Greetings from the cave! 

Can you believe that 2023 will be arriving in three short days from now? Like, the last time I emerged from the cave, it was still...October? 

*checks blog history*. 

Yep, October. 

This may be a long post, but it's an overdue one. If you have been following my newsletter, a lot of this may be repeats of stuff you've heard before. Treat this as an "extended edition", if you will. In it also is updates that I've been promising that I just...never got round to. hehe. 

On with the show! 

An Overall Update

In the beginning of the year, I was really focused on my author platform. I created a new public email, formally separated my personal Gmail, and started creating a much stronger social media presence. In April, I plunged headlong into my very own newsletter through Convertkit. As of this month, it has 26 confirmed subscribers. It doesn't seem like much right now, but I'm grateful for every single one of them. I created a new - and I will say, much more aesthetic looking - Pinterest page (@catherinefemwriter). I've also been steadily working on my Instagram, and decided to also join Discord in the latter part of the year.  

During the latter half of the year, I decided to put my toes in, so to speak, to self-publishing. What I found was that the jungle was much more dense than I thought it was. In August, I wrote a rather convoluted post about which vendors I should sell my books to. Unfortunately, now, this post is quite outdated. Since then, I have done much more research and...let's just say things are even less clear than what they were before. For example, I had said that in ethical concerns, Barnes and Noble seemed to have a slight advantage. I have since discovered that their stores actively (and I've seen this in person, unfortunately) push the occult (i.e. witchcraft, tarot, etc.) in their stores. Which really upsets me because while I want my books to sell, I don't necessarily condone the use of their kickbacks from my books to be used in such a fashion. 

However, I am not alone in this process. Besides having a team of friends who have been through this journey before, I am also seeking additional help. As of January 2023, I will be joining Thy Olive Tree's Self Publishing Academy. I heard about it through both Instagram and LegendHaven, which was an online Catholic writers conference that I attended in November. Using this and other resources will hopefully make 2023 the year I finally publish something. 

One of the highlights of my "writing" year has been to participate in Christine Smith's FallFicFrenzy. I had planned on giving you a proper update throughout the fall using her Know The Novel linkup, but unfortunately, grad school ate up what time I could spare in both November and most of December. As you can imagine, I did not manage to do much writing during that time. But the community was worth their weight in gold. I met many new friends through there, and I really hope that there will be a spring or even winter challenge very soon! 

One thing that has suffered in general has been my blog writing. While I'm certainly not alone in this (I've noticed that blogs have been making a very small comeback since COVID), it still rankles me a little. Probably because of all the hype and broken promises that I've made over the course of this year. And believe me, there has been a LOT of that. I found that with grad school eating up a lot of my time and attention, I was left with a lot of ambition that just couldn't go to fruition. Thanks be to God, I HAVE now graduated with my M.A., and so (for now, anyway), I have a little more time during the days to work on...other things. Including writing. 

Speaking of which...while my journey into publishing and platforms has been quite an adventure, it would be for naught if I didn't have something to show for it in the writing department. Let's see if I have, shall we? 

An Update on my WIPS

I worked on several WIPs this year, which considering the fact that I haven't had much time to write is pretty impressive. While I have given monthly updates through my newsletter mostly, it's great to look at the "big picture" as it were. 

Before we dive into the writing progress, I want to say a brief note about my screenplay idea The Wade Girl. In a previous post, I had mentioned that I had put it on hold because of research problems. Well, I have managed to get the other book I needed a LOT faster than I had hoped! That being said, The Wade Girl is still on hold until some of these other projects can be finished. 

As I also previously mentioned, many of my old WIPs (Ancora Spei, Plain and Simple Truth, and Rose of Culmore) were retired or were placed in hibernation. This left only 3 main WIPs left. They are as follows: 

The White Rose

This is Year 2 of implementing the edits given to me by my editor, Michelle. I started the year with 25,984 words in Draft 4. I ended the year with 34,726 words. 

Having just about 10k in a year - when I know that I can write 100k in that same time, in that same WIP - is kinda frustrating. But it would seem that editing a novel and an intense year of graduate school don't mix well. 

That being said, I have had some small successes. I'll share with you the latest favorite snippet that I have: 

“Just as long as when she is meeting the suitors, that you let her speak for herself.” Queen Carina nodded decisively as she adjusted the folds of her kirsaya.

“A wise piece of advice, my love. So wise, in fact, that I shall bind you to do the same.” King Reijo smiled.

An offended scoff came from the queen. “I do not speak! I may prompt, but...”

“My dear, your ‘prompts’ as you call them, are half of Janina’s speeches. No, I shall make yours and my silence the first “Rule” of our public behavior during this Tournament. After all, ‘what is good for the perch, is good for the bass’, as my father used to say.”

“Those are two different species of fish!”

“Well, men and women are different species as you know, my dear.”

“Scholars don’t say so.”

“My dear, scholars do not deal with commonplace realities.”

Queen Carina groaned as she leaned in close to Janina’s ear. “He will drive me to madness!”

“What, you aren’t halfway there already?” King Reijo said with a straight face and twinkling eyes.

Hidden Seeds

Back in October, I had announced that I was going to be working on my old Rooglewood WIP "Hidden Seeds" and placing it on Wattpad. This would be in conjunction with doing TWR edits for FallFicFrenzy. 

However, I only got about 300 words into the new draft before I realized that the flow was just not coming. My plot was even worse than I remembered, and my characters were less dimensional than I had hoped. I lost interest very quickly and thus decided to put it on hold *again*. Which kinda makes me mad because I know a lot of people were looking forward to seeing it on Wattpad, but I refuse to put out a story that has huge gaps in it. 

Fair Winds

Like I mentioned just a minute ago, I had planned for multiple WIPs during FallFicFrenzy. What I did NOT expect was that a completely different WIP would derail both of my WIPs that I had slated. One might say that they raided and looted the motivation right off the ship. Like a pirate would. 

One day in the car, one of my favorite sea shanties came on. Its one that I've heard several times, so I thought I was safe. But nope, the muse decided to run with it and gave me motivation to look at that draft again and actually do something with it. 

I managed to write 5261 words in this new draft of Fair Winds in about a week. Which is probably the most that I've written in one time for any WIP this year. And then I got a little second-hand depression from my MC's loss of her father and...I was not down for that. So I left it aside to figure out how to lighten the tone. 

2023 Goals 

I firmly believe that 2023 will be the year. Before, I have given hopeful statements about being able to publish, but this is the first year that I can say it with certainty - what with the surprise for TWR coming and my growing support network. 

And so, I will be setting out some goals for 2023. Which of course, are subject to change at a moment's notice....as per the rules around here. 

Finish TWR's edits (Draft 4) 

As you may have guessed by now, I now have a deadline of August 2023. And with the graduate school out of the way, I now have a chance to get some decent headway in. Any additional steps to publication will be added on to this goal as I come to that bridge, so to speak. 

Finish Draft 3 of Fair Winds 

Maybe. I mean, I got a good start on it, so that's helpful. That beginning, though, whew. That's gonna take work. But I've learned from experience that it's always good to have a spare goal, just in case the first one goes way foul. 

And that...wraps up 2022!! I guess I should apologize that this post is so long...and frankly, a little boring...but this is what I get for not blogging for well over two months. Things kinda get a little pent up after a while. 

But I have talked for long enough. I'd love to hear from you guys! What sort of adventures have you been up to? 

Scribblingly yours, 

Catherine