I always outline these blog posts first. As things come up that I want to mention, I jot them down so they don’t become lost in the crowd. At this moment, as I sit down to outline my February update, the first salvo of a blizzard is landing outside my windows, a steady and intense burst of snow swirling on gusts of wind, the thawing and melting of the previous week obliterated in this first wave. What is beginning is forecasted to be well over eighteen inches of snow, blustery wind, cold temperatures, and at least one extra day tacked on to the end of my mid-winter break. That’s a blessing, since I am far off my writing target for the month. (Update: in actuality, two feet of snow arrived with this storm!)
My plan was to draft at least two complete short stories. One is my dark Valentine’s Day tale, inspired by a painting I found. That one is coming along, but there is a large chunk I am unhappy with and that has brought my progress to a halt. I will have to force myself to muscle through and just finish the draft so my wife can read it and help me fix that troublesome part. I tried something different with the narrative structure in this piece too, so she will have to let me know if it works.
The second story was supposed to be a witch-centric story. I have a lot of notes, research, and ideas, but I am struggling to get to the core of the character and find a plot that I am happy with. The deadline is the end of March. We’ll see if I can get that one to work.
Instead, the second is my monthly writing group story. I took a big swing with this one and tried to do something very different for me. I want to give it a final read through before I let my wife read it and I present it to my group. Our prompt for this month, loosely inspired by the romantic holiday, was ‘desserts’ or, if you prefer, ‘just deserts.’
Hey wait a second, you might be thinking. You spelled that wrong. I would have said the same thing not long ago. But I have learned a little extra this month, as I searched for inspiration. When confronted with a popular phrase or idiom, I usually begin by looking for its origins. Quite to my surprise, the phrase ‘just deserts’ has nothing to do with a sweet after-dinner treat. It comes from a 13th –century root word deserver, which means “to deserve/serve well,” deriving from the Old French deserte, which means “merit.” Thus, receiving your just deserts (or, in the modern and erroneous spelling, desserts) is getting something you deserve. I won’t continue this etymology lesson here; this article gives an easy overview of the phrase.
By the way – word and phrase origins are something I look up quite often. Exploring the way modern English has evolved into the beautiful and confounding language is enlightening and often leads in unexpected directions.
I decided to have fun with the spellings and meanings, and ended up with a quasi-fairytale type of story about people searching the desert for a hidden city and stumbling upon a strange tent full of desserts. It is very broad and simple, with caricatures, a moral (of sorts) at the end, and not much of a happy ending. It is bizarre and straightforward story, titled (of course) Just Deserts. I am reading it to my group right now, as this scheduled post is appearing on my website. (I have a website?)
I gave the YA series a month off, though I did tinker a little with the outline for book 3 as I search for a better structure in the second act leading into the climax. What I had envisioned is clumsy and does not make sense in many ways, so I need to rethink it. There is a really fun reveal in that part, a major piece of the puzzle that I am excited to write and even more excited for my wife to read.
This has gone on long enough. Here’s a review of my 2026 goals.
1 – Finish writing book 2 with at least two full rounds of edits. Now that I have reached the end of the 1st draft of book 2, I am letting that story rest while I work on a few other things.
2 – Be at least halfway through writing book 3. I have some sticking points in the narrative that I need to clean up. I might outline the first half and get started on the draft soon, hoping the characters and story will guide me to a better conclusion to act 2.
3 – Have at least two short stories accepted for publication. I am trying my hand at a story about a witch, but it is not easy. I continue to search for themes and prompts I feel comfortable with.
4 – Expand my search for someone to publish these YA stories. I have added more agents and publishers to my list and drafted a handful of queries. Those will go out in the beginning of March.
5 – Average two additional blog posts a month outside of monthly updates and publication announcements. Okay, slow start with this. But it does say “average two additional blog posts a month.” I did that intentionally to give myself a little runway.
6 – Read 36 books. February reads: I am in the middle of two books. I did not finish either. Disappointing. But I will catch up.