Tag: Stats

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

March 2025 Stats

I hesitated in posting this on April Fool’s Day, but please know that this post is in earnest. 🙂

In March, I wrote 21,346 words, which boggled the mind. Of those words,

  • 473 were for this blog (5 short posts),
  • 1,564 were for my journal,
  • 15,562 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),
  • 1,355 were on various social media accounts,
  • 894 were poetry (6 poems),
  • and 1,716 were in short stories (11 pieces of flash fiction).

There were 8 days that I didn’t write anything, but this month included traveling for Spring Break and two out of town Winter Guard competitions for my kid. I also haven’t heard back from any of the submissions I’ve sent out lately, but all the submitting guidelines said I probably wouldn’t hear back until mid-April or later, so I’m not worried about that yet.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Concessions by Libby James (e-book; thriller)
  • Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything by Kristin Bair (e-book; mystery)
  • The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell
  • How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy Guide to Sonorous Poetry by Thomas Foster (paperback; non-fiction)

…and I finished reading:

  • If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman by Sharon Blackie (audiobook; non-fiction)
  • Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T. L. Huchu (e-book; fantasy)
  • Such a Thing to Behold by Umar Turaki (e-book; fantasy)
  • The Midwife (volume 1) by Jennifer Worth (e-book; non-fiction)
  • The Truth of Me by Patricia MacLachlan (e-book; children’s lit)
  • Storyteller: 100 Letter Poems by Morgan Harper Nichols (e-book; poetry)
  • Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
  • The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser (paperback; non-fiction)

So I have finished 16 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.).

I feel like I’ve finally hit my stride with this year, so of course the next couple of months are going to be ridiculously busy in my personal life, as I have graduating high school senior in my household and another kid who’s applying to law schools and may need help moving. Wheeeeee!

Books, health, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, Writing

February 2025 Stats

In February, it felt like I had written practically nothing, so it was sort of a surprise to find out that I wrote 13,543 words. Of those words,

  • 353 were for this blog (three short posts),
  • 3536 were for my journal,
  • 7203 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for East Texas Writers Guild and one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1629 were on various social media accounts,
  • 421 were poetry (one short poem and one long),
  • and 401 were in short stories (two pieces of flash fiction).

There were only four days that I didn’t write anything. I was sick for a lot of the month. So, I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Sound and Form in Modern Poetry by Harvey Gross (paperback; non-fiction)
  • Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
  • Storyteller: 100 Poem Letters by Moran Harper Nichols (e-book; poetry)
  • A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie (paperback; non-fiction)
  • If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman by Sharon Blackie (audiobook; non-fiction)
  • The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide by Robert Pinsky (paperback; non-fiction)

I finished reading:

  • The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow (e-book; fiction short stories)
  • The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) by T. Kingfisher (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree (paperback; fantasy)
  • On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity by Daniel Bowman, Jr. (e-book; non-fiction)

PS. It is totally do-able to read Legends and Lattes #1 AFTER you’ve read Legends and Lattes #2 (Bookshelves and Bonedust) if, like me, you didn’t know it was a series.