Weekly Me - #1

 So I usually update my Works-in-Progress page on my website about every Friday to share where I’m at on my writing journey (except I didn't share last week, even though I know I wrote an update—I probably just didn’t save it so it didn’t publish, oops—anyway…). 

I thought I’d copy and paste my writing updates here too, since I want to get back into the habit of updating my blog more regularly. 

And along the way, I can add a little about what I’m reading and what I'm stocking my bookshelves with because I’ve returned to reading more lately too…plus buying more books. 

Which means, you’re getting dragged along on my bookish adventures with me.  Lucky you! So you ready?  Oh well.  Here we go, anyway.

What I’ve Been Writing:

ZERO CHANCE (Book 5 in the Seven Series) 

I finished Keene’s story back in February, and it's been with the first editor for a few weeks. She just finished it today, so I'm eager to get back to work on this one for next week. Eek!

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN (Book 6 in the Seven Series) 

Oh, this story. Yeah… Well, I HAD nearly 3,000 written once upon a time for the beginning of Thane’s story. And it was a doozy. My plan was for him to be dating Christine still, and she’s just moved in with him. One morning, he takes a shower, and he calls into the bedroom, asking her to fetch him something—maybe underwear or…I don’t know—because he doesn’t want to leave his nice warm bathroom yet. But after his request, she doesn’t come into the bathroom, and he pokes his head into the room to see what’s up, only to find her sitting on his bed with an engagement ring in her hands…that he bought for someone else a long time ago (ahem, for Nova, of course). But Christine finds it in his drawer while getting his clothes for him, and when she looks up from the ring and says, “Yes, I’ll marry you,” his stomach drops. 

He has to confess that the ring is NOT for her and that he’s in no way ready for marriage yet. But he was ready for it a long time ago with someone else, so Christine isn’t happy. In her jealousy, she ends up stalking and finding Nova. She drags Nova back into Thane’s life, where he falls for his first love all over again. 

BUT if you’ve read Book 4 of my Seven series, you may know all those plans got derailed because Thane breaks up with Christine at the end of Parker’s story. And now…Now, I have come up with a whole new plot. So those first 3,000 words I wrote are completely scrapped. Thankfully, I do have an idea in my head of how to start the new plan, except I keep procrastinating, and I don’t even have 200 words written for it yet. Ugh, I know.

DEAREST THIEF (Romantasy story idea)

And this little fantasy here is probably why I haven’t been able to write on poor UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN lately. It just keeps nagging me with idea after idea. Last week, which I swear I reported on my Works-in-progress page, I wrote a prologue and some of chapter one. I had the word count up to 12,000. But then this week, I decided I wasn’t happy where chapter one was going, so I believe I’m going to scrap about 1,500 words of last week’s work on DEAREST THIEF. And I’ve only gotten about 200 words written for a new chapter one.

IN SUMMARY – Yep, I’ve deleted a lot more words this week than I've written. Definitely not going in the right direction here, so let’s hope next week goes better. 

What I’ve Been Reading:

Since this is my first weekly post, I’m just going to cover the whole month of March, but I’ll get back to only what I’ve read that week during next week’s update, I swear!

Anyway, March came in like a three! For the third month of the year, I read three different books each by three different authors!

—I finished up the Shatter Me series by reading the last three books that have been published. So now I’m ready for the next one (Watch Me), coming out April 15th, though I have a feeling my 15-year-old is going to snatch our pre-ordered copy first and make me wait until she finishes it before I can start! 

—Then I had a little fun with the Naughty Princess Bookclub by Tara Sivec.  I seriously forgot how fun her books were. I think I highlighted half of every book in this trilogy because of all the hilarious zinger lines in them. Good times.

—And I wrapped up the month by being totally irritated with all the love triangle, cliffhanger nonsense in the Lightlark books.  I definitely should’ve waited until this entire series was published before starting these because now I’m gonna drive myself crazy wondering what happens next. I’m a total Grim girl, you see, so if Isla ends up with Oro…I don’t know how I’ll handle that. I mean, Oro is great, and Grim has made mistakes. But GRIM! Then again, Isla keeps upsetting me for some reason, so if she just stays in that other world she got sucked into and Grim and Oro end up happily ever after together instead, I might actually be more okay with that. In either case, waiting for the next book is gonna be painful. Way to torture me, author, you brilliant beast, you!

—Thankfully, I’ve started a new book that I’m totally in love with so far (which also happens to have THREE books out as well). It’s wiping away all my Lightlark aggravations and making me think April is going to be good readings. But I’ll tell you more about that next week!

What I’ve been Buying:

When I had my youngest daughter, I gave up my library (about forty-four boxes of books, I believe—ouch, I know!) to make a new room for her (still worth it). 

