Steven Colborne's Blog, page 54

I would appreciate it if…

We shouldn’t say “I would appreciate it if you’d do the washing up”, because that is making a factual statement about the future, when in reality the future is uncertain, and you will only appreciate it if God brings to your body and mind feelings of appreciation in the future, which you can by no means be certain of, because the future is unwritten.

Events only happen on a particular occasion if God wills them to, and God can will things to go in whichever way He pleases, having, as He does, infinite possibilities available to Him in any given moment. God is sovereign over all events, which He actively animates in the eternal present moment.

Instead, then, we should say, “If you do the washing up, I may experience appreciation, and if I do, that will be a pleasant feeling, so please do the washing up”. That statement would be logical and truthful.

This post is the latest in my Praise and Prose series, which looks at the way in which we use language, especially around matters of faith and spirituality, and how that language might change in order to better reflect reality. To follow along with the series, please consider subscribing.

(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)

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Hearing from God

What do you do if God tells you something that is in direct contradiction with something that’s taught in the Bible? The Christian might say, “God will never tell you anything that contradicts Biblical theology.” To take this position is to elevate the Bible above the free will of God. Is it not true that God is an entirely free being without restrictions, and can do whatever He pleases, even if what He says or does contradicts what is taught in the Bible?

I suppose the Christian might argue that God could contradict the Bible, but He never would. Well, the testimony of many people from non-Christian religions would appear to provide evidence against such a position. Or is the Truth that God only speaks to orthodox Christians, and only does so in accordance with Biblical theology? This would mean that anyone else who claims they have heard from God is deluded; even if that number amounts to millions, or even billions of people.

There are only two alternative explanations that I can imagine, from a Christian standpoint. The first is that satan is controlling the thoughts of every person who feels they hear from God in a way that is contrary to orthodox Biblical theology. The other is that God is lying to anyone who hears from Him in such a way, perhaps as part of His plan to damn the majority of human beings in line with the doctrine of double predestination.

One aspect of my personal theological perspective is that God controls the thoughts of every human being without exception, which I have justified extensively in my book, God’s Grand Game. Even if people were to suppose they were hearing from satan, satan is not a free being with free will, but operates entirely under God’s control. So even when people are hearing from satan, they are really hearing from God controlling satan.

The only other conclusion I can envisage is that God truly does speak to people in a way that is contrary to orthodox Biblical theology, because He has a plan for their lives that is outside of the Christian faith. This might be true if God has a positive and meaningful plan for every human being; but this is a perspective that cannot be justified according to orthodox Christianity, which paints Christianity as an exclusivist religion, where one is either saved in accordance with Biblical theology, or damned.

In this post, I have shared a thought process that I have been going through over the last couple of days. I am not trying to promote a particular viewpoint, I am merely expressing my thoughts openly and truthfully. Comments are closed for this post, in line with my comments policy. Thank you for reading.

(Image by Daniela Jakob from Pixabay)

A Guide for Agnostics

In this article, I would like to offer a six point thought process that it is logical to go through when trying to discern whether or not embracing Christianity is a wise idea. I hope the guide will help someone who is currently agnostic but is exploring (or considering exploring) the Christian faith.

Before we begin, I would like to note my own perspective, which is that I find excellent arguments for embracing Christianity, and also excellent arguments as to why Christianity doesn’t make sense. Some of the arguments for and against will come out in this article, but for agnostics who want to go deeper, I have provided a link to an essay I have written at the bottom of the article.

Without further ado, I will state the six aforementioned considerations, with some personal reflections on each consideration under each heading.

Should I Become a Christian?

Six key considerations

1) In order to have a gospel, you have to have some bad news.

If salvation means anything, we must need to be saved from something. So there must be bad news from which human beings might need to be saved. The bad news creates the problem which the good news (the gospel) remedies.

2) Is there really bad news, or is this a Christian fabrication?

Christians locate the bad news in the fall of man, and sin — ideas found in the Bible. But these are concepts (as I have argued elsewhere) which are questionable in light of a sovereign and omnipresent God, for I believe that God’s boundlessness leaves no room for freedom from God, or free will.

The Christian doctrines of the fall of man and sin depend on free will. If sin is a part of God’s will, then surely it is not something that angers God, because He has chosen to manifest it. If sin angers God, then logically, He could simply choose not to create sin. So punishment for sin wouldn’t really make sense if there is a God who is in control of all things.

