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

Lofty goals

2023 is off to a good start, and I am excited to continue the momentum. I am roughly one-third to halfway finished with my WIP, “Emergence Ascended,” the sequel to “Emergence collective.” Now that the major holidays are in the past, life is settling down, and I will have more opportunities to get some solid writing done (more specifically, no more excuses to be lazy.).

I do not formally make new year’s resolutions, though I am not obstinate about them; I am more casual about it. I fully realize goal setting and the rewards of completing them; self-efficacy is the reason why we set new year’s resolutions in the first place. I make goals, sure, but less strict than a self-promise to accomplish a specific one. I have a mental roadmap of what I want to do but no set date to accomplish them. my aspirations are fluid and flexible.

After I finish my current WIP, I have at least two more books that are begging to be put to pen. I am very excited about them and I cant wait to start, now I have to decide which one to do first. There are more ideas, too, rumbling around in the back of my mind, stories I have been thinking about for years. So I plan, for 2023, to keep the momentum going. This blog, so far, has helped keep my ADD-muddled mind in check and it has propelled my ambitions, so Thank you to all who enjoy reading it; you’re my wingman (wing person?)

Thanks for visiting, and of course, please feel free to leave a comment. I love reading them!

Holiday Cheer

The holiday season has come! It’s the time of year when friends and family gather together, eat, drink and be merry. Celebrations to attend and shopping for gifts of appreciation are preoccupying our time, and that leaves little time for things like watching your favorite television shows. The entertainment industry has recognized this and has started taking breaks and began to replay holiday-themed shows. For the same reason, I am going to take a quick break from blogging, writing, and other of my creative ventures until after the holiday season has passed.

I made an effort to write more of “Emergence Ascended” (which I did accomplish and feel pretty good about it, too), and I tried to record Chapter 4 of “Emergence collective” (which got derailed).  Schedule conflicts and holiday-themed activities prevented that from happening so that led to my decision to put a pause on all creative activities. I figure it’s better to sit back and enjoy the ride than stress over producing content. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday filled with love and laughter!

P.s.

If you think you are going to miss my posts, feel free to go back and read some of the earlier ones, there are a few stories and musings you may find amusing 😉

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!

Audible update: Progress!

I had a successful weekend of writing and recording. I got my recording settings and volume levels sorted out, and I managed to record the first chapter of Emergence collective. I will re-record it because it’s kinda crap. The narration is a little clunky, and my editing skills are still below the knee of the learning curve, but progress is progress. There is a phenomenon with artists, no matter what the art is that one chooses, be it music, visual arts, dance, or whatever, that when you look back on previous works, you cringe at the level you once were. I noticed this same thing about my writing. I have definitely improved. I think narrating my story will also help improve my future writing skills. As far as my narration is concerned, there is a lot to be worked on, and as I get more practice reading aloud, I think I will find my “voice,” as it were. I also got a crash course in editing. I was editing on the fly, as in fixing flubs as they happen and other intrusive things, like my cat wanting to purr near the microphone.

So if you are interested in listening to Chapter one of Emergence collective on Spotify click the link below.

Thanks for reading!

Audible update. Fate loves irony

So as life goes, irony seems to pop up when least expected. I did manage to get my microphone. I had planned on using Saturday morning to play around and get the microphone set up. Give her a test drive and practice some reading. However, we had unexpected company, so my Saturday morning, the time I usually dedicate to writing, because everyone in the house is usually still sleeping. I tend to get up before everyone because I am used to getting up at 3:30 am, so when I sleep in, it’s usually till about 6 in the morning. Sunday also is a quiet time, but as I said, fate loves irony; this morning, I woke to my phone ringing, and I got the news that a close family friend had passed away overnight. We had recently had a windstorm, and She (at the age of 88) slipped on storm debris and broke her hip. Surgery was scheduled for some time today; however, during the night, there were some complications, and she did not make it.  

One day this project will happen. Anyway, I did get a few minutes to play with the recording. Getting sound levels set up and read most of the first chapter until my son decided to play call of duty zombies and volume. Such as life, right?