March-ing Through My TBR

I don’t post here much about my reading habits, but I think I’m going to change that, if only because — as Stephen King says — reading is such a crucial foundation for writing.

I read a lot, although not as much as I’d like sometimes.  I usually set a goal in Goodreads (and now Fable) to read 52 books throughout the year, which is an average of a book a week, which seems pretty reasonable.  Most years I read significantly more than that, but I keep my goal at that every year since that’s my minimum.

My reading is all over the map (which probably explains why my writing is too).  I read classics and literary fiction, sci fi and fantasy, historical fiction and popular fiction, even a fair amount of children’s and young adult.  And I read a lot more than just fiction, too — according to my stats in Fable, last year about half of what I read was nonfiction.  Lately I’ve been reading a lot of political books, and in the past couple years I’ve started listening to audiobooks during times when I can’t physically read (in the car, in the shower, while brushing my teeth, while cleaning).

I used to use Goodreads to track my reading, and I guess I still do a little, but I decided a little over a year ago to find an alternative due to how disgusted I was with Amazon kissing up to the current administration.  I wasn’t sure whether I’d like Fable or Storygraph better, so I just created accounts and started updating both — and then I ended up still updating Goodreads too, since I feel like as a future author, I should keep that active even if I don’t care for its parent company.

Anyway, Fable ended up being my favorite for its blend of tracking, statistics, and social features.  One of the things they do is the “reading wrap” images you can generate at the end of each month, and a reel you can create at the end of the year.

Over the past month, I’ve been plugging along through Lucky Loser, which is a long and detailed book and totally worth reading, but has been taking most of my attention.  All of the books I finished in March except for Wizard of Oz were audiobooks that I was listening to on the side while reading Lucky Loser.

I should be finished with Lucky Loser in the next day or two, though, so I’ll be able to move on to something else soon!

On Writing, Health Care, and Why Writing Is Political

We need to talk about health care.

Specifically, we need to talk about politics and health care, and how it affects us writers.

Health care has been in the news a lot under the new administration.  First there was the One Big Beautiful Bill, which made significant cuts to health care.  Then there was the fight in Congress over extending the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies, which actually shut down the government for over a month until six cowardly senators caved under pressure and traded our health care for a promise.

Now, we’re in an illegal war in the Middle East that Congress won’t fund, so the administration is looking for pots of money to steal from — and of course their sights fell on health care, because what else would they cut?  They’re using the standard excuse, of course, claiming they’re going after “waste and fraud and abuse.”

Even if you try to avoid following politics on a normal basis, as a writer you should care about health care, particularly if writing is your main job.  For those who don’t remember what it was like to buy individual health insurance before the ACA, health insurance companies could refuse to cover you at all if you had a preexisting condition, or they could refuse to cover anything relating to the preexisting condition (the primary reason you needed health care, usually) for a period of time such as a year.

The ACA was revolutionary for writers and, really, all entrepreneurs.  Suddenly we could get not only health insurance — regardless of preexisting conditions — but also, policies now offered standardized coverage, so you knew what you were getting for that money.

So when the administration talks about cutting health care, you know that is going to affect people like you and me — writers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, those who don’t have health insurance offered through a traditional job.  Even if it doesn’t affect you right at this moment — maybe you have health insurance through your spouse’s job, or maybe you have another part-time or full-time job that provides coverage — but it’s important to remember that you can’t count on that always being the case.  I’ve been through a divorce, my husband being laid off, and other mishaps that have resulted in us losing health insurance under our group plans.

In fact, you may have been affected by the cuts to health care already.  In the past year cuts have been made not just to Medicaid, but also to funding for the ACA tax credits.  The expanded tax credits were not renewed, and the projected number of people dropping their coverage as a result led to an additional increase in premiums.

And now they want to make even more cuts to federal spending on health care?  For a war that the president promised on the campaign trail that he wouldn’t start, that his voters didn’t want, and that the American people overwhelmingly oppose?

Even if you don’t follow politics on a regular basis, this is a moment — and an issue — that writers and entrepreneurs everywhere need to speak up about.  Make sure your elected officials know that health care is more than just political for you — it’s personal.