An alternative but related viewpoint (if we acknowledge the idea of sin), is that God creates sin with the specific purpose of punishing sinners, as part of some grand plan for humankind. This view paints a picture of an unspeakably and arbitrarily cruel God, which I for one find hard to accept. Christians who believe in ‘double predestination’ hold this kind of view.

There are other, non-biblical reasons why God might be angry and feel He must punish human beings, which I have discussed in this post. These are not Christian ideas, but they are worth considering.

The only remaining possibility is that we do in fact have free will, and so we are guilty of original sin and also our own sins. This is the perspective from which the Christian worldview makes the most sense. However, it is my firm belief that an omnipresent God and human free will are logically contradictory and incompatible ideas, so readers are advised to think this problem through deeply for themselves.

3) If Jesus is God, then we must listen to Jesus on the subject.

God is omnipotent and has all authority, so we don’t need to listen to Jesus unless He is either God in human form, as Christian orthodoxy argues He is, or he is instead a chosen prophet, or teacher, whose teachings are important.

4) So, is Jesus God?

Orthodox Christians argue that the Bible indisputably portrays Jesus as God. Muslims, on the other hand, argue that the text of the Bible has been corrupted in order to depict Jesus in a way that has distorted the reality of his prophethood, and made him into God. This, to Muslims, is deeply idolatrous. Messianic Jews believe Jesus is God, while many orthodox Jews disagree. And, of course, there are other religions with their own perspectives concerning who Jesus is.

5) God knows the Truth, so ask Him.

Some Christians insist that questions of theology can only be answered in the pages of the Bible. But is God greater than the Bible?

Because God is sovereign over all events, whenever a book is being written, there is a sense in which God is writing the book, even though He is doing so through one or more human beings under His control. Therefore, I believe it would be correct to say God has written every book that has ever existed, including the Bible but also the holy books of all non-Christian religions.

To me, therefore, it seems logical that God has authority over the Bible and all other books. This is important because it means that we can turn to God for understanding in relation to the doctrines and ideas presented in the Bible.

Asking God in prayer to reveal the Truth about Biblical teaching seems like the wisest thing to do when trying to discern matters of faith. We might pray for God to reveal which religion is true, and which teachings we should obey, as well as whether we should consider Jesus to be a prophet, or God in human form.

Surely, seeking answers directly from God in this way is an act of humility. My own view is that it is not a prideful rejection of the Bible to ask for God’s help with discerning theological matters, but a logical way of discerning Truth. If God were to condemn people for asking Him for direction, that would seem to make God very cruel, and I have found no reason to believe He is.

6) Be obedient to God’s response.

If you pray to God, perhaps He will tell you to follow Jesus, in which case that’s what you must do. Perhaps God won’t answer you at all, in which case I suggest you keep searching and asking. Or perhaps God will direct you to understand Jesus as a prophet, but not God, or will direct you along some other spiritual path.

It’s obvious to me that God has created every religion, and even every non-religious perspective. He has created every human being in exactly the way He wanted, with all their myriad different beliefs. It seems to me that prayer, therefore, is the most logical way of attempting to discern Truth, and is the best method we have for coming to an understanding of which spiritual path we should follow.

Even readers who are unsure about whether or not a God even exists should consider saying a prayer to ask for help. It is too important a matter not to at least employ a little humility and see whether a prayer might work. There is really nothing to lose, other than a little pride perhaps, and pride is not virtuous for anyone, so I would definitely advise taking the risk and humbly asking God for guidance.

I hope that this blog post has been helpful to someone. For a more in depth look at the key issues of Christian theology, check out my essay entitled ‘An Almighty Predicament: A Discourse on the Arguments For and Against Christianity’, which is available from these retailers. Thank you for reading!

(Image by Ludovic Charlet from Pixabay)

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The Presence of God

Welcome to another post in my Praise and Prose series, which looks at how the way in which we use language — especially in matters of faith and spirituality — might develop in order to better reflect the ultimate truth of God’s sovereignty over all events.

Charismatic Christians often discuss their yearning for what they describe as ‘the presence of God’. They will utter phrases such as, ‘Did you experience the presence of God?’ or ‘In that church service, I was soaked in God’s presence’. In this post, I would just like to offer a few reflections on such statements, in line with my objectives for this Praise and Prose series, as described above.

As part of my spiritual journey, I spent some time considering the answers to two important theological questions. These questions are ‘What is God?’ and ‘Where is God?’. These are questions that even theologically inclined Christians don’t tend to consider all that often (at least, in my experience).

