Hello, there!
Welcome to 2024! Let’s hope it’s a better year than the previous four!
I thought I’d kick things off by just letting you all know what I’m working on these days, and where I’m at with them. So let’s dive in, starting with my next audiobook!
Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon
Earlier this week, I finished recording Burning Skies! That doesn’t mean it’s ready to go, not by a long shot, but it is a huge milestone!
What’s next? Well, editing primarily. Throughout the process of recording, I occasionally took days off from voice work and did editing, so I’m not starting from scratch on it, but I do still have about 3/4’s of the book audio files to edit, so it’s still a long ways to go!
I also know for a fact that there are some dialogue sections I’ll need to re-record. Especially for the crystalline entities known as the Navitas – I started off voicing them one way in one chapter, and then later changed my mind and voiced them different, so I’ll need to re-record those earlier dialogue sections. Not a huge deal, and shouldn’t slow me down much.
After that, I’ll need to ‘listen to it in the wild,’ taking the MP3 files and listening to them while driving, exercising, etc, to see how it sounds and if anything needs additional work.
Project Sirius Book 2 Will Be Out This Year
I finished writing Project Sirius Book 2 (title still undecided) last year, so the hardest part is already done ;) Today, taking a break from, well, everything else, I started another round of proofreading on it.
Once that’s finished, I’m hoping to start working on the publication package. I’m…well, sad that I haven’t gotten further feedback from beta readers. But I can’t wait forever, so I’m going to move forward on this one.
Right now, due to the whole job furlough situation, I can’t afford to engage the cover artist, but that situation will probably be resolved soonish. (More on that further down.)
I already know what I want for the cover, and should be able to communicate it very easily to the artist, so I expect work on the cover to go fast :)
The Sword of Dragons Book 5 Stalled
Unfortunately, writing book 5 of the Sword of Dragons has…stalled.
And I can’t really point to just one reason for it. Part of it is…struggling with stress and anxiety, so creativity is hard to come by. (That whole job furlough thing.) Also, due to the delays to audiobook recording, I focused heavily on that lately, and that left little time for any other creative efforts.
Will I start it up again soon? That’s the plan! Though it’s a bit frustrating, because I really want to write Project Sirius Book 3!!!!!
Anything Else On The Side? Why, Yes!
Long-time readers of this blog know – I’m a gamer. It’s one of the ways I decompress. But when I game, I often find myself playing survival games that allow building structures, ships, etc. I’ve loved building starships on Starfield, for instance!
But a big project that I’ve collaborated with my wife and my best friend on is getting closer to completion, and I’m excited to share it with folks soon! In the video game 7 Days to Die, we’ve recreated the Raccoon City Police Station from Resident Evil 2 Remake! It’s taken months, and there’s still a lot of work to be done on it, but most of that now is detail work :D
Back To Work?
Speaking of my job furlough earlier, I’ve reluctantly acknowledged that, for now, I cannot yet make a living off of voice acting. As a beginner, the most I could expect is maybe $1k/month, depending on the projects I could get outside of recording my own books (and those pay considerably less ;) ).
That’s not enough, by a long shot, to live off of. Hence why I always intended to try to segue into it part-time at first. As does happen frequently in my life, those plans are always shoved aside.
So I’m going to start actively looking for a new day job.
I don’t really have a choice.
My novels are selling better than ever, but still fall far short of ever becoming sustainable, my voice acting isn’t even close yet either, and there has been zero interest in my Patreon :(
What does that mean for creative stuff? It means the output frequency is going to drastically decline. Who knows when I’ll finish writing my next novel. Who knows when I’ll finish my next audiobook.
I’m back to square one.
But I gotta do what I’ve gotta do to survive.
On the bright side, I acknowledge that a lot of my resistance to day job work has been toxic managers or work environments at the last couple jobs I’ve worked. So I’m going to try to be a bit more discerning with whom I apply to and accept a job from. I recall from past experiences that I absolutely loved I.T. work when I was with companies and had coworkers that I loved!
True, I might not have a choice at first, I might have to take whatever comes my way right away. But I’ll definitely try for better.
Anywho, that’s all I’ve got for today. Thanks for reading! And if you feel like helping out a poor, starving writer/voice actor, tell your friends and family about my work, like my posts, subscribe anywhere you can, and especially to my Patreon page!
-Jon Wasik
A Writer at Heart 