Category: Speaking

Books, Everywhere But Home, I Am Traveling, My Writing, poetry, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

May 2026 Stats

In May 2026, I wrote 5312 words. Of those words,

  • 607 were for this blog (3 short posts),
  • 410 were non-fiction essays
  • 776 were for my journal,
  • 2439 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 359 were on various social media accounts,
  • 46 were poetry (1 short poem),
  • and 675 were in short stories (3 pieces of flash fiction).

There were only 14 days that I didn’t write anything. As you saw in a my last post, I was super busy this last month. I won’t rehash all of that. My eyes improved a lot, but I was out of town a lot, so I didn’t spend as much time at my desk as I’d like. In the end, I performed 5 poems on stage this month and got one poem and one short story out the door for submitting to literary journals.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Attention Seeker by Darcy Michaels (audiobook; memoir)
  • Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (e-book; fantasy)

…and I finished reading…

  • Imprudence by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • Competence by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • Reticence by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • Romancing the Werewolf by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • How to Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger (e-book; fantasy)
  • The Lions of 5th Avenue (e-book; historical fiction)
  • The Little Shop of Found Things (e-book; fantasy)
  • The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (e-book; fantasy)

So I have finished 39 books so far this year (and read parts of another 8, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.). 

Everywhere But Home, Friend Time, Lifelong learning, My Writing, poetry, Speaking, Writing

Speaking While Out & About Last Week

It’s been such a busy week! On Thursday, May 28th, I was one of the named headliners (along with my friends Janet Tyner, Carol Thompson, and Ilenya Marrin) for the Winnsboro Spoken Word Open Mic Night for the Winnsboro Center of the Arts. We drove the hour over to Winnsboro once again and had a grand old time with MC Mike Guinn, JDarrell Kirkley, and others.

(Then I went to my niece’s wedding on Friday, which should have a post of its own.)

On Saturday, Janet, Carol, and I got up super early, drove to Grapevine, Texas and performed for the Quicksilver Poetry Festival’s Open Mic as well. I don’t have any photos from that yet, but I will share them once I get copies. We had a fabulous time there as well. We got to visit with all our Ft. Worth Poetry Society comrades, hear some wonderful speakers (including the Arkansas Poet Laureate), listen to other wonderful poets, and see Shakespeare Dallas perform for us.

While I’m sad it took me so long to get into there, I really love our Texas poetry community now that I know where to find them. 🙂

Speaking, What I Love, Writing

Upcoming Speaking Engagement – May 6, 2026

This Wednesday, I’m speaking to the Open Door Writing Group about Characters and Body Language.

Everywhere But Home, My Writing, Organizing, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

Speaking Engagement today, March 25, 2026 at Open Door Writing Group

Hey y’all! I’m talking about Writing Subplots at Open Door Writing Group today! Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel! Hope to see you soon!

Essays, Everywhere But Home, Lifelong learning, poetry, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

Upcoming Speaking Engagement on March 19, 2026 at the Rusk County Poetry Society

I will be speaking to the Rusk County Poetry Society at their March meeting on March 19, 2026 in Henderson, Texas. My topic is “Line Breaks and White Space.” Hope to see y’all there!

Everywhere But Home, Speaking, Writing

Speaking Engagement at TPL on February 25, 2026

This week at 1pm in the Makerspace at the Tyler Public Library I will be speaking at the Open Door Writing Group on What I Learned from “Write Smart, Write Happy” and “How to Make a Living as a Poet”, including tips and tricks to help you live your best, most creative, productive writing life.

Everywhere But Home, Speaking, Writing

Speaking Engagement at TPL on January 28, 2026

This week at 1pm in the Makerspace at the Tyler Public Library I will be speaking at the Open Door Writing Group on Planning Your Writing Life, including tips and tricks to help you live your best, most creative, productive writing life.

Acceptances, Books, Essays, Lifelong learning, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love, Writing

Full 2025 Writing Stats

I’ve been very bad about tallying up all of last year’s writing, but I think I’m finally done with it.

