Welcome to the first official update of my 2025 goals for the second quarter. In other words, the time when I start to struggle! I don’t know why this happens every year, but it does. I knew I was going to have to fight back against that struggle. Let’s check in and see if I managed to!

First up, the actual goals. 

This is what they looked like when 2025 started. 

In order to make this GIANT list of things happen, I have to give myself micro-focuses for each month. In April those were:

• Finalize edits on the Slasher project
• Finalize the cover of the Slasher project
• Check in on betas 
• Reach out to ARC readers
• Outline a new story idea
• Brainstorm/beta call for the YA Contemporary project

Before you tell me this is a LOT … let me say that it LOOKS like a lot but it actually all mostly small, manageable tasks. I basically front loaded my April with easy to accomplish and check off items (with one exception). This was intentional. 

So, did it help?

The short answer is YEAH, it seemed to. 

The longer answer is:

1. The Slasher project edits are in and were finalized. I still have to do a final read through from my paperback copy to make any last minute changes, but those are usually formatting things. 
2. The cover of the Slasher project is also finalized and actually dropped on social media YESTERDAY. Check it out here. 
3. The betas are DONE with the story. I have full notes from them and those have all been applied as well. The good news is most of the beta notes were easy changes, like wording. 
4. I reached out to anyone who has done ARC reading with me before on April 2nd. Those ARCs are supposed to go out in 2 weeks (at the most). If you’re interested in being an ARC reader and haven’t already jumped on board, you can sign up here. 

Really, at this point, the Slasher WIP (DARKEST FEARS) is down to the last steps. I like to share the graphic as it gets chaotic though because a lot of indie authors ask what all the things you have to think about are … and here’s most of it. This will continue to get little check marks on it right up until the pub date in August! SO EXCITING. 

5. The new story idea is the ONE goal that didn’t pan out the way I wanted. So let’s talk about that a little bit, since you’ve seen it pop up on my monthly goals in one way or another since February. Remember those year long goals? The first one is to develop two new story ideas. Basically, I have been focused on these same four projects for so long and they’re finally coming together. It’s time to put myself back in zero draft mode, at least partially, to make sure I have other things to work on in future years. My hope was to have the first of those ideas figured out before the end of June. To do that, I’ve been pushing myself to spend time in the Idea Journal and brainstorm ideas. I was hoping to sit down and outline one of those in April. Instead, because I am my own worst enemy, I added three new ideas to the pool of ideas that I may want to outline next. Really, this highlights the reason why this method of having monthly targets is helping me get to the yearly goals. I’m NOT behind for the year, despite not hitting this one in April. I’ll come back to it. I’m not worried yet. 
6. As for the YA Contemporary, the preliminary email went out for the beta call on April 2nd. That team is officially FULL. I’m working with a full team this time, many of whom have NOT beta read for me before. Beta reading can be TOUGH because you’re providing more frequent feedback on a lot of aspects of the book. For this reason, people often drop off from finishing. I do have 7 this time, which sounds like too many. If all 7 stick with me, GREAT. But that also means it’s ok if a few drop off. If you happen to be one of those, expect to see that copy coming by the end of May. I want to give it at least one more read through/format before I send it off to all of you! This project is about to take a bunch of my focus in May as I start switching to really working on that one. 

7. I also did a little work on a SUPER SECRET project in April. Obviously, I can’t say any more than that right now (hence the name). Don’t worry, I’ll let you all know when I can say something. That was unexpected, but exciting. 
8. I did manage to post to the blog three times (barely). Once with the goals, one with a poem, and one other time that I snuck in ON THE LAST DAY of April. Proof that what I said about the April slump is real. 

Here’s what that 2025 Progress looked like at the end of April.

It’s looking really good. It’s actually almost looking unbalanced, like I’ve finished more than half of it. That is … until you actually read what’s left. There’s a lot left to do!

