things that would have made your art just a little better. I mentioned in a previous post that I am particularly afflicted with this disease, so my solution is simply to avoid my past projects, instituting the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ law. Another one of my issues is that I have ADHD and was never diagnosed as a child and therefore had never been taught coping mechanisms (never got the drugs either that might have prevented many gray hairs on my mom) to mitigate it. I developed my own strategies simply to survive in a world where people thought an acted differently than me.

I mention that because those two things became apparent when I started recording Emergence collective. One, my ADHD-frazzled brain hastily finished the book and only gave it a glancing review (Admittedly, I never actually read the book from start to finish after its completion). The first chapter has always bothered me. I knew the story I wanted to tell, but I did not know how or where to start, so I jumped in.

As I started to narrate for the audible recording, I realized how horrible that first chapter is (I know I am not really selling you on the book, it actually gets better, it just started rough) and now that I need to rewrite is eating me up.

What is your opinion on rewrites? Should I pull the trigger on rewriting the first chapter and a few other tiny things here and there and release a “second edition”? Or should I just try not to cringe too much and let it go?

Audible Update: A little less sucky.

So I managed to get chapter 2 recorded. I feel that my narration was a tad bit smoother, but I still need to work on the editing and cuts. I still have a constant cringe listening to it, and there are some pretty terrible cuts/edits in there. SO chapter 2 has no usable material for audible yet. I think there is a section that was muted part way through I am not sure what happened there. Its a journey. I feel confident that eventually, I might get the rhythm of it and actually produce something worth keeping. As far as the sound quality goes, I think some of it sounds better, but I am in the dark as to make it work better, I have ZERO experience with the software and pretty much anything that has to do with sound production, design, editing etc… so there is that.

As far as writing is concerned, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t get the opportunity to work on it. Sometimes you have to choose a battle or pick that hill to die on and my choice was recording. It pains me to keep this story in my head and not get any progress down on paper. I feel that there is always a lesson to learn and mine seems to be a re-occurring lesson of patience. Thanks for stopping by!

OOOPs In retrospect I realized I did not put the link. Be sure to follow my spotify page!

Audible update: Always somethin’

One of my favorite sayings, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” is true too many times. Maybe that’s why I like it. It’s a reliable saying. After the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, I had eager plans to do some good writing on Saturday and record on Sunday. Saturday came along, and to be honest, my hangover put a damper on the writing thing. I will not apologize for enjoying friends and family with libations, and I feel I paid enough penance for apologies.Sunday however, my day of recording (mostly because of the silence in the house on Sunday mornings) was derailed due to a windstorm. After reviewing my recording I heard an echo, in the recording that bothered me. The area I record at is just too open and the microphone is too sensitive. I bought some acoustic panels and built a little whisper booth to deaden the echo. However the wind outside blowing everything around and nearly tearing my canopy off the porch, I couldn’t get enough quiet to even start. So Thank you nature, I hate you too. So that’s that. update null. Stayed tuned as Chapter 2 will get recorded!