Welcome to the second update of Meri's Monthly Musings! In these posts I'll talk about what I've been working on, plans for upcoming projects, and possible future ideas. Let's just say that October was a strange month. It started off super productive, but then it turned into a bust about halfway through when I caught a plague that knocked me out for the second half of the month.

October Projects:

• Lots of Moodboards! Before the darn plague hit, I shared a handful of new moodboards about secondary characters. I introduced Sapphire as well as her troupe of carnival performers who double as reverse thieves. I also introduced Ametrine, the adopted child of my main characters, and made a board that talks about Etri's shapeshifting magic. You can find a large collection of boards on the moodboard page if you're curious about learning more about the characters and stories.
• Started the series glossary. I didn't have a chance to make this go live on this site yet, but I did write down the important people, places, and terms in my notebook.
• Shared more Hidden Magic.  I shared another chapter of this novella, so there's just one more chapter left. If you haven't read it yet, now's the chance to experience one of my very first stories. :)
• Wrote and shared a few short stories. There were two from the Unexpected Inspiration series. One is called "Poisonous" and is a cute little scene about the relationship between my main trio, and the other is called "Family of the Heart" and is about two of the main characters and the kid they adopted. I also wrote a lighthearted story about the Hidden Magic characters called "Meren's Tranquility."
• Worked on the 3rd draft of book 1 (Colorweaver). Yesterday I finished going over this draft and checking it for inconsistencies and plot holes. Now I'm going to take those notes and arrange them into a new outline so I can start the next draft sometime after NaNo.

November Plans:

• NaNoWriMo! My plan is to focus on the 3rd draft/rewrite of book 2 (Sentinel), but I may poke a little at the first draft of the yet-untitled book 3 if those scenes call to me. I tend to bounce around a little with NaNo instead of doing it a traditional way; working on several projects at once tends to keep me moving forward better than just one.
• Edit/share another short story. I wrote one more last month that I'll hopefully share very soon. It's about the next set of main characters in the later books in the Unexpected Inspiration series and their ghost hunting adventures. (I wanted to share this for October, but alas being sick meant my writing got pushed back a little.)
• More moodboards. I have a moodboard to go along with those future characters, plus I'd like to make/share a few more this month. 
• Book 1 outline. My plan is to finish the detailed outline for the 4th draft while the edit is still fresh in my mind. I'm not likely to start the next draft of this until after I'm done the next draft of book 2, though, so the rewrite itself of book 1 will likely be a January or February thing.

Seeing these lists makes me feel a lot better about October. I got more done than I thought I did and I still have a bunch of ideas lined up. :) Tune in on December 1st for the next Musings post where I'm probably going to talk a lot about how NaNoWriMo went. I'll be adding things to this site before then, though, and you can follow me on Facebook or Twitter for updates about new content, as well as for more frequent updates about what I'm up to.

I also added a way to sign up for email alerts if you want to be notified when I share new content to this site, like stories and moodboards and posts like this one. You can sign up for two kinds of email alerts-- one will give you a post like this as a monthly newsletter, the other will send you an email every time I share content to this site.

~Meri