writer | A Writer at Heart

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

Hi everyone,

If you’ve had a chance to read this blog’s “About” section, you’ll recall that I’ve been a writer for 23 years now. That’s a long time. I still remember that first time I started writing down that first story, how much fun I had writing it, and how much joy I took in hearing my classmates’ reactions to it.

It was then that I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was going to be a writer! Before then, I would say something like “I’m going to be Batman when I grow up!” but after that…telling stories was my future.

And to be honest…23 years later, I feel like a failure. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Those first few years, I found out that becoming a published writer was difficult, let alone living off of it. The stories of ‘making it big’ as a writer were few and far between. Most authors didn’t become famous until after they were dead O_o

But I was dedicated, and I was in it for the long-haul. I would work at it, slowly, bit by bit. I would live my life while writing in the background, striving for that day when I could make a living off of writing.

And then a ray of hope struck a few years ago. I started to get to know more fellow writers, started reading more about self-publishing on the internet, and read the blogs of other writers, such as Michael A. Stackpole, and realized that I COULD become a writer full-time, all it would take was dedicated, hard work.

I set out almost 3 years ago with the goal of: “I will make a living off of writing within 2 years.” And while I failed to meet that goal, In that time I published my first novel, and was on the way to publishing a second!

But then…since this past fall, sales have completely bottomed out. I’ve delayed book 3 indefinitely. And I’ve started to question whether or not I’m a writer. But then, that brings up another question…

Who Am I?

When someone asks what my passion is, I say “writing!” I identify myself as a writer. My Dad even jokes sometimes, if you’ve ever seen the movie Paul, he steals a quote from that movie and introduces me, “This is my son, the writer Jon Wasik.”

If I ever stopped writing…I honestly don’t know who I am. “What about your I.T. work?” I do it because it pays the bills and I enjoy it just enough not to go insane from it. Most of the time, any way. Believe me, I never wanted to do I.T. for the rest of my life. I used to call myself a gamer, but in the past year, I seriously think I can count on one hand how many video games I’ve played. If I was a gamer, I’m not really anymore.

This question has seriously been playing through my head the past couple months. If I fail as a writer…what then? Where do I go from here?

A Shining Star Lights My Way

Thankfully there has been a light in my life… When I turned to my fiancee and told her I’m a failure as a writer, and if I’m not a writer anymore, who am I? …she just looks at me, smiles, and says, “You’re my fiance.”

But more than that, she’s said something that has kept me from spiraling completely into depression…”Don’t give up.” It is something I’ve said to her more than once, and for her to look at me and say it as earnestly as I’ve said it to her… It has been an immense help. She hasn’t given up on me as a writer. And if she hasn’t…maybe I shouldn’t give up on myself, either.

And even as I’m writing this blog, I started realizing…what do people think of when they think of me? I’m a geek, very much so. I’m a computer guy. I’m a dedicated friend. I’ve even been called a moral example. And while yes, I am all of those things, there’s always one thing they say or think of first: “He’s a writer.”

“My son, the writer Jon Wasik.”

My Dad’s half-joking, half-serious, completely proud statement.

Have I failed to make it as a writer? Yes. …for the moment. But as I have read online and have been told, as long as I don’t stop, as long as I don’t give up, I’m still a writer.

Where Do I Go From Here?

As my previous blog post stated, I have to delay book 3 of the Sword of Dragons series. However, my fiancee made a good point…that doesn’t mean I have to stop working on things. I can’t dedicate my time to writing right now for many reasons. But I can’t NOT do something writing-related, because I go crazy otherwise.

My fiancee made a suggestion…if I can’t dedicate my time to getting book 3 ready right now, then I can do something else. In the background, I can start developing other stories. I have SO many ideas.

I can touch up Chronicles of the Sentinels, and start sending out query letters again. I can start developing the post-apocalyptic story that started as a dream a couple years ago. Or the sci fi that started as a nightmare last year. Or develop the genre-crossing fantasy/sci-fi idea I came up with a few years back.

Not finish. Not complete the development phase. But flesh them out. Keep my imagination going. Until I can dedicate my time to the Sword of Dragons again.

“Don’t give up,” she said to me. “Keep going.”

I am so glad to have her in my life…so glad that she believes in me and my writing enough to push me forward…

As a certain author stated in “A Knight’s Tale,” I shall trudge on…