Between the Pages

March 2024 | Quarterly Updates

Introduction

Welcome one and all to the first edition of my quarterly updates! As this is the first of the quarterly updates I will be releasing in association with my website and specifically my writing, I want to start with a bit of housekeeping before getting into the fun stuff.

For starters, these updates will be released on a quarterly basis, usually within the first week of a new season (March, June, September, and December). The specific release will vary as needed. The contents of the updates moving forward will include topics such as what I’m working on (WIPs), what I’m planning to work on in the new season (spring, summer, fall, winter), and how progress in certain areas such as querying are, well, progressing.

In addition to that, I’ll be including details such as what books I’ve been reading (see “the bookshelf” below), any TV shows I’ve found interesting enough to watch with regularity, and other extracurricular non-writing and non-creative activities (such as any trips I’ve taken in the last quarter).

If there are other topics you’d like to see from me, shoot me a private message via my Instagram (handle noted below). Due to privacy, I am not making my other contact details available at this time.

On to the fun stuff!

On the Page: A Progress Report

Those who have been following along on my Instagram are probably at least a little familiar with my ongoing WIP (work in progress), Heir of the Phoenix, and its sequel, which I am for now referring to as HotF. I began the journey of querying Heir of the Phoenix back in January while concurrently starting the first draft of HotF to keep my mind occupied and my fingers typing.

For Heir of the Phoenix, I have queried a total of ten agents and gotten responses back from six so far, all with some variation of “this probably isn’t a good match for me” in response. In other words, I’ve gotten six rejections. I’ve learned a fair amount through those queries, especially that rejection is the default. I knew that going in, but dealing with it head on is something else entirely.

As for HotF, the draft is a mess. I’ve continuously had to remind myself that’s okay. It’s allowed to be messy. So it’s a beautiful, 50k word mess that I can’t wait to rip apart, though for now I’ve decided to step back from it a bit to let my brain breathe while I focus once more on Heir of the Phoenix.

This is because (insert drum-roll) I’ve decided that before I continue to query, I want more eyes and more feedback on the manuscript. I’ve spent the last weekish now doing minor tweaks and revisions while reading through the manuscript and have begun to seek beta readers. If you’re interested in beta reading, follow this link to the signup form! I’m hoping to have 5-10 readers and will be closing the link on March 15, 2024, with plans to send the manuscript out to those who have been selected to beta by March 18th. More details can be found on the form itself if that is of interest.

On the Page: Upcoming Projects

For the spring months, my plans are return to drafting HotF and then perhaps give myself a mini vacation. What this looks like for me is spending some more time reading, going on a trip with my husband, and over all just allowing my brain to not stare at a screen for multiple hours a day with only thoughts of the current manuscript hovering around.

I also want to get going on a few other writing projects I’ve set onto the back-burner for the last couple of months. This might include the following:

• Returning to my second draft of In the Shadow of the Mountain, a little contemporary second-love romance that I first drafted as a novella back in November.
• Plotting out a story about a witch who has to solve a mystery involving demons while being demonized herself.
• Plotting out a rom-commy fantasy-fae heist type thing that I’ve only just started figuring out the vibes for.
• Returning (possibly, maybe) to a five-plus-year old draft about a mermaid living in Lake Superior, more particularly near Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, back in an alternative historical fantasy version of our world in the 1850s.

At this point, some of you may be wondering: How on earth do you have time to do all these?

My simplest response is I don’t know. I probably won’t and will have to keep the majority of them on the back burner for the pending future. But I’ve been using the time I’ve been given to write as much as I can, so that is what I intend to keep doing.

Off the Page: Books, Music, Games & TV

Technically you could say books would fall under an “on the page” category, but I figured I’d keep those with the other media I’ve been consuming. Therefore, let’s start with my recent reads.

Shifting gears to TV, I have to make it known that I am not big on watching TV. I much prefer book pages (or an e-reader screen) for my media consumption. That said, here are some of the shows I’ve been watching lately that I have particularly enjoyed and would therefore recommend:

• Frieren: At Journey’s End (anime)
• The Apothecary Diaries (anime)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians (live action)
• Avatar: The Last Air Bender (live action; started this one and still have several episodes to watch)

Funnily enough, my husband got me the manga editions of nearly all of Frieren that are currently available in English – but I haven’t been able to read them yet because the first volume has been sold out for months. After he was put on back order for something like eight weeks after ordering it back in November, it was finally just canceled in January and I’m going to try and snag a copy when they supposedly come back in stock in March.

Off the Page: “Extracurricular”

Finally, some non-book or media related activities I’ve embarked on. Living in Southeast Michigan, I have relatively easy access to the Detroit Institute of Arts and have gone several times since moving to the area back in 2018. Most recently I took a trip with my lovely sister-in-law at the start of February, and we spent the day wandering the exhibits.

I’ve also resumed running as of January after a chunk of time off between November and December. I have a race coming up in June and while I’ve only really just started to get beyond base miles, I’m looking forward to it.

Ending the Chapter

Well. I think that about covers everything for this first edition of the quarterly update. Continue to follow along for more regular updates on my Instagram (@kennedycutlerwrites) and be sure to stay tuned for the next update come June!

Love to you all,

Kennedy