I hate winter.
This is no secret to anyone who knows me. Why I elect to live in one of the snowiest, coldest states in America is a question I ask my husband every single year when cabin fever starts to take over my soul.
I have ways to help me get through it, though that don’t require me to get dressed in 15 layers of clothing or do ridiculous outdoor sports I will never do with any kind of mastery. I mean, I DID break my ankle ice skating in my 40s if that tells you anything about how poor of an athlete I am. Alysa Liu has nothing to worry about from me.
During these long, cold, dreary ( you get the picture) months of deep winter, I usually hibernate and write almost nonstop during the day. But after a while, this gets old too. So I need motivation to get those words on the page.
This year and this month, that motivation has come from the New Jersey Romance Writers in the form of their 30,000-word writing challenge. The premise is simple: write/edit 30k in the month of February 2026. And just the other day, I achieved my goal, going over the 30k line in 19 days.
I’m proud of myself because I really dedicated myself to finishing up one of the books I’ve got slated for publication later this year. I am still writing it, but the end is so close that I am celebrating early!
So, thank you NJRW for the motivation! And to everyone else doing the challenge: Way to go! You can do this!
~Peg
Peggy Jaeger, Author 