“The New Year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written.”
Melody Beattie
But first…
November 2022
One word – well, an acronym of many words – NANOWRIMO
Writing – all the words for 2022
I wrote a book in November 2022. To be accurate, 51686 words were written during the writing frenzy. Then in the two days following, I wrote another 2500 words and added those two little words every writer likes to add to their manuscript’s first draft. Da-dum! I wrote my first draft in 32 days (not 30) and I am pretty pleased with myself. This book will be the second of a series and is fantasy with a dollop of Sci-fi.
Caveat … there will be a lot of filling and deleting in the editing.
The blurbs for the books I’ve written and am now editing are on my home page.
Books read:
November was filled with writing, so my TBR pile was not reduced by much. In December, I read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E Schwab. OMG, so beautiful. The writing, the story and the characters. If you haven’t read it, then you must.
My reading goal for 2022 with Goodreads was 22. According to the site, I’ve only read 19, but I read Quicksilver by Dean Koontz and that book isn’t listed on Goodreads, so I have read 20/22. If you’d like to see what I’ve read over the past year, the link to my book list at Goodreads is at the end of this post.
December 2022 – I did a Course
I buckled down and completed the Australian Writers Centre’s Your Author Website, written and presented by Michelle Barraclough. The course is self-paced and suitable for emerging writers and published authors. I felt the need to add more to my website and Michelle’s course gave me many tips which I have already implemented. There is still a little more work to be done until I’m satisfied.
What’s the plan for 2023?
Mostly editing.
As mentioned above, I now have three first drafts to edit, one of which I’ve already started. I hope to have at least one, but am aiming for two manuscripts, ready for pitching in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, I have started making notes, for book two in the Jenna Cassidy cosy mystery series,(the working title of book 1 is The Changeling) and book three of the Constelliar fantasy series.
Short stories
I have a number of flash fiction stories that I entered for furious fiction competitions but have done nothing with. The plan is to edit and publish them either on my website or Spillwords.com. Watch this space.
My Blog
Plans are afoot; again, there are notes in a notebook so it’s official, to add something different to my blog. So far, it’s the seed of an idea and details have to be sorted, but I am a little bit excited. Watch this space.
A Newsletter
The idea of a newsletter has been nagging at me for some time, and after completing the Your Author Website course, I am convinced. I haven’t thought it through completely, it may even replace this type of blog post, but, there will be free stuff when you sign up.
Photography
I’ve started adding some of my images to pixabay. I keep getting this little message from my phone telling me storage is almost full. Well, I do have over 11,000 images/videos on my phone so, it makes sense it keeps reminding me. Don’t you love it when gadgets nag you? Anyway, I figured I can store my photos on pixabay and delete them from my phone. If I want to use any of the images at a later date, I can always download them for free.
A notable mention – For Christmas, I received a beautiful notebook from my friend Evonne. The cover is by Brian Froud. Omg, it is glorious.
Speaking of notebooks, I have mentioned a couple of times in this post about writing in them. All my new stories have their own notebooks. If you missed my post – 9 Ways to fill your Notebook, you can read it here.
If you would like to read my list of books I have read over 2022, perhaps to get some ideas for your own reading, you can go to my books list at Goodreads.
And if you’d like to have a look-see at the course Your Author Website or other courses at the Australian Writers Centre, you can check it out here.
So… that’s all from me for 2022.
I wish you all a safe and productive 2023, no matter what it is you do. I hope all your plans come to fruition and the artistic river of ideas continues to flow.
Happy New Year
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Happy writing and reading!
Joanne xx