February, despite being the shortest month, has been one of the busiest I’ve had in a while, both in terms of Book Stuff and life-ing in general.

Early in the month, my husband and I celebrated our twelfth dating anniversary (yes, we celebrate the dating anniversary, because why turn down a good reason to celebrate something?) by hitting up the local Rage Cage. If you’ve never been to one of these before, it’s basically a place where they suit you up in protective gear, let you pick a weapon like a crowbar or a bat, and stick you in a room full of things that you’re free to break. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures, but rest assured that we expressed our love by absolutely destroying a collection of glasses, mugs, jars, and somebody’s abandoned Mariah Carey CD.

Next, of course, was V-Day, which we’re not too keen on–except for when V-Day happens to stand for “Vampire Ball Day.” If you follow my socials, you’ve probably seen a few pics of our gothy vampire attire.

My own don’t-call-them-vampires vampire characters aren’t nearly so stylish, of course. If I wanted to rep the Others from my books, I’d have to put on some plain, stolen/second-hand clothes or maybe some ancient cloaks. Or just parade around in oblivious and aloof nudity, possibly covered in blood, which I don’t think would’ve helped me win the costume contest.

I guess I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up for seeing any Bloodlands/Nightlands cosplays at conventions in the future.

Speaking of which, if I didn’t mention it before, I do have a couple of cons lined up for the coming year.

I’ll be back for InfinityCon Tally for my fourth or fifth year (I honestly can’t remember how long it’s been!), which I’m psyched about, because it’s always a great time. InfinityCon Gainesville is a new one for me (and I think a new location for InfinityCon in general). I haven’t done any events in that area, and it’s very conveniently scheduled around the same time that we often do our Halloween Horror Nights trip, so I think that should work out nicely!

Otherwise, this month we also caught a live rock show at a local venue featuring my nephew-in-law’s hardcore/metal band Blind Tiger (which you can check out here–shameless plug!), did a game night with some friends, lunches/brunches/dinners, and a couple of visits to our brand new local indie book shop.

All of which is to say–that’s enough of that. Time to go back into the Hermit Hole so I can get stuff done.

Seriously, though, I’ve been doing pretty good at keeping up with Book Stuff lately. I’ve even been (mostly) maintaining a bi-weekly social media posting schedule. My social outings have given me more to post about, which I’m told by indie authoring experts helps me seem authentic. Apparently readers want to get to know me!

As my blog readers, you all get the privilege of knowing me best, though:

Wait. Oh shit. I was supposed to be writing somewhere in all of that, wasn’t I?

Nah, I got that covered too.

In the last update, I was working on chapter 17 out of 24. I am now working on chapter 20 out of chapter 25.

“But wait a second, Sarah!” I imagine you’re shouting at your phone/computer. “What kind of writer-math is that???”

Chapter 19 covered two different perspectives for two very different events and came in around 17k words, so I made the choice to split it. This may happen with a couple of other extra long chapters if I can’t carve them down, too. I generally try not to go over 10,000 words unless it’s an Extra Special Chapter. It’s admittedly an arbitrary number based around the fact that 10k was about the average word count for chapters in Bloodlands, but conventional writing wisdom dictates that readers don’t really like lengthy chapters anyway, and 10,000 words is still pretty lengthy.

Long story (or chapter) short, I’m closing in on the end for this pass. I still have some areas that need additional polishing and additional passes, but we’re getting so. much. closer.

Here’s to a productive March. And who knows? Maybe this’ll be the month I finally figure out TikTok!