Considering these questions deeply led me to an understanding of the boundlessness of God, and I came to believe that God is everywhere, or omnipresent. This subsequently became one of the fundamental aspects of my worldview, and I was forced to consider issues such as free will, divine judgement, and sin, in light of what I had discovered (but these are topics for another day).

It should be obvious to readers that a certain tension arises when we consider phrases that imply God’s presence comes and goes in relation to an understanding of God’s omnipresence. Logically, if God is omnipresent, then His presence is everywhere all of the time. So why do Christians talk about being in — or not in— the presence of God, in the way I have exemplified above?

I believe the way in which these charismatic Christians use language is in error. What they are referring to when they talk about stepping into the presence of God, or being soaked in God’s presence, is actually a feeling of expansive peace and assurance, perhaps joy, which is often the result of being in a praise and worship setting, or deep in prayer.

It would be more true to say “I experienced great joy from the Lord” or “God overwhelmed me with a feeling of peace” rather than the logically problematic statement “I was saturated by God’s presence“. Another way of describing the experience would be — rather than saying “I felt God’s presence” — instead to say, “I felt more aware of God’s existence”.

God’s presence is not something that comes and goes. It is everywhere and in equal measure, all of the time. While our spiritual experiences might change, the presence of God does not.

I hope that readers will understand the logical distinction I am trying to make, and recognise my good intentions with highlighting the linguistic error. My intention is that by examining the language we use around matters of faith and spirituality, we can be more truthful in our utterances, and this will give them more weight when we are engaged in philosophical and theological discussions around matters of Truth.

Thank you for reading.

(Image by J F from Pixabay)

Why Regret is Illogical

Welcome to the latest post in my Praise and Prose series, which looks at how the way we use language might change in order to better reflect God’s sovereignty over all events, which is a key component of my philosophical perspective.

When we regret something, we are feeling that something we did in the past should have been done differently, or not at all. The idea of regret is very much bound up with the notion of free will found in all three of the major Abrahamic religions, but I’m a firm believer that God’s sovereignty over all events necessarily means that we don’t have free will.

In this article, I will briefly explain how I believe our feelings of regret function in reality, and why I feel it could be seen as illogical to express regret over something that happened in the past. I will conclude by considering what the world might be like if we didn’t experience regret.

I believe that God, as cosmic animator, is unfolding the story of creation, which includes the story of each and every human life. God’s guiding hand extends even to our thoughts, words and actions. Therefore, everything that we do throughout our lives happens due to God actively unfolding the events of our lives in a particular way.

If what I have said in the preceding paragraph is true, then why do we feel regret?

Regret is a mode of mind under God’s control. God is in control of our emotions, and so when we feel regret it is because God has aroused that feeling within our consciousness. The emotions that we feel are part of God’s Grand Game and the illusion of freedom that God causes us to experience a lot of the time.

Some people live their whole lives without a revelation of the reality of God, which leads them to adopt the kind of ‘we are our brains’ perspective which scientifically inclined people often hold. Others are conscious of God’s existence much of the time, or all the time. It depends on the extent to which God brings an awareness of His existence to each individual’s mind as we live our lives.

As I mentioned in the introduction, when we experience feelings of regret, there is a sense that what happened shouldn’t have happened. But when we understand that God is unfolding our lives in their entirety, the idea that something shouldn’t have happened makes no sense, as there was simply no freedom in the matter.

Does this mean that everyone can do whatever they like — that there are no moral constraints applicable to human beings?

Well, the starting point for our theology of regret should be to investigate the nature of reality, and to explore whether or not my proposal is true — whether God is truly in control of everything that happens. This will answer the question. My understanding is that in the human dimension of reality we may well make moral decisions, but in the ultimate dimension those same decisions are under God’s control.

In a puppet show, the puppets might express a wide range of emotions, and yet they have no freedom; they are 100% under the puppet master’s control. The same is true of human beings with their feelings of regret, which are really the work of their divine puppet master.

So, if what I have said in this article is true, what are the repercussions?

Imagine a life without any regrets, and without any need to feel guilty or apologise for anything. Such a life, which might seem strange when first considered, is actually logical if we understand God’s absolute sovereignty. And yet, our religious heritage has influenced our way of thinking so strongly that guilt, regret, and apologising have become deeply ingrained in the human psyche, to the point of being habitual — especially to religious people. We are, in a sense, slaves to these feelings, even though they can be understood to be illogical.

