The Middle

Here we are just after the mid-point of the year and it’s time to review how things are going relative to the goals I set out in early 2026. Here they are with my updates:

1.       Publish First Step - Done! And done in spite of having my appendix removed in January as I was in the midst of putting the cover and everything else together to get this book out the door.

2.       Publish Assignment Day - Almost there - I generated a cover with Grok that I really like. As soon as I’m done with the draft of The Drop: Season Four that I’m working on, my next task is to format and publish this book. It’s been languishing too long and it’ll be fantastic to add this to my catalog. It should be published by August.

3.       Write three seasons of The Drop - This one is on course. I’m 80% done with writing my second novel this year and I don’t think it’ll be a problem to get in a third.

4.       Publish three more seasons of The Drop - It’ll be close on whether I can get this one done. If I start drafting a new season in August I might squeeze in the third published book of the year by December. Of all the goals for the year, this might be the one that I barely miss.

5.       Enter First Step and Assignment Day into at least three contests each - I’ve done so with First Step and gotten great reviews. It picked up the Gold Book Award from Literary Titan and a must-read from Reedsy Discovery. The Reader Views award won’t be announced until late November. Once Assignment Day is published I’ll be sure to enter it into some contests.

All in all, I’m tracking well for my goals. We’ll check in again at the end of the year and see how things turned out.