I feel like I was a little more productive in March than in February, mostly because I finished something big! And new ideas are brewing!

Queries & Writing

• 7 queries/submissions sent (26 total for the year)
• 5 rejections
• I participated in my third SCBWI Agent/Editor Day. It’s always interesting to hear professional feedback not only on my own story, but on other stories.
• I had a major breakthrough in the writing of Into the Mist! And then I finished the first full draft!

Reading

I read a total of 14 books this month, bringing me up to 48 for the year so far. Click on the links to read my Goodreads reviews, as my star ratings mean very little – although I did have a 2-star read this month which is highly unusual!

My favorite reads of the month were The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, A Heart So Fierce and Deadly, and Chain of Iron.

1. A Heart So Fierce and Broken (Cursebreakers #2) by Brigid Kemmerer (4 stars)
2. The Bridge by Bill Konigsburg (4 stars)
3. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (3 stars)
4. The Storyteller (The Riverman #3) by Aaron Starmer (3 stars)
5. Madame Sherri by Eric Stanway (3 stars)
6. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab (4.5 stars)
7. Something Is Killing the Children Volume 1 by James Tynion IV (3 stars)
8. One by One by Ruth Ware (2 stars)
9. Chain of Iron (The Last Hours #2) by Cassandra Clare (4 stars)
10. Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds (4 stars)
11. This Place: 150 Years Retold edited by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (3 stars)
12. The Talk-Funny Girl by Ronald (4 stars)
13. The Writing Class by Jincy Willett (4 stars)
14. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (3 stars)

TV & Movies

Binge-watching:

• Catherine the Great (mini-series)
• Dawson’s Creek Season 4
• Wandavision Season 1 – favorite!
• The Stand (mini-series)
• The Boys Seasons 1-2
• Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath Seasons 1-3
• Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult (mini-series)

New Movies:

• The Dark and the Wicked
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (not new, but new to me)
• Sputnik
• Horror Noire
• Synchronic
• The Climb
• Relic
• Made in Italy

Movie Marathons:

This month I did a Brendan Fraser marathon! There are three different Brendan Frasier characters that I love: the “Born Sexy Yesterday” character (watch this video if you’ve never heard of this, it generally applies to female characters, but I’d say his character in Encino Man, George, of the Jungle, and Blast from the Past fits this description), the private school kid, and the action hero.

• Encino Man (my favorite)
• School Ties
• Bedazzled
• The Journey to the Center of the Earth
• George of the Jungle
• Stand Off
• The Mummy
• The Mummy Returns
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (did not finish)
• Blast from the Past (actually watched in April)
• With Honors (actually watched in April)

Other Stuff

I became a little bit obsessed with cults after watching the Leah Remini series, “Scientology: The Aftermath.” My brain started coming up with a very vague story idea, and then a couple of things happened. First, I decided to take a break from watching this show and watched “Bedazzled” – in which there was a Scientology joke very early on in the movie. Then I started reading a book club book, The Talk-Funny Girl, which was low-key about a cult.

Stay tuned, because to me this is the universe telling me to write a story involving cults!

And now I’ve watched “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult” and I’ve downloaded a bunch more documentaries about various cults to watch in April and requested some books from the library. If you’ve been reading my series about my writing process, I’m still very much on the first step, as my story idea is still very nebulous.

What else? I’m planning a trip! It won’t be until next year, but I’m looking forward to getting vaccinated and the world going back to semi-normal.

Did you accomplish anything big in March? Give it a shoutout in the comments!