Would there be anarchy if we didn’t feel regret? This depends entirely on whether or not God would want to create a world of anarchy. He could just an easily manifest a world of peace and harmony without regret.

It would be a drastic change for us to ditch all our feelings of regret and behave in accordance with a theology that embraces God’s absolute sovereignty, but it would not be impossible for us to do so. In a world where God is omnipotent, things that seem very certain can change drastically in an instant. So perhaps a utopian future without any regret is a realistic possibility.

I hope this article has caused readers to think deeply about why we feel regret, whether regret is logical, and some of the possible implications if we were to stop feeling regret. I’ll be back with another instalment in my Praise and Prose series soon, so if you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to the blog. Thank you for reading.

(Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash)

My Finished Home Audiobook Recording Setup (3/3)

Greetings, readers and writers! I’m in a buoyant mood because after about a month of planning, ordering things, installing things, and glueing things, my home audiobook recording setup is complete.

If you missed the first two posts documenting my progress, they are here:

Home Audiobook Recording Setup

 
Audiobook Recording Setup Update

At the end of the article you will find a list of all the equipment used, with costings.

Since publishing Part 2, I ordered some felt because I wanted to cover the table with a material that would be comfortable and sound absorbing, and would also look better than the naked camping table top. I went for a dark green colour, because I thought in the future that colour would work well for a gaming table, should I ever need one.

To attach the felt I had to be very accurate, because the width of the felt roll was exactly the same width as the table, so there was no room for error.

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I used the same spray glue which I had used to attach the soundproofing panels to attach the felt to the table. I had to spray both surfaces, then wait for a couple of minutes, and then carefully position the felt onto the table top.

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I was very happy with how it turned out. There is an overlap of a few millimeters in some places, but it’s very slight and is preferable to the fabric being too short, so I was happy to leave it.

With the felted table installed, here’s how the setup looked:

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I added in the recording equipment and so the setup was almost complete.

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I didn’t like the mess of cables underneath the table, so I searched on Amazon for a cable storage box which would fit. Fortunately, I found one that was the perfect size and a nice black to complement the soundproofing panels, headphones, etc.

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And with that installed, the very last thing to do was attach the cable that was bringing in power from the bedroom to the skirting board.

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And with that, the setup was complete!

So, below are a few pictures of the finished setup.

As I mentioned in Part 1, I wanted to leave the clothes hanging on the clothes rail to assist with sound absorption. With the doors closed, it’s pretty cosy, but there is enough room to move about a little.

In case anyone is wondering what’s on top of the blue audio interface, that’s just a coaster for the big glass of water which will be an essential accompaniment to the recording process!

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And when the wardrobe is closed, you would never know…

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That’s a wrap!

I hope you’ve enjoyed watching the setup process unfold. I’ve certainly had a lot of fun doing it. The next step will be to test everything in the space is working properly, and then prepare to do some trial runs recording myself reading one of my books.

I have decided which Digital Audio Workstation (that’s the software) I’m going to be using to record the audio, but I will need to spend some time getting to grips with the software and also learning the intricacies of audiobook recording and editing. I will also need to ensure my vocal chords are in good shape (I’ve been singing quite a lot recently, and exercising nearly every day, so fingers crossed!) and that my narrative style sounds reasonably good.

List of Expenses

For anyone who’s interested, here are the costs that were involved with the equipment I purchased for the project. Prices are in GBP and USD.

12 x Bewave acoustic soundproofing panels — £18.99 / $23.61

8 x Premium acoustic panels (Making Waves Audio) — £22.49 / $27.96

Outsunny collapsible camping table — £21.99 / $27.34

MECO deluxe padded steel fabric folding chair — £30.42 / $37.82

Rode NT1-A condenser microphone bundle — £140.60 / $174.78

(includes mic, shock mount cradle, XLR cable, and pop shield)

AKG K52 closed back wired headphones — £32.00 / $39.78

Presonus iOne audio interface — £74.00 / $91.99

TaoTronics LED desk lamp — £19.99 / $24.85

PIFCO PIF2069 4-Gang cassette reel, black, 5m — £10.09 / $12.54

HULAMEDA door draft excluder strip — £6.99 / $8.69

AmazonBasics AB3801-SV-2 door handles — £6.49 / $8.07

Everbuild S2CONADH adhesive spray — £6.01 / $7.47

ORICO cable organiser / storage box — £10.99 / $13.66

Playbox dark green felt roll — £11.99 / $14.90

TOTAL: £413.04 / $513.45

(excludes the cost of my MacBook Pro and DAW software, and a couple of cables I already had)

If you consider it normally costs over £1000 to professionally produce a single audiobook, and that I am planning to record at least three audiobooks, it should be clear that one can save a considerable amount of money with a DIY setup.

