Quarterly wrap: July – September 2022
Wow, is it that time again already? My life has been crazy-busy these last three months as I threw myself into my various writing projects and slowly started venturing back into the Outside World. You can now read all about it in my third quarterly wrap of 2022!! →
What’s new in my life
Man-oh-man is it that time again already? I’ll admit that I’ve been so consumed by everything going on in my life that I had to look back at my diary to remember what’s actually happened in the last three months! 😅 Anyway, today’s post is my third quarterly update of the year, and I’ll paint you a bit of a picture of what I’ve been up to through July, August and September…
Coming down with COVID-19. Things got off to a bad start. After managing to avoid it for over two years, I finally came down with COVID-19 in early July, and I was…pretty sick. Not sure I’ve been that sick for that long before. Fortunately, I’m a lot better now, but the experience resulted in a lot of couch time!!
Celebrating a birthday & blogiversary. August was a much better time, where I celebrated both my fifth blogiversary and my actual birthday! The birthday was an improvement on last year: I took the day off work and went out for lunch in the city with my family, and was spoiled by my extended family a few days later.
Starting to get out a bit more. With public health recommendations changing, I’ve been getting out of the house a bit more as well. At my work, we’re starting the transition to a “hybrid work” model, so it’s been good to venture back into the office some days while keeping the advantages of working from home!
Platform updates
I published 2x new blog posts (plus this update) this quarter, both of which were very exciting: the official cover reveal of my upcoming novel; and a celebration of 5 years of blogging. While I don’t have a blogging goal in 2022, I always enjoy visiting this site and making sure everything is fresh and relevant!!
Things are also ramping up on my Instagram account ahead of my book release, so come and say hi to me there! I’ve also been putting more work into my author newsletter, which goes out on the first Tuesday of every month. You can sign up to that here for all the latest news.
Writing progress
It has been another enormous three months on the writing front as I worked towards publication for one project and finishing the draft of another. You can always check out my Books page for the most up-to-date information, but here’s a summary of where these projects are at:
Holding Up the Sky
Status: Coming 02 November 2022
Word count: 85,000 (approx.)
What’s new:
So much has happened in the last quarter as the publication date for Holding Up the Sky, my contemporary YA novel, approaches! I held my official cover reveal, finalised the interior design and ordered proof copies, sent out Advance Reader Copies, created and shared a book trailer, made the book available for preorder, and more! I can’t believe there’s only a month or so left until it’s out in the world for real!!
First the Song (Graceborn #2)
Status: 2nd draft complete
Word count: 232,079
What’s new:
After a massive final push, I’m thrilled to announce that the draft of First the Song, book 2 in my fantasy series Graceborn, is finally DONE! I wrote around 40k words throughout July and August to get to the end, and I’ve spent the last few weeks preparing to send the manuscript off to my beta readers. I have a few things left to do on that front, but I hope it’ll all be ready by mid- to late-October. Then I can take a breath!!
Books I’ve read
Well, it’s been slow going when it comes to reading over the last few months, but I’m not really surprised. After reading 3 novels (shown below) in July—all fae-related, coincidentally—I didn’t finish a single book in August or September. So I’m now a little behind on my Goodreads challenge goal for the year, but let’s see how things go in the final quarter…
What have you been up to over the last three months? Have you been as crazy-busy as I have? Did you progress your writing projects or read any good books?
Rebecca Alasdair
I'm an Australian indie author who hoards books, loves dogs and coffee, and has a tendency of staying up all night!
2 Comments
Tomas
Glad to hear you’ve made progress and I can’t wait to see the second book – even if it’s still an early version.
Alex
Hi Rebeccaaaaaa! How are you? 🙂
Going to respond to your blog post section by section! I’m so sorry to hear that you got COVID. I’m so glad to hear though that August was MUCH better. Happy Belated Birthday! Glad it was better 🙂 All the best 🙂
I love your blog posts 🙂 Happy Blogiversary! Go Rebecca!
Your newsletter rocks and so does your writing! I can’t wait for Holding Up The Sky! I pre-ordered the e-book before :). 🙂 🙂 And yay!! I’m proud of you 🙂 Congrats on finishing First the Song 🙂 You rock!
No worries on not reading. You’ve been busy. And reading 3 novels takes a lot of energy. No worries :). You’re doing great.
Over the last three months, I’ve been busy. Trying to keep up with the news. And it’s been disheartening. But, I’m also using more time to relax. I’m watching more shows. I’ve also been drawing more. In July, I wrote 16000 words. But, I got burnt out. I need to write again.
Hope you’re doing well. Have a great week, and have fun, my friend! 🙂 :).