And for the longest time, I didn’t buy a lot of physical copies of things; I mostly just read ebooks. Until Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf came along. I kept seeing that cover everywhere and was just hypnotized by it and its pretty sprayed edges on the hardback edition. 

So I got it. And then a few months later, I saw the hardback cover for The Wren in the Holly Library with its pretty sprayed edges. And that broke the seal. 

Since the beginning of 2025, I’ve become obsessed with basically anything with sprayed edges.  I have a couple dozen of them purchased now and a couple dozen more on preorder. And I have my hallway lined with bookshelves to house them. YAY!

This week’s purchase includes the new release Summer in the City by Alex Aster. 

Then, A.L. Jackson was selling wounded copies of her story, Under an Endless Moon, for a discounted price because of a small little printing error in the foil, and wow, it’s still so pretty. Glad I got it. 

While over in my ebook collection, I bought the last book in the Lightlark Saga. Totally overpaid for it.  But then I made up for that by snagging a couple of freebie deals through BookBub: Center Ice, Enticing Luke, The RSVP, and Girl of Glass. 

And that’s what’s new in my bookish world this week! 

The Seven Series

 I have a new passion, and it started with these seven boys who found themselves in a group together, trying to navigate some of the worst traumas of their lives. 

Now, they're college-aged and finally ready to put their ghosts to rest...sometimes literally...one happily-ever-after love story at a time. 

Don't ask me why I chose to write a series of books with ghosts in them because ghosts absolutely freak me out. My fourteen-year-old talked me into watching The Conjuring with her recently, and I've been too scared to sleep with my back to anything but my safe, protective husband ever since. LOL! 

Maybe writing about them is my way of trying to face the fear of them and explore it--safely--so I won't be so afraid anymore. I mean, it's not working yet--still afraid over here--but I'm also not done writing the series yet either. Fingers crossed.

In any case, it's been a pure pleasure for me to meet each of these characters in each of their books, to learn their passions and fears, their weaknesses and strengths, mistakes and redemptions, and to watch them struggle to find their happy endings. And it's an honor to share these people with you. I've finished writing the fourth story so far and have just barely started to dip my toe in Book 5, but as of today, the first three books are out and available to get started on.

Here is what has been, what's out now, and what will be coming in the future!

1. VACANCY (read | BookBub | GoodReads)

2. MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND (read | BookBub | GoodReads)

3. THE LIFE WISH (read | BookBub | Goodreads)

4. JUST THIS ONCE (Rough Draft Complete, Editing in Progress)

5. ZERO CHANCE (Current Work in Progress)

6. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN (What I'll Work on Next)

7. X MARKS THE SPOT (The Finale)

*Yes, these CAN be read separately as standalone stories, but I mean...why? They're so much stronger together*

THE SEVEN SERIES WEBPAGE

Looking Forward and Looking Back

 As you may know, I love to step back and take a look at what I've accomplished and then decide what I want to do next.  

So here's a quick look back at some things I wanted to write...and then what I actually wrote!

I'm not sure what looking back tells us; maybe that I'm getting better at predicting what I'm going to write.  I'm not sure.  But here is what I have plans to do going forward!

YEAR OF THE FLEDGLING: Was formerly called Fourth Son of the Third Daughter and briefly Rise of the Warden. This will be my last fantasy romance for a while...I think. And I plan for it to be a young adult story, written from the third-person point of view, which I haven't done for years. I keep trying to write in first-person and then going back to fix it! LOL

THE QUIET:  I've changed this title and cover a few times too. I think I was called Refuge once and then By the River.  But now it is The Quiet.  It's my story that fan fics the song: "Hazard" by Richard Marx.

THE BOY'S GOT HART: I've changed this cover and title so many times I can't even remember how often it's been something else.  But for now, it's this and it will feature the Forbidden Men descendant, Ayden Hart, youngest daughter to Asher and Remy. 

DISTRACTION: This cover has changed once, but the title has always been this. I was going to write it before The Boy's Got Hart, but now I'm thinking Ayden's story may come first. Or maybe it won't. This book will be about Trick Ryan, son of Eva and Pick from Be My Hero. 

THE THICKENING PLOT: This is supposed to be book 2 in my Webster Sibling series, but I'm just not getting to it for some reason.  It's supposed to be about Izzy, Wick's little sister.  I refuse to take it off the to-write list though because someday I WILL write it.  I hope!

CREEPER: Here's another story that's been on and off and back on the to-write list forever and I still haven't gotten to it. But I'm not taking it down either, so maybe... just maybe I'll actually get to it this year... or maybe not! Probably not. But possibly the year after that!

MY ENEMY'S BOYFRIEND: This is a slightly newest idea, but who knows when I'll actually get to writing it. I doubt it'll come out any time soon, honestly. 

And those are my plans going forward.  I'm curious to see what actually gets finished!