Q1 Update 2025
Pictured: Not my desk!
Ah, here we are again, at the beginning of a New Year, for whatever that is worth! A time for reflection, resetting, and grand plans for the next 365 days.
Yeah, let’s hope on that bandwagon.
Writing and Edits
Oof, bad news for this category lol. I did not get nearly as much writing done this past quarter as I wanted to. In fact, I think I wrote a grand total of one sentence — though it is an important sentence, so there’s that.
However, A LOT of progress was made on the Lost Blades audio book, so hopefully that will be finished soon!
I usually get a fair amount of writing in the first quarter of the year, so hopefully I’ll be able to write a lot of my next novel in the next couple of months, after all the holiday shenanigans have settled.
Other
To be fair to myself, the reason so little writing happened last quarter is because I was working on a lot of other things — primarily marketing and related aspects of my business. That’s something a lot of people don’t realize — this IS a business. There’s a sort of perception of writers that all our time is spent writing, and even for traditionally published authors that’s not really true anymore. For independent authors writing is only about 25% of the job (a depressing statistic to be sure). Unfortunately, though most of my time goes here, it’s not exactly riveting information to tell you.
Some stuff is fun — the eBook box set for Blades of the Goddess is now available on all the retailers! My books are also now available on Itch.io, and I have a profile and world set up on World Anvil. Some stuff is less fun — taxes, for example (I have to do this monthly, which is pretty standard for this kind of business, but does take time). I also ran big sales after Christmas and when Blades Reforged released, and that is more work than you’d think!
I also did make a fair amount of art this past quarter, including new character art and the cover for my next novel (official announcement: coming soon!). These all get posted early to Ream on a monthly basis, so if you’d like to see these early (as well as some work-in-progress type stuff), head over there!
This quarter is also traditionally my busiest time for events, and includes two of my biggest ones for the year: Rhode Island Comic Con and the Rhode Island Author Expo. The holiday season is a big shopping season, and I did my best to go to a bunch of events! I always love meeting y’all in person :D
Finally, Lost Blades, Broken Blades, and Colors of Magic were all nominated for various Indie Ink Awards. Thank you! Official announcements for any finalists will be made later this month :)
Looking Forward
Ah, the ambitious “goal setting” part of this blog XD
Most importantly, I am hoping to have my next book out by the end of the year, or — absolute worst case scenario — early 2026. It depends how fast I write the first draft, to be honest, as that is the major time sink for my process. Hopefully I’ll have more news about this next quarter, but in the meantime, look out for the official announcement on social media, which should be happening later this month (My newsletter and Ream subscribers already know the title AND have seen the cover!).
Another major goal is to finally finish the audio book for Lost Blades. Luckily, we should be on the final round of edits (I need to review the files; they are waiting on me), so I’m very hopeful for it to release early this year! I think they have also begun recording for Broken Blades, and hopefully that book won’t take as long as Lost did.
For some more nebulous/smaller goals, I’m hoping to put out more blog posts this year. The last half of 2024 had very few posts, and this makes me sad, since I like putting them out. BUT I’m also hoping to have more guest blogs this year, so hopefully that will help!
I still have not finished the project I’m working on with the misprinted Broken Blades hardcovers from last year, and I would like to finish that. Blades Reforged also needs to get put on Campfire, and Colors of Magic and Broken Blades have more content I would like to add to their listings for bonus stuff.
And finally — I’d like to continue working on art for the series! I love drawing, and drawing my characters, and I don’t like forgetting those facts. I’ve made a lot of chibi art for stickers, but there’s so much more I could do, and I’d like to put some time aside to facilitate that! I’ve started a bunch of illustrations that I could finish, at the very least XD
So there you have it — the 2025 update. What would you like to see more of this year from me? Are there any types of blog posts you are most interested in? Or art? Let me know!
In the meantime, Happy New Year, and cheers!
