But this is not a weather post, this a reading post. The reason I mention pool season is because pool season is when I do most of my reading. A few hours at the pool, a few beers and a kindle, and I am unstoppable. At least when it comes to reading.

Now this year is a little unique in that I have travel/family plans six out of the next weekends. So I’m not totally sure the first time I’ll get to go to the pool and actually dip into the water. The moment I do, though, it’ll be with my kindle in hand.

I always love taking my kindle to the pool, because with the e-ink display, I can see it well in the sun, and it’s more waterproof than a physical book. So as we move to pool season, I’ll be reading more books on my Kindle than on my TBR cart.

My April To Be Read List

1. The Storm by Rachel Hawkins

2. Game Point by Meg Jones

3. All the Little House by May Cobb

4. The Right Move by Liz Tomforde

5. A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay

6. Main Character Energy by Caitlin Devlin

7. His & Hers by Alice Feeney

It’s a shorter list this month but that’s intentional. There’s so much going on and since I’m head deep in writing a new book. But even writers need to read to keep sharp - just like athletes watch film, and for the next few months, it’ll just be me and my kindle hanging out at the pool.

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Thankfully it mostly delivered. No one died, no one caught the flu. No random job changes to make me want to yank my hair out. In fact, I am more or less temporarily in a different role at work, helping out in a queue that involves a lot less talking to people every single day.

The days I’m in my normal queue versus the temporary queue, it’s quite crazy how different my mood feels after the end of the day.

March was the month for healing, for spending some time outside. I went to the pool during lunch a few times just to read (it’s still too cold to get into the water), started brainstorming and outlining a book, too.

My boyfriend and I tackled some house projects, like decluttering spots in the house, cleaning, and finally taking down the Christmas tree. Literally did that yesterday, whoops.

Filed my taxes like an adult, too. After the hectic start of the year, this really felt like the month to take a step back and just collect on what I needed to do and take care of.

One of my goals this year, too, was to catch up on some needed doctor’s appointments. I finally went to the eye doctor’s in the middle of the month and picked up some new glasses this week. The last time I got new glasses was the day Joe Biden was inaugurated, so it’s been a hot minute.

Writing Update

I started brainstorming my newest book, outlined about half of it and started writing it on Monday. For the month of March, I wrote 4,069. Considering that was all in the last two days of the month, I will take it.

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Reading Update

I only read three books in February and I am happy to say I read more in March. In March I finished five and started a sixth book.

• Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

• It’s Not Here by Mary Kubica

• Alter Ego by Alex Segura

• An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

• You Belong Here by Megan Miranda

• The Storm by Rachel Hawkins (started this one, but haven’t finished it yet)

As we get closer to summer, I’m hoping for more memories, more fun and a few more sunburns.

February was such a blur, I only read three books when I wanted to read more. So, I’m wanting to be intentional about picking up a book this month, compared to last month.

With pool season right around the corner, I know my reading will go up, but I have so many physical books to read through. During pool season, I lean on my kindle a lot, because it is more waterproof than a physical, paper book.

So this month, I really want to focus on reading on my physical books and put a little dent in my list.

March To Be Read list:

• Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

• It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica

• An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

• You Belong Here by Megan Miranda

• And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison

• Clean Point by Meg Jones

• Friends with Benefits by Marisa Kanter

• You are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego

• The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

• Stolen in Death by J.D. Robb

• Alter Ego by Alex Segura

• Catch Her if You Can by Tessa Bailey

At the rate my year is going, even if I get half of these read, I’ll be happy.

It’s been a month and I need to get to work. Not even because “it’s been long enough” to grieve or anything like that, but I want to get back to work because I feel in the last few months, even before all of this happened, I’ve lost a lot touch with my creative side and I miss it.

For so long in my life, I didn’t think of myself as a creative. I can’t draw to save my life, I’m not big on arts and crafts. So as a kid and even a young adult, I always felt that because I didn’t like those things, I couldn’t be creative.

