Quarterly wrap: July – September 2021
Has it only been 3 months since my last update? COVID-19 has continued to wreak havoc in my city, but I’ve managed to make some exciting progress on my writing projects and read 8 amazing books. Come check out all the details in this my third quarterly wrap of 2021!! →
Welcome to my third quarterly update post of 2021! It feels like a literal lifetime ago that I was preparing my previous update; it’s crazy how it seems like so much has happened in the last quarter, while in reality not a great deal has happened at all. Time’s just a bit of a blur these days. The key developments in my life throughout July, August and September are as follows:
COVID chaos continues. Unfortunately, the majority of my last three months has been spent back in lockdown because of COVID-19. It’s been pretty rough this time around since I now live alone, but I’ve coped by eating an inordinate amount of chocolate and borrowing Willow, the family dog, to keep me company on a number of weekends!
Celebrating my birthday…kind of. My birthday was in August, and I basically spent it alone (because of lockdown) and passed out on the couch (due to side-effects from my first COVID vaccine the day before). But the outpour of love I received from family and friends was amazing. My dad and aunty dropped by with presents and my friend had flowers delivered—thanks guys! ❤
Reaching my 4th blogiversary. August also marked another significant milestone: four years since I officially launched the online presence of Rebecca Alasdair! I published a celebratory post for my 4th blogiversary, where I highlighted some of my key achievements since I began this journey, and also shared an excerpt from each of my four WIPs.
Despite sometimes feeling like the whole world was going nuts, I managed to achieve my blogging goal for 2021 this quarter by publishing 4x content posts (not including this update). There was quite a bit of variety this time around, including one very exciting announcement! If you haven’t been keeping up to date, you can access any this quarter’s posts by clicking on the tiles below.
I finally got back into the swing of writing in this third quarter of 2021. There hasn’t been much else to do with the ongoing lockdown, so I suppose that’s a positive to come of it! Below, I’ve summarised the progress I made on the projects I’m actively working on, and you can always check out my Books page for the most up-to-date information on all of my WIPs.
Holding Up the Sky
Status: Coming in late 2022
Word count: 85,000 (approx.)
What’s new:
My contemporary YA novel Holding Up the Sky has been on quite the journey with me, and this month I was very excited to announce that I will be self-publishing this book in late 2022. I gave the traditional publishing route a shot but it didn’t work out, so as I always planned I am going to make this dream a reality myself. I’ve started to plan my next steps on the roadmap to publication and will have more updates for you shortly!!
First the Song (Graceborn #2)
Status: Writing 2nd draft
Word count: 66,148 (30.1%)
What’s new:
Most of my writing energy this quarter has gone into the second draft of First the Song (Graceborn #2). I wrote 12.5 chapters, which amounts to a good 53k words, and while I am behind where I wanted to be with this WIP, I’m super proud of what I’ve put down. More importantly, I’m proud of how consistent I’ve been with reaching my weekly targets. I’ve also been trialling a new method where I draft one POV at a time, and that’s been lots of fun!
Over the last three months, I managed something between my reading binge in Q1 and my reading drought in Q2 by getting through a total of 8 novels. I’m still behind on my 2021 Goodreads challenge goal of reading 40 books this year, but oh well. I’m just pleased I’ve reignited my passion for reading!! Here are the books I’ve devoured since my last update…
What have you been up to over the last three months? Is COVID-19 still impacting your life? How are you going with your writing projects and/or reading goals?
Rebecca Alasdair
I'm an Australian indie author who hoards books, loves dogs and coffee, and has a tendency of staying up all night!
5 Comments
Andrew McDowell
I had an essay and a short story published in a literary journal and anthology, respectively. Sadly, my newer writing, especially the sequel to Mystical Greenwood, has still been in a state of limbo. I have successfully limited the number of times I login to my social media accounts to three or fewer a day each, but I need to now work on limiting how much time I spend on them, as I feel that has been a contributor to a lack of writing. My blog continues to feature a new post once per month.
Rebecca Alasdair
Social media can definitely be a drain on your time and your emotions can’t it? It’s hard to balance that need to check in and connect with others, with the need to actually live your life and get everything else done that you want do. I hope you can find that balance soon. But congrats on the journal and anthology publications. That’s awesome!! 😀
Andrew McDowell
Thanks, Rebecca. Hope you’ve been enjoying my posts.
Tomas
Well, I have to admit, I was mostly on a writing break through the summer, but I’m getting back into it now. And with the summer over, I’ll get back to reading as well – even e-reader is uncomfortable to hold for a long time in heat though less so than a print book. Hope you’re doing well, I had a major headache after the covid vaccine, more so after the second shot.
Rebecca Alasdair
I just had my second vax the other day with basically no reaction, even though I was so sick after the first! But hey, better than getting COVID right? I’m glad you’ve had a nice break over summer. We really need to take one sometimes, so we can come back refreshed! 😊