LUMICRON WARNING | KRAN EMPIRE—THE DEEP
SEISMIC ACTIVITY DETECTED…
Entity Classification: En Rohg Guhl Suhr
Power level … Catastrophic
This month has felt like a marathon, and perhaps it is. I’m focused on two projects and both need equal attention and love. The hard part’s just getting started. We’re past the point of mercy, so let’s stay on target.
Town Herald:
Audiobook Chapter:
This is dropping on Sept 15th, available for all subscribers and to Substack at large. I’ve finally gotten a polished product and I want to share it. Have a listen and give me your feedback! If nothing is said, it’ll go in the whole audiobook, which I hope to be selling by the end of the year.
And speak of Maro, his third installment is right around the corner in October. If you haven’t picked up Red Creek, you can find it almost anywhere for $0.99. I want a low threshold for all readers who stumble across my work. I believe the merits of the story will keep you coming back for more. Book three is set to release October 26th, and you can find it on all major public retailers.
The evil have come to play, one bloody card at a time.
AI Writing vs. Human Writing vs. The Audience:
In case you missed it, there was a post on the 15th of this month that challenged the validity of people being able to detect AI. For the most part, I’ve refrained from making overt comments about which is which, but that will soon change, as I will provide the answers.
The post has 4 segments written by AI, and the rest are written by human authors. A bonus challenge is to determine which is written by me. Hint: I changed my writing style for the sake of the challenge, and I utilized a first draft. Read from that what you will. But people are finding it much harder than they realized. I will grant you that it’s easier to detect AI writing on longer works, but if I made the project longer than 300 words, I doubted many people would sit there and read it.
Anyway, click on the link below and take a stab at it in the comments. Can you figure it out?
Writing Challenge: Human vs. AI vs. the Audience
With all the hubbub around AI and the exhaustion surrounding it, I figured I’d write a post on it. Tune-in tonight at 7:30 CST for a Live Event to discuss it among other things. Available to all subscribers!
Live Events:
Going forward, Live Events—if Substack can fix their platform—will either be for all subscribers or only for paying members. If there’s one available to everyone while live, please join us; otherwise, the post will be locked for paying members who might’ve missed the event. If you’re going to support me with your hard-earned money, the least I can do is make sure I’m giving you something extra that’s worthy of that support.
Vol. IV Cover:
Still waiting on Ivan in Italy. He went on vacation while I ordered, so he’s got a backlog to get through. Should be soon, though. Can’t wait.
House Cleaning:
So, I culled our ranks earlier this month and shed a bunch of folks who were not opening emails and participating. I think I will start doing that routinely. Going forward, if someone hasn’t engaged in two months or so, I’ll quietly say goodbye to them. I want an active community. You’re here to either read my books, or to hear what I have to say in my posts. I’d rather have twenty people who open at an 80% rate than 100 followers with 10% click-through.
Battle Formations:
Vol. IV: Draft 5:
Alright, this bastard has taken me the full 15 rounds, and it’s making me heavily reconsider longer books in the future. I say that in jest. Longer books are better, duh. Although I have some advice for Sanderson… Right now, I’m still standing, only because I’m hearing Rocky’s theme song playing in my head, but instead of me yelling “Adrian,” I’m shouting for “The End.” It’s close. Oh. So. Very. Close.
Let’s take a look at the latest cut:
Start Date: 6/8/26
Finish Date:
Editor Due Date: 10/1/26
Prologue: 1/1
Chapters: 50/56
Epilogues: 0/9
Starting Word Count: 265,407 (story only)
Target Word Count: 250,000
Current Word Count: 240,696
Mood: On Life Support.
Yes, I realize I blew past my target, but that’s okay. I wouldn’t have done so if it didn’t need it, and trust me, there were moments… I have had to add a few things as I’ve gone along, making sure it meshes well with Volumes V–VIII, all of which are written now in various drafts. Have no fear, I won’t pull a Martin or a Rothfuss. That said, in the future, I might have to block out four months of time on the final drafts, just so I don’t burn myself out. There have been days where I really had to push myself to keep going. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Audiobooks:
Okay, for real this time. I know I’ve said that before, but each time, it’s been a battle and a learning curve. I’ve recorded several chapters now of Maro’s first book: Red Creek. The last chapter I recorded—at the time of this writing—took me about 45 minutes, and that was just the narration part, not the actual character voices. My throat hated me afterward. That stuff really takes a lot out of you.
Each chapter is in various stages of completion, and I’ll be sharing the first chapter next month with everyone. Paid members will be able to hear about half the chapters of the book, while Ko-dons will get each chapter as they appear. I haven’t decided if members will get every other chapter, or maybe the first five. We’ll see.
I purchased a new pricey software for audio cleanup—something done in the post recording—and oh, my God! It is so worth it. I thought my recordings were really clean, all things considered, but this just elevates it to a whole new level. At first, I didn’t hear any difference, but it allows you to isolate what it’s doing and just hear its corrections, and it’s insane the quality. Compiling is a lot slower now. I could do a 15-minute chapter in about 30 seconds. Now, when mastering the final, that’ll take about 3–5 minutes, but the extra time is worth it.
During this whole ordeal, I’ve come to realize how much work is actually involved in doing audiobooks. It’s crazy! When I first started recording, it fried my vocals fast. I don’t talk that much, and I could barely get through a chapter. Now, I’ve got a little bit of stamina for it.
To record a short chapter of say 15 minutes in length, you should double that for just the rough cut of recording for all the mistakes you’ll make, not to mention about 20–30 minutes of vocal warmups beforehand. Getting the studio set up for recording is about another 10 minutes, and there’s a good 10–15 minutes afterward where I finalize and save the track.
And that’s just narration. The next day, I come in and do character voices.
Afterward comes the editing. I have learned a lot about Logic Pro, and I’ve added the shortcuts and tricks I’ve picked up, but it still takes hours for 20 minutes of narration. And in the character voices, I do many takes, so it’s listening to them all and deciding which I like best, cutting it down, putting it in place, etc. Then, we’ve got the mastering.
As you can see, a lot of work, but I really enjoy it! The part I dislike the most is the actual narration. I could do character voices all day! That’s what I wanted to be when I was a child, be like Robin Williams and do cartoons. I also did some acting when I was young, plays and whatnot, and I enjoyed that. If I were an actor today, I’d be a method actor the entire way. I really like getting into my characters and discovering their voices, much the same way as when I write them and discover their motivations.
The story’s been told, but the journey’s far from over. That’s all I have for this round—short, sharp, and sweet. I shall return…
Oblus ina’ti Sepan Eti.
For a deeper dive, become a Member. For full lore breakdown, join the ranks of the Ko-dons.