Writing Update - June 2026

Well, here I am. Almost half of 2026 has passed, so it's time to assess my writing progress for the year.

Unfortunately, the last couple of months have been fraught with surprises from a publishing platform and a newsletter service, which means I've wasted more time than I care to think about on those issues.

I did a complete redesign of my website so I could have nice landing pages and stop using Books2Read (and to make the site more flexible with many browser sizes). A hefty time sink... And I now no longer have my titles available at any of the small retailers because I pulled them from Draft2Digital.

The newsletter problem isn't too bad (yet), but I had to deal with streamlining forms and welcome automations. It completely disrupted my flow last week.

Oh, and trying to focus on writing with kids home for the summer is always a trial. Especially when I'm attempting to prepare one of those kids for college in fall. I spent all day yesterday making a list of dorm items and shopping Amazon Prime Day for many of them. Writing time? Hahahahaha.

Anyway, I've complained enough. Before the tribulations above, I actually had a greatly productive year. So let's see where I'm at, shall we? And if you want to revisit my goals, you can check them out at 2026 - A Novel In A Year!

2026 Publications

❦ Hell Of An Unlife (Devil Made Me, 4) - Published on May 27, 2026

Yay! Moira's story arc is finally complete. Now go look at the Hell Of An Unlife landing page on my shiny redesigned website. While you're there, maybe buy a copy?

❦ Once Gorgon Bitten, Twice Shy (Magic Morsel, 2) - Late Fall/Early Winter 2026

I'm still on track to complete and publish the novel in a year. Kind of. The first draft is DONE! Quite an accomplishment writing that in five months. Though my revision notes exploded on me, unfortunately. I've started the revision, but I'm currently about two weeks behind schedule. And I now have an unexpected vacation planned in October, so we'll see if I can get everything in order before then (eek!).

2026 Writing Progress

❦ Drafted 78,145 words of Once Gorgon Bitten, Twice Shy (and revised 3,225 words so far).

❦ Edited & Published 17,095 words of Hell Of An Unlife.

❦ Dead As Dreams (Saga of Souls & Dreams) audiobook. Didn't expect this one, did you? Well, it's super early stages. I'm taking narrator auditions on ACX for it right now. Aiming for royalty share because I don't currently have a lot of startup cash. I figured it was time to dip my toes in the audiobook waters.

❦ Okay, I missed March for blog posts, and I'm skipping June for my newsletter. Life happens.

❦ Capricon was awesome this year! Hey, I sold books (actually sold out of Fairies - Fractured and Uncut). And I'm going to register for next year this week! ;)

❦ Social Media - I was posting more often... But my patience and exhaustion level for dealing with social media has dwindled. It's taking a backseat due to all the other stuff that's more important.

❦ Marketing - I've actually been experimenting with Bookbub ads for the Devil Made Me series. Planning a Facebook ad soon.

❦ SPFBO XI - Sadly, Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned didn't squeak into the semi-finals. Alas, I write on! And all 10 finalists will be announced by the end of this month - I plan to highlight them in my next newsletter.

❦

See, it's not all doom and gloom. Just recent doom and gloom. Hopefully the Universe is done throwing speed bumps in my path and I can get back on track with the revisions of Gorgon Bitten. If not, then I'll push the publication to 2027 if need be. Must be flexible. Let's see how the second half of 2026 actually treats me...

2025 - Smashed It!

Wow. That's the only word I have at the moment. Just, wow.

Okay, I guess since this is a blog post, I should attempt to elaborate. 2025 was crazy productive. Guess the Double Time worked? Maybe. Successfully tricking my brain could have been a fluke. I guess we'll see in 2026 when I shoot for the stars without the sneaky brain tricks. Lol.

But I need to focus on 2025 and all that I accomplished before revealing my goals for next year, huh? Yeah. Save all those new goals for another post.

If you'd like to check what my original plan was for this year, take a look at 2025 - Double Time? - I did veer off track, but definitely in a good way! I mention some of the planned changes in Writing Update - June 2025.

Let's see what I actually got done, though...

2025 Publications

❦ Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned (Magic Morsel, 1)

❦ Intricate Agony (Fortunes of Fate, 8)

❦ Hell's Bells (Devil Made Me, 3)

Yes, I published three titles this year - one more than originally planned. Smashed it!

2025 Writing Progress

❦ Revised, edited, and published Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned.

❦ Drafted, revised, edited, and published Intricate Agony.

❦ Drafted, revised, edited, and published Hell's Bells - the drafting was planned, the rest was not!

❦ Drafted and revised Hell Of An Unlife (Devil Made Me, 4) - not planned at all!

❦ Edited Hell Hath No Fury and Hell On Wheels (Devil Made Me, 1 & 2) - mentioned in my June update, and then it took longer than expected.

❦ Downward Spiral (Urban Unicorn, 1) - this draft is now on hold, and I'll be jumping into the next Magic Morsel draft instead come January.

2025 Writing Tasks

❦ Newsletters - 9 sent, as intended, though more new release and cover reveals than planned.

❦ Born To Write - 11 out of 12 months, but that works for me.

❦ Networking & Social Media - Capricon 45 was attended, including the excerpt reading, but I fell flat on my face with the social media.

❦ Marketing & Promo - Did some Facebook Ads, and I also ran Amazon Ads when Dragon Stone was in Kindle Unlimited.

❦ Yes Writing, Screw Cleaning - my house definitely shows I stuck to this goal in 2025 - heh.

2025 Numbers

Yay, I made it to my favorite part of the post! All the numbers!

❦ Words Drafted = 41,635

❦ Words Revised = 78,999

❦ Total Words Drafted & Revised = 120,634 (A good chunk of my 150k For Funsies goal!)

❦ Words Edited = 79,156

❦ Hours Spent Drafting, Revising, & Editing = 272.58

❦ Hours Spent On Cover Art, Formatting, & Publishing = 48.75

❦ Total Hours Spent On Writing & Writing Tasks = 425.25

Wow. I'm stuck on that single word again. My total hours are equitable to 2023 (not 2024 - ha), but I spent more time drafting and revising this year, plus I averaged more words per hour. Just, wow. It feels awesome to have accomplished so much. Here's hoping I keep up the momentum. The end of this year has been kind of meh, but I think I deserve a little downtime. XD

I hope everyone else is happy with their 2025 and looking forward to 2026!

