Hey everyone! This is an edit to let y’all know that I’ve now been published in Tumbleweird for the THIRD time!! The December issue is out now and it’s a great honor to be included- a little early birthday treat! The story, Babydoll, is an emotional one, and I hope it resonates with y’all the way it did with me. Read it now here!

Also a quick announcement about my progress as a writer- I’ve recently signed up for the online Creative Writing Certificate from Cornell University! It starts at the end of this month and I’m really excited to learn more about the craft in an academic setting.

Okay okay, enough horn tooting. Passing the mic back over to November me.

You know what’s crazy?

As you’re reading this post (if you’re reading it the day it comes out), Saige, Olivia and I are driving to Salt Lake City for DRAGONSTEEL NEXUS 2025!!!

That’s awesome. I’m so happy for the me in the future. I hope I’m having fun in the car.

But present me is here (11/21) to talk about my plan for the next few months- got some pretty exciting stuff in mind.

November is (was?) a race to the finish for my Dragonsteel reading prep. My goal was to have finished Mistborn Era 2 by the time of the convention, as well as at least the first Red Rising trilogy. Also, since I’ve recently learned that Matt Dinniman will be at the convention, I decided to bump Dungeon Crawler Carl up to my November reads as well. That one’s been on my wheel forever, but with the chance of seeing Matt Dinniman, I decided now is the time for that adventure, so that I can properly appreciate the things Matt has to say in any panels or meet and greets. I can say with great relief that as of today (again, 11/21), I have finished the first Red Rising trilogy, Dungeon Crawler Carl (book 1), and am about to finish The Bands of Mourning. Yay me!

So, I didn’t get much writing time in November. Last time I was in a crunch like this in 2023, I had to get up at 4am to read before work and I just barely finished Rhythm of War the day before we left for SLC. And this was even harder, since I had five books to get through in just 30 days. Hello again, 4am reading sessions.

Assuming I meet all my goals, this will bring me into December likely thoroughly full of creativity and brain fuel (stories). I’ve decided that December will be the opposite of what I did in October, taking a writing break and focusing only on consuming fiction. December will be a reading break, and I’ll be focusing only on writing!

I was inspired by Saige’s specific goals set when she did this in October, so I’ve come up with a few goals that I’ll be tracking at the end of each December post, just like Saige did. So make sure to look out for those from here on out! Here’s where I’m sitting in my writing journey now, to give my goals some context.

State of the Nation

• I am about 10,000 words of plot away from finishing my second novel, Project Name Father Cruz, anticipating a final word count for the first draft of around 60,000-65,000.
• I have started putting together a short story collection for self-publishing, mostly as a way to get my name out locally and share the stories I’ve had so much fun writing this year. Currently, I have 14 pieces slated to be in that collection, which sits at about 35,000 words. I would like the collection to be around 50,000 words for publishing. I believe I can get there if I put my head down and finish the two novellas I started forever ago.
• Including Father Cruz, I currently have 7 novel projects that are fully outlined and in progress.
• I am still seeking a literary agent, with 3 unanswered queries using The Silverwing. I have decided that, if they all come back negative, I’m going to switch gears and wait to do another round of queries until I have something else finished (most likely Father Cruz), and query using that novel instead. While The Silverwing is my precious firstborn child, it’s been passed out consistently since February with no luck yet. It wouldn’t be the worst thing ever to try with a different baby for a while.
• I currently have 3 unanswered short fiction submissions to various mags and contests, but with the potential for a self-published collection, I will likely not be doing any new submissions after these responses come back.

Now that you’ve got a pretty good picture of my career currently (again, as of 11/21), let’s talk about how I’d like that picture to be by the end of my December writing binge.

Goal #1: Finish Father Cruz

This may seem silly, but I’ve been putting off finishing this baby for months. I love this story and these characters so much, and even though I know exactly how the narrative is going to go from my current spot, I’m putting off actually getting there. I love writing Kellan and Ezra, and I’m sad at the idea of finishing their story. I know I know, finishing the first draft is far from done, but there’s still a finality to it that makes me hesitate. So, my number one goal for December, even if I don’t meet any others, is to finish Father Cruz. I need to give these boys their ending after so long.

Goal #2: Prepare the short story collection for publication

I’ve already started on this project, but I’d like to finish it during this binge. I’m set up for self-publishing using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, which is obviously not my end-goal publishing situation, but it will work for what I’m trying to do here at the beginning. I think it will be good experience and some proof of a satisfactory work ethic for prospective agents. Plus it will be great to hold a real book written by me in my hands!

Goal #3: 30,000 words of progress across all novel projects

This is the goal that excites me the most. I have so many novel projects all screaming for my attention in my head, and I’d love to get these concepts and plot points down in the documents. So, I’d like to write a cumulative total across all novel projects of 30,000 words. This goal is separate from my goal to finish Father Cruz, so those 10,000 or so words will not count toward this goal. This may be lofty, but I love to push myself. So we’ll see.

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I’m really excited to get going on these goals. After December, I anticipate running on empty. And since January is by far the worst and most depressing month of the year, I’ve come up with a reading theme similar to Horror Month that should help get me through it. January will be Out of this World Month, where I only read sci-fi and fantasy books from my TBR. Hopefully my wheel will reward me with some series continuations I’ve been hungry for, such as A Court of Frost and Starlight and Children of Memory. I think it’ll be a good way to get myself through a dark, dreary month.

I’ll be updating each December post at the end a few days before it goes live, so you guys are getting up-to-date information about where I’m at in my goals. Look out for it!

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Update #1: 12/1-12/2

In the first two days of December I finished a short story I started a few weeks ago, coming in at 4,900 words! Yay me!

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