Here’s some fun stats for you related to writing and my projects:

• 5,922 words written across all projects and platforms
  • 3,199 of those were book reviews
  • 2,706 were blog posts
  • A whopping 17 added to the YA contemporary (this makes sense, it’s actually been through edits twice and I only edited one chapter haha)
• 1 Chapter Edited

You know, when I put it like this it actually doesn’t look like such a productive month. I was at the stage were too much was happening BEHIND the scenes this time. Actually, I reformatted the entire YA Contemporary story 3 times in April too … but that doesn’t ever appear on a checklist (especially since it was really my own fault at least one of those times). 

Now, Reading. 

Remember, a LOT more information can be found over on alltherightreads.com where I’m a part of the review team. But, here’s the basics for you. 

The Graphic:

I read 12 books in April and 11 of those were on the official TBR (I’m not sure how That Fondant Feeling hadn’t made it to the official TBR before this, that was an accidental oversight). So 12 books, 3770 pages (about 148 pages per day). 66% of those were independently published. 

The Reading Journal:

As you see, two of them are carrying over to May because I didn’t finish them in April. Those two did NOT count toward my total books or pages for April. They are factored into the average pages read per day. 

The Stats:

Where did I get them all?

• 1.5 Borrowed from a person or the library (I borrowed 1 from my husband and borrowed 1 from the library in a different format than we already owned, so I only counted that as a half). 
• 2 ARC or Review copies provided by authors or publishers (those are the two listed at the top of the first page)
• 6.5 purchased
  • 4 purchased on Kindle from an indie author
  • 1 purchased directly from the author at an event
  • 0.5 purchased new at Barnes and Noble (this is the one I also borrowed as ebook, so I counted it as a half)
  • 1 purchased used from a local independent store
• 2 giveaway win or gift. Both gifts. One from the author and one from the publisher.

What formats were they all:

• 7.5 ebooks (I’m really trying to get through the ones I purchased on my Kindle! There were actually 8 here … but you’re getting the idea behind the halves)
• 0 audiobooks (I know, shocking right?)
• 3.5 paperbacks (4 in some form or another)
• 1 hardcovers

Star Ratings:

• 0 1-star books. That makes sense because this is RARE for me. At alltherightreads we say a book has to be one we cannot recommend to get this rating. 
• 1 2-star books. These are books that were problematic, for some reason. The full reviews would lay out why. Safe to say that something about them rubbed me the wrong way. 
• 5 3-star books. This is probably my most common rating. For me, these books are GOOD but they’re NICHE for some reason. I’d have to find out if you were in that particular niche before I’d recommend them to you. Sometimes it’s because of content warnings, sometimes it’s because they’re just for a really specific reader. If you happen to be in this niche, however, these could be your absolute favorite books!
• 5 4-star books. These are books that I’d recommend just based on the fact that you say you read this genre. They’re just GREAT examples of their genre. For this month those were:
  • Counterfeit Lawman is a western. If you’ve enjoyed westerns or wanted to give them a try, this is a good example of one! There’s lots of good train action to really keep things interesting. 
  • Blood Lasts Forever is a thriller that circles around a crime and keeps you guessing with its solid characters and dual timeline. 
  • The Treasure of Lor-Rev is a dystopian science fiction. This one packs a lot of action, a great villain, and some excellent uses of technology. 
  • Nocturnal Blood is a vampire horror novel, with the best kind of graphic violence. But it also manages to be a great story about a road trip. 
  • Caged is a dystopian science fiction book that kicks off a fascinating story of humans as the sort of zoo population for robots. Excellent characters, solid world building, and terrifying concept. 
• 1 5-star book. These books are ones that CROSS GENRES. I’d recommend them to almost any reader but definitely to readers of at least 2 genres. Crossing genres can be difficult for any author because you have to do both well. These books do that. This month that rating went to:
  • Deposing Nathan. This one is a contemporary young adult story about an LGBTQ character coming to terms with who he is. But it’s also a well written mystery story with elements that will keep you guessing. It’s not an easy combination to write without sacrificing some of the mystery. This author manages to do it well. The mystery is satisfying, the contemporary lessons are hard-hitting, and the characters feel like they were ripped right out of reality. This one is HIGHLY recommended. 

So, that’s April. 

TLDR: Managed to hit all the smaller sort of housekeeping goals that go into publishing a novel, snuck in work on a secret project, and still don’t hate the progress I’m making in 2025. 

See you again soon!