Writing Update - June 2025

Holy shit, what an awesomely productive writing year so far! I have to scream it to the four quarters as loud as possible, as it's an insane rarity for me.

*shouts as loud as I can about how much writing I've gotten done*

OK, now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's get down to business. First order, my word counters to the left. Right now it's just my For Funsies tracker, and this is because I totally haven't been updating the current project one while plowing through shorter titles. Too much of a pain in the patoot. I'll bring it back when I start drafting another novel, which will be later this year. *knocks on wood*

For a refresher on what my goals for the year were, visit 2025 - Double Time?... or don't. You can read on without any context. Fine by me. XD

2025 Publications

❦ Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned (Magic Morsel, 1) - April 16, 2025

Yes, it was published on time (actually slightly early, as my original target was late May). Right now you can find the ebook and paperback on Amazon, and it's also available via Kindle Unlimited. Barnes & Noble also has a paperback version. The ebook will be available at all other major online retailers in October (and at that time it'll no longer be in Kindle Unlimited).

❦ Intricate Agony (Fortunes of Fate, 8) - July 30, 2025

Wait, wasn't I going to publish this one in fall? Yup. I'm currently revising this story (which clocked in close to 12k for the initial draft), and it should be ready to move to the editing stage in a couple weeks. Plus my newsletter subscribers are getting a sneak peek of the cover today!

❦ Hell's Bells (Devil Made Me, 3) - Late Fall/Early Winter

Not only am I publishing titles early, I'm also adding a third to the publication list this year! The first draft has been written, and wow, Moira is as snarky as ever. A little bit of Christmas in Hell, too.

2025 Writing Progress

*takes a deep breath* This is going to be a fun list!

❦ Revised 35,023 words of Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned, and edited all 79,516 words. Published, as stated above.

❦ Drafted 11,509 words of Intricate Agony (and I'm currently 5,866 words into the revision).

❦ Drafted 14,184 words of Hell's Bells.

❦ Drafted 15,942 words of Hell Of An Unlife (Devil Made Me, 4) - What the hell (excuse my silly pun)? This wasn't on my original list of goals! Well, I wrote it anyway, and I'm still way ahead of schedule. This is the last title in the series, and I'm aiming to publish it in Spring 2026.

❦ Excluding editing, I've written and revised a total of 82,524 words so far this year. Over halfway through my For Funsies tracker. O.o

❦ I'll be sending my 5th newsletter out today, and I've actually written a blog post every month.

❦ Had fun at Capricon with my writer friends. Fiddling around with Amazon Ads for Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned and the Trinity Torn series (the latter is no longer wide, but in Kindle Unlimited now for a while). Facebook ads were pissing me off again.

2025 Writing Goal Changes

Aside from what was mentioned above in the other sections, I've also decided to veer off into another direction than what I originally had planned. Following the path that leads to the greatest dopamine hit!

❦ Downward Spiral (Urban Unicorn, 1) is back on the postponed list. I had so much fun with Lila and the wacko characters in Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned, so I intend to dive into the next Magic Morsel novel instead! Title still to be determined. I'll likely draft it first and then settle on another twisted idiom.

❦ Not only do I have revisions and edits to do for Hell's Bells now, but I'd like to clean up Hell Hath No Fury and Hell On Wheels a bit. Not heavy revisions - likely an edit to line up better with my current voice/style.

❦ Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I'm starting to get the itch to return to the Trinity Torn series. No way am I starting the draft of the third novel this year, but I may try to read through the previous titles and note down all the threads that need tying up. I'm really hoping I can end the series in the next book (making it a trilogy)!

❦

What a long post! That's good, though. It means I've been keeping busy. And Double Time has been working splendidly. Oh, yeah, I'm still on the Yes Writing, Screw Cleaning bandwagon, too. Woe is my poor house. Maybe it'll get more attention next year. Or never...

2024 - Lots of Writing, Just Not Lots of Publishing

Well, the end of another year is nearing (that wording makes it sound like there's an echo - damned editor side of my brain), so it's time for me to reflect on all I accomplished. And freak out over how the last 12 months flew by so quickly. Like seriously, time messes with my head.

I got to say, even though I didn't publish a novel or short story, I'm quite proud with my output. Now to take a closer look!

2024 Publications

❦ Magic Morsel - I finished the first serial. Unfortunately, it now needs to move to series status, as Kindle Vella is closing its doors. You have until February 2025 to read it on Vella!

2024 Progress

If you'd like to compare the goals I posted at the beginning of the year, head over to the 2024 - Just Chill post.

❦ Drafted to the end of the first Magic Morsel novel, Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned, and halfway through revisions!

❦ Started drafting Intricate Agony (Fortunes of Fate, 8), but paused to figure out some issues with the story.

❦ Gemini's Echo (Zodiac Aegis, 1) - Are you surprised I haven't worked on this? My priorities are shifting as well, so it's definitely on hold for at least another year.

❦ I sent out 8 newsletters, though one was just an announcement about SPFBOX, and only 4 SHU-WPF Spotlights.

❦ This will be the 9th post on Born to Write for the year. Not one post monthly, but still a decent amount!

❦ As for social media & networking... Went to Capricon, but ignored social media most of the year. I also posted mostly about my crochet projects and new Etsy shop, Speculative Stitches. Eh.

❦ I also entered Dead As Dreams into the SPFBOX contest. Unfortunately, it's been eliminated.

❦ Facebook Ads - I've used them on and off. I still feel like I'm throwing money away, though. It's a rough road getting my writing in front of new eyeballs!

2024 Numbers

Like Lila in Magic Morsel, I love numbers! However, unlike her, they typically don't love me. Let's see what I ended up with this year.

❦ I drafted 42,807 words.

❦ I revised 44,943 words.

❦ That's a total of 87,750 words, which is more than the previous year, and super close to my just for fun goal of 100k!

❦ No editing, but a lot of reading through my writing and working on world bibles. Oops, no number for this one.

❦ 136 hours spent drafting & revising. Less than last year, but that's mostly because of the lack of editing.

❦ Only 4 hours of cover art, formatting, and publishing. This is what happens when I don't publish something - lol.

❦ The grand total of time spent on writing and writing-related tasks this year was 227 hours. For a Just Chill year, not too shabby.

Was it my best year for productivity? No. But I still feel like I made nice progress. Especially since I had a whole month off in there to deal with the mind-numbing project of organizing Youngest's stuff (this doesn't just encompass her room, as she has a bunch of things downstairs, too).

Here's hoping 2025 will require a lot less organizing and cleaning. ;)

Writing Update - June 2024

Why yes, it's that time of year again where I talk about how nothing has gone to plan, everything has blown up in my face, and my goals have been scrambled beyond recognition. XD

OK, OK... I'm being a tad dramatic. Honestly, while my plans have been lightly beaten, they're not as over whipped as they could be at this point. If you don't remember what my hopes for the year were back in January, go visit the post 2024 - Just Chill.

Without further ado, onto the updates.

2024 Publications

❦ Magic Morsel - Kindle Vella Episodes - I've finished writing and scheduling all the episodes for the first serial! A new episode goes live every Friday, with the last two episodes scheduled to be posted on Friday, August 16. So, if you've been intending to read it, pop on over to Kindle Vella and give it a go.

❦ Intricate Agony (Fortunes of Fate, 8) - No longer planned for 2024 (see details below).

❦ Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned (Magic Morsel, 1) - Working title for the revised first serial of Magic Morsel into a novel. Possible publication this year still to be determined.

2024 Writing Progress

❦ I added about 38,000 words to Magic Morsel to reach the end of the first serial, which clocks in at 73,967 words. Yay, words!

❦ Intricate Agony... I actually started drafting this in April and got 4,850 words written. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the story. I have ideas aplenty, and I know how it will unfold, but I'm having issues with my main character. He's feeling like too much of a wet noodle. Plus the initial draft is insanely heavy on description, which is a departure from my usual style. I needed a break to let things settle and think things through, and I'll get back to it at a later date. This means there's no chance of publication this year, though. Sorry if you've been eagerly awaiting the next Fortunes of Fate story!

❦ What do you all think of Leave No Dragon Stone Unturned for the first Magic Morsel title? I like it, but I'm definitely biased. ;) I've started in on a read through of the scenes, making notes for my world bible and revision plans along the way. This is taking longer than expected. And as I note down some questions I need to answer about this world (at least to myself, even if it doesn't show up in this novel), I realize the fleshing out of details and answering questions before I dig into revisions might take a while, too. So, right now I'm not sure if it'll be published this year or next. I may also be taking August off to tend to kids and house, which will disrupt my plans as always.

❦ I've sent out 4 of my 8 planned newsletters, 3 of which had SHU-WPF Spotlights.

❦ Capricon in February was fun! Met up with a couple writer friends, relaxed, bought yet more dice... I'm hoping we can go again next year.

❦ Facebook Ads were pissing me off, so I'm taking a break from them. I'm planning to run one in July, though, as Dead As Dreams will be discounted. Actually, several of my titles will be discounted on Smashwords for the whole month of July. Check out the Summer/Winter Sale starting on July 1!

❦ Finally, I entered Dead As Dreams into the SPFBOX contest (Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off 10)! I'll have a more detailed update about that in my next blog post.

And that's my writing year so far! Trundling along, moving forward, making progress. All good things. I still wish I'd move faster, due to all the stories I want to write and release into the world, but I'm trying to remind myself not to be too hard on myself. Just chill, right?

2023 - Frazzled But Fortunate

This was a rough year. I felt like I was rushing and pushing to get tasks done, which sucked. However, it was still a successful year.

This blog post is my last official writing task for 2023, and then I'm taking a two-week break (aside from working on my Bullet Journal, but that's more meditative than work-related). I need it. I'm exhausted. =P

Let's see how I fared with my goals overall...

2023 Publications

❦ Fairies - Fractured & Uncut (Fractured Fairies Collection)

❦ Dead As Dreams (Saga of Souls & Dreams)

Yes, I published both titles I'd intended to this year! Dead As Dreams being complete is the accomplishment I'm most proud of, though.

2023 Progress

Go ahead and pop over to 2023 - Year of Death and Dreams, if you'd like to compare this year's goals to what I actually completed.

❦ Revised, Edited, and Formatted Dead As Dreams (squee!).

❦ Revised/Expanded Immortal Woes.

❦ Edited and Formatted Fairies - Fractured & Uncut.

❦ Yet again, no words added to Gemini's Echo - this novel is going to turn into the new Dead As Dreams isn't it? You know, where I keep intending to work on it, but it keeps getting put off while I focus on other writing projects.

❦ Newsletters - sent out 6, but not all when I'd scheduled... Had to do some rearranging - heh.

❦ Born to Write - I kind of dropped the ball on blogging once per month. Other tasks and situations took precedence, though.

❦ Social Media - I've pretty much completely cut Twitter (sorry, not calling it the stupid new name) from my time and attention. Good riddance. But I've started posting videos to TikTok - this is way more satisfying, as I love the creativity that goes into making videos.

❦ Marketing - Yes, I got through more Ads for Authors courses! That was earlier this month. I did the Facebook Ads courses, and then I was ready to start some good, targeted ads, when Meta decided it would add a new "feature" that was preventing me from choosing an option on how to run my ads. I'm still waiting for them to fix this "feature" (they said by the end of this month - I'm not holding my breath), and then I'll be running a couple ads, including one to build my newsletter subscribers.

Guess what time it is? Number crunching time! Some hate it, I love it, so I'm throwing the numbers at you no matter what.

❦ No drafting done, since I spent my time revising and editing (though at the end of Dead As Dreams the amount I had to rewrite made it feel like I was drafting!).

❦ I revised a total of 73,687 words.

❦ I edited a total of 255,415 words (yikes!).

❦ 245 hours spent writing, revising, and editing (yes, I did double that number from last year).

❦ 53.75 hours creating cover art, formatting, and publishing.

❦ And the final total is (excluding reading and Haunted Unicorn jobs)... 424 hours spent on writing and writing related tasks! Last year I almost hit 190, so I more than doubled my time. No wonder why I feel frazzled. Also too many writing tasks that weren't actual writing, revising, or editing.

I honestly didn't realize how much time I put into writing this year until I typed up the numbers for the post (I hadn't even glanced at the totals on my handy spreadsheet before starting this post). I mean, I know it's not full-time hours, but I'm pretty amazed at all that I accomplished. Now to find a better balance, so I don't feel like I'm running as fast as The Flash to complete some of the tasks - lol.

How'd everyone else do in 2023? Writing or other goals?

Writing Update - June 2023

Yup, it's June. And every June, I wonder how the year is zooming by so fast. I'm also amazed at how quickly plans can change from one week to the next.

I'm of course talking about the publication of Dead As Dreams. May was a horrendous, anxiety-ridden month. And I'm glad it's in the rear view, but it forced me to change my plans. Again. That plan I had posted back in April? Boom.

I'll survive, though, and so will my writing. I just ended up juggling this year's plans a bit. Seems like this always happens. Maybe I should stick to making a 3-Month Plan instead of a 1-Year Plan. It might save my sanity slightly if I do - lol.

Anyway, if you'd like to see what the original plan for the year was, take a look at 2023 - Year of Death and Dreams. Otherwise, updates below!

2023 Publications

❦ Immortal Woes (Fractured Fairies, 1) - Revised and Expanded - July 12 - This ebook will be FREE at all online retailers!

❦ Fairies - Fractured and Uncut (Fractured Fairies, 1-7) - July 12

❦ Dead As Dreams (Saga of Souls & Dreams) - Fall 2023 - So this pretty much swapped places with the Fractured Fairies Collection.

2023 Writing Progress

❦ Revise Dead As Dreams - I've revised 45,256 words so far, and I'm estimating about 14,000 left to go. See, I just need a little extra time, so unless my world completely implodes on itself, fall of this year is a totally doable publication window.

❦ Revise/Expand Immortal Woes (Fractured Fairies, 1) - As of today, I've revised 3,071 words of this. My hope is to finish tomorrow, adding at least another 500 words. The original word count for this story was 2,500, so it'll be about 1,000 words longer!

❦ I've sent out 3 of the 6 Author Newsletters as well. But I haven't kept up with one blog post per month, sadly.

So I'm chugging along, even though not everything has gone as planned. After I finish the Fractured Fairies Collection and the revisions of Dead As Dreams, I'm likely going to shake my drafting plans up a bit as well.

We'll see what I tackle once I'm done with the revising and editing! Heck, maybe I'll even post about it once I decide. That 3-Month Plan idea is looking more and more tempting...

Dead As Dreams - Update and Cover!

I'm nearing the end of April and I'm not done with the revisions of Dead As Dreams. The main revisions were supposed to be completed in the middle of this month. Clearly I was too optimistic in planning my release schedule with this novel!

That said, I'm still making great progress. I'm approaching the 90k mark, which is 3k more than the draft was before I started revising it (with at least 10k left of that initial draft to wade through). The back half of the novel is getting a major overhaul, though, and that's slowing things down. More like a rewrite, actually - more often than not, the old words are getting chucked into the cut document, making way for fresh storytelling. It's looking like I might exceed the 100k word goal, possibly by 5k or more.

And I don't want to rush through it. This novel has been in the works for so long that I feel it deserves the time and attention before it sees the light of day.

This isn't a gloom and doom post, though! I'm focused and determined to finish. My original goal was to publish Dead As Dreams at the end of May. However, it's looking more like mid to late July now. So a couple of months delayed. Not too bad, right?

Anyway, I would like to leave everyone with a teaser. The cover! It's mostly finalized, but if I get any suggestions for tweaks between now and when I put up the pre-order, it might change a bit. Enjoy the cover, and happy reading!

2022 - Broke The Cycle!

Did I accomplish everything I set out to do in 2022? No. But that's OK. I didn't have a crappy year, like so many other even numbered years. Hell, I actually wrote more days and wrote/revised more words than 2021. Woo hoo!

Of course, 2022 wasn't without struggles, including many other tasks devouring my attention (stupid, messy, house... which is messier than at the end of 2021, if that's at all possible - heh). Some months didn't include much writing progress. One of these days, I'll get the hang of writing more when the kids are home. Probably when they're ready to leave the house - lol.

But this post isn't about what I didn't get done. Nope. It's all about what I accomplished in 2022. So here's the rundown!

2022 Publications

❦ Nymphs Need Love Too (Fractured Fairies, 5)

❦ Do Not Go Gentle (Prequel to Dead As Dreams)

Only one of the two I planned on publishing, but at least I published two, even if one was originally unplanned.

2022 Progress

If you'd like to compare what I accomplished to what I had planned, take a peek at 2022 - Keep The Momentum Going. But if you're just curious about my final numbers, read on!

❦ Revised Nymphs Need Love Too.

❦ Revised 46,190 words of Dead As Dreams (not finished like I wanted, but a lot of progress).

❦ Drafted and revised Do Not Go Gentle.

❦ Added 8,979 words to Magic Morsel - 9 new episodes.

❦ Unfortunately, no words added to Gemini's Echo.

❦ Newsletters - all 5 sent out, as planned. Chains of Nect: Obsidian's Obsession is complete!

❦ Born to Write - Hey, look at that, I blogged once a month. Twice this month, even.

❦ Marketing - I purchased the Ads for Authors course. However, I've only had a chance to watch a sliver of the videos, so I haven't experimented with more ads yet, aside from trying my hand at a couple Facebook ones before I bought the course.

Now for my favorite thing. It's number crunching time! Let's see all my totals.

❦ I drafted a total of 15,225 words.

❦ I revised a total of 63,055 words.

❦ I edited a total of 49,422 words.

❦ 123.47 hours spent writing, revising, and editing.

❦ 17.83 hours creating cover art, formatting, and publishing.

❦ And finally, 189.83 total hours on writing and writing related tasks (up to the time of this post, excluding reading and Haunted Unicorn Publishing work). I actually find this number quite interesting. It's lower than 2021, even though I wrote more days and produced more words in 2022. It either means I'm producing faster, or I spent less time with other writing tasks outside of drafting, revising, and editing. I'm guessing it's a mix of both.

I'm damned proud of all I accomplished, even if I shifted focus (for good reason) with some projects. Here's hoping that I'll be able to tackle all of my goals in 2023. Of course, that's for my January post. I hope you all had a great 2022!

Writing Update - June 2022

Is it writing update time already? How are we almost halfway through the year? Wow, time certainly does fly. Especially as an adult. How I miss those long summers as a kid...

OK, I'm getting off track. Seems like the theme of the year for me. Lots of distractions abound. Mostly life-related ones. Still trying to even out things with my health (physical and mental) and Youngest's mental health. Plus my dad passed earlier this year.

Now summer is throwing me for a loop with the million kid-related events scheduled (I try to not over-schedule stuff - I've never been a do everything parent, but Eldest seems to think she should do everything - she needs better time management skills, but I'm so not the one who's capable of teaching them to her - sigh). Plus the house is in a state of disarray due to an attempt at organization (decreasing the DOOM boxes) and projects (that need the organization done before they can be completed).

Through all the life distractions, though, I've been able to at least get some writing done! I'm not exactly where I wanted to be for progress at this point in the year, but I'm not at a standstill. So, let's take a look at what I've accomplished so far, and what I plan to juggle and change for this year's goals. If you'd like to see the original 2022 writing goals, visit 2022 - Keep the Momentum Going.

2022 Publications

❦ Nymphs Need Love Too (Fractured Fairies, 5) - It lives! I published this back in April, so go snag a copy if you haven't yet.

❦ Dead As Dreams (novel) - Unfortunately, I have to delay the release of this until 2023. More details about it under 2022 Progress.

❦ Do Not Go Gentle (prequel short story to Dead As Dreams) - Yes, I've added this. Since I'm pushing off the novel, and I've had the idea for this short story for some time that's related to said novel, I'm hoping to publish this in Fall 2022.

2022 Writing Progress

❦ Revise, Edit, and Format Nymphs Need Love Too - DONE!

❦ Revise Dead As Dreams - Though I'm no longer publishing this in 2022, I'm still working on it. The revisions are just going slower than expected. I've clearly changed as a writer since I last touched this, and it needs more work than I thought! I've revised 32,406 words so far. About a third of the way through, and the back half needs a lot more work than the front half. This is still my main project. I will not put this novel off again!

❦ Draft, Revise, Edit, Format Do Not Go Gentle - This is the new story. And since it's related to Dead As Dreams, weaving this into my schedule at least keeps me anchored in the same world as the novel. I'm aiming for a minimum word count of 5,000, but not sure where it will land once done. I've drafted 520 words on it so far.

❦ Draft at least 8 Magic Morsel episodes - I actually drafted 10 episodes (8,979 words)! I'm up to 39 episodes of Magic Morsel published. I'd love to get back to this at some point this year, but it all depends on revision progress with Dead As Dreams.

❦ I've sent out 2 Newsletters already, and I'll be sending out 1 more this week (maybe even today). And I've stuck to 1 blog post per month here on Born to Write - maybe I'll increase these again one day, but right now... life.

Yes, progress. Some shifting around of goals, though. It's OK. As long as I'm still moving forward instead of treading water. We'll see where I'm at again come the end of 2022. Until then, happy reading, all!

2021, Way Better Than Last Year

Can we say yay that 2021 was superior to 2020? Yay!

I mean, there were still plenty of bumps, but I actually made progress with my writing, including three publications. That's a big win for me.

This post is a bit earlier than usual, but unless I get the motivation to add more words to Magic Morsel before the end of the year, I'm calling myself done. Decompression break to prepare for a productive 2022. Yes? Yes.

Here we go with the data for 2021!

2021 Publications

❦ Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7)

❦ Bytes Bite, And So Do Fairies (Fractured Fairies, 4)

❦ Dawn of Fate (Fortunes of Fate 1-6 - Collection)

After nothing released in 2020, these three publications feel amazing. If you haven't grabbed a copy of one yet that you've had your eye on, treat yourself for the holidays!

2021 Progress

So, how exactly did I fare with the goals I set out for myself at the beginning of the year? If you'd like a reminder of what I had planned, wander on over to 2021 - This Year Has To Be Better.

❦ Completed revisions and edits of Well of Solitude.

❦ Completed revisions and edits of Bytes Bite, And So Do Fairies.

❦ Completed drafting Nymphs Need Love Too (Fractured Fairies, 5).

❦ I only added 1,884 words to Gemini's Echo (Zodiac Aegis, 1)... BUT...

❦ Due to the announcement of Kindle Vella, I started drafting Magic Morsel. I've currently written 27,037 words on that project!

❦ No blog posts in August, but at least one all other months. And the newsletters went out as needed (I've decided December isn't the best newsletter time unless I have a holiday related title releasing).

❦ The Year of Cats kind of evaporated on Instagram. I'm still posting pictures there occasionally, though. Social media can be such a time sink!

Now for the nitty gritty. The big, overarching numbers for the year. You know, what I love. XD

❦ I drafted a total of 39,232 words.

❦ I revised a total of 17,934 words.

❦ I edited a total of 71,033 words.

❦ 104.75 hours spent writing, revising, and editing.

❦ 42.08 hours creating cover art and dealing with other publication tasks.

❦ And finally, 222.08 total hours on writing and writing related tasks (per usual, up to the time of this post, and this excludes reading as well as any Haunted Unicorn Publishing work).

Wow, I hit most of my goals. How'd that happen? I mean, Magic Morsel ousted Gemini's Echo, but I wrote almost 29k words between the two projects. That puts me at 13k short of my word count goal for Echo. With some ups and downs throughout the year, that's damned good for me. And a million leagues better than 2020.

I've already planned 2022, so watch for that post in the first week of January. Even years seem to be a thorn in my paw, but I'm determined to break that cycle. But more about that in the next post.

Happy holidays, all, and try to enjoy the rest of your 2021 before it disappears!

NaNo 2021 - Final Wrap-Up

Where exactly did the month of November go? Well, it's gone. That's for sure - lol.

My kids failed as spectacularly as I did. Maybe if I had pushed myself more, they would have as well. But as usual, November ended up being such a rough time to write. Between planning holiday gifts, Thanksgiving, and some family issues to deal with this year, the second half of the month blew up in my face.

I did add 6495 words to Magic Morsel, so I exceeded 2020's total. And hey, I have episodes scheduled for that on Kindle Vella through the end of the year now. ;) Any progress is good progress, yes? Yes.

My 25k goal was still overly ambitious, though. That goal changed the first week, as I felt burned out after three days straight of writing. I think next year I'd rather take a look at my monthly word count average, and then aim to up it slightly for November. Now, if I remember that, all the better. In all likelihood, I'll want to try to torture myself yet again with an insane goal because... NaNo!

It's time to take a look back at how 2021 went and plan for 2022, which will be my next two upcoming blog posts.

I hope all of those who tackled the NaNoWriMo challenge are happy with their accomplishments for November, even if 50k wasn't reached!

Writing Update - May 2021

I felt it was time for a writing update. Though as I started writing this post, I realized I'm behind on posting Chapter 27 of Chains of Nect! Oops. It'll have to wait until next week or June (I'd say the first week of June, but since I'm due for my second vaccine, I may be out for the count that week). May has been a bit of a crazy month. =P

Anyway, I can at least say I'm happy with my progress for the year so far. I feel much better than I did at this time in 2020 as far as my writing goes, though May has been a bit of a bumpy month for motivation.

The best thing for 2021 at this time - I'm ahead of schedule! I know, kind of crazy, isn't it? I always feel perpetually behind most years. I guess I aimed my goals in the sweet spot this time. If you want to peek at my original 2021 plan, here's the link: 2021 - This Year Has To Be Better.

2021 Publications

❦ Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7) is out in the world. It felt amazing to finally publish something again.

❦ Bytes Bite, And So Do Fairies (Fractured Fairies, 4) is on track to be published in July. Hopefully I'll have a cover reveal next month!

2021 Project Progress

❦ Obviously I finished the revisions and edits for Well of Solitude. Yay!

❦ Revisions on Bytes Bite, And So Do Fairies are complete, and edits are scheduled for next month.

❦ The first draft of Nymphs Need Love Too (Fractured Fairies, 5) is complete! It came in around 10k words.

❦ I've already added 1.8k to the first draft of Gemini's Echo (Zodiac Aegis, 1). Here's hoping I exceed the 42k goal on that this year (knock on wood).

❦ I've been blogging at least once per month (sometimes twice), and I'm mostly on top of the newsletters. I've lapsed on posting my Year of Cats pictures on Instagram... I might have to blame video games for forgetting about that one so often - lol.

As you can see, I've had a pretty productive writing year already!

If I happen to finish the first draft of Gemini's Echo early, I'll dive into another one of my projects waiting in the wings. Should it be the Dead As Dreams revision, the Downward Spiral draft, the next Fortunes of Fate draft, or continue Zodiac Aegis with Taurus's Aura? What do you think?

Happy reading and writing, all!

2020, I'm Breaking Up With You

Sorry, 2020, but I'm ending it.

I'd like to say it was a good run, but if I'm being honest, it was painful. Excruciating. Torturous.

I know the grass is always greener saying, but 2021 has a twinkle in its eye. It may treat me just as badly - that's a chance I'm more than willing to take at this point. Anything has to be better than this.

Unfortunately, I can't say it's me and not you. Because it's totally you. You've treated me (and many others) horribly.

I'd like to think I'll eventually look back on this time with a few fond memories. Nope. No way in hell.

You scrambled my senses, laughed at my aspirations, and made sure my progress stagnated. Your time was always more important than my own. Utter selfishness.

The only positive I can pull from all of this is that you likely made me stronger, more willing to adapt as needed, even if it means doing something I never imagined doing before. Isn't that always the case, though? We learn from the bad. And, oh man, you were bad.

So, with a sigh of relief, I bid you adieu. All the cliches come to mind: don't let the door hit you on the way out, you're getting kicked to the curb, miss you never, sayonara sucker. Ad nauseum.

That time of yours you so valued above my own? Yeah, it's run out.

❦

Author Note: I hope you liked my Dear John letter of sorts. I'm sure many of you are feeling something similar! I won't be talking about what I didn't accomplish with my 2020 writing goals, as I think the above says enough. Next week it'll be 2021, and I'll have a fresh new post with my goals for the New Year. Happy reading!

Image by Jazella from Pixabay

It's Been A While - June 2020 (Writing Update)

The Staind song aside (yes, it's stuck in my head now), it has been a while since I posted. Actually, I was supposed to post last week. And I had the post all written up. Then the new Blogger interface ate it. Yes, gobbled it up.

I was having issues with the new interface to begin with (30 minutes to add tags to my post, no thank you), and I'm decidedly not thrilled with it. Heck, I was furious with it last Thursday. So, I'm now writing up my posts in Scrivener, and I managed to revert back to the legacy interface on Blogger (and I'll keep it like that until they pry it from my cold, dead hands).

I'm a little less cranky about it. OK, not really, but I'm currently channeling Grinka.

Yes, I'm back to writing! And though it wasn't on my schedule, I'm drafting the next Fractured Fairies story, currently titled Bytes Bite, And So Do Fairies. And I already have the urge to write the next story, too.

Thankfully the anxiety has lessened a bit, and I'm done homeschooling my kids for the school year. The world is still in a bit of a tumult, obviously, but I won't get into my feelings over all of it because then the anxiety starts to rear its ugly head, and I can't have my mental health completely deteriorating on me.

For now, I'm writing again, and that feels great. Who knows what will happen come Fall, though - more homeschooling? Until then, I'm going to keep plowing ahead.

The yearly plan has been completely uprooted, of course. I never seem to learn with this whole planning thing. It never works out. My best laid plans don't just go astray, but blow up in my face in spectacular fashion. I kind of do feel like Grinka sometimes. Let me tell you, her current plans aren't unfolding as she wished either. Per usual, it's all the fairy siblings' fault.

Anyway, here's how the year currently stands. If you'd like to compare it to my original plan, you can find it on the 2020 - Keep On Rollin' post.

2020 Upcoming Publications

❦ Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7) - Fall 2020 - Yes, I've now pushed this out 6 months later than originally planned. It's also the only publication that I now have planned for 2020.

2020 Project Progress

❦ Chains of Nect: Obsidian's Obsession - Rough draft complete - yay! And I've already sent out one of the brand new chapters in my Author Newsletter, which means I'll be posting it here in July, as well as on Wattpad.

