Quarterly wrap: October – December 2024
And that’s a wrap on 2024! Before we say goodbye to the year, I wanted to share what I’ve been up to over the last few months and whether I managed to achieve my writing, reading, and life-in-general goals. Come and find out in my fourth and final quarterly wrap of 2024!! →
What’s new in my life
And that’s a wrap on 2024! Can you believe it? But before we say goodbye to this year, I wanted to share my fourth and final quarterly update. It’s been another big few months juggling pawrenting, work, exercise, and writing, but I think I’ve managed to settle into a good routine. Here are the highlights of what’s been happening in October, November, and December…
Smashing my 2024 running target. In October, I ran 10km in the Melbourne Marathon Festival. My aim was to finish the race in under 60min, and I was blown away to end up beating that goal by almost 5min! After so many years being unmotivated to exercise, I’m really pleased with my progress in 2024.
Relaxing over the festive season. It has been lovely to finally slow down over the Christmas and New Year period. I’m in the middle of two weeks off work, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed relaxing with family and eating great food. Violet and I had a little ‘staycation’ with my parents, which was nice.
Achieving 4/5 of my 2024 author goals. Consistency has been key this quarter, and I’m satisfied to have achieve most of my author goals for 2024. I didn’t quite get around to sending Graceborn #1 to an editor, but I’m currently investigating my options and have some feelers out, so I’m at least halfway there!
Platform updates
I got back into blogging this quarter and managed to publish 2x new blog posts in the last three months—not including this update. My series on the indie publishing journey was finally wrapped up, and I shared my list of top reads for the year. You can take a look at these posts by clicking on the tiles below!
Otherwise, things have continued to be a bit quiet on my author platforms as I threw all my energy into writing. The best place to stay updated is through my author newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Starting in 2025, newsletters will be going out at the end of every month rather than the beginning. 😊
Writing progress
Blood of Old (Graceborn #1)
Status: 4th draft complete
Word count: 191,565
What’s new:
I’m very excited to have finished the fourth draft of Blood of Old, book 1 in the Graceborn series, this quarter. This is the ‘final’ draft, which means this baby is one step closer to being published! It has been a labour of love for a good decade, so it’s such a relief to have got it to this point. I’m now looking into professional editing options and will be starting work on various book design tasks (e.g. formatting, cover) in 2025.
Books I’ve read
It’s safe to say I didn’t have the best few months on the reading front. I only finished one book, but boy was it a beauty! Fortunately, I still surpassed my 2024 Goodreads challenge goal of 20 books by completing 22 books, which is the same number as last year. Here is what I read in the final quarter…
What have you been up to over the last three months? Did you progress your writing projects or read any good books? How has 2024 gone 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!
5 Comments
alexwriter25
Hi Rebecca!!
Wonderful job in smashing your running target 😀 You rock!! I’m proud of you!
I’m glad you got some time to relax and enjoy your time with family 🙂
Wonderful job on meeting 4 of your 5 goals 🙂 That’s awesome!! GO REBECCA! 🙂
Your posts are awesome 🙂
I enjoy your blog posts 🙂
I love your newsletter 🙂
Excellent job! Congrats on finishing your final draft of Graceborn! Best wishes with editing and book design! I’m proud of you!
Great job on surpassing your reading goal! Wind and Truth has a cool cover!
🙂 I wrote a lot these last few months. I think I’ve written about half of my superhero story (I’m pantsing it, so I’m not totally sure, but it’s probably around half). I also wrote a fun Christmas story. I have some other fun ideas too. I’ve been drawing a lot as well. I read a lot also. I recently finished “A Christmas Carol” and good nonfiction book called “Bone of the Bone”. I read a lot of graphic novels this year too and one of the ones that I read and enjoyed in recent weeks is “Once Upon a Galaxy” by Jadzia Axelrod :).
2024 was…a mixed bag. On a personal level, it was stressful, but I also had some nice successes at the end. I’ll leave it at that lol. I hope you had a nice year. Happy New Year! I wish you an AMAZING 2025 and a year filled with joy and success. Take care :).
Rebecca Alasdair
Thanks Alex. Your comments always make me smile. Great to hear you’ve been getting into your writing/reading/artwork too. Even if life is busy, Christmas can be a really inspiring time for all things creative. All the best for the new year! 🎉😊
Andrew McDowell
I’m definitely hoping to make headway on the third novel in my fantasy trilogy. Most of the three months was devoted to marketing and promotion to take advantage of the holiday season.
Happy New Year!
Rebecca Alasdair
Happy New Year to you too! Marketing and promotion can take quite a bit of effort; I hope it paid off for you. All the best for book 3 as well. Exciting! 😀
Andrew McDowell
Thank you, Rebecca.