Category: The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me

Around the House, Books, Everywhere But Home, Family Time, Friend Time, health, My Own Personal Weirdness, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, Writing

April 2026 Stats

In April 2026, I wrote 4052 words. Of those words,

  • 520 were for this blog (1 short post),
  • 449 were non-fiction essays
  • 1101 were for my journal,
  • 556 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1277 were on various social media accounts,
  • 471 were poetry (7 short poems),
  • and 121 were in a short story (1 piece of flash fiction).

There were seventeen days that I didn’t write anything. I spent April Fools day offline, as always, but this year with breakfast out with Ree, writing group shenanigans midday, and NTBMO family dinner for a nice ending to the day. I spent half a day at the car dealership with my youngest child as his Emotional Support Human while he bought his new car (he’s never bought from a dealership before and wanted some help with contract parsing).

My spouse and I went to DFW that Friday to do some paperwork for a new fun thing and visited the Mustang Museum and wandered the mini Riverwalk in Irving along the way. Saturday we sat around waiting for tornadoes all day, which kept my dad from being able to drive up for Easter, alas. Sunday dawned a bright, beautiful day. All three kids made it over for crepes (a combined Larson/Holcomb/DoUB tradition) and egg hunting and bunny business were done by some family members while others hid from the camera (*cough eldestchild cough*), though I did sneak a picture of my spouse later. I went to my second Poetry Society of Texas meeting on Zoom and that was nifty! I was inducted as Corresponding Secretary of Rusk County Poetry Society at their April meeting. Also that week, my youngest went off to the WGI World Championships and I watched it all from afar. Then I finally got my new prism lenses. They are so lightweight and yet manage to make everything regularly-3D again without the double vision I’d been experiencing. It’s going to take a little getting used to. So while I could start working on the computer and doing up close work again, it has taken longer than I’d hoped it would.

Fortunately, the birthday celebrations started – first my son’s, then mine with family, then mine with friends (a craft night!). And at the end of the month I led the Open Door Writing Group in playing word and story games. I was so very busy, I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere. So, I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Imprudence by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Book By Book (hardcover; non-fiction)

…and I finished reading:

  • Defy or Defend by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Ambush or Adore by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Soulless by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Blameless by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Changeless by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Blameless by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Heartless by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Timeless by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Prudence by Gail Carriger (audiobook; fantasy)

So I have finished 31 books so far this year (and read parts of another 6, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.). 

Acceptances, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love, Writing

January 2026 Stats

In January 2026, I wrote 6066 words. Of those words,
• 802 were for this blog (3 short posts),
• 1230 were for my journal,
• 2156 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group and one for Asher Point Independent Living Facility),
• 585 were on various social media accounts,
• 214 were poetry (2 short poems and 1 long),
• and 1079 were in short stories (4 pieces of flash fiction).
There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything. Mostly weekends and holidays, but also a few sick days. I submitted one poem online and heard back from a couple of places, one of which accepted a piece for publication. I also had two speaking engagements, lots of physical therapy appointments, a trip with my family to see my youngest perform with NOVA Independent Guard, the Icepocalypse of 2026, the purchase of a cover for my first indie-published poetry anthology (of just my work), and attended a ReCraft & Co Zine Making Workshop.

As for reading, I read parts of:
Secrets of the First School by TL Huchu (audio book; fantasy), Braiding Sweetgrass by Robyn Kimmerer Walls (audio book; non-fiction), The Relaxed Author by Joanna Penn and Mark Leslie Lefebvre (trade paperback; non-fiction), How to Make a Living as a Poet by Gary Mex Glazner (trade paperback; non-fiction).

…and I finished reading:
• Bee Sting Cake by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy),
• Whiskey Fool by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy), • Plum Duff by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy),
• Blackcurrent Fool by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy),• Love in a Mist by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy),
• Olive and the Dragon by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy),• Seven Dials by Agatha Christie (e-book; mystery),

So I have finished 7 books so far this year (and read parts of another 4, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve just not finished yet.).