  • In 2025, I wrote 114,741 words. Of those words,
    • 5559 were for this blog (29 short posts),
    • 3,660 were in 2 essays
    • 26,396 were for my journal,
    • 43,436 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (15 lessons),
    • 15,692 were on various social media accounts,
    • 12,094 were poetry (68 poems – a lifetime record),
    • and 8004 were in short stories (40 pieces of flash fiction).
    • If you tally all those numbers up, I wrote 154 discrete items, not counting social media posts and journal entries because those don’t really get published. (So 154 items in 215 days, which means about 1 item every 1 and a quarter days)
  • There were only 120 days that I didn’t write anything, mostly due to illness, travel, or moving my kids from house to house. So I wrote on 2/3rds of the days of the year, which basically comes down to working on writing 5 days a week and leaving myself weekends for living, if I were the kind of person that followed a schedule like that. I mean, I try, but there were loads of weeks where I missed several weekdays and wrote straight through the weekends.
  • I only submitted about 5 items all year because it was just sooooo much chaos. I had 2 acceptances and the last 3 items are still well within their response timezones (there’s a better word for this, but the phone in the next room keeps ringing and ringing and I cannot think of it). The two acceptances will be published in early to mid 2026.
  • I had 15 speaking engagements last year. The vast majority did not pay, but were for a group that both feeds my soul and lets me practice my topics with them. Two were for free for the library (who I love and who graciously supports two of my writing groups), but I got several paid teaching side gigs out of them, so that about broke even in terms of payment, really.
  • As for reading, I finished 65 books and read parts of another 13, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF because I didn’t like their take on the topic or the writing style or something.

That’s it! One more year as a writer in the books. 🙂

Everywhere But Home, My Writing, Speaking, Writing

Speaking Engagement on January 21, 2026 at Asher Point

Asher Point reached out to me through the library to come speak to their book club about writing, books that I’ve written, and all things books and reading. I can’t wait to talk to their Book Club! 🙂

Acceptances, Books, Essays, Lifelong learning, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

November 2025 Stats

In November, I wrote 16,268 words! Yay! Finally a good writing month after months and months of delays, trips, moving kids, etc. I’m so happy I finally got to sit down and just write. Of those words,

  • 409 were for this blog (2 short posts),
    2777 were for my journal,
  • 1234 were the essay for that anthology I talked about last month,
  • 2426 were answering questions to help make my essay for the anthology, many of which did not end up in the anthology because they were excised from the first draft to make way for words that did not sound like they were answering questions,
  • 0 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (I reused an old one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1572 were on various social media accounts,
  • 3327 were poetry (16 poems – a new record!!),
  • and 1073 were in short stories (2 pieces of flash fiction).


There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything, but that’s not bad because I wrote A LOT on the days that I did write. I did host part of Thanksgiving and a board games night at my house this month, as well as building shelves and moving my husband’s entire board game collection from The Living Room to The Library.

Another one of the books I beta read for came out this month, so once again I’m feeling that weird sense of accomplishment about that.

As for myself, I had one piece accepted for an anthology that will come out early next year (probably around graduation season, I’m guessing, since the topic of my essay was “advice I’d give a teenager who wants to become a volunteer coordinator for a non-profit organization”).


As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer(audiobook; non-fiction)
  • West of Yesterday, East of Summer by Paul Monette (e-book; poetry – I finally got it back on Libby!)
    Memory’s Daughters: The Material Culture of Remembrance in Eighteenth-Century America by Susan M. Stabile (hardcover; non-fiction – written by my Women’s Diaries professor at TAMU while I was taking her class)
  • How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse by Thomas C. Foster (e-book that I have AND trade paperback at my dad’s house; non-fiction)
  • Poetry’s Data: Digital Humanities and the History of Prosody by Meredith Martin (e-book; non-fiction)

…and I finished reading:

  • The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (audiobook; historical romance)
  • Poetry Magazine Jan/Feb 2025 by Poetry.org (paperback; poetry)
  • Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
  • The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (e-book; mystery)
  • The Comfort Book by Matt Haig (audiobook; self-help)
  • The Carrying by Ada Limon (e-book; poetry)
  • Stargazy Pie by Victoria Stoddard (e-book; cozy fantasy)

I really am trying to finish most of the unfinished books I started earlier in the year. I have finished 56 books so far this year (and read parts of another 12, again mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).