Between the Pages: Fourth Edition

December 2024 | Quarterly Update

Prologue

Welcome, readers, to the (belated) fourth edition of my quarterly updates!

For those who are new, this newsletter is intended to summarize my recent writing projects, what I’ve been up to, and what I’m planning for the next quarter – both with writing and non-writing related activities.

Without further adieu, lets get into things.

On the Page: A Progress Report

Followers from Instagram will be familiar with some of what’s in this segment, as its generally what I talk about the most over there, but I like to present it all nicely in one place for the purposes of these updates.

Since September, my brain has been a bit all over the place in trying to figure out what to do next. I started with some editing on BB&B, the draft I wrote in just a handful of weeks over the summer (a cozy fantasy about an ex-adventurer, her magical rabbit, and her grandmother’s old bed and breakfast). That transitioned into playing around with a sci-fi idea for several thousand words in October, then shifting into prep for my planned 30k in 30 days writing challenge in November.

I did not write 30k in November. I maybe wrote 10-15k, I’m not entirely sure.

The last month or so, as evidenced by the delay of my writing and posting this update, my mental health took a bit of a nosedive due largely to, I will admit, the outcome of the US Election. I didn’t write anything for about two weeks, and then I started to work on something I knew would bring me joy the last full week of the month, which I will not go into too many details at this moment as it is small and new like a just-hatched chick.

But! I’m slowly getting back into writing again as I take steps to protect and preserve my mental well-being.

On the Page: Upcoming Projects

Based on how the last few months have gone with writing, I’ve not yet committed myself to what I’m going to work on over the next three months. Ideally, I will continue to work on the project that has been picking me back up off my butt, as well as completing my second round of editing on BB&B.

Off the Page: Books, Music & Games

Before I fully dive into this section, I wanted to announce that I’ve started to migrate to StoryGraph, an app similar to Goodreads, over the last several weeks. I plan to leave Goodreads entirely by the end of the year, meaning that I will no longer be tracking my reading there, and exclusively using StoryGraph for that purpose. For the time being, I will be keeping my Goodreads open/active, but at some point in the future I may leave it entirely.

I’ll be upfront and open about my decision for this largely being due to who is running these platforms and who I want to be supporting in that manner.

That said, we will now turn to my recent reads.

For music, in addition to soundtrack and ambient music during my writing (and sometimes during reading) sessions, I’ve been a big fan of Glass Animals’ recent album, I Love You So F***ing Much. We also went to see Moana 2 in theaters over the Thanksgiving holiday, so that album has entered the rotation the last week as well.

In terms of video games, Stardew Valley’s big update dropped in early November and I have been playing an insane amount for the last month as a result. It is very much a comfort game to me that allows me to hop on and turn my brain off for a while.

Off the Page: “Extracurricular”

As always, I’d like to report some of the non-book and media related activities I’ve partaken in as my life admittedly doesn’t revolve entirely around books.

I’ve dropped off my rigorous running routine likely for the bulk of the winter months, as I completed all my races in the fall and the cold temperatures we have in Michigan tend to set off the arthritis in my foot, making running more likely to be unpleasant. As I’ve also gotten injuries the last two winters that have made running difficult through spring, I’m trying to be extra mindful this year and listen to what my body needs in that regard.

Since the last update, TWO of my siblings have gotten married! So we’ve had a lot to celebrate in that regard, and I am looking forward to making so many more memories both with them and their new spouses.

Night Sky Sightings

In October, we were lucky enough to witness the Northern Lights in Michigan for the second time this year. And they were positively stunning. Unlike May’s showcasing, where they were primarily purple and green, the October set of lights that we saw we vivid red and green, and we even got to see them shimmer at one point!

Husband and I also got very lucky and caught a glimpse of Comet C/2023 A3 in October, on one of the last nights it was visible, using a pair of binoculars. I unfortunately was not able to get a photo as the comet was already very faint at that time, but I was thrilled that we were even able to catch sight of it at all.

A Special Note on Social Media

I like to try to be as open and honest on these updates as possible, because I don’t see the point in doing otherwise.

Social media has not been my friend, ever. But especially over the last month to two months, it has had a notable contribution to my mental well-being.

While I am not leaving social media, and I am rare to post as of late already, I feel its important to note that I am not going to adhere to a consistent schedule at any point moving forward. I will post when I post and that’s kind of it. As I lean more toward potential self-publication for one of my novels, that will obviously change for marketing purposes, but in the meantime, I have to do what I need to in order to protect my mental health.

I am a human, I have a life off of my electronic devices, and I am not a content creator. It takes me a lot of mental energy to make the content that I do end up sharing, and sometimes that has a toll on my creative brain when I am trying to do the thing I would much rather be doing: actually writing. And all that is nothing to say about the drudgery that ends up on my feed(s) as I’m scrolling that ends up having a negative impact on my brain space

Ending the Chapter

I think that about covers everything for the fourth (and final) edition of the 2024 quarterly updates. Continue to follow along for occasional reading or writing updates on my Instagram [@kennedycutlerwrites] or (new!) my thoughts about writing and not-writing related activities on BlueSky [@kennedycutler.bsky.social].

If you have any questions, want to talk books or writing, or if there is something you want to see in the updates here, feel free to send me a DM on one of my socials!

Happy New Year,

Kennedy