NEWSLETTER SNIPPETS; Issue #2
The second issue of the newsletter went out on New Year’s Eve – yes, over a month ago! – and, well, looking back at not just the last quarter of 2024 but the whole of it makes me pretty happy, really. On a creative level, I think I was pretty consistently productive. 208,081 new words last year, not counting blog posts, reviews and newsletters, which as a whole? Pretty good, if I say so myself.
I read more in November and December than I have in the rest of the year combined! I fell deeply into the cozy fantasy side of things in November after reading The Very Secret Society Of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna and I have yet to dig myself out of that hole. Or to desire to dig myself out of it. You can find out more about what I read in November in this video.
I hit just shy of 30 reads on Goodreads and Storygraph largely because my last few reads were novellas – but it’s more than I’ve read in a year in what seems like forever! I’m still keeping my aim for this year low, but higher than this year’s 5 books. Fingers crossed for me!
Despite all my plans, all my hopes, the edits for Facets remain incomplete. As much as I want to blame something other than the fact that I couldn’t focus on it, well, I just couldn’t focus on it. Other things were sparking more joy – among them a new project I’ll henceforth be referring to either as ‘the Hallmark story of my dreams’ or FS WIP!
That does mean that the novella I thought I would be rewriting next year has been pushed down the list. FS WIP is very much the one I’m focusing on right now though I don’t know when I’ll be publishing it. I want to get a first draft out and into edits by the second quarter of next year. And of course, I’ll be working on short stories and poetry for Ko-fi – I managed 12 exclusive of each this year PLUS the Author Avenger prompts!
I’ve also managed to keep at my ‘write something creative daily’ goal. I’ll be carrying forward this resolution into 2025 – no matter what the word count may be, whether I write a sentence or a paragraph or an entire short story. It’s been good for my writer’s block, and a good way to cycle through different projects or even just write something with no endgame in sight.
Hopefully 2025 also brings with it another opportunity to be featured in a literary magazine. I realise I am mentioning it in the wrong section but, hey, hi, my short story Gulab Jamun – a creative non-fiction piece – was published in Singapore literary magazine Mahogany Journal! You can read it for free online.
I hope 2025 brings you joy and good tidings.
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Ara
I’m Ara, a Southeast Asian writer who someday hopes to have published a novel, and who is currently losing herself in the worlds created by others. I love books and food and television and blogging and I get distracted and sidetracked easily.