What an informative month.

When I set these goals, I honestly wasn’t really expecting to meet them- they were lofty and meant to be more of a kick in the pants than anything.

But I learned a lot about myself as a writer while working toward them. I’ll get into that in a moment; first, let’s look at these goals again and see how we did.

This was both insanely fun and jaw-clenchingly frustrating. On the upside, I got to commission some lovely art from Oliva, learned about acquiring ISBNs, formatting Kindle eBooks, and the market listing process for books on Amazon.

On the downside, I spent four hours one Sunday actually crying and trying not to punch things as I tried to format my headers. Turns out, Word doesn’t let you have opposite odd & even headers (like in a normal book) while also having PAGE NUMBERS on every page. I have never wanted to punch a hole in my monitor so badly.

But I got through it, and everything that I can do as of right now is done! Since, if you’re reading this, you’re someone who’s actively supporting my tiny sprout of a career, you get to be the first to get a (drumroll…) COVER REVEAL!

Ain’t she purdy? The art was done by artist and dear friend Olivia Rojas, and I did the cover design.

The back-of-book:

A man loses his daughter, only to find her alive and well one morning. But she is not as she seems…

A woman finds herself slowly cut off from the world by bricks only she can see…

Two Word War II fighter pilots are shot down over the South Pacific and are rescued by an eerie ship with not a single sailor aboard…

A simulation goes too far as a veteran finds himself face-to-face with his most horrifying memory…

Losing Air: Dark and Strange Tales brings together 15 works of unsettling and odd fiction from horror and fantasy writer Ava Christina. Settle in, get comfortable, but don’t forget to leave the light on.

Get excited, cuz this baby is due (currently) in March 2026. It will be available as a paperback or eBook on Amazon, though I’m hoping to figure out how to make it available on Bookshop as well (my preferred online book market). Once I get it up for preorder I’ll make a quick post announcing it, so make sure you’re subscribed to Pen & Sword if you don’t want to miss that.

#2: Finish Father Cruz

Earlier in the year, this story came gushing out of me like post-Taco Bell diarrhea. I knew my plot points, had all my characters built and ready, and brought them all the way to the 45,000 word mark.

Then I got scared.

That word count absolutely got into my head. I was pretty close to the conclusion of the plot but had a goal in my head of 60,000 words (the standard minimum novel length). I started to worry that I wouldn’t have enough to get me there, and then other insecurities cropped up, and I did the thing we all tend to do when we’re intimidated by something- I pretended it didn’t exist.

I moved my attention to other projects, wrote a crap ton of short fiction, spent time submitting and querying and all that jazz. Meanwhile, Kellan and Ezra glared at me from inside my computer.

That’s why this goal was an easy one for me to choose when I was getting ready to do this. I knew I needed to grit my teeth and just do it, screw word count, just get it done.

And I did it!

I finished Father Cruz in the fourth week of December at just over 58,000 words- not quite reaching 60k but close enough that it shouldn’t matter at this point in the project. I’m happy with my ending (I knew what it would look like months ago), and it feels, to be crass, like I’ve finally taken that shit.

#3: Write 30,000 words across all projects

This is the one I wasn’t actually expecting to reach- I just do better when my goals are lofty.

Turns out if I actually allow myself the time and space to just sit and write, my fingers light on fire.

I slid into home plate at the last second on the 30th, coming in with a whopping 31,709 words!

That’s, like, half a novel. Insane. I did the math like five times to make sure.

These words were spread out over: the short story Scout’s Honor (appearing in Losing Air in March), the flash piece Sunday, Project Romantasy, Project Cursed Sword, Stasis, and a weird vibe-vomit inspired by Conan Gray’s Wishbone that will probably never see the light of day.

What I Learned

My biggest obstacle is me.

I kind of already knew this subconsciously, but it’s helpful to be able to confirm my suspicions. I usually write much less than 30,000 words per month (duh), as my free time often gets monopolized by the books I’m reading, or I worry that if I open a document nothing will come out. Hence, I tend to restrict writing sessions to only days where I feel very inspired (having had a lightbulb moment for a short story or plot point in one of my novels).

From here on out, I know some new things. I need to stop getting in my own way. If I can do that, I fully believe I can finish every active novel project of mine by the end of 2026 (though I’m sure I’ll birth some new concepts during that time). I can also literally see my writing improving with each novel, each short story concept, each revision. The only way from here is up.

Moving Forward

In light of my new understanding of myself, I’m establishing a permanent monthly goal of 20,000 words across all projects. I really felt accomplished after every writing session, where I would total my words written for the day and watch that number build all month. I want to keep getting that satisfaction out of my progress, so I’m going to be actively tracking this from here on out, restarting every new month.

So look out for the end of each of my blog posts from this point on- I’ll be briefly posting my progress for the month and what projects were worked on during each week. It should be fun (for me at least!).

Slightly related to this goal, I’m lowering my reading goal for 2026.

In 2025, I read 162 books (breaking my goal of 100). While it is a great accomplishment and I have had so much fun spending large portions of my life in fictional (and some non-fictional) worlds, books were getting in the way of my writing. As I mentioned above, I would often feel obligated to my current open books and would devote most of my free time to them. But when I’ve got five books I’m currently reading and a book club waiting on me, that leaves very little breathing room for regular writing. I don’t like my writing habits from 2025- only writing in huge bursts when I “felt like it”. I’ve clearly discovered that I can go if I let myself, so that’s how I’m going to approach my writing sessions from now on.

As such, I am setting a goal of no more than two open books at once during 2026. I’m also lowering my yearly total goal to 75 books. Hopefully, this will make me feel like I have the time and mental space to regularly devote myself to writing.

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Thank you to those of you who’ve been silently cheering me on from your inboxes- I know you’re out there. Your support is crucial to the development of my (hopefully) career, and I am well aware that a book is only a book if there’s someone to read it!

Keep it cool! Here’s to a new year full of progress!

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Monthly Writing Goal Update

6382 / 20,000 words

This week I did some work on Stasis (figured out a major plot hole with Saige’s assistance), started a short story that I didn’t like, wrote a disturbing and short flash piece, and made some progress in Project Name Romantasy! I did also get some good news regarding a new publication… Stay tuned!

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