December 2025 | Quarterly Update
Prologue
Its December, which means that this is the final update for the year!
For those who are reading for the first time, this blog update is intended to talk about my latest 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.
This particular edition is coming a bit later than most – my only reasoning is I have been tired in all aspects for the last several weeks and more. However, I am a believer in it being better late than never, so here we go.
On the Page: A Progress Report
As I have done for most years for over a decade (excluding last year for several reasons), I participated in November National Novel Writing Month. This year, I joined a new organization running an event for this, thirty30k. They have a wonderful website with a tracker, daily challenges, and even offer a place to run writing sprints for yourself or anyone also using the website.
My goal, aside from writing 30k during November, was to write a first draft for a novella. With a working title of Ranger, I wanted to write a story about a national parks ranger who is left behind during an ‘end of the world’ type societal collapse. I both succeeded and exceeded my aims for the project, and I’m now letting it simmer before coming through for a second draft. I don’t know yet when I’ll be doing that, but I’m already having ideas on what changes I want to make on that pass.
Those who have read the previous edition of updates will know I did a querying batch for my cozy fantasy, Bunnies, Beds & Breakfast. Unfortunately, all the responses I have received were rejections, but that just means I try again. I’m not presently in the right mindset for doing another batch, but I am considering to give it another go come spring.
On the Page: Upcoming Projects
I’m looking at taking a bit of an extended break through the end of the year, with no real plans for a specific project to work on at the moment. Breaks are a very important part of creating and I do feel that I am overdue for one lasting longer than a few days. That said, I’ll likely pick something back up a bit more seriously again come January, which is already only a few weeks away.
I have a few options heading into the new year. There is a personal project I’ve been playing with that at this point is only ever for my own eyes, the next pass for Ranger, revisiting BB&B, or starting something new entirely. For now, though, I’m going to rest and only write when the desire calls.
Off the Page: Books, Shows, Music & Games
The Bookshelf
I’ve read over 100 books this year, which is certainly my personal record, so below I’ll list my top reads of the last few months rather than list out every single title I’ve read. If you’d be interested more specifically in the books I’m reading and how I’m rating things, you can also check out my StoryGraph page.
Top Reads of September 2025 through December 2025, in no particular order:
- The Sirens by Emilia Hart
- Saltcrop by Yumi Kitasei
- The Summer War by Naomi Novik
- The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
- Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldreee
- I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker
- A Natural History of Dragons/The Memoirs of Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan
We’ve been doing our best to catch up with Campaign 4 of Critical Role, the latest in the long-form D&D webseries, though we’re still a good month behind in terms of episodes. We’ve also been watching the newest animated series by the group, The Mighty Nein. As I initially started listening to Critical Role during the Mighty Nein’s actual play campaign, being able to watch it as an animated series feels particularly special to me.
For music, I have officially become obsessed with the k-pop group, Stray Kids and have been calling myself a baby Stay. I started listening to their music occasionally over the summer, but through the end of September until now its become a daily occurrence at our house and especially when I drive anywhere. Even just the short drive to run a quick errand or go to the store. As they are the group’s latest releases (as well as the two that I’ve been in the fandom for so far), I often have Karma and Do It on loop, though I’m slowly working my way through their previous releases.
In terms of video games, I’ve stopped playing as much due largely to the amount of brain power I’ve been putting into writing through November. I would probably say that that impacted the amount of TV I was consuming, as well, as I do generally find it more difficult to consumer content when I’m in the process of creating it. Music is the typical exception to this, as I cannot write without some sort of background, even if its just ambiance.
Off the Page: “Extracurricular”
In October, I completed my second full marathon. I succeeded in beating my goal for this one and got a personal best by nearly ten minutes. Additionally, I’m really proud of how I felt after finishing compared to when I ran my first one two years ago, most notably that I wasn’t in any significant pain and managed to go the entire thing without taking extensive walking breaks at the end. I’ve been back and forth about jumping back into (shorter) runs the last few weeks, and I’m likely to not run at all for the next several months as I am not a good snow-runner and have a preference for running outdoors vs on the treadmill. We’ll see what happens, though.
I’ve kept up with my newest hobby, knitting, and am making decent progress on my second project which will be a shawl. I’ve really been enjoying sitting with an audiobook and just knitting for several hours at a time.
I made an attempt at getting a sourdough starter started, however, I accidentally killed it. After several weeks of trying different flours and temperatures to get it active, I left it too close to a heating source in an attempt to get it really going and instead ruined it entirely with too much heat. I do plan to give it another go, but I’ll probably wait until after the upcoming holidays.
My husband and I went on our big trip of the year, as well, venturing out west to Utah to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. We also made stopovers at Cedar Breaks National Monument, the Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead. Of the the places we visited, I think Zion had to be my favorite.
The highlight of the trip, for me, might have been staying late at each of the parks to stargaze. We had the clearest view of the Milky Way that I’ve probably ever had while in Bryce (above). A couple nights later, while we were in Zion (below), the moon made it a little more difficult for the stars to be clearly seen, though we were able to see Comet Lemmon.
In November, those in the US especially will remember the huge solar storm that allowed the Northern Lights to be seen in just about every state. In Michigan, we unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to see them on the first night due to dense cloud cover. However, on the second night of the substorm, the skies were near perfectly clear so I stayed up later than normal to try and see them from our house.
We live in a suburb-type neighborhood. Every house has their exterior lights on, plus people had started to get their Christmas lights out on top of the regularly placed street lamps. I was worried that, despite reports of observations in the area and the conditions that we wouldn’t be able to see them. I checked out the window every few minutes, and spent long periods sitting on the cold cement porch watching until I was too cold and had to come inside.
When I was ready to give up, I looked out again. And I saw a pillar of red in the sky. Standing out in the cold, we saw the band of green, topped with the shifting reds higher up in our line of view. And, as the last times I have witnessed the Aurora, I was awestruck.
This was the third time I’ve seen the Aurora (the first being May of 2024 and the second in October of 2024). I think I could see it a thousand times and never grow tired of it. I love the sky and the night and the universe and when I pause to look up and get that clear view, it sometimes feels like staring up into eternity.
Ending the Chapter
That brings the final update block for 2025 to a close. Thank you for joining me for another year. Continue to follow along for occasional posts and updates on my socials (linked in the website header), or check back here next year!
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
Kennedy Cutler 
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