March 2026 | Quarterly Update
Prologue
Its March and time for the first quarterly update of 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.
As a content note, this update is a bit briefer than normal. Full disclosure: I’ve been dealing with seasonal depression and its impacted my writing, reading, and other hobbies. I’m okay and doing well, I just feel its important to be open about the thing that’s been having a significant impact on my life lately.
That said, lets get into it.
On the Page: A Progress Report
I hardly wrote a thing in December. I know I wrote a few thousand words (total) here and there, but I cannot remember what they were for other than a project that obviously had no lasting impact on my brain.
In January, I took a new approach. I decided to write something purely self-indulgent, with no plans for it to ever see the light of day unless it undergoes significant editing and rewriting. The important thing about it, though, was that I was having a ton of fun. I was spending easily twice as much time each day working on this project, having both morning and afternoon (and sometimes even evening) writing sessions. For me, the story was fun, a little silly. And I had a great time working on it. I finished in early February with about 100k words, the equivalent of a full manuscript draft in about five weeks. And it reminded me why I write: for the joy of it.
I’ve done a few ‘side quests’ in the weeks since, but nothing has really stuck yet. I’m still focused largely on writing what brings me joy, what hooks my attention. Because that’s what it should always be. Write for yourself first and foremost.
On the Page: Upcoming Projects
I still don’t have any for-certain plans in what comes next. I’m honestly just trying to chase the dopamine where and when I can as we head out of the winter months and fully into spring. I still have thoughts for Ranger hovering in the back of my mind, as well as vague ideas toward the next new project, but nothing has been set just yet.
Off the Page: Books, Shows & Music
The Bookshelf
My reading has slowed down significantly in the last few months, as I’ve been struggling with seasonal depression as well as trying to find motivation to read generally. I’ve found that cozy, lower-stakes books have been easier for me to digest right now, though even then my attention wanders more often than not. That said, I’ve included some of my favorites since the last update:
Top Reads of December 2025 through February 2026, in no particular order:
- The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
- The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
- Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
- Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
- The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty
If you’re interested in seeing all the books I’ve been reading as well as my ratings and occasional reviews (mostly reserved for ARCs these days), you can also check out my StoryGraph page.
Television watching has been sparse, but the second season of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has started, and I couldn’t be more excited. Its one of the few animes that I’ve really gotten into, and I also very much enjoy and having been keeping up with the manga as well. When we watched the first episode of the new season, I couldn’t stop smiling because of how comforting it was to have it back.
My music consumption has remained approximately the same over the last three months. I’m still listening to a lot of Stray Kids and k-pop. I’ve found that while a lot of songs that aren’t instrumental can be distracting when I’m writing, kpop being in an entirely different language does not have the same distraction.
Off the Page: “Extracurricular”
I’ve resumed running after a bit of a break through December. I started up again in January, but because of the cold and arthritis reacting to said cold, I spent most of January and February doing runs on a treadmill. It sucked. It was better than not running at all, but it sucked. I’ve only just begun running outside again over the last two weeks, and even on days where it turned freezing again I dragged my butt out because it was better than being cooped up inside for another run.
I’ve kept up with my knitting, though its been slow going lately and I’ve been on the same knitting project since November. Which is fine. I’m a slow knitter to start with, and if I’m not having the time to sit and work on it that means I have other things to do that are occupying me. Still, I am hoping to have this particular project done before too many months go by, if only so I can start thinking about doing something new.
I started learning Korean. Yes, this is a result of my recent interest in kpop. I’ve not made a ton of progress, but the progress I have made makes me proud of myself. (I’m using an app called Mango Languages, as its less reliant on AI compared to a lot of other language learning applications, for anyone curious. I have free access through my local library and used it previously when I was trying to learn some Norwegian. (This is not an ad, this is just me talking about a thing I use that I like.))
With spring coming, I’ve begun my annual planning for the garden and have so many ideas. We’ll see how many of them come to fruition (ha) but if they do, I’ll be sure to share progress in that realm here.
Ending the Chapter
As I said at the start, this is a bit shorter of an update. But I am still here and I am still writing (even if its not things I will be looking to publish in the future). Hopefully I’ll figure out where my head is at and what I want to be writing a bit better in the next few months.
Thank you as always for joining me on an update, and I’ll see you next time.
Kennedy
Kennedy Cutler 
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