Before we jump into October, let’s talk a little about where my focus was in October (because it really wasn’t here). I’ll keep this semi-brief because it’s not exclusively my update to share. My husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. He underwent treatment and was in remission. Unfortunately, it came back. This time, instead of starting with chemotherapy and radiation, they went directly to surgery. So, understandably, my mind was elsewhere as this all moved quickly and we got him the surgery he needed. He’s home now and recovering, which is obviously good! 

Anyway, this post is not about that. This post is about my goals for 2025 and how I’m progressing on those. Let’s dive in. 

You’ll likely remember I started on January 1 with these goals in mind:

Then I sort of microfocused my time in each month. For October my goals were:

• 2nd edits of the romance
• Get betas started on the romance
• Work on the zero draft of the first book in the Superhero trilogy
• Get to planning for 2026
• Update the publishing calendar for 2026

So, how did I do?

The short answer is good. 

The longer answer is:

1. The 2nd round of edits on the Romance were actually (mostly) done in September. Which is good because this is one of those places where I really didn’t focus at all in October. Am I behind? No, I don’t think so. I think I’ll just have to focus on this one a little more in November. I only edited 6 chapters in October. 
2. I did send this to 3 betas. Because this is a genre I have NEVER written, I’m actually using exclusively betas I have NEVER used before. We shall see how that goes!

3. I think I only sat down to work on the Superhero draft ONCE in the entire month. But I did add over 2000 words in that one writing session so that’s a sort of win, I guess. 

4. I did manage to get the planning sorted out for 2026. As it sits right now the lofty goal is to have 2 releases in 2026 (again). The Romance and The Apocalypse Project should both be coming out next year! If you’re a fan of romance books, I’m still looking for ARC readers (email me to sign up!) and if you’re a fan of science fiction, I’ll need both beta AND ARC Readers for the Apocalypse Project. More info will be coming soon! 
5. The calendar is roughly sketched out for 2026. There’s some decisions I still need to make about 2027 which do affect 2026 … so we’ll call it a draft of the calendar for now. 

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

This marks the first time all year that I’ve missed the blog goal and the poetry goal. Small price to pay, I think, for getting the family successfully through this trying time. 

Here’s the stats for you related to writing and my projects in October:

• 6,705 words written across all projects and platforms
  • 3,045 of those were book reviews
  • 1,512 were blog posts
  • That leaves 2,148 on the Superhero Project
• 6 Chapters Edited

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 October but only 9 of those were on the official TBR. 

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

My goal this year was to read all 119 of the books that were on my TBR on January 1. So not just 119 books … those specific 119 books. I am still part of the review team at All the Right Reads. That means I’m taking on 2-3 books per month that I didn’t know anything about on January 1. Basically, this makes things a lot more complicated for me. 
As of the end of October there are 18 of those original TBR books remaining. 
There are also 101 new books on the TBR that do not count toward the challenge. 5 of those are books I have to read/review as part of the All the Right Reads team before 2025 ends. That means I have to read 5 books NOT on the official TBR as well as the ones that are. 
I have only myself to blame on this one. 

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled information. In October I read 12 books or 4,079 pages (about 128 pages per day). 58% 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 a person this time)
• 3 ARC or Review copies provided by authors or publishers (those are the ones listed at the top of the first page)
• 5 purchased
  • 1 purchased on Kindle (There’s actually 2 here, but I also bought them in paperback so I counted it as half of each).
  • 1.5 purchased from my favorite local used bookstore (1 of these is also purchased in Kindle)
  • 2.5 purchased directly from the author’s website or from the author at an event (1 of these was also purchased on Kindle)
• 2 Gifts or Giveaway Wins (In this case, one of each)

What formats were they all:

• 4 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)
• 6 paperbacks
• 2 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. 
• 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. 
• 7 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!
• 3 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:
  • Everyone Dies Alone is a great paranormal fantasy that digs into the life of a newly promoted necromancer. Great characters and worth it if you like the genre!
  • Creepers is a thriller that takes place in “real time”, which in this case means never leaving the characters or having time jumps. You are with them from start to finish without looking away. GREAT use of this strategy but only really a solid read for thriller fans, this one gets a little dicey!
  • Rise of the Spider is a historical fiction set during WWII written for middle grade readers. Totally recommended if your a middle grade reader who likes nonfiction (or for classrooms studying WWII with middle grade readers). 
• 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 October that one was:
  • The Devil’s Descendant: Wrath is a Fantasy Romance that blends the romance scenes with the mythology of the devil in a great way! The romance here is well done, especially if you like the fated idea, and the mythology was INCREDIBLE. This one is WORTH a read!

So, that’s October. 

TLDR: Hit some of the goals and forgave myself for anything I missed since we spent time in the hospital and in recovery.

See you again soon!