Caution: Busy Week Ahead

Every Sunday night, I like to plan out my week.  By “plan out my week,” I mean that I sit down with my calendar (TickTick), look at what I have going on in the coming week, and exercise extreme optimism while I schedule out my tasks.  I habitually schedule too little time for tasks, plan too few breaks, and assume I can work far more hours than I actually can.

There are some weeks where I have lots of white space to fill, and other weeks where I have so many things scheduled that there’s little room for my to-do list.  Not that it stops me — I use that same time optimism even when I know I’ll desperately need whatever down time is available to me.

This week is the latter kind.  I have something going on every day, and for the most part they’re major, time-consuming things.  Effectively it means it’ll put me into survival mode, where I do the minimum necessary to take care of myself around my scheduled things and don’t get a lot else done.  I suppose it’s not a bad thing — at least I prioritize myself — but it’s also frustrating not to get as much done at home.

Since I have a lot to do in addition to the things scheduled, I’m trying to approach this week with intention.  My time optimism wants me to still try to do it all, but logically I know if I try that, I’ll get overwhelmed and the survival mode will be worse.  Instead I’ll try to prioritize and just plan for the things I most want or need to get done, such as writing and working on taxes.

How do you handle it when you’re busier than usual?  Do you push yourself to still get things done, or do you focus on the necessities?

How I Took Back My Writing Habit

I know a lot of you will know what I mean when I say the past, oh, 14 months have been tough for writing.

I documented a lot of my struggles week by week in my progress reports for 2025, so I won’t go into that now.  But suffice it to say that my near-daily writing habit, which had gotten to be so strong throughout 2024, petered out in 2025.  In fact much of my motivation petered out in 2025.  It’s hard to focus on much of anything when the world is on fire… at least until you get used to the heat.

I knew I needed to find a way to get back on the horse, so to speak, and jump start my regular writing habit.  The question was how to do it.  I had tried on and off throughout 2025 and had not been successful.  I had tried new calendars and productivity planners and none of it had worked.  I was failing, and I was desperate.

During this period I had also become certain that I have ADHD.  It was a suspicion that had been growing for several years — a story I’ll go into another time — which led me to join a few groups on Facebook.  And through these groups, I discovered Finch.

I suppose “discovered” is not quite the right word — I had heard of it before, even had friends who used it, but had not looked into it nor seriously considered it as an option for me.  But people in the neurodivergence Facebook groups mentioned it occasionally, and I took note.  Eventually I decided to look into it.  It’s supposed to be a self-care app, but it quickly became obvious that you can use it for almost anything that helps you, so I decided early on to use it for my to do list.  I figured when you’re struggling as much as I was, getting things done IS self care.

Now, I have kind of a love/hate relationship with productivity tools.  I guess it’s a whole thing for ADHDers to go through various planners and systems, always trying to find something that works — that’s definitely the experience I’ve had.  Currently I’ve been using Tick Tick for about a year, which I switched to after Google decided to be evil and get rid of their DEI.  But like all systems, eventually it stopped working as well for me and I stopped getting things done, instead deferring tasks over and over again.  It’s been especially bad in the past year, with my motivation in the toilet.

But Finch has something the others don’t have: an external, compelling reward system.  Rewarding myself has never really worked for me — I don’t have the impulse control to wait for my “reward,” or I don’t see it as connected.  But Finch rewards me with rainbow stones for tasks I complete, which I can use to buy clothes, furniture, and colors for my birb.  Plus there are cute monthly themes, and data tracking that allows me to earn more for consistent streaks.  It’s fun and effective, as it keeps me invested in the system.  Even after three months, I don’t feel like I’m at any risk of petering out; quite to the contrary, I’ve been getting more done and building daily habits.

One of those habits is, of course, working on my novel.  I started using Finch just before the end of the year, and decided that as soon as 2026 started, I would start trying to work on my writing projects almost every day again.  And immediately, I was able to.  I just needed that little added incentive.  Since then, I’ve been using Finch for more and more of my to do list, added more daily or weekly habits that I wanted to build, and learned to weight harder and more time-consuming tasks to give me the extra push to get things done.

Another feature I’ve found helpful is Finch’s focus timer.  It works better than a regular focus timer for me, since I can’t minimize the app for very long or I lose my timer and the rainbow stones I was earning.  So it keeps me from getting distracted on my phone when I’m supposed to be doing something else. 