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. 🙂

Acceptances, Essays, My Writing, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, Writing

Acceptance: An Essay in “Beloved As We Are: Building a Congregational Culture of Disability Inclusion”

As several of you know, a couple of years ago I wrote an essay for a traditionally published book about living with disability and then, as usual in my life, things went amiss. The publishing company had an office fire (or maybe the whole building burned? Reports vary.) and timelines went askew. Time went by. I got a few emails asking for patience. Then one that said they were rethinking the whole way the book was going to be presented.

A manuscript arrived in my inbox last week and I was asked to check if the parts of my essay used were used in ways that did not negate the message I was trying to give with my entire essay. In fact, we were all asked to read the whole book, if possible. But there was a four day deadline and I didn’t have time last week to do so. In any case, my parts sounded fine. The parts of the book I read seemed mostly on target for what I was expecting (as long as they proofread it before sending it on to the printers).

So yesterday I got another email, with the title of the book. It’s supposed to come out mid-late summer, so watch out for it: Beloved As We Are: Building a Congregational Culture of Disability Inclusion. (I will, of course, post more about it when I get cover art and links and such.)

Acceptances, Essays, My Writing, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, Writing

Acceptance: An essay in “What Should I Do With My Life?(Letters to Deliver Series Book 2)”

This book from A Worthy Press hopes to help teens and young adults choose a career path that best fits their God-given talents. Each contributor shared insights from their own career journey—what they learned, what they’d do differently, and the wisdom they wanted to pass on to the next generation. I wrote my essay on the one thing I’ve done most consistently in my life – wrangling volunteers. I know, not an official job title, but you know what jobs are like, your title could be just about anything that made sense to an HR person at some point. Hahaha. In any case, this book should be out sometime in February. I’ll post more about it when I have cover art, etc.

Acceptances, Books, Essays, I Am Traveling, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love, Writing

October 2025 Stats

In October, I wrote 4350 words, which is so little that I could cry. But I was busy! More about that later. Of those words,

  • 320 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 667 were for my journal,
  • 0 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (I reused an old one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1204 were on various social media accounts,
  • 1652 were poetry (9 poems),
  • and 814 were in short stories (4 pieces of flash fiction).


There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything. I spent 10 days on vacation, traveling to, then staying in North Carolina, and driving home. I used every morning as a little writer’s retreat and wrote a lot while I was there. I’m still having trouble with my shoulders, so I spent several days either at the doctor, at the physical therapist’s office, or off getting X-rays and a couple of MRIs. I do have an essay that I found out about an anthology for on the last day of October that I’m going to start writing this week (but that counts for November). I still didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.


As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery – I’m having trouble getting this book again through Libby, hence taking a break from it)
  • The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (audiobook; historical romance)
  • Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy)
  • The Man with Two Left Feet (e-book; I’m not sure the genre)

…and I finished reading:

  • The Honey Witch by Sydney Shields (trade paperback; cozy fantasy)


So I have finished 49 books so far this year (and read parts of another 18, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).

Around the House, Books, Everywhere But Home, Family Time, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Parenting, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love

September 2025 Stats

In September, I wrote 4097 words. It’s still a busy month, even if all of your kids are out of high school. Yeah.

Of those words,

  • 346 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 0 were for my journal,
  • 2024 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 448 were on various social media accounts (which seems low, I know, but I’ve been trying to cut back on that and spend more time reading lately),
  • 1142 were poetry (3 short poems and 2 long),
  • and 137 were in short fiction (1 piece of flash fiction).

There were 19 days that I didn’t write anything. I spent a lot of the month either moving my eldest child to his new apartment or I was editing for Caro’s Quest. One of the books I beta read for came out this month, so I’m feeling that weird sense of accomplishment about that (you know, in that way where you walked alongside a friend going through something that you got to help with, so it’s like it’s partly yours just a little bit?). Meanwhile, I personally didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.


As for reading, I read parts of:

  • The Comfort Book by Matthew Haig (audiobook; self-help)
  • The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (e-book; mystery)
  • Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
  • …and I finished reading:
    Nothing Romantic by Kennedy Hope (e-book; LGBTQ+ romance)
  • System Collapse by Martha Wells (e-book; science fiction)
  • Except the Dying by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
  • Poor Tom is Dead by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
  • Conversations in the Garden* by Chelsee BreAnn (manuscript; poetry )

So I have finished 48 books so far this year (and read parts of another 16, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).