Closing Remarks

If you’d like to leave any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment below. And just a reminder that you’re welcome to check out my two earlier posts documenting the setup process:

Home Audiobook Recording Setup

 
Audiobook Recording Setup Update

This has been something of an experiment, and I can’t guarantee everything that I’ve used in my setup would work well for your setup, so please use my posts as inspiration, rather than as prescription, if you understand my meaning

‘The Courage to be Disliked’ by Kishimi and Koga (book review)

[image error]My mental health journey, which has involved several spells in psychiatric hospital and a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, has left me very interested in the field of psychology. I have tried many different approaches to counselling, including group and individual cognitive behavioural therapy, psychodynamic counselling, body psychotherapy, Christian counselling, and others.

I spotted a book in my BookBub daily email which looked interesting, entitled The Courage to be Disliked. I hadn’t heard of the book before, but seeing as it was available to me for free due to my Amazon Prime subscription, I saw no danger in downloading the book to my Kindle and seeing if I liked it. Little did I know that I would be reading one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read.

The book is about a psychologist named Alfred Adler (pictured above), who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, but has received relatively little attention compared with those two giant names in the world of psychology. The substance of the book is a dialogue that takes place between a youth and a philosopher who has spent many years studying Ancient Greek philosophy and Adlerian psychology.

The approach of Adlerian psychology is very different to Freudian / Jungian methods, in that it emphasises teleology as opposed to aetiology. The difference is that teleology looks at life in terms of purpose, with a focus on the present moment, whereas aetiology looks at life as a series of causes and effects, and is more akin to determinism, where our present experiences are understood in terms of a past chain of causes and effects.

I found myself in profound agreement with many of the aspects of Adlerian psychology that are discussed in the book. It really does shine a light on a lot of behavioural problems that are rife in 21st century society. It also has some amazing insights into parent / child relationships, and why they are so often unhealthy. One idea that I particularly like from the book is that healthy relationships are always horizontal rather than vertical, meaning that every person in our lives should be treated as an equal, rather than above or below us.

It’s quite interesting that God is only mentioned on one or two occasions in the book, and when theism is mentioned, it is glossed over without any real attention. It is as if, to both the philosopher and the youth, God is not really relevant to life at all. This is obviously strange to someone like me, whose entire approach to philosophy and understanding the world is centred around God. There are many ideas raised in the book that could have been discussed with reference to theism, but weren’t.

The focus of Adler’s psychology is very much on the individual and transforming their perspective in a way that will make them happier. While this is commendable, the methods that Adler proposes only make sense when society is functioning in a very stable and democratic way. The current Covid-19 scenario is an example of why we really need God as well as psychology, because it is by understanding things about God that we can really come to understand subjects like suffering, good and evil, and why anything exists at all.

So to summarise: On the human level, psychology is very important, and Adler’s philosophy is fantastic, and could prove highly transformative for many people, in my opinion. But on the spiritual level, the book lacks a vision of God, who we need in order to arrive at a perspective that really makes sense of the world — why things are the way they are, how things can change, and how we should understand the search for happiness — the latter of which is the key focus of the book.

All things considered, The Courage to be Disliked is an incredibly insightful book, and I highly and unreservedly recommend it.

The Courage to be Disliked is by Ichiro Kashimi and Fumitake Koga, and is currently available to purchase from Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook formats. To see a full list of the books I have reviewed on Perfect Chaos, click here. Thank you for reading!

Ice Cream Dilemma Poll Results

Hi everyone! You may remember that last Wednesday I ran a poll asking readers to vote in relation to a fabricated scenario involving ice cream.

In case you missed it, this was the scenario:

It’s been a hard day at work and I’m feeling drained. As I leave work, I say a prayer to thank God for the blessings of the day, and ask Him to lift my spirits and give me peace throughout the evening.

A few minutes later, the thought enters my mind that I would like to buy a tub of my favourite ice cream. It’s on the more expensive end of the ice cream spectrum, but I pop into the ice cream parlour to buy a tub on my way home.