Finch might not work for everyone.  And even for me, it could never be my only way of keeping track of things — I still want and need that visual calendar to schedule tasks and rein in my time optimism.  But using Finch along with my calendar has helped me to overcome one of the toughest slumps I’ve ever experienced.  Thanks to Finch, I am writing nearly every day again!

That New Novel Feeling 🥰

We’ve had a mild winter in Colorado!  Spring is here already: The crocuses and daffodils in my garden are blooming, the days are getting longer, and I have a new novel growing in Scrivener.

Generally when I write, I try to stay focused on one novel, even when other ideas pop up (and they do — it seems like the more you write, the more ideas you get).  But sometimes there’s an idea that comes along and grabs you so thoroughly that you can’t help but start writing it.

I had that moment about a month ago.  My previous novel project had languished all throughout 2025, and while I had gotten back to work on it in 2026, I had lost some of the excitement for it — I was just doing the minimum on it every day to satisfy my to-do list task.

But this idea — basically a thoroughly steampunk retelling of Oz — grabbed me on February 14th.  I wrote a little of it and decided I needed to read the original book (since all I knew of it was from the original movie and the Wicked movies).  My retelling will be different, of course, but still very much a story for our times.  I’m tentatively calling it The Last Automaton of Oz.

I’ve updated my TrackBear profile to display my current projects — this new one, the novel that I have on hold, and a short story I wrote a while back and need to revise.  I also have (but didn’t include on my profile) the pair of suspense novels I wrote in 2024 that need a second draft, but that will be a big undertaking.  For now I’m going to keep working on Oz since it feels the most timely.

It feels good to be excited about a project again.  I don’t plan to let my unfinished novel project stay unfinished, but with everything going on in the world right now, I needed something that would be a more compelling competitor for my attention.

Reading as Resistance: Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

I’m going to start a new series of posts called “Reading as Resistance.”  I read a lot of political and politically-inspired books these days, seeking to keep myself as informed as possible as we resist our country’s free fall into fascism, and I want to encourage others to do the same.

My most recent read was Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir of the abuse she suffered, at the hands of Epstein and others.  It has been said that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were adept at finding hurt and broken girls, girls who had already been groomed for abuse and would be easy to manipulate into accepting more, and Virginia certainly fit the bill.  Her descriptions of the abuse she experienced throughout her life were heartbreaking, and of course Epstein and Maxwell capitalized on that.

It also broke my heart to read about her struggles with suicidal thoughts and attempts toward the end of her life, especially knowing she had finally — apparently — succeeded.

One thing I thought was very interesting was at the end, where she talked about the men she had named versus the men she didn’t, and why.  She specified one that she was afraid to name because he was too wealthy and powerful, and would ruin her with litigation she couldn’t afford.

The damning files that have been released so far — and the power play that has slowed their release — definitely suggests whom she might have meant.

The remaining files need to be released, and the abusers within their pages brought to account.

Katharine Swan Is Now on Bluesky!

I blogged a couple of weeks ago about my 20 years of blogging, and how much the writing industry and social media have changed during that time.  The rise of Facebook and other social media sites and the corresponding decline of blogging have dramatically changed both of those things.

I think we’re now on the cusp of more changes, and the domination of the big names hangs in the balance as independent media and platforms are on the rise.  Twitter’s star has already started to fall since it was taken over by Elon Musk and has turned into a home for right-wing extremists, and it kinda seems like Facebook and Meta are headed in a similar direction as they ramp up the Big Brother approach, burying liberal content with their algorithms while the comment sections are overrun by the administration’s disinformation army.

So I’ve decided to expand my reach to additional platforms.  I have this blog and an author Instagram, and I intend to eventually have an author page on Facebook as well.  I have a limited presence on Substack as well, primarily for my sporadic politics newsletter, What to Know Today.  I plan to do eventually do more with Substack, and I’ve also decided it’s time to carve out a corner for myself on Bluesky.  The latter seems to be more of a Twitter replacement than a Facebook- or Instagram-style platform, just without the crazy overlord and MAGA leanings.

I’ve also found that politics has been creeping into my writing persona more and more.  How could it not, as central a role as it’s starting to play in our lives?  I’m taking my inspiration from other writers and creators who are outspoken about their political views.  I even think politics may have to play a bigger role in my 1920s vampire series, given the implications of the era’s corruption on current events.

If you are on Bluesky, be sure to follow me there too!