Welcome to July! I guess. It's Vincent again. In this email: a summary of last month and goals for this month!

July has arrived and it feels like it's been ten years instead of seven months. Living through this year has been a slog of stress and bullshit on a global scale… I'm tired of it, and I know you are too. We may not live in the same parts of the world but we're united by that. And by books. Fuck yeah books.

June was a quiet(er) month for me. The Pride Month sales on itchio weren't as successful as they were last year. Unsurprising, we're all broke, but it does suck. Pride itself felt different this year, and not just because 90% of corporations ditched us like trash on a hot day. I don't feel welcome in the queer community anymore, to be blunt. I won't get into why here. It's a long story and people get angry when it's brought up. Just believe me when I say its hard to take up space right now. But that's why I think it's important to keep going.

I did have a significant victory, however, and one a long time coming. With the help of my editor buddy Jay, I released my first novella, Island of the Baboon God. A dark fantasy, old school sword and sorcery tale, this was the story that set me on this path of writing in the first place about two or three years ago! I never thought it would see the light of day, but Jay was determined and I trusted them… I'm glad I did.

You can get Island on Itchio (on sale!) and on Kobo. Pay attention to those content warnings, they are no joke!

Well, we've somehow made it to July. Now what?

Let's talk goals - yours and mine.

Goals

So what's the plan for July? Assuming nothing blows up like a hideous firework (again), here's what I'm planning.

Read three books

Yes, three. Rather, I'm gonna finish one book and two more after it. This feels like the biggest challenge of the month for me. My ADHD treats sitting down to read like drinking poison. It doesn't want to read, it wants to get up, do things. But reading is doing something, brain. For gods sake, I'm a writer, I have to read! So. Personal challenge. Three books, one month. Can I do it? We'll see. Here's my three books for this month:

• America's Most Gothic: I've been chewing through this book a chapter at a time since I bought it about two months ago. I have to limit myself, because finishing every chapter feels like I'm resurfacing from a dive in dark, cool water. I really like this book, but I'm biased.

• The Hound of the Baskervilles: yes, the Sherlock Holmes classic. It's on Wikipedia, so I've got no excuse. I watched a few movie adaptations so I'm anticipating the original story will be very good.

• The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle: I meant to start this months ago. I'm fixing that this month. I am not sure what I'm getting into, exactly, but that's part of the fun!

Write and edit one short story

That would be my cozy fantasy romance, currently titled Made with Love.

Finish rough outline for my novella

PSI 2, my Cthulhu Mythos short story, did not stay a fucking short story. Such is life. I'm aiming for about 30k words and a spring release next year.

Create roadmap for my novel

Behold the Damned, sequel to my short story Friend of the Damned. I'm very intimidated by the idea of writing this. I have no idea where to start. More research is needed. And lots of planning. Late autumn or winter of next year release goal.

Make a proper marketing strategy

Uuuuuuuugh. It needs to be done. But uuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

I'll update y'all on that as I go.

So that's my July, in theory. In practice, it's never this easy. I have a feeling I'll be moving to a new apartment sooner than I think… long story that. But if I can get the first two things done, I'll be very proud of myself.

So, what's the plan for you this month? Got anything you want to do? I'd love to hear about it. Send me an email back or tag me on bluesky!