For the rest of my journey home, I feel a little guilty about buying the ice cream and wonder whether that money might have been better spent on my kids or put towards something of more lasting value for my home.

So, the question is: Should I have bought the ice cream?

The results are in, and here they are:

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Interesting! With 11 votes cast, it’s not as easy to analyse the results as it would be with a much higher number of participants. But there are two things which I feel are notable about the results:

Two people (independently of each other) added comments saying the desire for ice cream should have prompted a further prayer about whether to go ahead and buy it.
A broad diversity of opinion was expressed. This suggests to me that such a scenario is not black and white, and that even among people with similar beliefs there are countless different ways in which one could feel they ‘should’ behave when faced with a dilemma like this.

Thanks to all who voted and to all who didn’t vote but took an interest in the poll. I’ll be back with more Praise and Prose reflections soon.

God bless you all and have a great long weekend!

Audiobook Recording Setup Update (2/3)

Hello folks! For anyone who might be interested, and also because I like having the process documented, I thought I’d post a quick update about how my home audiobook recording setup is going.

If you missed my first article explaining my intentions with the setup, with pictures of all the equipment I’ll be using, you can read it here.

Yesterday I did a kind of ‘mock-up’ of where everything will eventually go once the setup is complete. Here’s what it looked like:

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Today I focused primarily on getting the soundproofing panels up. I used a spray glue that I bought from Amazon, and had to spray both the reverse of the panels and the wall, then wait a couple of minutes for the glue to partially dry, and finally stick the panels to the walls.

Here’s what the glue sprayed panels looked like:

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And here’s what the wardrobe now looks like with all the panels stuck to the walls:

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I’ve actually ordered 8 more panels (high quality ones) which I’m going to glue to the reverse of the wardrobe doors. These should be arriving on Thursday. I’ve also ordered some dark green felt which I’m going to glue to the table top in order to soak up sound from tabletop movements during recording (and also make the table look a little more attractive!).

The other thing that I did today was attach the insulation strips to the bottom of the wardrobe doors. These will hopefully provide a little extra soundproofing:

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Everything is going really well and I think in about a week’s time I should have the setup finished and be ready to do some test recordings.

As well as the DIY side of things I’ve also been researching audiobook distribution companies as I will need to learn about their technical specifications before I get started with recording. I will also need to learn how to ‘perform’ my books in the most professional way, and I’ve been doing some research on YouTube in relation to this.

I will post another update when the wardrobe conversion is finished so you can see what the final setup looks like.

If anyone reading has any thoughts or advice related to audiobook recording, distributors, performance, etc, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you for reading!

If you missed Part 1 in this 3 part series, you can view it here.

To see the final instalment (Part 3) click here.

(Image by Pexels from Pixabay)

Audiobook Recording Setup Update

Hello folks! For anyone who might be interested, and also because I like having the process documented, I thought I’d post a quick update about how my home audiobook recording setup is going.

If you missed my first article explaining my intentions with the setup, with pictures of all the equipment I’ll be using, you can read it here.

Yesterday I did a kind of ‘mock-up’ of where everything will eventually go once the setup is complete. Here’s what it looked like:

[image error]

Today I focused primarily on getting the soundproofing panels up. I used a spray glue that I bought from Amazon, and had to spray both the reverse of the panels and the wall, then wait a couple of minutes for the glue to partially dry, and finally stick the panels to the walls.

Here’s what the glue sprayed panels looked like:

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And here’s what the wardrobe now looks like with all the panels stuck to the walls:

[image error]

I’ve actually ordered 8 more panels (high quality ones) which I’m going to glue to the reverse of the wardrobe doors. These should be arriving on Thursday. I’ve also ordered some dark green felt which I’m going to glue to the table top in order to soak up sound from tabletop movements during recording (and also make the table look a little more attractive!).

The other thing that I did today was attach the insulation strips to the bottom of the wardrobe doors. These will hopefully provide a little extra soundproofing:

[image error]

Everything is going really well and I think in about a week’s time I should have the setup finished and be ready to do some test recordings.

As well as the DIY side of things I’ve also been researching audiobook distribution companies as I will need to learn about their technical specifications before I get started with recording. I will also need to learn how to ‘perform’ my books in the most professional way, and I’ve been doing some research on YouTube in relation to this.

I will post another update when the wardrobe conversion is finished so you can see what the final setup looks like.

If anyone reading has any thoughts or advice related to audiobook recording, distributors, performance, etc, feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you for reading!

(Image by Pexels from Pixabay)