Whew, good afternoon and Happy April. We’re officially done with the first quarter of 2026. Did that scare anyone else? Well, I suppose that means it’s time to take a look back and what I accomplished in March … and in the first quarter.
As always, dive in with comments or questions because I’m an open book!
As a reminder, we began 2026 with these (lofty) goals in mind:
Each month, I take a look at that document (it’s on my home screen so I actually look at it DAILY) and get myself some focuses for the coming month. In March those focuses were:
- Format the ebook and Kindle of the Romance
- Assemble the ARC team for the Romance
- Release the romance cover
- Finish the draft of Superhero 2
- First round edits on the Apocalypse Project
- Finalize the schedule for the Apocalypse Project
- Outline the Future project
- Attend (and sell at) the Spring MEADival Market
- Attend (and sell at) Bookstock
So, let’s take a look at how I did, shall we?
THE ROMANCE
First, let’s take a look at the project tracker sheet I use.
PAUSE TO EXPLAIN THIS SHEET
You’ll see these for every one of my projects. They’re not all identical, although they are similar. Basically, these guide me through the important steps I have to complete to publish a book. Since I’m independent, all of this is on me. I use a crew or an expert for quite a few steps of this. But I need somewhere to track it all or I start to forget which project is on what step. This visual sort of helps me.
Few new checkmarks this month as the Kindle is formatted, the ARC team has been assembled, and that cover officially dropped.
There’s actually a few more ARC openings so sign up HERE if you want to be part of the team! Also, here’s that cover in case you missed it:
Isn’t it cute?
I truly love this story and these characters and I can’t WAIT for you all to meet them.
SUPERHERO TRILOGY
Cue project tracker sheet …
I added 5,522 words to the second book in March, which is fine (I guess) but I definitely did not finish the book. I’m still ON outline. I did tweak the outline a little. Honestly, March was just REALLY busy without outside things and I did a bit of work on other things. Those are excuses … I said I wouldn’t make those. Okay, MOVING ON.
APOCALYPSE PROJECT
I worked on the edits for this story in March. I think I edited an extra 20 chapters. There’s still a bit to go. I’m hoping to finish that in April. I did finalize the schedule, so that’s a win. Thanks to finalizing that schedule WHILE having a busy month, I’m still on track. But I have to give a lot of focus to this one in April to stay that way.
FUTURE PROJECT
As you might have noticed, some of my 2026 goals are to make decisions about projects that are stalled. I either need to outline them (and give them project pages) or abandon them altogether. After a frustrating two months unable to make project on the Magic Journal story, I decided to jump to another project.
The Future Project has been kicking around in my idea journal for years. It first appeared as a small note on a brainstorming page. I have NO IDEA when that was, since those pages are handwritten and don’t have dates. Then it made the jump to a digital idea journal page in 2024 where I attempted to flush it out. I’ve revisited it multiple times since then, trying to move past where I get stuck.
In March, I dug out everything I have on this one and looked at it all again. I did not fully outline this project BUT I did make it past the sticking point. I have a very ROUGH outline. That means I’m likely not abandoning that project. I’ll try to iron out the technicalities of this one in April.
OTHER GOALS
I attended (and had a blast at) both the Spring MEADival Market and Bookstock. Both were successful in different ways! I’m always happy to meet new readers and get some books sold!
I posted to the blog twice. Once on the February progress check and once with an update of my current WIP count.
I read all of the required review books for All the Right Reads (and 12 other books) and wrote 4,123 words on their reviews.
I designed a new “menu” for events and it was a HIT at Bookstock
I ordered more inventory … and I need to do that again in April (this is the downside of productive events)
I actually DID an inventory ahead of the big events (and it needs to be done again, sigh)
All in all the March Progress pages in my journal look like THIS:
So What’s Next?
The next steps with the Apocalypse Project are to finish that darn edit, get some cover options together for the team to look at, check in with betas, and format the ebook (paperback is already formatted). Romance ARCs go out in early April. I’d like to add words to Superhero 2 (and maybe finish it). I had an AuthorTalk in early April and the Lit & Bloom Festival later in the month. Then I’ll see if I can get a full outline going on that Future Project.
April should be a BUSY month.
Wait, we didn’t talk about READING
True, we did not. I’m officially moving ALL of my reading content to All the Right Reads. Follow us on Instagram or TikTok to catch those updates!
TLDR: Met 7 of the 9 mini goals for March and did 3 things that weren’t on the list. Progress is progress!
STATS
For those who like numbers
- 5522 words added to the Superhero Project
- 2978 words written on blog posts
- 4123 words on book reviews
- 1321 words in the idea journal
- For a grand total of 13,944 words in March
- Also 20 chapters of content edited and 5,174 pages read in March.
FIRST QUARTER TOTALS
For those of you who like to know how things have shaped up for the QUARTER …
- 31,698 words added to the Superhero Trilogy
- 6,057 words on blog postings
- 2,417 words added to the idea journal
- 12,273 words written on book reviews over on All the Right Reads
- For a grand total of 52,445 words written this quarter.
Also,
- 123 Chapters Edited
- 14,686 Pages Read
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