It time and work to accept that I am creative, even if it looks different than what I grew up believing. But lately, I feel so out of touch from that side and I need to find my way back. So, my goals this month are a combination of trying to get back to that, but also taking care of things that will take up clutter in my brain so I can focus on my creativity.

March Goals

Writing Goals

• brainstorm a new version of my stand-alone book, Lost in the Canyon. I needed to change up my writing schedule, so I’ll be brainstorming and outlining this month to give myself plenty of time to get it ready to write in April.

Marketing Goals

• finish redoing my author website, I’m rebuilding it and redesigning it in spurts.

• post on social media regularly, you know, to promote my books.

Health & Wellness Goals

• Journal at least 3 times a week. I’ve been using the Apple Journaling app off and on this year, and I love it because it syncs with my devices, so I can start on my phone and pick up on my computer if it’s a long journal entry.

• Plan for Quarter 2. Needless to say, Quarter 1 was kind of nightmare, so we’ll plan for Quarter 2 this month with the HB90 method.

Other Goals:

• Spring clean my house

• find a new job

• read 10 books

• maybe go to the pool at the end of the month? I usually wait until April, but I went mid-March last year and it was 85 degrees or more multiple days this past week in February, so I think we might go the last weekend of March if it’s still warm.

Spring going into Summer is always the time that I feel most at peace. The warm air, the sun on my skin, hitting the pool, I’m ready for the warmth. And to crush some goals I hope.

Here’s to hoping March is worth it.

To best describe how February was a nightmare, we have to go back to the last week of January. I’m in the car with my boyfriend, driving to H-E-B, and my sister calls me. My sister does not typically call me unless she needs help with something or wants to deliver terrible news - like calling me to tell me our family dog died in 2021.

This call was the later, to tell me that my dad and aunt were talking about sending my grandfather to hospice care. He’d been sick off and on since the fall, and looked rough when I had seen him at Thanksgiving. After several stints in the hospital and rehab, he was just not responding well and mentally he was ready to go.

Friday night, he went to hospice. Sunday, February 1st, at 9:15 at night, my dad called: my grandfather had passed away. He had been 95, he was ready to go, but it still caught me off guard. A week before that, I had no idea it was the end.

I was incredibly lucky to have 32 years with three of my four grandparents, but now I hope my grandfather is up there with my grandmother, after being apart for fourteen years.

Needless to say, I took time off from work, I didn’t go back to work until February 12th, I think. I worked Thursday and Friday and then woke up sick Saturday morning. I thought it was allergies, there was a cold front that came through that day that kicked up stuff, but by the end of the day, I had spiked a fever (I think the last time I had a fever was in 2020) and my muscles were sore, muscles that don’t usually hurt, like my hips.

Sunday morning, I finally broke down and took a Covid/Flu test and I was positive for Flu A. Even now, two weeks later, I still don’t feel 100%. Prolonged talking irritates my throat and I have this cough I can’t seem to shake. The stress of this month is showing up physically, too. My acne is the worst it’s been in a while, my hair is falling out more frequently and I am not sleeping well.

February is only twenty-eight days long but it felt so long. I am truly hoping that March is boring and normal, because I need some of that.

And while most of the month felt like I was floating in another reality, there were still some good moments. We went a Super Bowl party after getting back to Austin, I got to see some of my mom’s friends at my grandfather’s funeral. My mom has two friends who I’ve known really my entire life, and it was nice to see them. At one point in my life, they would have been the women I would have called if I couldn’t get a hold of my own parents.

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My grandfather that passed away was my paternal grandfather, so to see people show up to support my mom as she lost her father-in-law, it was really sweet to see.

At work, I’m so incredibly lucky that my new supervisor is so protective of her people. While I’ve dealt with the flu, she’s moved me into queues where I didn’t have to speak and irritate my throat and I had my annual review this past week that I think went really well.

But, even in those moments, most of the month was lackluster. I didn’t write any words and in fact, in the past few days, I’ve had to think about what my writing is going to look like for the rest of the year (I’ve decided that 2026 actually starts today).

I did read three books in February.

• My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

• Most Eligible by Isabelle Engel

• The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead

If I had to sum up February, it would simply be: I survived.

