Between the Pages 2025: First Edition

March 2025 | Quarterly Update

Prologue

Welcome, readers, to the first edition of 2025’s quarterly updates!

For those who are new, this blog update is intended to highlight my recent writing projects and what I’m planning for the next quarter. While I tend to focus primarily on the writing aspect of things, I also highlight some of the non-writing activities I’ve been up to.

Without further adieu, lets get into things.

On the Page: A Progress Report

I’ve not been posting on Instagram (or any social media) about my updates as much as before, so I’m going to do my best to cover everything thoroughly in this segment.

Since December, I’ve had some ups and some downs in terms of writing. December felt largely like a recovery from the down that was November for me, in that I didn’t feel like I was working on any one project with my full attention. I bounced around a bit, attempting to work on a couple different things and never getting further than a few thousand words. I decided to let my brain have a break and resolved to jump back into things more fully in January.

Which I did. I spent the first week or so plotting and writing a rough first few chapters of something new, then having it fizzle out pretty quick. The second week through the end of the month though, I got my rhythm back to some degree. I decided some time ago to rewrite a contemporary romance novella I’d drafter over a year ago as a more full-length fantasy novel. Through the first two weeks of February, that project has occupied a significant segment of my writing brain and, while its a very messy and rather short first draft, it is a first draft. I’ve started contemplating how I’ll go back through to rewrite and improve upon it for the second draft, but first I need a bit of a break from that story.

So, last week, I started another new project. It came to me sort of out of nowhere on a Thursday night, and I sat down and write a vague and very rough plot summary for a tale about a young woman who wants to be a dragon rider. Yeah, that’s a common story/trend right now, but I don’t think its a bad thing. Not when people are consistently enjoying books with that base premise.

On the Page: Upcoming Projects

Over the next three months, I’m not fully committed to one thing or another. I want to see how far I get on this new draft that I started last week about the dragon rider, and resume editing/rewriting Bunnies, Beds & Breakfast (BB&B) my cozy fantasy about a young woman and her magical rabbit. I’m also hoping that maybe I’ll get around to rewriting the draft I wrote in January, but we’ll see if I get to it.

For BB&B, I might start to look for alpha/beta readers after the rewrite, depending on how confident I am in the story itself at that point. I feel like, based on how quickly I was able to draft it the first time around (like, three weeks for 70k+ words), the story feels pretty cohesive already. My rewrite is primarily to tighten up some of the plot and rework a couple of the characters, but I have plans to do some querying with the manuscript or, if that doesn’t turn out, see about self publishing it in the (not so distant) future.

If you’re interested in being a beta reader for BB&B, send me a note on my Instagram (@kennedycutlerwrites) so I can note you for consideration when the time comes!

Off the Page: Books, Music & Games

The Bookshelf

As I mentioned in the last quarterly update, I’ve migrated from Goodreads to StoryGraph for my book tracking purposes. If you’d like to give me a follow there, I can be found @blues_book_nook. Moreover, in December, I elected to start an account dedicated exclusively to what I’ve been reading over on Instagram, so if you want book/reading content but not writing content, you can give me a follow there (@blues.book.nook). I promise I won’t be offended if you follow one of my accounts but not the other!

Furthermore, because I’ve already read something like 25 books while only being two months into 2025 (I’m honestly very shocked by this number every time I see it but I’m very much actively trying to escape reality more often than not lately), I’m going to highlight some of my favorite reads from the last few months in the following section rather than list all of them as I have in prior updates!

Additionally, in book related news, I’m attempting to take more advantage of my local library this year. At least half of the books I’ve read since January 1st have been either physical check-outs or digital loans via the Libby app. When we went to the library to pick up a few that I’d been waiting in the queue for on the Libby app that were on shelf in person, I felt like a little kid in the best way possible.

I’ve found that my music listening habits have grown fairly stagnant. I’m largely listening to ambiance and instrumentals while writing, and I feel like I haven’t discovered anything super exceptional in a while. If you have any suggestions for new or recent music, feel free to send them my way!

In video game news, I’ve returned to Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch for the first time since last summer. I’m not playing every single day at this point, but its definitely a comfort game that I’m happy to return to after being away for an extended amount of time.

I’ve also taken up puzzling. Since December, I’ve done four or five puzzles, which for me is quite a lot. I’ve found that if I pop on my headphones, queue up an audiobook, and just go, I can do them fairly quick. I’ve had a couple 1000 piece puzzles that I’ve done in about 10-12 hours, including one that I did essentially in a single sitting, only taking breaks for food and the bathroom. Needless to say, its done some good things in keeping my mind focused.

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.

Mid-December, we took a brief trip down to Columbia (yes, the country) to celebrate my sister’s wedding with her new in-laws. We were only there for a few days, but the change of scene, some warm weather and an ocean view did some good. I also got a massage for a first time, which was as relaxing as I was hoping for.

I’ve begun to get back into the running thing since January, though its been a bit difficult for me to achieve when there is snow and ice and cold weather abound. I have races lined up for the summer and fall, so I’m at least trying to get something of a habit formed before training kicks in for those.

I feel a little bummed that, for now, that’s all I have to talk about in this segment. Hopefully as the weather warms up for real, I’ll be able to return to more of my outdoor activities (gardening, especially) and can have more to talk about here next time!

Ending the Chapter

I think that about covers everything for the first of my 2025 quarterly updates. Continue to follow along for occasional posts and updates on my socials (linked in the text above or in the website header), or check back in June for the next edition!

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!

Kennedy