Wrap-Up and Check-In, September

October is one of my favorite months of the year. We get Halloween, cooler weather (hopefully), pumpkin or apple flavored EVERYTHING, and Nightmare Before Christmas on repeat. Truly the best month. But before we can get into all that we have to look back on September and see how I’m doing on my goals. ¾ of the year are officially OVER. So today we’re taking a look at September AND the Third Quarter. 

Here we go!

I had high hopes on January 1st (which seems like a REALLY long time ago) and started with these goals in mind: 

Each month I had to microfocus in order to make progress on this list. In September my goals were:

• YA Contemporary ARCs out 
• Reveal the YA Contemporary cover
• And format the YA Contemporary
• Get the 1st round of edits done on the Romance
• Work on the zero draft of Superhero 1

So, how did I do?

The short answer is good. 

The longer answer is:

1. The ARCS for the contemporary went out on 9/15. If you were expecting one and didn’t get it OR wanted one but forgot to sign up, LET ME KNOW! I can still make that happen for you. 

2. The cover was revealed on 9/12. In case you missed it …

3. Formatting for both the ebook and paperback were FINALIZED on 9/12 as well. OFF IT GOES to the printer and my author copy for final proofreads should be here quickly! Basically, this one is looking GOOD and is on track for that December release (just in time to snag a copy for that angsty teenager in your life who likes reading). 

4. Then it was time to dive into the romance. This was getting some serious editing and tweaks to the storyline. I rewrote a lot of chapters. I did a full edit of the entire book, including double editing a few chapters because of changes. BUT, it’s done. It’s good and I like it. I even started formatting the paperback already. This one involves a LOT of text or email exchanges so formatting will be TRICKY but I think I have a good plan for it. 

5. Lastly, I decided to let myself focus on adding more to that zero draft of the first Superhero book. I knew it was going to WANT my focus, so why fight it? I added 6,096 words to this one in September. 

BONUS: I did also START project pages for the Genesis Story, the Dystopia, and the Weather World story since those now have FULL outlines to work from. It’s not my plan to work on those anytime soon … but since they have full outlines they are officially PROJECTS! It’s nice to see this many waiting for me in my brain. Really, that keeps me excited about what’s coming soon!

After all that, here’s what the 2025 Progress looked like at the end of September.

Basically, as long as I do the 2nd edits and the proofread on time for the Romance and keep up the blog schedule, I’ll make all the goals. At this point, it’s time to start looking forward to 2026. 

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

• 12,684 words written across all projects and platforms
  • 3,741 of those were book reviews
  • 2,847 were blog posts
  • That leaves 6,096 on the Superhero Project
• 87 Chapters Edited
  • Most of those were on the Romance (again, some of the chapters had to run through a second time after an extensive rewrite). This was a HEAVY editing month!

Compare those to my third quarter stats:

• 53,423 words written across all projects (this is my highest quarter so far)
  • 938 in the idea journal
  • 10,213 on book reviews
  • 9,357 on blog posts
  • 32,915 on Superhero 1
• 159 total chapters edited across all projects (again, my highest in 2025)

Now, onto Reading. 

Remember, if you’re looking for the actual reviews those can be found over on alltherightreads.com where I’m a part of the review team. But, here’s the stats for you. 

The Graphic:

I read 12 books in September but only 9 of those were on the official TBR. 

Here’s that quick time out where I explain “official TBR”:

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled information. In September I read 12 books or 3,982 pages (about 127 pages per day). 41% of those were independently published. 

The Reading Journal:

The Stats:

Where did I get them all?

• 2 Borrowed from a person or the library (both borrowed from the library this time)
• 3 ARC or Review copies provided by authors or publishers (those are the ones listed at the top of the first page)
• 6.5 purchased
  • 0.5 purchased on Kindle (I also bought the paperback so I counted it as half on each)
  • 3 purchased from my favorite local used bookstore (1 of these was also borrowed in another format, hence the half)
  • 1 purchased by backing the project on Kickstarter
  • 2 purchased directly from the author’s website or from the author at an event (two of these only counted as a half-one I purchased the paperback and had the ebook gifted to me, the other I purchased in both formats)
• 0.5 Gifted
  • This was that ebook where I also own the paperback

What formats were they all:

• 6 ebooks
• 0 audiobooks (There’s a serious lack of available “official TBR” books available on audio, in case you’re wondering why this keeps happening)
• 5 paperbacks
• 1 hardcover

Compare this to the third quarter stats:

• 35 books
• 4.5 borrowed/library 
• 9 ARC/Review
• 21 Purchased
• 0.5 Gift/Giveaway
• 15 ebook
• 17 paperback
• 3 hardcover

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. 
• 2 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. 
• 4 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!
• 4 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:
  • Near the Bone is a horror book that blends real life horrors with paranormal horrors in a way that is TERRIFYING and works well. Check content warnings before diving in, however, because those real life horrors are triggering. 
  • Hardball is a nonfiction book that follows a baseball team in the projects. While nothing like the movie that shares its name, this one is a great look at that slice of life. 
  • Borderline is the second in young adult paranormal series with great characters. This one is a little more of a slow pace but that’s because the author allowed the characters to show their damage and start healing from the events of book one and that was a beautiful choice. 
  • Unimaginary is a young adult science fiction story that tackles a sort of coming of age in a science fiction environment. Interesting and well written with great characters!
• 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. For September that one was:
  • The Women of Wild Hill. This one blends a multi-generational paranormal story about witches with a very modern contemporary down-with-the-patriarchy story in a way that works. If you’re a fan of witchy stories, strong women, or contemporary stories with strong characters … get this one. 

So, that’s September. 

TLDR: Hit all of the goals and left myself with only a small list of things for the fourth quarter. 

See you again soon!