Quarterly wrap: January – March 2025

We’re well and truly into the year, and boy what a hectic start it has been! I’ve had plenty going on outside of writing but still managed to progress my epic fantasy series and read a few good books. Find out all the juicy details in my first quarterly wrap of 2025!! →

What’s new in my life

We’re well and truly into 2025, and somehow it’s already time for my first quarterly update of the year! Though things got off to a bit of a hectic start for me, I think I’m finally settling into a good routine. There’s been plenty going on both inside and outside of writing, but here are some general highlights from January, February and March:

Deploying to my first bushfire. I have a secondary emergency role at my day job, which is related to bushfire response. This summer, I got to deploy to my first bushfire and put my training to use! It was tough work, but very rewarding, and I learned a lot from the experience.

Training Violet in obedience. I joined a dog obedience club with my furbaby late last year, and we’ve come along in leaps and bounds so far in 2025. Dog training is just as much about training the humans, but Violet really enjoys it, and it’s a great source of mental stimulation for her!

Preparing for a 14km running race. One of my goals for the year is to run a half-marathon, and my first step in achieving this is a 14km race I’ve signed up for in early April. So I’ve been hard at work at the gym and going for longer runs in order to prepare for the event. Wish me luck! 😅

Author updates

I managed to publish 1x new blog post in addition to this update over the last three months. Blogging is something that might fall off the radar a bit in 2025, but I was still keen to share my vision and goals for the year ahead. You can check this out by clicking on the tile below.

Excitingly, I’ve also commissioned my very first character art and revealed the two pieces on my Instagram account—be sure to give them some love! I also participated in a $0.99 Kindle Weekend event hosted by the AUS/NZ Indie Writers Book Club with my contemporary YA novel Holding Up the Sky,

Writing progress

Blood of Old (Graceborn #1)

Status: Professional editing

Word count: 191,565

What’s new: After finishing the fourth draft of Blood of Old, book 1 in the Graceborn series, late last year, I have now sent it off to an editor for line edits! I should be hearing back soon, at which point I’ll be making final tweaks to polish the manuscript off. In the meantime, I’ve been working on the official blurb and a few others bits and pieces. I’m excited to announce that publication for this beast has been tentatively set for 2026!

Graceborn #3

Status: Writing 1st draft

Word count: 89,920 (40.9%)

What’s new: We’re back, baby! I started the first draft of book 3 in the Graceborn series in 2024 but took a hiatus when I brought Violet home. I’m now digging back into this story and have written another 6x chapters—amounting to ~25k words—since the start of the year. It’s been a while since I last wrote a first draft, so I’ve found it a bit challenging, but at the same time there’s something so refreshing about writing new content.

Books I’ve read

January and February were very slow reading months for me, but things started picking up in March. I managed to finish a total of 3 books this quarter, which only puts me slightly behind on my Goodreads challenge goal of 20 books for the year. There are several 2025 releases I’m excited for, so hopefully I can keep at it. Anyway, here is what I’ve read recently: