Beginning 2025

Overview of the Past Year

In the last year, I have been busy writing, honing my reading skills, and exploring publication options. My goodness, that doesn't begin to convey the amount of work that goes into those things.

In the writing zone, I wrote Project G, self-edited Project G three times before starting the Beta cycle, generated three new novel ideas (yet untitled), and revamped the outline on my DU series. If you want more in-depth info on my projects, that is need-to-know privileged information you can access through my newsletter. Also, I made a newsletter! I look forward to learning about and exploring it because I am trying to find new ways to connect with everyone.

Reading is a different beast. I have been very random over the last year. I am a high school teacher with a classroom library for my students. So, I did a lot of reading to try to add to it, especially in genres I didn't typically read. I believe it helped me grow as a reader because genres I usually would treat like brussels sprouts turned out to be more enjoyable than I was expecting. However, in the next year, I want to hone in more on comparative titles (books that are similar to what I write) to help me discover more nuances in fantasy and its many subgenres.

As for publication, I have been on a teeter-totter. I have been and will continue to be querying Project EST. This means pursuing traditional publication. This means getting an agent, then a publisher, and the publication happens. It is a time sink, but it balances me more between being a teacher and an author. I have also been researching self-publication. Authors I am friends with are mostly Indie, and they laud the freedom that comes with taking on the small business responsibilities of independent publishing. I like the idea of self-publishing, but I don't know that running a business is something I can do well while writing and teaching. That would be three full-time jobs instead of two. My bottom line, is I am willing to do the work necessary to get my books into the world one way or another. I believe that they are stories that need to be shared. They have helped me; if they can help others, too, that's my hope.

Setbacks and Overcoming the Hurdles

I have been experiencing some life-implosion in these first few months of 2025. My health has not been the best. I don't know how to go into that tactfully or in an upbeat way. I'm not dying! There we go. I have some unknown health issue, but the one thing my docs agree on is I'm not dying, and I'll take it. However, it has put a damper on my plans to be more active on social media. It has been hard to sit and write posts like this or, worse, try to show up on camera with how my body is fighting me while I am trying to maintain all the things life requires you to. Teaching has become incredibly challenging because of what's happening, and I have only maintained writing because I would probably go insane if I didn't. Hopefully, answers are on the horizon. They aren't here yet, but I'm not giving up. In the best-case scenario, this turns out to be something so easy to fix that it feels dumb. In the meantime, I must find a way to balance my goals with whatever is happening. To that end, I am giving myself some grace toward social media posting and elements like it, which are very taxing. My extended family has also had some bad health stuff going on that I have been balancing, but we're all hanging in there. So, that leaves me with a game plan for the next two months.

March and April

It is a big month for Project G. I'm wrapping up Beta edits, and April will be the book's market test. So far, everything looks rather promising. My newsletter provides more specific details, but I will share here that the feedback is mainly positive. With each editing pass, I see Project G getting stronger. It is such a beautiful thing to me.

When Project G is market testing, it will be out of my hands, which means I can devote writing time to another project. I have an annual goal of dirty drafting my full DU series. For anyone new to me, dirty drafting is the messy first draft where I try to get from beginning to end and worry about ironing out the details later. So, with the dirty draft goal, I already have one book in the series dirty drafted, so I will complete the dirty draft of a second book. I have found that I can usually do a dirty draft in 1-2 months. I am hoping for one month but giving myself permission for two.

I am TBR overloaded in reading land because I have so many books I want to read that I don't know what to do with myself. I joined a book club at the beginning of the year, so one of my reads will be for that club. Currently, the book is The Martian by Andy Weir. I am not sure if I will blog a review yet or not. It will depend on my health and bandwidth, but I am enjoying it a third of the way into the book. I also want to get to Book 4 in the Inkworld Series by Cornelia Funke. The trilogy has been a long-time favorite, and it is a love that is still strong as I have started introducing my students to Inkheart. I am reading Inkdeath, which means I am close to the new book. I also have three books I paused when I realized that Book 4 was coming out, and I dropped everything to read the series and refresh my memory. I will get back to them, but I have a book that wants to jump the line. I just got the most beautiful copy of Guard in the Garden by Z.S. Diamanti, and it is such a siren call. I can't wait to see what I get through reading-wise, but it looks good for the next few months!

Happy reading, happy writing! See you all again soon ❤️