Welcome one and all to a new post, a new update format, and a whole new look for the website. I’ve been working hard on changing a few things around behind the scenes, and it’s time for some show and tell!

First, I love my new logo. It was designed by Rhaez Loean, my good friend and also a character artist for The Dragon’s Last Flight. I’ve revamped the website (and the newsletter!) around the new look, which is meant to reflect my main focus (fantasy stories with lots of magic, nature, and usually a cat or two). Do I still write spooky stuff? Heck yes. I’ve got a few horror stories in me yet. But I mainly write fantasy these days.

Oh, and about this new update format: From now on (until further notice) I’ll be doing quarterly updates instead of just at New Year’s and in the middle of summer. Because they’ll be more frequent, they’ll typically be a bit shorter, but overall, you’ll get more info—and I’m hoping they’ll help me get even more done. I’ve been experimenting with quarterly check-ins (using Project Love’s goodbye/hello format) privately for over a year, and I plan to use what I’ve learned from it to inform how I write these posts.

This one will be a little wonky, since (a) it’s the first of the new format and (b) it’s a little late (future Q2 updates will be posted in early July) and has to cover both the first and second quarters of the year. Without further ado… allons-y!

Writing in Q1-Q2

I went from a very loosey-goosey schedule at the beginning of the year to a calendar that is now absolutely packed! 

• chiaroscuro: I released chiaroscuro in January as planned; if you haven’t yet, feel free to check it out sometime (it’s free!).
• Shadow of the Curse-Eater: This will be a new full-length interactive fiction game in the official Choice of Games lineup; we’re up to roughly 25% completion on the draft.
• The Dragon’s Last Flight: I would say our alpha build is about 90% done! We just need a bit more art to plug in before we head into game testing.
• (Unannounced WIP): Remember that draft that I mentioned I was writing on the side? Progress is slow since it’s on the back burner, but we’re in the editing phase now. It’s going to be a novella… unless I do the thing I do and turn it into a novel after all.

I’m also still writing about mental health for HealthyPlace… and I’ve picked up a new writing credit along the way. I am very proud to be a freelance member of the TOVG team—the creative folks behind The Completionist YouTube channel. Everyone on the team has been incredibly welcoming and supportive thus far, and I feel very lucky to be working with them and writing about video games again. There’s one episode, in particular, I can’t wait to share with you all when it airs later this year… Keep an eye out for it on my socials!

Reading in Q1-Q2

As promised, I’ve been trying out a reading journal this year. I went a bit overboard with the format—my current setup is a physical notebook for quick notes while reading, then a more in-depth note doc on Google for writing it all out after I finish a book, plus some charts for tracking things like which genres I’ve read the most of. It’s cool but way too much to squeeze into my schedule, so I’ll be paring that process down soon.

My reading goal for this year was to read the next four Outlander books, plus at least 12 of the books on my embarrassingly massive TBR shelf (not counting any books I’ve bought this year). I also decided that at least 4 of those extra 12 needed to be books in series I haven’t finished yet (other than Outlander). So far, I’m on track!

My reading during the first half of this year included:

• Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2) by Diana Gabaldon *
• Mass Effect: The Complete Comics by Various *
• The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman (reread)
• Earth Magic by Marie D. Jones
• The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2) by Philip Pullman (reread)
• The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) by Philip Pullman (reread)
• La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust #1) by Philip Pullman *
• The Book of Magic (Practical Magic #4) by Alice Hoffman *
• Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon *
• The Art of the Mass Effect Trilogy: Expanded Edition by BioWare *
• Hard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band of All Time (of Authors) Tells All by Various *
• BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development by BioWare *
• Cat + Gamer (Vol 1) by Wataru Nadatani
• The Witcher: Ronin by Rafal Jaki and Hataya
• Blade of the Immortal: Blood of a Thousand (Vol 1) by Hiroaki Samura *
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier *

* Asterisks indicate books that count toward my goal for the year.

Gaming in Q1-Q2

I didn’t set any particular gaming goals at the beginning of the year, other than to keep a gaming journal—which is in the same state as my reading journal. But I have definitely been playing more video games this year, even if I’m not finishing them all—in part because of my work for TOVG.

In the first half of the year, I played:

• Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star by MediaTonic
• Monster Café by neonpolygon
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla by Ubisoft (incomplete)
• Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red (replay, kinda; I went back to check out the new DLC and finish up a few incomplete side missions)
• The Full Adventures of Commander Shepard by Kung Fu Circus
• Elden Ring by FromSoftware (incomplete)
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands by Gearbox
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (incomplete) by Nintendo
• Mass Effect by BioWare (replay, kinda; I played the original instead of the Legendary version)
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits by Ember Lab
• The Quarry by Supermassive Games (incomplete)
• Stray by BlueTwelve Studio

Note that this doesn’t include the many games I only played a few minutes of for research purposes. 🙂

Looking Ahead: Quests for Q3

With so much to do, most of my goals for this quarter boil down to basically “keep on keeping on.” Here’s what I’m hoping to get done: 

• Shadow of the Curse-Eater: Finish the first drafts of chapters 3-4 (out of 10) and submit them to my CoG editor.
• The Dragon’s Last Flight: Plug in the last of the art assets (fingers crossed! This part is more up to the artists than me) and schedule out some time for alpha testing.
• (Unannounced WIP): I’d love to actually finish preliminary edits on this before the end of the quarter. 
• Patreon: I’m dropping this goal for the time being until I have a little more room in my schedule. I’m still probably going to make a Patreon eventually, but likely not until next year—or at least next quarter. In the meantime, you can donate via Ko-Fi or itch.io if you’d like to support my work!

And of course, I’ll be working on my TBR and gaming backlog in my spare time, when I’m not working on my freelance assignments. But wait, there’s more!

I’m headed to Dragon Con (for the first time ever) in September! I’ll only be an attendee, not a Guest with a capital G—but still, I’m excited. So in any spare scraps of time that I can find (hahaha, that’s a good one!), I’ll be prepping some costumes and probably posting a cosplay schedule somewhere on my socials later this month. If you’re going too, I hope to see you there!

Kim Berkley is a fantasy author and video game writer with too many ideas and too little time. Sign up for her newsletter to get the latest info on her works in progress (and other fun surprises) delivered straight to your inbox.