Days of Future Ahead for 2026

This is my annual look back and plans for the 365 days of future ahead for 2026. And yes, I’m riffing off a Moody Blues album title from 1967, because I’m in a musical kind of mood as I write this. (Here’s a playlist.)

Those Were The Days

(Listen here)

As with the years that didn’t have larger tumultuous events (pandemic, anyone?) or personal life changes (such as deaths in the family, major remodeling), 2025 had highs and lows. I’m not much for looking back, so I usually have to consult my calendar to remember what the heck I even did.

Travel

My adventure highlight was a three-week trip to Ecuador. The Galápagos Islands were fascinating, with an excellent sprinkling of science to keep my busy brain entertained. Luckily, I am not subject to mal de mer, a.k.a. seasickness. However, as it turns out, I am susceptible to mal de debarkment. This is when you get off the boat and still feel like you’re on it, sometimes for a day or two. Or, in my case, nearly three frickin’ weeks. (Can you tell I’m not a fan?) The Andes highlands in northern Ecuador were much more to my liking. The culture, the kindness, and visiting friends were the best. 

I also traveled to North Carolina for a week-long workshop on Tai Chi (for the program I teach), and to Las Vegas for a week-long writer’s conference to learn things and meet friends, old and new. 

Writing Books and Such

Every January, my calendar looks wide open as far as the eye can see. Consequently, I start many projects that somehow all crash into each other in the last few months of the year. You would think that, after several decades on this planet, I would learn better, but 2025 wasn’t the year for that.

I had hoped to publish two long-awaited and embarrassingly late books from my two ongoing series. That didn’t happen, but I have hope for 2026. Stellar Drift (a space opera novella) and Pets in Space 10 (an anthology I edited and in which I have a story) came out in September and October, respectively. That puts my catalog at 18 books published in the last eleven years.

🌞 Side note: Here’s a kind review of my space opera series over at the Bibliovore blog.

These Are Days

(Listen here)

The future ahead looks bright, though I might not need shades. I would like very much to get those two aforementioned very late books out. And, ambitiously, a third book as well. To accomplish that, I’ve cleared a couple of usual commitments off my schedule and have no international travel plans for 2026.

Accountability for Me

I am, at heart, a slacker. I don’t mean this in a pejorative way; it’s simply that I can talk myself out of annoying tasks in a nanosecond if I don’t have accountability. My life-hack workaround is to commit to other people on doing things so we all benefit. For example, I both take and teach Tai Chi classes because I won’t practice on my own. I wouldn’t go to the gym if a friend and I didn’t share a trainer appointment, and we still have to pay if we don’t show up. As much as I love singing, I wouldn’t learn songs or practice if I didn’t take voice lessons and occasionally appear in concerts and musicals. Accountability is the only reliable key for me to achieve anything.

As an independent author, I run my own business. That not only includes writing, publication, marketing, etc., but also strategic planning and long-term goals. All in all, I like the indie author gig. I can set my own hours, react quickly to market changes, and write stories that please me.

The downside is that all my deadlines are self-imposed. Like excellent author Douglas Adams famously said, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” The evidence of this is my two aforementioned very late books. So, I’m building in a little accountability to my production schedule.

The Future in 2026

First, I am determined to finish polishing the next book in my Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series, Shifter’s Thunder. In my defense, it turned out to be a longer story than I anticipated. My current goal is 20 January. I need it off my plate and out the door because of my next project.

That would be Spark Transform, the next book in my Central Galactic Concordance series. I was about halfway done with it when tumultuous life events derailed it. It kept getting pushed aside for other projects with outside commitments. This is part of why I cleared my calendar for 2026. And to make doubly sure I get this book out the door, I’m planning to release it via a Kickstarter campaign. I won’t launch the campaign before the book is finished, so that’s more incentive to get it done. (If you’re not familiar with how Kickstarter works, see this handy guide.)

After those, and after I recover from the tremendous amount of work that goes into Kickstarter projects, I have options. It will be especially nice to know I am caught up and can choose my own adventure, as it were. Yes, I have plans for the next books in each of my series, but I can see which one I feel like working on first. Or heck, I could even consider writing something completely different, like a cozy fantasy romance.

This is all I can future-cast for now. I’ll probably post here again if things change. Want to come along for the ride? Sign up for my newsletter to get the latest news, reading recommendations, and occasional cats.

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