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Quarterly wrap: October – December 2022

31 December 2022 / 12 Comments

Well, friends, we’ve made it to the end of the year—and what a year it has been! In the last three months I have published my first novel, read some great books, and started a brand new work/life routine. Check out all the details, and see how I went on my yearly goals, in this fourth and final quarterly wrap of 2022!! →

What’s new in my life

Well friends, believe it or not we’ve made it to the end of 2022—and what a year it has been! I’ve had another hectic but enjoyable few months, and now it’s time for my fourth and final quarterly update of the year. I’d love to hear about what you’ve been up to and how 2022 has gone for you, but before we get to that here’s a snapshot of my life during October, November and December…

Publishing my very first novel. Normally I’d leave something like this until the “writing progress” section, but I thought it worth mentioning here given its significance. My debut novel Holding Up the Sky is now out in the world, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’m now a published author!

Getting into a new routine. My workplace officially started our new hybrid working arrangements this quarter, so after 2.5 years of working from home, I’ve had to get used to spending 50% of my days back in the office. It’s actually been quite good, but it’s meant getting myself into a brand new routine.

Celebrating the festive season. The last few weeks have been a great chance to kick back, relax, and celebrate another crazy year. I’ve had a break from writing, had fun connecting with family over Christmas, and tonight will be ringing in the new year with some friends. What could be better?

Achieving (2/4 of) my 2022 goals. While I technically only reached half of the goals I set for 2022, I still feel like a winner! That’s because I got the biggest two done: I published my YA novel and finally got book 2 in my fantasy series finished and off to beta readers. I’m not too fussed about the others.

Platform updates

I actually published 3x new blog posts (plus this update) during this quarter, one of which is a short story I wrote for the Advent Calendar Story Train hosted by fellow blogger and author Ari Meghlen! It’s been an exciting few months on this website/blog, so don’t forget to check out the most recent posts below…

October and November also saw me ramp up the posting schedule on my Instagram and TikTok to support my book release, before I wound things down again in December. You can check out all that content, or sign up to my author newsletter to receive exclusive updates and content in the new year!

Writing progress

I was in something of a writing frenzy during the first month-and-a-bit of this quarter, which meant I could finally take a breath and relax heading into the end of the year. Here’s a summary of where my main projects are at, but you can always check out my Books page for the most up-to-date information:

Holding Up the Sky

Status: PUBLISHED

Word count: 85,000 (approx.)

What’s new:

This is probably the last such “update” you’ll get about my contemporary YA novel Holding Up the Sky, since as of 02 November 2022 it has officially been PUBLISHED! The book launch on the day went well, and I even had a little celebration at my apartment with family and close friends. It was a hectic and exhausting time, but I enjoyed every second of it. Now I look forward to getting my first sales report in January!

First the Song (Graceborn #2)

Status: Beta reading

Word count: 232,079

What’s new:

There was a bit to do in this quarter to get First the Song, book 2 in my fantasy series Graceborn, ready for beta readers. I conducted a read-through and minor edits for consistency and prepared a whole heap of supporting materials, including maps, a translation guide, glossary, and character list. The manuscript started getting sent out to my four readers in November, and I’m loving the feedback I’ve gotten so far!

Books I’ve read

I didn’t have the best quarter on the reading front, but it wasn’t too bad either. Unfortunately I didn’t quite meet my Goodreads challenge goal for the year; for a while there things were looking good but I kind of crashed and burned in December. Oh well! I’ve finished reading 5 books since October and had a great time with some indie titles, too. Here is what I read…

What have you been up to over the last three months? Did you progress your writing projects or read any good books? How has your 2022 been overall?

I'm an Australian indie author who hoards books, loves dogs and coffee, and has a tendency of staying up all night!

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12 Comments

  • inka york

    31 December 2022 at 2:21 pm Reply

    Congrats on your book release. The cover is so gorgeous 😍 I’ll have to add it to my TBR. I published my first book at the end of October too. It’s such an exciting time

  • Andrew McDowell

    1 January 2023 at 12:44 am Reply

    The biggest highlight for 2022 was that my novel’s original publisher had to shut down due to COVID, but Fae Corps, with whom I already had a relationship from being in some of their anthologies, agreed to publish a 2nd edition, which came out in August.

    Some progress was made on the sequel, but it isn’t complete yet. Blog wise, I’m continuing to post monthly (hope you’ve enjoyed some of them, Rebecca, if you’ve seen them.

    Happy New Year!

  • Alex

    1 January 2023 at 6:16 am Reply

    Hi Rebecca!

    🙂 Yessss! Congrats! I am very happy for you 🙂 And, as always, proud of you :). Go Rebecca!
    Wow. Hopefully, they won’t require any further increases in working from the office (and allow employees to still work 50% at home). Best wishes and happy new year!
    Cool 🙂 Glad you got to connect with family. Also neat that you’ll be celebrating the new year with friends 🙂 Have fun.
    All progress counts. Nice job on accomplishing two huge goals! 🙂 Go Rebecca!!!

    I love your Advent story! And, I love your blog posts too. 🙂 Great job!

    Cool that you had a celebration with family and friends for your book publication!! Congratulations again!! 🙂 :).
    Great progress on First the Song! Best wishes!! You got this! Glad the beta reader feedback is helpful. I’m very excited for you!! 🙂 :).

    Reading time can be tough. We all get busy. And, I kind of got burnt out from reading in December too (yes, I’ve read and reviewed some graphic novels in December, but I started to get burnt out as well). Nice work on reading five books since October :). I think five in two months is great progress :).

    As for what I’ve been up to, I have been reading some graphic novels. Read one Star Wars novel and a few fun short stories (really short ones lol). I made some progress on my fun short story, but didn’t finish this month. I wanted to, but often was too busy and exhausted to work on it. 2022 was…meh. But, one of the high points was seeing you get published and rooting you on. :).

    Take care. Happy New Year, Rebecca!! You are rad, my friend! Rock on! Take care and stay safe, my friend :). :). 🙂

  • Tomas

    3 January 2023 at 4:35 am Reply

    For me, 2022 was definitely a “mixed feelings” year but as time goes, the better memories will prevail. I hope 2023 is kind to you and inspiration is always in reach.

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