I knew it would be a rough month going into the month - mostly because I knew that my new role I’d be starting was going to be tough. And it was, I spent most days drained beyond belief, checking out after I clocked out. Especially those first two weeks.

The job applications have been frantic and frequent, but sometimes it feels like I’m just shooting for a target in another room. Sometimes, especially lately, I feel like I might never get out of this job I have, but that’s another post for another day.

Life in January

While most of my time was just trying to survive in between work, there were some highlights in the month. One weekend, we went up to Dallas to watch the Dallas Stars play hockey. They lost, but it was still fun to get to see them in person.

Also, didn’t realize how quiet it could get in the arena. Watching them on TV comes with commentary from some incredible dudes (Josh & Razor) but they aren’t played in the arena (though you can hear them in the bathrooms).

Writing in January

While I had every intention of writing in the month of January, it became clear that once I got back to work, especially that first week, writing just wasn’t going to be in the cards for the month. My original plan was to wait until February to start writing, but then I did dabble a little bit in my draft toward the end of the month. I ended up with 5,071 words written.

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Reading in January

While my original plan was to read twelve books, I read six. I did really well with reading, I think, until the last week when my grandfather went into hospice and I shut down in a way, but that’s a post for another day.

• The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner

• In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams

• A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson

• Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

• Someone Knows by VI Keeland

• How Freaking Romantic by Emily Harding

While my hope had been that 2026 would start off strong in my favor, the truth is, it’s started off strong in all the wrong ways. I’ll share more about that later on, but I did want to get this post out since I started writing it the first day of February.

Just on life. And there has to be someway to reset and jumpstart my year and my life vision. And I think part of why I’ve struggled to write this post is because I have been struggling so much. The last three weeks have left me depressed, anxious and drained in a way I didn’t even know.

I want to believe the future will be better, it’s in my nature as a futurist (CliftonStrengths for the win). But it’s getting harder and harder to do that everyday, when I feel depleted.

Which is how I landed on my word of the year - what’s the opposite of depleted? I’d say replenish.

I think the first definition really speaks to me more - to fill something up again. To fill up my energy, my desire for life, my creativity.

I’m not living that right now. With this job change, I feel like I am in survival mode. Surviving to the next paycheck. Surviving until my company decides they don’t need any of my skills and lays me off. Surviving, not thriving.

And even if things were things were to change tomorrow - a new job that pays well, better insurance, a role where I feel like I actually contribute. A better sleep schedule, more energy to write - even if all of those things changed tomorrow, it would still take time to replenish and fill myself up. I hope those things that I need come soon rather than later, because I know I have to build myself back up.

Build stamina, build some savings, build up my creative muscle again. Right now, those just aren’t things I can do.

So, we work toward the goal of being able to replenish, even if we aren’t there yet. I hope we are soon.

And while I would love to be writing the sequel, right now, there are too many other things in my life sucking up energy (mainly constant job changes) and I feel zapped by the end of the day.

So, even though I still want to put out a new book this year, I’m quickly realizing that just isn’t really possible to think about this moment. So, while I’ll tuck those goals I talked about last week away for a bit, I’m going to focus on other things. Mainly reading and job searching.

While my reading goal this year is only 50 books, I think I can pass that. Right? It’s not even about how many books I read, but I really do want to make a dent into the books I have. After slumping through reading the last part of 2025, the books on my TBR cart have spilled over the cart and now we’re stacking books in interesting arrangements.

Even though my goal is to read through that cart, there are a few books that are new releases this month on my TBR list. I feel like there are so many authors that come out with new reads in the spring. And maybe that could be an entire blog post itself, but there is a bit of a fear of seeing spoilers online (so far, I am very happy I haven’t seen any People We Meet on Vacation spoilers).

So, every month feels a little like a balance between books I just got, books I’ve had, and then some on my kindle because we’re traveling next weekend and a kindle is way easier to travel with.