*The title of this book has changed since it was in beta. It’s permanent title is Honeysuckle Memories.

Around the House, Books, health, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love, Writing

August 2025 Stats

In August, I wrote only 3811 words. I was sick the first half of the month and then moving kids from house to house and editing the second half (so technically I lost a bunch of words off my novel, but we’re not counting those as a negative number of words those days). Of those words,

  • 206 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 0 were for my journal (which I cannot find my paper journal, so that might not be true),
  • 1612 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1042 were on various social media accounts,
  • 217 were poetry (2 poems),
  • and 734 were in short stories (4 pieces of flash fiction).

There were 17 days that I didn’t write anything. Mostly I spent the month either ill (the flu, bronchitis, and a sinus infection, oh my!), moving one kid over a room in the house he’s in so another of my children could move into his old room (and helping that second child as well – child #2 in this scenario was far easier to move) or trying to edit my novel Caro’s Quest down to a reasonable number of words so I can turn it into the editor (today, I hope!). Also, life was still too chaotic, so I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.

As for reading, once again, I didn’t leave any books unread, but I finished reading a ridiculous number of short e-books, all by Martha Wells (the first published author that ever gave me advice – she worked in IT at Ocean Drilling Program at the same time I was a student worker in the publishing department – she was so nice about it when my boss sat me down at her table at lunch one day):

  • All Systems Red
  • Compulsory
  • Artificial Conditions
  • Rogue Protocol
  • Obsolescence
  • Exit Strategy
  • Home
  • Fugitive Telemetry
  • Rapport
  • Network Effect

That brings me up to 42 books finished this year and 13 partially read (that number went down because I finished two partially read books). 🙂

Around the House, Books, I Am Traveling, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love

July 2025 Stats

In July, I wrote 6569 words, which doesn’t feel like a lot. I did, however, take two of my kids on their first international traveling adventure, so there was a lot of kerfluffle for that, and I also took a few days off to go to the Poetry of Society of Texas Annual Conference.

Of those words,

  • 251 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 478 were for my journal (which I may update later with numbers from my paper journal, which I cannot find today,
  • 1276 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 2630 were on various social media accounts,
  • 1346 were poetry (10 poems),
  • and 588 were in short stories (3 pieces of flash fiction).

There were only 8 days that I didn’t write anything, despite being out of town a lot this month. I just wrote a lot while I was traveling. There’s something about getting out of your regular every day patterns that gets the writing juices flowing. I wrote a lot in my paper journal, but I didn’t count any of those words because I cannot find it at the moment. Who knows where it is!

I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere. I just wasn’t that kind of organized.

As for reading, I didn’t read anything that I didn’t finish this month, mostly because I read very little

…and I finished reading:

  • Fire At the Exhibition by T. E. Kinsey (audiobook; mystery)
  • Burnout by Emily Nagoski (audiobook; non-fiction – see, I’m dealing with my burnout by reading up on it)
  • Wherever You Find Yourself by Tasha Gaines(manuscript; Christian fiction romance, I believe)
Around the House, Books, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, Writing

June 2025 Writing Stats

In June, I wrote 6604 words, which wasn’t that great, but I’m pretty sure I was burnt out most of the month after all the graduation nonsense. Of those words,

  • 320 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 1258 were for my journal,
  • 2854 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for East Texas Writers Guild and one for the Open Door Writing Group and one for the Tyler Public Library’s Try It Tuesday Class),
  • 1033 were on various social media accounts,
  • 35 were poetry (1 measly poem after last month’s record *sigh*),
  • and 1104 were in short stories (5 pieces of flash fiction).

There were only 8 days that I didn’t write anything, so it seems like my count should be higher for all that. I don’t know – I guess my brain was only thinking in super short form this month.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • A Fire at the Exhibition by T. E. Kinsey (audiobook; mystery)

…and I finished reading:

  • Jack Glass by Adam Roberts (hardcover; science fiction – do NOT recommend unless you like unexpectedly gory books)
  • The Ghost of Marlowe House by Bobbi Holmes (audiobook; paranormal mystery)

So I have finished 29 books so far this year (and read parts of another 14, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).