So last month in January’s monthly wrap-up post, I made a few goals for myself, which I promptly forgot. Let’s go over what those goals for February were:
- Read 8 books
- Write 20k words with a stretch goal of 30k
- Finish a syllabus for a future class
- Finish a proposal for that same class
- blog weekly and send out my monthly newsletter
- crochet more because I haven’t since before Christmas
So let’s see how that went.
Reading
I set out to read 8 books in February since my goal for the year is 100, and I read 9.
- Leather and Lace (#1) by Magen Cubed (4 stars- monster hunter x vampire with a cute dog chase down monsters and accidentally fall in love)
- A Southern Gothic Summer Vacation and Other Stories by Magen Cubed (4 stars- see above)
- A Southern Gothic Holiday Special by Magen Cubed (4 stars- see above)
- A Bloody Little Valentine by Magen Cubed (4 stars- see above)
- Six Figure Author: Using Data to Sell Books by Chris Fox (3 stars- much more useful for people who are churning out books very fast and using Kindle Unlimited. For those that don’t, not very helpful)
- Newsletter Ninja 2 by Tammi Labrecque (4 stars- very helpful in regards to creating a reader magnet or cookie)
- We Free the Stars (#2) by Hafsah Faizal (4 stars- a lovely ending to an epic fantasy the duology)
- Rest in Pieces by Bess Lovejoy (4 stars- didn’t love it as much as Caitlin Doughty’s books on the same subject, little too sensationalized for my taste)
- The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (4 stars- greatly enjoyed RR’s books as always)
Admin/Behind the Scenes Author Stuff
- Finished the syllabus for the class on monsters (basically went through what I had, changed some books, tinkered with dates)
- Finished the course proposal for the class on monsters (justifying why this class should exist beyond Kara wants to teach it)
- Finished another hypothetical syllabus for a literary magazine class that I put off for months
- Listened to and approved the first 15 minute sample of the audiobook for Kinship and Kindness as read by Jack RR Evans
- Updated the keywords for all my books on Amazon, though I may still tinker with this in the future as I’m not sure if I actually did a good job or not
- Completed 3 out of 5 weeks of Sarra Canon’s Publish and Thrive course (it runs through mid-March)
- Added the proper Amazon categories to all my books in the US ebook store (I still need to do this for CA, UK, and all the paperbacks *quietly weeps*)
- blogged weekly
- sent out my February newsletter, you can read it here
- Permanently set The Earl of Brass (book 1) to free and The Gentleman Devil (book 2) to $0.99 (make sure to grab them if you like queer historical-fantasy with a hefty dose of magic and the gothic)
Blogs Posted
- The Hadley Problem
- 10 Nonfiction Books I love
- Adding Texture to Your Story
- Book 1 Free & Book 2 $0.99
- February 2022 Wrap-Up
If there is anything you ever want me to write/talk about, leave it in the comments! I will never complain about suggestions.
Writing
So if you read last month’s wrap-up post, you know January was a STRUGGLE when it comes to writing. By the end of the month, I had only written about 3,000 words. Luckily February was much better, and I ended up writing 10,000 words. For a lot of people, that really isn’t much, but between starting a new story (which is were I struggle most) and grief shit and current events, writing has not been easy for me. Here are my weekly stats (not including blog post word counts):
- Week 1- 1,130 words and missed 3 days of writing, 377 words/writing day
- Week 2- 1,160 words and missed 2 days of writing, 232 words/writing day
- Week 3- 2,700 words and missed 2 days of writing, 540 words/writing day
- Week 4- 3,615 words and missed 1 day of writing, 602 words/writing day
This doesn’t include Monday’s/February 28th’s word count since it runs into the new week for me, but I have reached 20k words in this draft *cue the flaming Elmo gif* and I’m feeling good about it. I’m also very happy to see the days off decrease and the word counts increase. I just hope I can keep this going in March.
Hopes for March
- Read 8 books (to reach 25 total by the end of the quarter)
- Finish Sarra Canon’s Publish and Thrive course
- Brainstorm a short story for my newsletter subscribers (click on the newsletter tab at the top of the screen to join)
- Writing goals
- Minimum goal 10k to reach 30k words (323 words/day)
- “True” goal 15k to reach 35k words (484 words/day)
- Stretch goal 20k to reach 40k words (645 words/day)
- Blog weekly and send out a monthly newsletter
- Craft/Crochet something
Well, I never got around to crocheting really anything in February, so I will at that to March’s list. I do want to get into my craft projects again. It’s just been hard when I have a lot of writing to catch up on. I’m also trying to be realistic with my writing goals, so as not to overwhelm myself or set myself up to fail. I’ll do a post about writing goals in the near future.
So let’s see how March goes. What are some of your goals this month?
Kara Jorgensen 