January TBR

1. The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner

2. In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams

3. A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson

4. Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

5. The Right Move by Liz Tomforde

6. You Are Fatally Invited by Andie Pilego

7. Alter Ego by Alex Segura

8. The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead

9. A Killer Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

10. Someone Knows by Vi Keeland

11. Every Sweet Thing is Bitter by Samantha Crewson

12. You Belong Here by Megan Miranda

If you aren’t familiar with Book of the Month, the book box, a bunch of these are BOTM books that have been waiting patiently to be read. They’re all hardbacks, so they take up extra space in the book cart.

So far, I’ve already read The Second Chance Year and I’m about halfway through In Your Dreams. Since I’m shifting my focus to reading this month, as long as I stay focused.

I think I’ve come up with my goals that I want to work toward this year. Of course, if my situation and spirits change, I can always build on that. I break my goals down into different buckets or categories.

I think of my life in two big buckets - my writing life and my normal, personal life. But even then, those can be broken up into other buckets - I have two pen names, and both pen names have writing goals and marketing goals.

My personal life can be broken up into things like fitness, health, recreation, job searches, trying to relax and building a better life.

So, here we go.

2026 Goals

Personal Goals

Health and Fitness

• Build up a regular workout routine

• Close my green ring on my Apple Watch 4 times a week (204 times)

• Aim for six hours of sleep four times a week (204 times)

• Drink more water

• try to log 10,000 steps a day 4 times a week (204 times)

• lose 25 pounds

• add more fruits and veggies into my daily routine

Part of these goals are influenced by the last week and a half where I’ve been off from work and lived in Lala Land. I wasn’t eating well, I was sleeping in most days, staying up way too late. It’s time to get back on track for that.

Career

• Find a new job

• find a networking group to go to on a regular basis

• build a portfolio website

Recreation

• read 50 books

• read 20 books from my TBR cart

• go to storm spotter training again

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Writing Goals

Laura Teagan

• write the first draft of And She Hunts

• write the second draft of And She Hunts

• write the third draft of And She Hunts

• hopefully publish And She Hunts

• get a draft in of Lost in the Canyon

I had wanted to get Lost in the Canyon out this year, but I don’t think that’s going to happen because I’ll be focusing on a book from my secret pen name.

The Other Pen Name

• write a second draft of my football romance

• maybe a third draft?

• publish on Kindle Unlimited

Marketing Goals

Laura Teagan

• focus on growing Instagram and Tiktok

• grow my email newsletter (you can join here)

• hopefully sell 3 copies of And She Runs each month

• be more consistent on social media

• maybe dab in Facebook or Amazon ads?

Secret Pen Name

• Grow Instagram

• Get page reads once I publish on Kindle Unlimited

• Find new ways to promote a pen name without a face (cause it’s a secret pen name)

That secret pen name was started in 2023 after I was laid off and it was my experiment pen name. I originally wrote the book and was publishing the book via Kindle Vella and just having fun with it.

I want to have fun in my work, and I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. I want to have in life, too.

I want to stay focused on the things that will bring me toward a better life. And that’s what 2026 is about - replenishing myself to be the best Laura I can be.

The job changes just this year (we had four) have left me feeling drained and I’m struggling with motivation and thinking about the future. As someone who has “futuristic” as my number one CliftonStrength, that’s pretty bad.

While the year was rough, there were moments where it was good, too.

Life Recap

I started the year off excited - we had finally earned some extra commission options in January. Then in mid-January, I had to take my grandmother to the hospital and there was part of me that didn’t think she would survive. She’s still alive and I’ll see her later today, but it’s a reminder that life is fleeting.

February, I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much of it but I did start this blog.

March was a busy month. I traveled to Alvin and Pearland in Southeast Texas to go see my brother play Special Olympics basketball. I’ll drive anywhere in the state to go watch him play, if I can.

It was that same week that we found out my team at work was moving to a different department, the Customer Success department and that the team would no longer earn commissions on sales. We could move with the team over to the Customer Success team or we could stay in sales and move to the onboarding team, where we would call customers who had just formed their business to go over additional services - like bookkeeping and taxes.

