Quarterly update: The Momentum is Gaining

I’ll remember the third quarter of this year for two reasons: first, because it was the longest summer I can remember, with high temps starting early and continuing even into fall, and second, because of what I was able to accomplish during those summer months with regard to my writing life.

The past few months still had distractions and other obligations, but I was able to stay on course and that’s half the battle. The other half is not beating myself up when I continue to believe I should be doing more. In my last update, I shared that the first quarter was good, but the second was better. I’m pleased to say I’ve continued to focus on productivity and time management so that the third quarter tops the last two. Here’s what I have to share with you:

Publishing

The next novel in the Jorja Matthews mystery series, Web of Lies (Volume 6), was published before the end of June. Once it was published, I took on the chore of updating the back matter in the prior novels (About the Author section), as well as the covers. Yes, again! I decided to change the font and make the titles all caps, plus I used different colors for each title. The project wasn’t without frustrating moments, as is always the case, but I eventually completed all the changes and I’ve sworn not to touch them again. Here’s the new look on all the covers:

Writing

I’m working on the next Jorja novel in my spare time, but my main focus this past quarter has been on a new mystery series I plan to publish before the end of this year. After spending a few months planning and plotting because it’ll be a twelve-book series, I completed the first draft of the first novel in record time (less than two months), and have been working on edits and revisions the past month. It is now basically complete, beyond formatting and finishing the cover, so a publishing date is in the near future.

A twelve-book series may sound intimidating, but the novels will be shorter than the Jorja series (around 200 pages on average), and I already have many of the details worked out for each novel. This project is a travel mystery series involving two sisters who are on a year-long road trip…which means I’ll be writing twelve books for each month of the year while they travel. I’ve started the second book in the series and I’m not sure how long I’ll wait to publish the first novel, but I’ll definitely share when the date is coming up.

I’ve had fun writing the first novel in this new series and I’ve enjoyed getting to know the new characters I’ll be spending time with on this journey. I’ll be sharing more about the characters and the series so if you don’t want to miss any updates, now would be a good time to sign up for my newsletter (you can sign up on my homepage here).

Learning

I’ve taken part in a number of online classes, webinars and summits over the past few months covering a wide range of topics from advertising, writing, business, productivity and time management. Some of the writing classes included travel and creative writing. Overall, my favorite was the advertising webinar because the author offered a ton of tips related to ads on Amazon. I haven’t had time to put them into action yet, but it’s on my to-do list for this next quarter. I thought I’d try the ads with my young adult novel, Born or Bred, since that novel is like the middle child who doesn’t get a lot of attention like the others.

Reader Outreach

My monthly newsletter has been a great way to continue to share my musings and updates with readers, and I continue to enjoy communicating with them that way. However, in-person events are even better and this past quarter allowed me to participate in two more events. The events were part of a local street fair and creative market for artists, which I initially took part in during the month of May. The May event was a bit chilly due to the weather, but the event went well and it was fun to finally get out there and introduce new readers to my books. I was more than grateful to be able to participate in two more of those events, one in July and one in September.

The July event was during Oregon Trail Days, a large celebration in my home town, and it was a terrific day all around when it came to the weather, the number of vendors, the number of people who visited the market and the number of new readers I was able to introduce to the series. I knew the September event wouldn’t produce the same amount of visitors, so I wasn’t expecting much, but I was later surprised when No Mother of Mine made it to a best seller list in private investigator mysteries! I was on cloud nine for a bit after that.

Reading

I committed to reading 50 books this year and to date I’ve read a total of 41 novels. That’s 4 books ahead of schedule and 82% of the challenge completed with three more months of reading time left. My October reads are already set aside and waiting for me to spend time devouring them. I love this time of year because I enjoy choosing books themed around the upcoming holidays and for October I have set aside books that include scary suspense, thriller and cozy Halloween stories.

Blogging

This past year I’ve blogged more than I have in quite some time, and it’s been a challenge but I’m glad that I’ve been able to stick with my editorial calendar and share the posts I committed to share this year. Next year might offer a new schedule, as I commit to keeping up with two different mystery series, which will continue to use up more of my time. So time will tell. For now until the end of the year, I will continue to share a regular round of posts that include the following (some of which offer spoilers):

• Character Coffee Chats share character interviews from the mystery series — we’ve met with all of the main characters in the series so far. Still on the schedule are Jorja’s parents, maybe Gabe (that’s a hard one…his interview will offer a LOT of spoilers), and I have to choose one other character for the end of the year. These coffee chats may change or be completely eliminated next year, but I’ve enjoyed sharing details about each character and their backstory this past year.
• Nonfiction Nuggets have been a fun series to share every other month with topics that relate to my series in some way. The most recent topics have included how pets help solve crimes and finding or identifying missing persons.
• I continue to share interesting P.I. topics with my P.I. Posts, which include unique stories and interesting case reviews. The most recent post was about how a man solved the case of his own kidnapping from when he was a child.

Of course, I’ve also continued to share posts about other topics, such as My Top 10 Tips For a Happy Marriage (after the hubby and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary) and with regard to writing I shared why I use prologues in the Jorja series in To Prologue or Not to Prologue.  

I haven’t had the time to add posts to my YA website or to Jozee’s blog (Jaunts with Jozee), but for now they are both on the back burner and that’s where I have to give myself some grace.

Moving ahead with optimism

Prioritizing my time has helped me publish one novel, complete a second for publishing and begin a third. It’s that kind of momentum I wish to continue to keep, which means putting some projects on hold until I have the extra time for them. As I move into the next quarter, I look forward to the continued momentum that will result in this year ending strong.

I hope your year is going just as well. As always, thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!