Summary:

It was tough, coming back to the real world after Christmas, New Year and a week’s writing retreat – but I did it! Client work – check! Novel writing – check! Short stories – check! Podcast – check!

 

Monday:

I was still trying to get used to rejoining the world after Christmas, New Year and my amazing writing retreat, so I approached things gently today. I ended up being very glad not to have hours of paid client work to do, and mostly worked on trying to regain control of my inbox…

And the freelance rollercoaster just keeps on looping! After two big projects for January were delayed last week, a previous client popped up out of the blue with a large piece of work this afternoon to fill the gap!

In the evening, I wrote a review of the book I finished the night before.

 

Tuesday:

I started my first paid client project of the year – editing online RPG text for a client I worked for last year.

At noon, I had a call with a prospective book coaching client my editor Amie had referred to me. She was lovely and her book sounds fascinating. It remains to be seen whether or not I can provide exactly what she’s looking for, but we’ve worked out a way forwards and we’ll see how it goes.

Then it was Revision Club (which is a bit of a misnomer now, since I’m not sure any of us are revising our novels at the moment, but hey) and that started with an excellent conversation full of encouragement and mutual excitement about our projects.

So I was actually quite enthused about launching in to the next scene of my current novel, A Wizard Calls My Name. I got that done pretty quickly – so there are only six scenes left to do in the first draft – eeek!

 

Wednesday:

I went for a long walk to finish my current audiobook – Of Blood and Bone (Book Two of The Chronicles of The One) by Nora Roberts – and wrote my review on my return.

I also did all the prep for the next podcast episode – about 90s US college drama Felicity.

 

Thursday:

I was back at the coworking group in Shoreditch today and it was lovely to see everyone!

I worked hard on the RPG text in the morning, completing a large chunk of that.

My next client project – developmental editing a historical queer romance – arrived as well, so I put that in the schedule to start next week, making me feel a lot better about my income for January.

Then I wrote this month’s blog post, all about my writing and business goals for 2025.

Then I went back to the Dixit anthology, brainstormed and made notes for the next story.

 

Saturday:

Despite the cold, I made my way into town for a writing day today – largely because I’d posted that I would in various places and was hoping some other writers would come and join me.

It was a bit hit and miss, mostly because I had venue issues (one place didn’t want to give me a table at all, the next kicked me out after 90 minutes, the next was good until they started showing the football, and the last was a bit chilly).

But I wrote the next scene of Wizard (five left and counting) and the next Dixit story, plus I had some great conversations with the two lovely writers who turned up along the way.

So, a success overall!

 

Sunday:

I had some thoughts about the upcoming writing workshop I’m leading, so I added to my notes.

I also had the first inkling of an idea for the next Dixit story, so I wrote the beginning and the end.

And I set up my script for the next Reviews Revisited podcast episode – on How To Stop Time by Matt Haig. We also recorded the next main episode of the podcast.

I finished my fifth book of the year so far and wrote my review – still not having a great reading experience yet in 2025 (apart from the nine-volume comic book series I read in two days and really loved).

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