The twenty-third chapter of The Gold in the Dark is out! New chapters, complete with brilliant chapter illustrations courtesy of Ally Grosvenor, release every other Sunday at 11 AM EST (and many times earlier)! You can get started on the series with Chapter One right here or now also on Wattpad!

In writing news, NaNo is over!!! I was writing up until just a few minutes before midnight; I still came a little short of my goal (21k), but I still managed to hit 18.5k, which is still a very good writing month for me. That puts me at what I’m thinking will be the halfway point (35k) for my Beauty and the Beast and Aliens WIP–hard to say though, because who can tell how long it will end up being. I have a spidey sense that it will be a bit shorter than my previous books, but that’s just guesswork on my part.

This next week I’m going to be picking up all the other pieces of my writing life: blogging, Instagram, ARCs, Goodreads updates, etc. All that’s been terribly neglected in this NaNo push, and I don’t want everyone on social to take my radio silence as a sign that I’ve perished. 😛

Hmm, maybe I should also real quick jot down what I learned this NaNo so I have a historical record. First off, I’ve learned that my stamina doesn’t necessarily die after a couple hours of butt-in-chair time. I do have the capability of writing for eight plus hours and achieving a 1000+ word day. (That might sound ridiculous to some faster writers out there, but I am sloooooooow, and I do a lot of editing as I go, so more than a thousand words is a great day.)

I’ve also learned that I like letting other people know about my NaNo goals! I used to be pretty secretive about my writing life, but now I share it with the world. XD It’s pretty cool to go into work and have my coworkers ask me about my word count–I found it to be really motivating, since I didn’t want to be all “Oh, I’m doing this thing, but actually I’m slacking off on that thing, so just forget I said anything.” Nobody wants to be that guy. Gal. You catch my drift.

Lastly, I learned that getting out of my house to write really is the key for me. I wrote everywhere this month: many multiple coffee shops, a couple different libraries, work (sorry, boss!), an AirBnb writers’ retreat with my friends, on a Thanksgiving trip (another shout out to my amazing friends and husband who didn’t give a fig that I was desperately typing words while they were duking it out on Smash Bros).

Anyway, I’m going to wrap this up here. I’ve missed being present in this space, so expect way more posts for me in the run-up to Christmas. (Yay, Christmas!) Have a great rest of your weekend, and enjoy Chapter Twenty-Three. ❤