A Massive TBR Problem and a Finished First Draft - October 14th, 2025
Hello, readers!
It feels like it’s been a while since the last newsletter, and that’s because it has been. Whenever there’s a month with a fifth Tuesday instead of just four (like last month!), that means there’s extra time that passes in-between…and I have a lot to share with you.
Also, thank you to everyone that bought the Under-Rated Book bundle on Itch.io (the sale ended yesterday)!😊 I appreciate all the extra support given to my books “Refilling The Well” and “Bloody Fantasia” and all the other authors’ books featured in that bundle. If you enjoyed reading “Bloody Fantasia” and “Refilling The Well,” feel free to leave a review on Goodreads and other similar platforms.
What Am I Writing Recently?
I’ve been busy writing more of the unnamed/unlisted WIPs and the autumn-themed poetry collection! And…
I got really stuck with writing the autumn-themed poetry collection at the end of September. Fortunately, I got unstuck right at the beginning of October. I’m happy to share that I finished writing Draft #1 of “Sonnets of Autumn!” 🎉
Given this development, I started writing Draft #1 of “Sonnets of Winter.” ❄️ This will be the fourth (and final) poetry collection in this series of seasonal poetry collections.
I hope to finish writing the first draft by mid-December 2025. However, if I need to extend that deadline to the end of January 2026 or even February 2026, I will do so.
Other writing-related activities include:
Updated my author website! I mainly updated the Press page, where you can find press kits about all of my published books.
Formatting Found (YA Fantasy short story collection) and Sadie Rowe And The Missing Necklace (Kidlit Fantasy chapter book) for publication. I want to publish both books for 2026, and I gotta be prepared!
I updated Stay Magical!’s content. One of you readers reached out to me a while ago about finding a couple of spelling errors while reading your Kindle version of “Stay Magical,” so I fixed those (and the ones in the paperback version) as soon as I could. Thanks for your patience!
Preparing for book sales for the rest of the year. Yes, there will be plenty of sales coming up, so keep an eye out for more info!
What Am I Listening To Lately?
AvidMC’s newest music album Singularity released last month, and you can 100% bet that I’ve been listening to it quite a bit!🎵 I really enjoy listening to his music, and I have multiple favourite songs from this album, including “Not Right ft. Musithical,” “Good Morning, “Misadventure,” “So It Goes,” “Black Or White ft. Musithical,” and “Damage ft. Musithical!”
Singularity is a fun follow-up to his previous album Through The Void. You can purchase Singularity (and/or stream the music from the album) on Bandcamp.
Aside from Avid’s music, I’ve been listening to Club Carter Radio, a radio show/Youtube channel that showcases a lot of new alternative and/or indie music hosted by Sagid Carter. New episodes are released weekly!
What Am I Watching Recently?
I was still watching Cardcaptor Sakura going into October, but unfortunately it was removed from Tubi at the beginning of October…and I wasn’t done watching that series yet when that happened. 😞 I’m aware that other paid streaming services have this show, but…I’m not about to subscribe to a paid streaming service for the sake of watching one show. I’m pretty slow when it comes to watching TV shows most of the time, so I was a bit distraught when I realized that I couldn’t access the episodes anymore.
Fortunately, a friend got me into watching the original Aikatsu! anime series!🎤 Aikatsu! is an anime (and also an arcade game franchise) where aspiring idols try to reach their dreams of fame and working as professional Japanese idols. I’ve actually watched the sequel series Aikatsu Stars and a few episodes of Aikatsu Friends before, but this is the first time I’m watching the original series. There are many fun songs, and the outfits that everyone wears during performances are really cute!
What Am I Reading Recently?
I will admit it: I have a big TBR problem.
TBR, or “to be read,” is a category of books I have not read yet. In my personal collection, I have a whole shelf full of books. On my ereader, I have…over 100 ebooks to read. 😱The vast majority of those ebooks I have (I would say about 90-95% of them) were ones I got for free, thanks to the numerous giveaways I keep coming across from other authors and book bundles on the internet. However, it doesn’t change the fact that I have a lot of books to read!
Apparently I’m not alone with having a giant TBR list, as some people from the #BookTok community especially have this issue with physical books (some cases being 800+ books, which is HUGE).😓 I’ve realized lately that this is quite overwhelming for me, so my solution is…to slowly start reading through all of the books I have in my personal collection.
I’ve also slowed down on borrowing books from the library. Lately, my physical library book hauls just haven’t been going very well, with me DNF’ing majority of the books I borrow. I’m going to take this as a sign to take a break from going to the physical library for a while (though I’ll probably keep borrowing ebooks online). Also, I can actually devote more time to reading from my personal collection of books!
Either way, I’m trying to stay away from acquiring any more books for a while for my personal collection, and I can pare down the amount of books I have. I love books, but too many of them can be…too much. 😅
Books I recently read include:
“I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki” by Baek Sehee
“I Want to Die But I Still Want to Eat Tteokpokki” by Baek Sehee (the sequel to the above book listed)
“The Dallergut Dream Department Store” by Lee Miye
“The Little Ghost Quilt’s Winter Surprise” by Riel Nason (it’s a very cute picture book!)
Outside of books, I read this pretty cool essay about how “horror” transcends the genre that it’s placed in.
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).