The Bright Side: 🎃October Updates

Hi friends and welcome to October, the BEST month of the whole year.

And yes, I’m biased.

October has always been my favorite month. It’s my birthday month, the official beginning of spooky witchy season, the hard launch of cardigan sweater weather, and—bonus—it kicks off quarter four. For me, that means a natural moment to pause, reset, and get intentional about how I want to close out the year.

There’s something about crisp mornings, candles flickering, and cozy fall energy that makes me want to end the year well, wrap up in a big fuzzy blanket, and follow through on the things I’ve set in motion.

I imagine a lot of you are feeling that too—the push-pull between wanting to stay cozy and wanting to push forward, between savoring the season and finishing the year strong. If you’re like me, you want to close out 2025 proud of what you’ve built, without burning yourself out in the process.

Avoiding burnout for me is key, as with the birthday, I’m only getting older. I’ve learned the hard way what being overly ambitious can do to my motivation and my goal is more to be intentional in creation in both enjoying and savoring the experience.

In this season, I’m committing to showing up here more often. Not in a polished, “all wrapped up in a bow” way, but as a place to share what’s happening in real time—updates on the book, my writing process, and honestly just life.

Current Work In Progress: ^{🍂🍺🗡️🧶}

In writing news, I’m working on a fun cozy mystery project inspired by crafting. I am having fun building the kooky crew of characters, digging into the victim’s past, uncovering all the suspects’ alibis, and listening in as they spill all their secrets and murderous intentions.

If you didn’t know, my writing process looks a lot like interviewing, as I almost hear or channel the characters as they’re sharing their story, and it’s my job to capture it all down and assemble it into a story, like I’m playing this messy game of quantum telephone.

This is the part of writing that feels like part detective/part-psychologist, as you have to dig into what the characters think, feel, and believe, and what was the event lurking in their backstory that made them that way.

Tech Tip: One tool that’s helping me is reactivating my One Stop for Writers’ online membership, which has a load of resources for this character exploration. As I’m working on characters, I literally scroll down the list and select the things that feel like the character and help me to think through the specifics of that character.

For instance, it turns out my victim was always overlooked growing up and now craves attention and the spotlight in any way he can get it. What he doesn’t know is that he’ll become far more famous in death than he would have ever been in life.

I’m currently working my way down my question/task list, seeing the mystery unfold, and doing my best to capture it all and keep it all straight.

And because I know so many of you have your own creative projects simmering (whether it’s writing, crafting, building a business, or just daydreaming on your lunch break), I’ll keep sharing little tools I find along the way that might help you too. Let me know if you’d like to see more about that process in future posts. 😊

📚Book Promotion:

One thing I’m getting used to is putting myself out there and telling people what I do and sharing about the book. Those in my book/writing community know how I love to share what new tool I’m using or what craft book I’m reading, but I’m not really a boaster and poster on social media. I prefer to stay firmly in lurker territory, thank you very much.

But with this book launch, sharing what I do and have done is part of the game. I had a chance to practice this week when I went to see Robert Smith give a talk on his new book, Lead Boldly, based on seven principles of MLK, and what that can mean for this world and my community.

My favorite part of the moderated discussion was when he shared the epilogue of the book that started “We are enough,” and he went on to list all the social problems and ills that we, as people, and descendants of the disaspora, are capable of doing to ensure a fulfillinf future for our children. I was struck by both how regular he was, in both mannerism and charm, but also all the amazing sidequests he’s been able to experience due to his work ethic, curiosity, and Nike-like mantra, of ‘Just Do It’.

Anywho, I bring all this up as the ticket advertised the opportunity to network and I though this may be the time to give it a try and get more comfortable talking to strangers. As soon as I said I was a writer, the next immediate question was if I were published.

I’m so glad I took the time to make these little cards on the colored printer and it made all the interactions go so smoothly!

Tech Tip 2: I used a site to create the QR code for the book and with the help of Canva, I had it made in about five minutes, and printed right before I left for the event. I was literally cutting the cards in the parking garage right before. 😂

Tech Tip 3: One of the interesting things I tookaway, was how many people were using digital business cards to share their contact information, with the app Haystack and Blinq, being the most popular. I’ll share below if you’re interested.

📝A Writing Machine:

Since the book is complete, my main task is to get the word out in the form of articles and Q&As for various outlets about the book and my writing life, and I’m having to excavate my author journey. People want to know things like: What’s your favorite book? What inspired you to write? If you were to cast the moviek, who would you pick?

Answering those questions has been both harder and more insightful than I expected—as it forces me to slow down and think about my process and the path that brought me here. It’s an interesting process, but it’s happening at the same time as I have two working opportunities, three kids, Camille’s Q4 class, a new social commitment, and my cozy project. Needless to say, it’s hard to fit it all in and and October is already shaping up to be a VERY full month (😜), but I know all the work with be worth it, if only for the experience.

If you’re reading this and juggling your own full plate—career, family, goals, or maybe just trying to find five quiet minutes for yourself—I hope this little update nudges you to believe you’re right on time. You are enough, even in the messy middle.😊

But that’s enough about me.

What are some of the things you’re working on this October? Anything fun coming up this spooky season? 🎃

Drop them below!

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Happy Reading and Writing!

All the Best-

Bri