January Newsletter
Shall we all let out a collective sigh of relief? We’ve made it to the new year and through the holiday season. I’m working on this newsletter on the weekend before it’s due to be shared with you, dear reader, and am not sure what my week will look like as I am buried in a massive snow storm. There’s a long snow covered road home ahead of me. Hopefully the path will be clear.
In either case, I feel like I’m starting to breathe again and find my new normals with settling into my new job, and not working 60 plus hours a week. Obviously, this is going to be wrestled away from me when my first child is born in a few months, but come on, let me have it while I can.
2024 was awesome, until it wasn’t. My wife and I got some traveling in, including visiting Yellowstone where we hit a deer and have barely a scratch left on the car. We also were in a good place for welcoming our child. I even started working on my writing more seriously, in hopes of maybe hustling my way into being my own boss somewhere down the road (which is still the dream that this is hopefully laying the groundwork for, by the way). Then everything shifted to survival mode with losing and finding new employment during the last three months. Now that we’re past the holidays and settled into a new job, I feel like I’ve finally caught up on sleep, to at least a normal extent.
I also have been working on myself slowly, reading some books and getting in some therapy sessions. I think it’s helped. I got a long way to go, but I have identified some things as recently as last week that I hope will not only help me be a better version of myself, but also a better writer. I will probably talk about this book at some point in the next few months in a musing post, but I read a book called Soundtracks by Jon Acuff, that felt like it was written by some alternate version of me that unlocked some things. I’m still processing it. But I think it’s going to be a good thing!
So I’m hopeful about a lot of things this year. I hope I can find it in me to finish my novel and release it sometime this year or early next year. I hope to start on the next one (maybe 2 if I settle into a groove), continue to churn out some short stories for you good folks, and all the new fans I gain along the way. On top of that, I’ll become a first time father. All that in a year that finally is supposed to be FULL of video games I’m dying to play…. What could possibly go wrong?
We’ll see how disciplined I can be to get through the things I want to this year.
Novel Update
It wasn’t a great month for writing the novel. There’s probably a lot of legitimate reasons, not the least of which was working two jobs that took up a ton of time. So I fell again trying to reach my goals for the year. I hoped I’d have had the first draft done so I could start making edits and begin the process of looking for someone to edit it, since I’m not chasing the publisher route. I didn’t quite make it. But it was still a good year.
2023 I wrote 19,327 words. Looking at my total for 2024 I made a ton of progress with 31,767 words written this year! That’s 12,440 more words I wrote in ‘24 than I did in ‘23. So here I am again, starting a year off wanting to finish my first draft, but at a grand total of 88,767 words, I know I’m close. I hope I finish it off this month, but we’ll see. Preparing for a baby will probably slow me down a tad, but I do see more time on the horizon this month now that we’re past the holidays.
December Word Count: 324
What’s In Them Eardrums?
I’ve been spinning a lot of the new Anthem Sprinter album from John Van Duesen. I found his music a few years ago and there’s just something about it that earworms its way in and hooks my brain. This album in particular has a lot more straight rock jams than his previous ones. It’s a pretty good listen front to back, and if Kendrick Lamar hadn’t taken the world by storm last month, this would have been the December album for me. It’s hard to narrow down a track or two cause they all are good, but I could have to say Comeback Wrecker is the one that gets stuck in my head the most. If you’ve never listened to his stuff, it’s all worth a listen, and I think (I Am) Origami Pt. 4 is my favorite of the previous albums.
December Recap
Here’s a recap of the posts from last month. Feel free to read them again, share your thoughts on them, or share them with someone that may find them interesting.
A short prompt about a fight in a bar on the moon
Musing about aging, and where I feel like I’m stuck in the middle of being too old and still being in my prime
A little Christmas short idea I thought of with some surprises
I had a wrap up of the year that wasn’t exciting, but a testament to what I started in ‘24 and am propelling myself forward into ‘25
January Preview
I’ve got nothing written yet for this month. I’m no longer ahead, which probably is part of why my novel hasn’t progressed like I wanted to, but I’m working on my craft and hopefully providing you content you’re finding enjoyable here. So here’s the plan for January:
I have a story idea I’m working on about a cop making a wellness check that will change his life
I’ve got a few ideas that I’ve been wanting to talk about that are rattling around my head, so rest assured I’ve been thinking about a few things for musing
I’m planning on putting a third Cale Rider story out. It’s subject to change, but that is what I’m looking at to close out the month
So we’ll press forward, into 2025. I did make it home safe after the snow late Monday night, and it was a harrowing adventure, but that may be a story for another time. I want to say I think it’s going to be a good year, but who ever really knows? All I can do is try to do the best I can writing, and being the best version of myself that I can be. Let the rest of the pieces fall where they may. Hope you are having a great start to your year.
As always, caffeinate to the moon!
Kyle