Quarterly wrap: November – December 2023
Here we are at the end of another jam-packed year! My last two months have been filled with visiting family and friends, wrapping up the beta reading process for my fantasy novel, and reading a pile of books. Come and see all the details in my fourth and final quarterly wrap of 2023!! →
What’s new in my life
Here we are at the end of another jam-packed year! Between my writing progress, my overseas trip and so much more, I’ve had a ball in 2023 and can’t believe it’s already time for my fourth and final quarterly update. Of course, my summary of this “quarter” only spans two months, but here are the highlights of what I got up to in November and December…
Reconnecting with family and friends. I had quite a social month in November, catching up with family and friends after getting back from my trip to Europe and the UK. This then blended in to all the gatherings that always happen in December the lead-up to the festive season. It was a lot! 😅
Getting COVID for Christmas. In a terrible stroke of luck, I came down with COVID two days before Christmas, so missed out on all our family traditions on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Fortunately, I got lots of lovely messages, food dropped off to me, and got to borrow the family dog for company.
Achieving 6/7 of my 2023 goals. I’m pleased to say that I achieved almost all of my goals for 2023. The only thing I didn’t get to was starting work on Graceborn #3, but that was due to delays in the beta reading process for book 1. Otherwise, I got everything done that I wanted to. It’s been a massive year!
Platform updates
In addition to this wrap-up post, I’ve published 2x new blog posts since my last update in October. This includes the next instalment in my blog series about the indie publishing journey and a list of my favourite reads in 2023. Click on the tiles below to check these posts out!
Another challenge from this quarter was to migrate my author newsletter to the new MailerLite platform. While it was a bit of a pain, it did go relatively smoothly. Phew! I also decided to make a profile with the social media app Threads and see what all the fuss is about. I haven’t done a whole lot with it yet, but you can find me on there @rebeccaalasdair.
Writing progress
Blood of Old (Graceborn #1)
Status: Post-beta editing
Word count: N/A
What’s new:
Beta reading for Blood of Old, book 1 in the Graceborn series, wrapped up in November. I’m over-the-moon with the feedback I received; there are still a few things to iron out, but my readers seemed to love the book overall. I spent much of December reading through the manuscript marked-up with beta comments and figuring out what changes I need to make. I’ll be starting work on the 4th draft early in the new year!
Books I’ve read
I had a great two months on the reading front and finished another 8 books! After having so many ups and downs with my reading this year, I’m very pleased that I managed to JUST surpass my Goodreads challenge goal of 20 books by getting through a total of 22 books. Here are my reads from the final “quarter” of 2023…
What have you been up to over the last few months? Did you progress your writing projects or read any good books? How has 2023 been for you overall?
Rebecca Alasdair
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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3 Comments
alexwriter25
Hey Rebecca!
I’m happy to hear that you were able to reconnect with your loved ones. 🙂 Hope it wasn’t too tiring though since you said that it was a lot of gatherings. I’m so sorry to hear that you had COVID though. I hope you’re feeling much better! Hope you feel all better soon.
Wonderful job on reaching nearly all of your goals! Go Rebecca!!
Your posts are awesome! I like your newsletter as well :).
You’re making nice progress with Blood of Old! Kudos :D.
Nice job on reaching your reading goal also! Congratulations!
I’ve been reading a lot. I read mostly graphic novels but also read a book about space and the universe too. I am hoping to get back to drawing and writing next month.
2023 was an up and down year. But, I read much more than I did in other years. I also reconnected with friends more than I did during the last few (pandemic) years. I also started studying stoicism.
I’m hoping to make 2024 a meaningful year. I remember your advice though about not pressuring myself on having one focus. I think I’m going to explore the various passions I have and make the most of them.
Hope you have a great year. Happy New Year – may it be a lovely and amazing year for you :). 😀 Go Rebecca! :].
Tomas
Here’s hoping that your progress on your fantasy series goes well in 2024. I had a lot of fun reading the story so far and can’t wait for more. I’m glad to see that it was overall a good year for you.
Andrew McDowell
Happy New Year!