June was quite the productive month! Lots of ideas cooking and developing some projects for future drafting. Here’s where things currently stand:

• Not Yet Corpses: Final Polish in progress. Query letter and synopsis updated.
  • July Goals: Complete 5.2 polish and send a round of agent queries
• Wish I Might: First Draft clean up is at 15/25 chapters. Sneak Peak shared with early readers.
  • July Goals: Finish Draft 1.2 clean up and share with early readers. Get developmental feedback and make plans for what needs work.
• Dig Two Graves: Dark Fantasy Slasher and the third of the Not Yet Corpses trilogy. Lindy’s book.
  Outlined! Still cooking on a few ideas
  • July Goals: Let it chill.
• Untitled Wildwood Novel: Fantasy Dark Academia Murder Mystery.
  Outlined! Gathering Inspiration for the characters and setting.
  • July Goals: Get to know the characters a bit more and keep cooking
• Made some progress in the plans for how the Heroes and Heritors story progresses after the original trilogy.
• Short Stories:
  • Bad Vibes Day: A 10k Urban Fantasy story about a family of magical teenagers being stalked by a mysterious stranger. From the world of Heroes and Heritors (the Not Yet Corpses Literary Universe hehe)
    Written and shared with readers. It’s just for fun so if anything it may go up here at some point.
  • The Deep. A flash from the world of Heroes and Heritors that takes place during Wish I Might.
    It’s as done as it’s going to be, so I will probably post it here once I finish the current draft of Wish I Might
  • Please Close Behind You: A short supernatural horror about the main character grappling with the death of their brother triggered by finding a short story he wrote that may hold the truth of his mysterious death
    Reread it and decided it needed a redraft, and made some progress on planning that. May see some progress on that for July
  • Other than those, lots of ideation and development behind the scenes of a few short horror/fantasy pieces.

So! Lots of development but nothing major finished. I was initially feeling somewhat unproductive because I’ve been editing so much without finishing any one project, but this round up has helped me to recognize how much I was able to move along the pipeline! Got some interesting things coming up for the second half of the year.

Later this week, I’ll post my Top 5 Romance Comedies, as part of a collaboration with the Introvert’s Social Hour, a podcast by one of my favorite introverts, KaVonna, where she gets social for an hour and discusses a variety of topics. I had the pleasure of being a guest on an episode where we discussed some of our favorite Rom Com movies.
Be sure to check it out for some great recommendations from across the genre!

In general, my July writing goals mostly finishing up the projects that I’ve been working on for a few months, and moving them on to the next phase. But that leaves me with the question of what to do next. I have a few options there:

1. Continue with the Heroes and Heritors trilogy and move on to Dig Two Graves. Taking place a few years after the end of Wish I Might, Dig Two Graves follows shadow wizard Lindy as they embark on a quest for revenge against the Brom Wallace Brotherhood, planning to track them down and take them out one by one, no matter the cost.
   • Vibes of The Last of Us Part II, and Among Us/Werewolf paranoia party games.
2. Stay in the H&H universe but tackle something new by drafting the Untitled Wildwood Novel. This one I’m pretty excited about: Fantasy Dark Academia Murder Mystery following three students at the Wildwood Institute as they adapt to University life, balancing magical studies, a social life, and tracking down the killer who’s targeting students as part of an Infernal ritual.
   • Tim Burton’s Wednesday x Urban Legend (1998) x The Craft (1996)
3. Work on something totally new. I have a few ideas for some standalone novels outside of the H&H story that could use some attention.
   • Potential novel ideas include: Horror Rom Com (Horror Comedy crossed with Rom Com); I Put a Spell on You (YA LGBT Romance); Cringe but Pretend It’s Nostalgiacore (near-future Sci Fi Dystopian YA)
4. Focus on Short Fiction instead. I have a few ideas kicking around for short fic, which could be a fun change of pace.
   • Revamping Please Close Behind You and developing other ideas for submission. Ideas include: Haunted Doll Watch; Love Me Dead (toxic lesbian vampire romance); I Haven’t Left the House In Days (PT x Skinamarink x Eric LaRocca; lockdown horror); Kelpie Jennifer’s Body (Supernatural YA Horror Comedy; set in SoCal)

What creative goals did you accomplish in June? What’s next? How do you prioritize between multiple projects?
Do you want to hear more about any of the novel or short story ideas I listed above?