October 2025 Recap
Every other month feels like some kind of see-saw. If September was mostly good, October was a drag through the mud. So, let’s hope November and December are both good.
Life Update
October was busy with travel, editing, and getting sick.
My stint with Covid came back to bite me mid month when I started having some discomfort in my chest. A trip to the urgent care and the ER, I found out you can have inflammation around the heart, which can cause chest discomfort. It was not a fun day, but thankfully it seems to have subsided with some good ole ibuprofen.
This entire year has been a weird one for me medically and I’m hoping to really get it under control in the upcoming year.
October is also my boyfriend’s birthday month and he loves Halloween, so we watch a lot of spooky movies in October. I spent two weeks gaming through Stardew Valley before jumping back into edits.
Writing Update
We completed the last round of edits for And She Runs. Final count, this book is 99,600ish words. My longest book ever and I’m a little afraid how long the last book in this series will be, since books tend to get longer as the series goes on, these are going to be thick books.
Also at this point, if a typo has survived three rounds of me reading, four other people reading and two different spellchecks in two programs, that typo won. It deserves a spot in the book to shine.
Reading Update
Because I was mostly focused on writing and editing this month, my reading was lackluster.
A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara (audiobook)
Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong
Enchantra by Kaylie Smith
This Girl’s a Killer by Emma C. Wells (audiobook)
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Lost in Texas Update
The first weekend in October, I made the five hour drive back to Midland to watch my brother compete in Special Olympics Texas’ Fall Classic. This is the state level competition and my brother loves to swim, so getting to see him do so at this level is so much fun.
There’s not much between Austin and Midland except for San Angelo. I spent the entire drive listening to The Life of a Showgirl because it came out that day. It was this trip last year that really got me thinking about being lost in Texas as a mindset and an actual, physical thing that could happen.
I don’t know how many years I’ll be going to Midland, but it’s just a reminder there’s so much to explore in my home state. There’s just so much to explore everywhere.