I made the decision to try and transition to onboarding and it was kind of a disaster. I don’t have the backbone to fight when people say “no” and just move on instead of fighting for my sale. I decided to give it a go, because I wanted to make more money, not less, and I was in the interview process for a role outside of the company. I was hoping I’d get an offer and be able to bail.

To this day, the company still hasn’t reached out to tell me they picked someone else. Whoops.

By April, the role in onboarding became unsustainable and I managed to switch back to my old role, but in the Customer Success department. I also made a second trip to Alvin, Texas. This time it was to go spend Easter Sunday with my boyfriend’s family. This was the first time I got to meet some of his cousins and we’ll see how many of them I remember next time.

I made a trip home in May and got to visit the Plot Twist Bookstore and Bar up in Denton. It was a cute little place, though packed. We did that and I spent plenty of time at the pool, and worked on edits for And She Runs.

In June, I spent a week up at home to celebrate my grandfather’s 95th birthday. I’m so grateful to have three grandparents alive, but this was the week that my parents really saw the cracks of the last few years of my life taking its toll. It was incredibly slow at work at the time and that was the first time I realized this job was unfulfilling.

In June, we also went to our first hockey game. We saw the Texas Stars (the AHL affiliate for the Dallas Stars) play a playoff game. They lost in overtime and the seats were incredibly too small, but it was a fun experience to go see the Stars play.

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July had me start my last round of edits for And She Runs. The summer days were filled with editing and the pool, while still trying to find a new job. I had an interview on August 1st but was quickly informed they selected someone else who had a little more experience.

When I die, add it to my tombstone: “we liked you, but we moved forward with someone who had more experience.”

July was also when the Hill Country saw insane flooding. Most of the flooding was west of where I live, but about ten miles away, one part of the county got thirteen inches overnight. It’s hard to wrap your mind around that much water, and knowing how close it was.

August really shook me as my company laid off 20% of the company, including a teammate that had been my teammate through two employers and for seven years, and my manager. It’s weird to be left still there when all your friends are kicked out.

I finished my last round of edits/rewrites and sent the book off to some friends to read and give feedback on in August, too. Besides editing and layoffs, I also started having some digestive issues. Mostly from a not-so-great diet but I think anxiety and stress around the layoffs were messing with me, too.

Digestive issues still plague me to this day if I’m not paying attention to what I eat.

September was about trying to continue to look for a new job and take a moment to relax while others read my books. Got covid during Labor Day weekend, too. Or flu. Or both.

And that lead to some chest pains and anxiety that landed me in the ER in October. They think it was either some kind of long-Covid thing or really bad anxiety. Bad enough that I got my first anxiety prescription ever. In between all that, I started final, final edits for And She Runs and continued to look for new jobs.

It’s funny - the day I finally got on anxiety medication, Halloween, was the day that I found out my company was moving me from working in chat all day to the phones all day. I really hate talking to people, strangers, all day. There’s a level of masking that is involved that just wears me out after a few hours.

So to do it perpetually until I find a new job? That’s daunting.

November had the release of And She Runs and a lot of work training. It was also my birthday, plus Thanksgiving so there were wonderful moments - like seeing Wicked: For Good for my birthday and spending Thanksgiving with my family.

I had planned to start the sequel to And She Runs in November and didn’t. I spent time trying to plot the book and figure out what would happen, but I instead spent most of the month grinding through Stardew Valley. The depression really took hold in November after the book came out.

December saw me start my new role and then two weeks later, I found out I’m moving to a different, even less up my alley role. They told me two days before Chirstmas, but not before they accidentally released the schedule ahead of telling me and I found out from a spreadsheet. That new role starts next week and I am dreading it. At some point, I might write about the details but I want a new job before that.

This year was a year of mental surivival, trying to figure out where I belong and what I want out of life, only to continue to get knocked down again. I hope 2026 allows me to just stand tall in what I want, but we still have work to do.

All my hopes for a calm and resting December did not happen and I think I summed it up best when I told my doctor: if I have 99 problems, my employer is causing 98 of them.

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Life Update

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