2026 Is Here!

I had an unstated goal for 2025. It was to get through an entire year without having to entirely rebuild my production environment. (Which I had to do twice in 2024!)

I will say, that my new computer worked almost flawlessly out of the box for 1 year after its initial purchase. (Which brought me to September.) And it’s amazing how much more work I got done when I didn’t have to constantly worry about resets and reinstalls. I believe my word counts for the year will bear that out.

I did run into some challenges with my computer in November. Because if you don’t have a bunch of extra stuff to deal with during the busiest novel-writing month of the year, is it really November? But I’m pleased to say that they weren’t as productivity busting as 2024’s challenges. And while I’d prefer not to go bug-hunting on my computer, it’s a definite improvement.

The start of a new year means it’s time for a brand new set of goals, however. So let’s start with a peek at how last year went!

I’m pleased to reveal that in 2025, in total, I did 1,435,303 words of work. 789,028 of that was new words.

Writing Goals for 2025

~Edit Frozen Within a Scream (the fifth and final installment of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~Polish Beyond the Moon’s Beams (the fourth installment of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~Write Ghost Path (a brand new fantasy series – hopefully a stand-alone trilogy!)
~Finish Editing Anyone’s Crazy Aunt (the fourth installment of Everyone’s Child)
~Write and Edit Either One’s Devoted Grandmother (the fifth installment of Everyone’s Child)
~Write Everyone’s Celestial Mother (the sixth and final installment of Everyone’s Child)

2025 was the first time in a long time I started the year ‘caught up’ on my schedule. Meaning I wasn’t in the middle of a big project. I finished writing the new installment of the Celestial Serenade I planned for 2024 in 2024. Early, as a matter of fact.

That meant I was able to dig into edits for Frozen Within a Scream right away. It also meant that I was able to move up some of my planning for Ghost Path so I had plenty of time to prepare for the actual writing.

In recent years, I’ve found that outlining right before the project doesn’t quite give me enough time to build up the world-related notes in my head, and I do think planning well in advance served this project well. I certainly had a strong handle on a lot of the things I wanted to do with Ghost Path by the time I started it.

Since the Aruvalia Chronicles were in the final stage of development last year, it was fairly easy to wrap up the major work. Aside from the fact that the last 3 installments in the series trended longer, they didn’t present any major challenges.

The final polish of Beyond the Moon’s Beams was a different matter, however.

How Did It Go?

Compressing my schedule to fit edits a big trilogy into a single month has always served me well in the past. But with my books growing longer, and the amount of work to get through them therefore growing denser… Let’s just say I contended with burnout a lot over the summer.

I’m going to re-evaluate the speed at which I perform these dense, late-pass, post-beta edits. They’re the last chance I have to really make the book shine, and I don’t want them feeling like a slog. Spreading things out will hopefully help. (Especially since I want that to be the most flexible portion of my schedule.)

Everyone’s Child proved easy to finish now that I’ve grown a deep connection with the characters involved. The only real challenge was that I added 5 extra scenes to the final book to serve as an epilogue (as I did with Eternity’s Empire.) But unfortunately, it put me over the limit of work days available. So that epilogue will have to be written here in 2026.

Finally, Ghost Path has proven fun to write. It’s nice to start at the beginning of a new series after spending 5 years keeping track of the Aruvalia Chronciles‘ moving pieces. Making decisions on the fly without having to check them against 12 other books worth of canon is refreshing.

And necessary, since it turns out my outline for Ghost Path was bad. I’m not sure if my concept of the story changed. Or if working on a series for so long has made me forget the challenges of book ones. But I jumped the track on my outline early, changed the order and had to adjust for poorly thought out transitions.

Luckily, I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out.

Publishing Goals for 2025

~February: Madness Beyond Control (Book 4 of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~April: Everyone’s Child Part 1 (a box set containing Everyone’s Child Books 1-3)
~June: Words Beyond Reason (Book 5 of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~August: Anyone’s Crazy Aunt (Book 4 of Everyone’s Child)
~October: Life Beyond Time (Book 6 of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~December: The Beast’s Wicked Gleam (Book 2 of The Aruvalia Chronicles Collection) (a box set)

All of these goals were handily achieved.

I will say that the one challenge with my publishing schedule is that it’s dense. By the time I finish preparing for one release, I instantly have to start on the next. And with all the other projects I have happening, I don’t always budget enough time for preparation without having to cram a bit at the end.

Also, I have somewhat fallen out of the practice of celebrating my releases, and I think that’s a bad thing. I work hard on these books. I should take time to celebrate (and announce a bit more) when they come out.

So my dual new goals for publishing in 2026 will be to clear the way for more prep time and to celebrate each achievement a little longer!

Writing Goals for 2026

~Edit Sonata of the Satellites (the fourth and final installment of The Celestial Serenade)
~Polish Frozen Within a Scream (the fifth and final installment of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~Write The General’s Twin (Book 1 of Beyond the Mirror (a brand new fantasy series!))
~Finish Writing Everyone’s Celestial Mother (the sixth and final installment of Everyone’s Child)
~Edit Everyone’s Celestial Mother (the sixth and final installment of Everyone’s Child)
~Write and Edit Backwards Bar and Grill (Book 1 of Second Chance Specials (a brand new Celestial Serenade Spinoff!))

Since a lot of older projects are coming to an end, 2026 will be a time of brand new projects.

Beyond the Mirror is a project I’ve looked forward to for a long time. Without spoiling too much, it involves a version of Domerin that ended up split off from his Aruvalia counterpart prior to Book 1 of the Aruvalia Chronicles (though his existence is hinted at during the series). This means I get to do a sort of cosmic reset on Domerin without disrupting any of the existing canon and explore a whole new path of his development – something I expect to be a lot of fun.

Since I’ll also be wrapping up Everyone’s Child in 2026 as well, I have a brand new side project in the pipeline. Second Chance Specials takes place in the Celestial Serenade universe, shortly after the end of the 6th book (and before the pre-book 7 time jump). It will follow a brand new set of characters living in the world created by the efforts of the Celestial Serenade‘s heroes. Though you may be able to glimpse some familiar faces moving through the background.

Publishing Goals for 2026

~February: Honey-Tinged Lies (Book 7 of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~April: Either One’s Devoted Grandmother (Book 5 of Everyone’s Child)
~June: Ever-Twisting Wounds (Book 8 of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~August: Everyone’s Celestial Mother (Book 6 of Everyone’s Child)
~October: Blood-Forged Bonds (Book 9 of The Aruvalia Chronicles)
~December: Visions Unlike They Seem (Book 3 of The Aruvalia Chronicles Collection) (a box set)

And that’s it! 2026 is shaping up to be a busy year but, also, hopefully an exciting one!