Update Day: Spring-Is-Supposed-to-Be-in-the-Air-So-Where-Is-It? Edition

Today is the last Friday of the month, which means it's time for another update to the Got Goals? Bloghop. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the bloghop. A few of us writers have set some crazy, huge or hugely important goals and are working toward achieving them. To keep us accountable and motivated, we post monthly updates on our progress.

You're welcome to join in too. Just go here for more information.

How did I do?

I went into September with multiple challenges facing me. For one thing, the book I've been wanting to work on (the Western Romance) ended up needing to be rewritten again. Usually, that's not a problem, but I really battled to get into writing it again.

Eventually, I just decided to give myself a break and work on something different, which ended up taking the form of poems and a short story. 

A few days of that and it was as if the cobwebs finally cleared away. So I did finally figure out what I wanted to do with the romance and started on it. 

Along with that, I've managed to do some freelance work and work on my startup. 

So all in all, not too shabby, although I do wish I had written more. 

What do I want to achieve in October?

I actually have a whole slew of things I want to do this coming month, so let's have some fun with seeing how far I get.

1) It's time for me to start revising Book 3 in The War of Six Crowns. I've given myself enough time off from it, so I should be able to see the glaring faults that I might have been blind to before. 

2) Speaking of The War of Six Crowns, I want to finish the covers so that I can get that one step closer to updating the first two books. (And eventually, my website.)

3) I want to keep working on Eden's Son, the Western Romance, because I want to see about publishing it this year or early next year. (Maybe, if Book 3 doesn't take up too much time.) 

4) I want to help with marketing this year's Untethered Realms anthology, Spirits in the Water. 

A haunted journey on a riverboat, water sprites borne of pennies, preternatural creatures, ancient serpents, and The Lady of the Lake lurk in dark waters. Raging storms and magical rainbow fountains. Water is spectacularly beautiful but also treacherous.

Angela Brown gives us Extraordinary. Puberty hits Angelique like a gut punch and brings about a change, forcing an unexpected revelation about her past. All seems well until a vicious storm tears through her Texas community, and Angelique learns there are worse things than a little change.

Jeff Chapman offers The Water Wight. When a drowned girl changes her mind about suicide, Merliss and her associates face a fearsome, preternatural creature.

River Fairchild presents You Can't Go Home Again. A young woman, filled with regret about the past, goes on a journey and discovers more than she bargained for.

Gwen Gardner gives us Shake, Rattle and Row. Harlow Grayson has the chance to rid herself of a pesky ghost but she must first brave a haunted riverboat and recover a family heirloom. What she finds might be more than she can handle.

M. Gerrick gives us The One Who Would Wield the Sword. Nikka is supposed to be nothing more than dragon bait so a real dragon hunter can do his job, but the Lady in the Lake has other plans for her.

Meradeth Houston presents The Flood. Sometimes a flooded kitchen isn't the unluckiest thing to happen to you.

Simon Kewin offers us The Waters, Dividing the Land. Hyrn the horned god of the woodlands is learning the meaning of fear. Death magic blights the land, threatening everyone and everything. To save what he can from spreading corruption he turns to the ancient river serpents, but they’ve grown old and distant, and may not hear his call at all.

M. Pax presents The Wallows. Evernee Weems wants to escape this world in the worst way. Her daughter needs everything, the rent is being raised, Evernee’s job barely pays minimum wage, and she has little hope for better. Inside a puddle is a different reality. She jumps in, happy to trade her problems for a life in which worries don’t exist. Or do they?

Christine Rains gives us Frozen. A necromancer is on the frozen moon of Saturn where the dead do scream.

Cherie Reich presents The Folding Point. Aimee's fight against those who banned paper magics has begun.

Catherine Stine offers Maizy of Bellagio. April still searches for her mother who vanished nineteen years ago from the fountain at Hotel Bellagio in Vegas. Can Maizy, a water sprite who works the fountain’s pink colors begin to help the three generations of eccentric women tortured by this tragedy?

From USA Today, Amazon bestselling, and popular science fiction and fantasy authors comes Spirits in the Water, a supernatural anthology of eleven thrilling tales. Spirits in the Water is the fourth, long-awaited Elements story collection from the dynamic and inventive Untethered Realms group. Coming October 2017.

Available for pre-order at: 

Amazon

iTunes

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Google Play

5) I want to edit and submit a short story I wrote this month. 

6) I want to write at least four more poems in October. 

What about you? How did you do in September? What would you like to achieve in October?