❦ Bytes Bite, And So Do Fairies (Fractured Fairies, 4) - Again, this wasn't on the original plan for the year. I'm almost 7k into the rough draft, though, and I might have 2-3k left. I really needed to let loose with Grinka, Syndago, and the fairies before getting back to more serious stories.

❦ Well of Solitude - I'm about 4k into the revisions of this. I'd just started working on it when the pandemic hit the fan, so to speak. Once I finish the rough draft of Bytes Bite, I'll be returning to this. However, I was wrong, it likely won't turn into a novella. My brain finally resolved some issues I had with the story, but it means more of a re-write for half of it, instead of just a revision. I'm hoping it will still come in around 16k when all is said and done.

❦ Dead As Dreams, Fortunes of Fate 8, and Downward Spiral are now all on pause. I'm not sure when I'll reschedule them. It completely depends on what school looks like for the kids in Fall. Drafting is much easier than revising with the kids around, and humorous fantasy flows a lot better while all the serious stuff swirls around in reality. I think planning only one project at a time is the best bet right now.

❦ My main goal for the rest of the year is to keep on plugging away and pushing forward. The good thing is, even with all the anxiety, the ideas never stopped coming, and some are bugging the hell out of me. I want to write all the things NOW. So, once I'm done with the Bytes Bite draft and the Well of Solitude revision, I'm going to let my brain pounce on whatever project asserts itself the most next (at the moment, that's another Fractured Fairies story, but that could always change).

❦ Nope, not discussing blog posts or newsletters. No way.

That's what things look like for me, though. I hope among the tumult, you've all been able to find at least a sliver of focus on something (anything, maybe even reading). Now let's hope I don't have to type this post up a third time.

2019, Gone In A Blink

Ah, 2019... Here today, gone tomorrow! At least that's what it feels like to me. This year, it firmly feels like time ran away due to my productivity, so that's good. I mean, I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do, and some plans shifted, but I do feel I've run many miles (in other words, written a lot of words).

Is it time for numbers yet? Remember, I love numbers. No, not yet? OK, I'll wait patiently. Sits on hands. Wait, I can't type up this blog post if I do that...

Anyway, first I'll go over the publications for the year, and then I'll list my progress, including some numbers.

2019 Publications

❦ Born of Blood and Souls: 13 Dark Fantasy Stories & Poems

❦ Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2)

So, two publications this year, and I honestly think this is a good goal for the next couple years ahead (Spring and Fall releases?). But more importantly, finally publishing Thorns lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. I hate it that it took so long, but it's finally out there! And I almost forgot to mention - you can get the paperback version now on Amazon, too!

2019 Progress

❦ Completed the revision and three edits of Thorns Entwine the Blade.

❦ Completed the rough draft of Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7), which came in at over 15,000 words, and may hit 20,000 during revision.

❦ Wrote almost 5,000 words for the rough draft of Downward Spiral (Urban Unicorn, 1).

❦ A bunch of job requests for Haunted Unicorn Publishing!

❦ Wrote 19,554 words of rough draft material.

❦ Revised 48,690 words.

❦ Edited 205,439 words (this excludes my third edit of Thorns, since that was a quicker edit, applying my editor's suggestions).

❦ 30 blog posts (including this one).

❦ Spent 171.58 hours writing, revising, and editing.

❦ Spent 45.62 hours formatting, working on cover art, and publishing.

❦ In total, spent 344.05 hours on writing and writing related tasks (up to this post, and not including my Haunted Unicorn work or reading, aka market research, this time).

I think those numbers look a lot better than the ones from 2018. Don't you? No, I'm not linking to the embarrassing 2018 post. Let's just forget 2018 ever existed. Yes.

However, I will leave the link to my goals post from the beginning of the year: 2019 - Determination.

You can compare those goals with what I actually accomplished. The initial planned schedule didn't quite work out, but I have adjusted things so I can fit in 3 hours of writing/writing tasks on school days (unless other crazy things crop up). I'm pretty comfortable with the schedules and routines now in place!

Here's hoping 2020 will be even more productive. I'll post my goals in a couple of weeks! Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of 2019. I'll leave you a pic of this year's new ornament on our Yule tree!

NaNo Report 2019

If you were watching the word meter at all, you'll see I only wrote about 4.9k words for NaNoWriMo. November seriously never seems to go as planned!

I actually spent a good week of the month doing one final editing pass through Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2). And then... release week... I got sick. Which meant all of my release plans were slow to roll out and pretty delayed. That darn NaNo Crud, it never fails to fell me.

After being sick through the Thorns release, I was looking forward to a nice quiet weekend with Hubbie, kids at grandma's. Unfortunately, the kid-free weekend started with us hitting a deer on the way to dinner. =/ Dealing with that, of course, tumbled into the next week. We likely won't even get our car back until mid to late December.

Needless to say, stress and sickness and what not found me up against a mental wall and I also felt completely scattered. I decided I needed a break from writing - drafting and revising - until 2020. So, progress on Downward Spiral and NaNoWriMo 2019 came to an end for me about mid-month.

I still have plenty of writing tasks that I need to clear off my to do list, so I haven't been completely idle. You'd think the bulk of the work would be drafting and revising, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it! I'm looking forward to planning 2020, though. That should help with my scattered feeling. Though with my current thoughts Spiral and its sequels may be put off for a few more months just so I can complete a couple other projects instead of worrying about them not getting completed.

One of the things I worked on last week was formatting the paperback for Thorns Entwine the Blade! My cover artist also got me the paperback wrap rather quickly (so awesome - AMDesign Studios), and the proof arrived swiftly as well, so... it's now available to purchase on Amazon!

It feels great to have Thorns done now, and quite frankly, I think it's a better book than the first in the series, Mind Behind the Mind. But my opinion doesn't really count, does it? I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it!

Anyway, pushing on with December, not getting too upset about the NaNo flop, and next post will be looking back at my progress for 2019. Happy reading, all!

Halloween 2019

Happy Halloween, 2019!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been diligently making progress on several things, though. The first draft of Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7) is complete, and I've already received some critiques on it. Revision and release likely won't happen until 2020 for that. And I'm also doing a final round of edits on Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) for the November 13, 2019 release! And other little boring, writerly tasks...

