Hello, Reader!

November was filled with a lot of blessings for me in my personal and professional life. See what I'm focusing on this month in my recent monthly writing update blog.

Smashwords End Of Year Sale!

All of my books are 25%-50% off exclusively on Smashwords as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale! This is a chance to get my book, along with books from many other great authors, at a promotional discount: http://smashwords.com/sale​

Help your folks get some DISCOUNTED BOOKS by sharing this email! This way, everyone gets a chance to find their next favorite book!

Thank you for your help and support, and happy reading! 😄

Video by Cheyenne Coulburn from Dupe.​

What Am I Writing Lately?

Draft #2 of The Secret Gardens We Grew Together (cozy fantasy standalone)

• Status: 100% done with Draft 2
• Next Steps: Put this on a break and come back to it in 2026 for writing Draft 3.

I finished writing Draft #2 of The Secret Gardens We Grew Together! I've grown to love this cast of characters quite a bit. The last seven chapters are not coming together the way I want to, so I'm going to focus on those when writing Draft 3 in 2026. I also added two extra chapters when writing Draft 2, and those will be fully fleshed out when I get to writing Draft 3. This means the whole book will be 25 chapters in total (assuming I don't add more chapters or delete any chapters)!

As a pre-Christmas treat, let me introduce the main three characters to you:

Kendall is one of the two main heroines in this book. She's incredibly curious, which is one of her biggest strengths and weaknesses. Despite all she's gone through, however, she tries to move forward with kindness.

Agnetha shares the role of being a main heroine with Kendall. She's much more mischievous and snarky compared to Kendall, and a little vain. However, she means well with what she does (mostly), and isn't afraid to be honest about her opinions.

Lyle is a mix of "the mentor" archetype with a "help I only know so much and I'm flying by the seat of my pants otherwise!" type of character. 😱He's trying his best to run an apothecary all by himself before he hired Kendall and Agnetha as house staff.

However, he's not supposed to be running an apothecary in the first place. 😅Why? It's a bit complicated to explain right now...

Other writing-related activities include:

• I shared my monthly writing update on my blog on Dec. 1st, 2025!
• Formatted Found and Sadie Rowe And The Missing Necklace for publication next year.
• Spent a LOT of time organizing all of my writing files. Having many WIPs can be a blessing. HOWEVER, I also need to make sure I can remember where they all are so I don't lose them.

What Am I Reading Lately?

I once again continued my route of reading mostly nonfiction.

Other books I read include:

• Elbows Up! Canadian Voices Of Resistance And Resilience edited by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
• The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Moon Of The Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
• 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg
• Writing Emergency by Kate Danley
• On Being Happy And A Successful Writer At The Same Time by Russell Nohelty

Outside of books, I read an article about the end of an extremely online era, and the author's follow-up article about how to actually put that into motion. I also watched this funny video by Overly Sarcastic Productions summarizing Alexandre Dumas' The Count Of Monte Cristo, which was what inspired me to read the actual book!