When I was a kid, I’d sometimes get bored and read my grandma’s reader’s digest. I couldn’t tell you much about what was in those, but there has always been one quote that stuck with me. “Life is like a roll of toilet paper—the older you get, the faster it goes.” There is far too much truth in that statement. Where on earth did January go? May I have it back?

Time is an interesting thing. It can drag on, killing us with anticipation or drowning us in dread, or it can pass us by with little more than a blink—a heartbeat. A moment. It can be wasted, but not reused. Often we are chided for taking too much of it, while taking too little is also a point of reprimand. We can’t create extra, but it is one thing most of us wished we had more of. It’s never ending, but we also refer to death as “our time has come.” Interesting how complex such a simple measurement can be.

I often feel like time escapes me, whether because I don’t plan it wisely or because life just isn’t predictable. But I believe this is something we can all relate to. Its easy to look back on our lives and wonder at where we’ve spend our time, and it’s those musings that push us to use it better in the future.

Just over a year ago, I published my very first book. I still find it difficult to believe and also shake my head at how much time has gone into making that dream a reality. There are things I wish I’d done differently—or perhaps better—but I am ultimately grateful that I took that first plunge. Had I not braved the waters of self doubt, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Writing has changed me so much over the past year, and I’ve grown in tremendous ways. Yet another benefit of time is change, though we often mock and chide it. What more can we hope for than to look back on our mortal existence and feel as though are time was well spent and filled with happiness?

But I digress. Time has brought me to this point, but blast it all if it doesn’t go too quickly most days. I can hardly believe it is already February. I’ve been rather busy the past month. Hopefully, the good kind of busy.

So, current WIPs and where they stand:

I’m presently working on two projects. The first is the ever-allusive Book 6. I have made a bit of progress with it, but admittedly I’m struggling. I’m not even sure why, but alas, it plagues me. Currently, I’m about 2/3 through the first draft. Slow and steady? Emphasis on the former XD

As a note: Ebook for Book 5 is available for preorder with a release date in May. I still need to do the final edit on it, but I PLAN to do that soon and have it ready to go well in advance.

The second project is one I started on a complete whim. Literally. I have next to no outline and yet somehow the thing is coming together quite smoothly. This project is a time travel romance (Tentative title: In Time With the Duke). Since I don’t have an outline, I have no idea how close it is to completion, but its over 50%. I’m considering giving the traditional publishing route a go with this one, but we’ll see. I’m kind of impatient so that may change 😉

The goal is to finish those two projects, and then I’ll move on to Book 3 of the Children of Magic series. (assuming I can make myself focus and not start something else). The good news about having both projects is my word counts have been doing very well for 2022 so far, with over 50k words under my belt for the year.

Release News:

January saw the release of Book 4: The Seer of Verascene! There was a decent gap between it and Book 3, so I’m pleased to finally have it available. Book 2: Love & Magic of the Children of Magic series will be releasing on Feb 28th and audio is coming along quickly for it as well!

This month, one of my short stores, A Doodletoo, was published in an E-Zine! A big shout out to Cinnabar Moth Publishing for giving me the opportunity. Check it out for free here!

FIVE books published. Still so hard to believe.

Well, I believe that’s all for now. On to February! Hope you all have a fantastic month 🙂