Oh, and NaNoWriMo is coming up!

But this post isn't about writing all the words. It's that time of year again - the time of year I love. Unfortunately, this year I've been having a hard time enjoying Halloween, per usual. Worrying about other stuff tends to do that.

However, we've already had our Halloween party for the year (which reminds me, next year we won't be hosting one - maybe I'll be posting Halloween related pics from Disney World, though), which means I have a handful of pictures to post.

Not too many are below. None of me again. I stuck on my cat ears and tail and called it a year, so only got a family picture instead of an individual one. As I said, it's been a little rough getting into the Halloween spirit.

Pumpkins, pumpkins! Nope, jack o' lanterns! Mine is the starry-eyed emoji face one, and the 5-year-old attempted her first pumpkin carving on her own (which one do you think it is? - lol). My eldest was lazy with the cat head, whereas Hubbie was lazy per usual with a simple face.

New little bat fences this year. I figured it was time to add something new to the outside since I usually don't have too much set up there. I'm not a fan of the huge inflatable things, and every time I consider putting up some gravestones I decide against it, so I went lower key with the bat fence on each side of the walkway. Dollar Store purchases, but I don't need anything fancy!

This was my favorite addition to my decorations this year. There was a unicorn skull as well (I'm obsessed with unicorns, so it was hard to resist and choose between them), but I ultimately chose the dragon - look at the fire!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween. Don't forget to find a black cat to cross your path for good luck (yes - good luck - poor things get a bad rap, and I can attest that our Nightshade is just derpy, not unlucky)!

Life, the Universe, and Writing, aka Writing Update - September 2019

I know, it hasn't even been three months since my last writing update, but this post seemed appropriate now. Would you rather I post again about Summoners War? I didn't think so.

This time, I'm just going to note a few things and try to keep it brief (this is difficult for me, of course, as I tend to ramble on if you haven't picked up on that already).

2019 Fall Updates/Notes

❦ Blogging is being dropped down to sporadic. This will allow more time for me to focus on writing! So, after this post, I'm not sure when the next post will be. Hopefully before the end of the year, unless life sweeps me away.

❦ Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) is now planned to be released in November 2019, due to my editor's schedule (and me overestimating just how much I could get done during summer with the kids home).

❦ Though the release date for Thorns has been pushed back, I have completed both the major revision and the consistency edit. The manuscript is currently waiting at my awesome editor. Once she gets it back to me, it will be on to final edits and formatting!

❦ I'm easing into my new writing schedule with both kids in school full-time. Last week was an odds and ends week, but this week I started in on the draft for Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7). And yes, I've settled on Solitude. I wrote nearly 3,500 words in just two days. This is amazing for me, and I think I'll enjoy this new schedule once I get used to the routine! Now to figure out where I'm going in this story, especially since it seems like it wants to be longer than I originally expected...

❦ I've added a new Mantra for myself, as I didn't want to wait to add it until next year: Embrace My Process. This is to help remind myself that I shouldn't feel like I'm "doing things the wrong way". I have to ignore the "you should do it this way" voices that are all over the internet, particularly in writing groups/forums. I need to do what works for me because I'm not everyone else, I'm me, and if I try to do what works for everyone else, I'll just struggle and waste time. I know, this seems like a simple realization, but it really only sunk in when I started watching Becca Syme's The Quitcast. So, I'm trying to allow myself to embrace my strengths as far as my process goes (no, I haven't taken the test to determine my strengths, but she's gone over a couple already that I know I align with).

I think that's it, finally! Pretty short, right? For me at least.

Oh, one more thing. I watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Why did it take so long for me to watch it? It was amazing! Not going to do a whole blog post on it because I'd probably just be gushing. But I hope they make a sequel!

Until the next blog post... Happy reading!

Writing Update - June 2019

I figured it was about time I posted a writing progress update. I'm still not quite sure how it's almost the end of June, but here we are -- half the year gone! Eek.

At least I don't have that writer's guilt like I did this time last year.

Why not? I've made progress. Lots of awesome progress. So much progress that I have a tentative release date that I actually think is feasible for Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2).

Of course, that could all explode in my face. I'm knocking on more plywood...

If you want a reminder of my goals for the year, pop over to my 2019 - Determination post. And here's what's happened in 2019 so far (and if you want to scroll to the end, you'll see the tentative release date for Thorns):

2019 Project Progress

❦ Though I didn't have it listed in my 2019 goals, I published Born of Blood and Spells: 13 Dark Fantasy Stories & Poems in March. I'm glad I had the chance to get this extra side project done!

❦ As mentioned, I upped my blog posts to once a week again for a while. Then I decided it was too much extra work right now. Got to focus on writing and publishing books, right?

❦ That one picture a day on Instagram thing? Yeah, that fell by the wayside. I got sick and enmeshed in other tasks. I'm still hoping to post more often on there, but it might not happen this summer.

❦ Newsletter has been released monthly, and while I'm a little behind on Critters critiques, it's not so bad that I can't catch up before I need to submit Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7). And yes, that's the title I've landed on. Finally.

❦ I've drafted a couple of scenes for Well of Solitude, but it's mostly been put on the side until I finish revisions of Thorns.

❦ Finally, I'm only two chapters away from finishing the main revision of Thorns Entwine the Blade! And I'm pretty much on schedule for the year (after a few ups and downs, it all evened out). Now those last two chapters need the most work, and my final word count is going to be higher than estimated, but that's OK. Once this revision is done, I'm going to do a quick consistency edit, which shouldn't take more than a month, and then send it off to my editor!

I suppose that means you might want to hear the tentative release date for Thorns? Remember, this is still a maybe. It depends on my editor and how Fall kicks off for me. But if everything works out as planned...

Thorns Entwine the Blade will be released in October 2019!

So, three years after Mind Behind the Mind was released, the sequel will finally be out in the world (the exact same day if I want to release on a weekend -- heh). I know, a long time span between. Life, I tell ya. Better late than never?

I'm pretty darn happy with my progress so far this year. It's not at the level of many other indie authors, but I'm still moving forward, and that's what counts. Here's hoping the second half of the year is as productive as the first half!

How have you all been doing on your yearly goals? Whether it be for writing, school, or any other projects?