Quarterly wrap: January – March 2024
Three months of 2024 have already passed us by! I’ve had some exciting things going on at my day job, finally got back into the habit of reading, and of course, made progress on my epic fantasy series. Check out the details of what I’ve been up to in my first quarterly wrap of this year!! →
What’s new in my life
The new year might not feel like all that long ago (or maybe it does for you), but guess what? Three months have already passed us by and it’s time for my first quarterly update of 2024! I’ve been enjoying myself so far this year, both in my author life and in my personal life. Here’s a snapshot of what I’ve been up to over January, February and March:
Securing a “new” job at work. It’s not exactly a “new” job in that I’m in the same team doing the exact same thing, but it’s a new position at a higher grade. This is something I was really hoping to achieve in 2024, so it’s been a massive relief and very rewarding to have it actually happen!
Going on a few work trips. I’ve also had some great networking and professional development opportunities as part of my job. While writing is my passion, it’s nice to feel fulfilled in the job where I actually learn a living, and I’ve met some new people, seen some new places, and learned a lot.
Dogsitting our family dog. You may/may not recall when my family got our Miniature Schanuzer, Willow, back in 2020. I got to take care of her for a full 10 days while my parents were interstate, and we had a lot of fun. I may also be investigating getting a puppy of my very own…
Platform updates
This quarter, I have published 2x new blog posts (not including this update). I started out by setting my vision for the year ahead as well as my writing goals, then shared the next edition in my series about the indie publishing journey. If you’d like to take a look at these posts, you can click on the tiles below!
It’s also been a somewhat eventful few months for my author newsletter. I had to redo my newsletter archive (exclusive access for subscribers) as a hangover form migrating to the new MailerLite platform AND I had to finally bite the bullet and set up a custom email sending domain due to new requirements from Google and Yahoo. So that was fun! 😅
Writing progress
Blood of Old (Graceborn #1)
Status: Writing 4th draft
Word count: 48,495 (25.5%)
What’s new: Armed with feedback from my second round of beta reading, I’ve started work on the 4th draft of Blood of Old, book 1 in the Graceborn series. All going well, it’s my intent for this to be the final draft before I send it off to an editor! In January, I wrote a brief outline to document the changes I plan to make, then jumped in to the draft. I’ve already written 10 of the book’s 43 chapters—safe to say it’s going well so far!
Graceborn #3
Status: Writing 1st draft
Word count: 26,610 (12.1%)
What’s new: I’ve also commenced work on the first draft of book 3 in the Graceborn series! It’s always been my aim to have the first three books of this series drafted before I publish book 1, so I wanted to start chipping away at book 3. I spent all of January and half of February writing a detailed outline before I got to the draft itself. It’s been a while since I last wrote a first draft, so progress was a bit shaky at first, but I’ve been having a lot of fun!
Books I’ve read
I’ve gotten off to a cracking start on the reading front in this first quarter of the year! My Goodreads challenge goal is to read 20 books in 2024—let’s just say I’ve been a bit gun-shy after a few bad reading years—and I’m excited to announce I’ve already finished a total of 10 books since January. Hopefully I can keep it up. Here’s what I’ve been reading:
What have you been up to over the last three months? How has your start to 2024 gone? 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
Andrew McDowell
I’ve been primarily continuing to edit Beneath the Deep Wave, working with beta readers’ notes. In the meantime, the eBook edition can be preordered!
alexwriter25
Hi Rebecca!!
Yeah, this year has flown by. I’m happy for you 🙂 :).
Congrats on securing the new position! Happy to hear that you achieved your goal and will be paid more 🙂 :). I’m glad you had some nice networking and professional development opportunities also. Glad you had fun with your family’s dog and hope you can get a puppy also :).
Your posts are rad :). Your newsletter is awesome too. Sorry to hear that you had to redo the archive and set up a new domain too. But, hopefully things are running smoothly, my friend. Hope you’re doing well too.
Great progress on your writing!
Wonderful job with reading also :). You’re off to a fantastic start :). Do you have a favorite book from the ones that you read so far this year? 😀
I started painting recently. My 2024 has been up and down though. Trying to reflect on goals and focus for the year.
As for books, I really enjoyed “Fake Dates and Mooncakes” by Sher Lee. I also like “Gwen & Art Are Not In Love” :). I read “Tao Te Ching” also as I’m getting into philosophy.
Take care 🙂 Have a nice week, Rebecca!!