Tris Talks! December (yes really!) newsletter...
NOTE: I drafted this newsletter appropriately on the last Sunday of the month, which is exactly when my planner says I am supposed to send out my monthly newsletter. However, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to have time to reread and edit it into shape to send out, so uhhh… here’s your month end/year end newsletter a day late. Sorry!
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Hi, all. Here we are on the last day of December, and I didn’t plan on doing a year in review kind of newsletter.
Guess what… I’m gonna do a year in review. Ish.
More of a vibe of the year in review.
The end of December turned out to be very much like the rest of the year went for me. Over the course of the year, I kept attempting to plan ahead, get things done, be prepared for future events. Then those future events became Right Now events ahead of schedule and upended everything.
It’s been kind of chaotic.
So, what happened this month? Well, in November we started making plans for spring. My car Lucy (yes, she’s named for the character from the PHU ‘verse—Rory’s mom) was a Suzuki, and as you may know, parts are no longer made in this country. She was almost 12 years old. And as much as I loved her, I knew I needed to replace her. In fact, I’ve been kind of avoiding that fact for a few years.
I had to internalize some things, you see. For one, I drive cars a long time, and this next car will be mine for 10-15 years (especially if I’m retiring and have to deal with a fixed income!). And if I wanted to future-proof a car, that meant looking into EVs and hybrids and running numbers and… letting go of my manual transmission and accepting returning to driving an automatic (ew).
We started looking at cars and were in the process of narrowing down our options. I had a top choice, but it was hard to get the exact one I wanted, so we figured we’d make final decisions and order it. We had time. Lucy was in good shape.
Spoiler alert: Lucy was not in good shape, which we found out right after Christmas. Cue sudden adoption of Mattie, my new Shadowwalker Sportage plug-in hybrid.
The last week has been a rollercoaster. Emotionally. Financially. Time management. Just. Yikes.
Anyway, that’s very much what the rest of the year has been like for me. I thought I was going to write some novels, do some quick editing, and self-publish a book while prepping things with DPP.
Hah. Not so much.
I learned a lot about how I work—editing is hard on my brain, and while editing, I do not write. I’ve mentioned this before. But I’ve also been stockpiling ideas, and trying to think really hard about what I want to accomplish in 2024 for my writing.
I may not have made all my goals for 2023 (if you follow me on any of the blogging platforms, I will be posting that roundup on the 1st or 2nd) but I don’t feel like a complete failure, either.
I learned things. I made progress. And I’ve started trying to behave more like a published author than a wannabe writer. It’s not a hobby. It’s a job, and I’m treating it as such.
And yes, I’m still learning.
In 2024, I’ll be continuing what I started this year. More conventions/appearances. More publishing, more editing, more books. More advertising (uh, sorry). But I’m also going to try to find the joy in being online again, and in being me across several social media platforms. So maybe more knitting and photography. Definitely more taekwondo. More WIPWednesday posts. More snippets and background information on Patreon (there’s a link at the end if you’d like to support me there).
I’m also trying to work on some printable bullet journaling pages that reflect some of my own writing tracking hacks. Things that are similar to the word tracking spreadsheet, and things that are similar to my regular weekly and daily tracking from my own bujo. I’ll be giving those to newsletter and Patreon subscribers, once they are done.
Things I did last month…
Okay, let’s talk about publications. Nothing new for sale, sorry! It’s coming, it’s coming, I swear. I did try to lean in to blogging when I wasn’t editing.
I’ve started doing some recipe blogging! There will be more as I return to baking (yet another thing I’ve stopped in recent years). I’m adapting my old recipes to be lower sugar and gluten free, so I can continue to enjoy them. My first success (enjoyed by knitting group) was a Gluten Free Low-Sugar Prune Cake. Don’t let the name scare you. It’s a spice cake, made moist by the inclusion of pureed prunes. It’s delicious, and was a childhood holiday favorite, so I’m thrilled to be able to have it again. It also freezes very well.
I’m getting better about participating in WIPWednesday. If you want to see snippets of my work, I’m most consistent on Pillowfort, but try to remember to do Tumblr, Bluesky, and Mastodon as well. This month featured snippets from Into the Split and Finding Their Roots as I worked on edits for both of those.
I posted my 2024 Word Tracking Spreadsheet. From my posts…
For those who have used it before: the 2024 Word Tracking Spreadsheet is now available!
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, the annual word tracking spreadsheet is a robust Excel sheet (it can be used in Google Sheets) which allows you to track your wordcount goals and actual wordcount across several projects. There are graphs, time tracking, and all kinds of little bells and whistles.
This is a spreadsheet that I started using in 2012 and it’s been in constant change, adding new things as I discover things that I want to track, or better ideas to help motivate myself. I’ve been sharing it for a long time (I forget exactly how long!) and am happy to post the blank spreadsheet each year.
Both the spreadsheet and an instruction document are available.
I posted my 2023 Awards Eligibility, which well, is probably too late to be interesting now, but hey. I had things!
I posted a quick piece on how to support your favorite creative during the holiday season, both monetarily, and by letting the world know about them.
And finally, I started working on using TikTok. While I haven’t posted anything of writing value yet, I have a cat video, and a taekwondo video. Yes, I am pretty sure that means I’m on-brand.
What I’ve been up to writing-wise…
Despite all the complaining, I did accomplish a lot in December. Or rather, I accomplished some Big Things.
I completed a read-through of Into the Split, which is the third book of the Twinned trilogy, in order to prepare for editing discussions with Duck Prints Press. I can see the issues the originally posted serialized version has, and will be working on those edits in the coming months.
I finalized my edits on Finding Their Roots, the first of the new Seven Lakes series that I’ll be publishing independently. I have to write front and back matter, and then do the layout, set up a timeline, plan a release date, and get all the remaining pieces together. I’m getting closer!
In the new year, I will…
Oh wow, I haven’t even written out the goals and objectives yet, so this is kind of a tough one.
In 2024, I will be publishing the Twinned trilogy of Welcome to PHU with Duck Prints Press. The exact timeline is still TBD, but you can follow the Kickstarter project and be notified when it launches.
I will also self-publish the first Seven Lakes book, Finding Their Roots. For snippets and a better idea of timeline before an official release date is set, check out my Patreon.
I also need to buckle down and write the next book in each series. This means the Nate, Dax, and Cass emotionally charged (and awkward) road trip for PHU, and a werewolf reunion camping trip, complete with an mlm romance where both sides are a tad bit emotionally constipated.
I’d love to write some more for tradpub, but we’ll see how things go for time.
Where will I be?
The next convention on my schedule will be Boskone, which is the weekend of February 9-11, 2024 at the Westin Boston Seaport District in Massachusetts. I have applied to be part of programming, but haven’t heard back yet; keep an eye out here for more information! I’m very excited about returning to Boskone. This was my childhood convention, but it has been a long time since I’ve been able to attend.
Until next month…
I’ll be back next month with another newsletter! Remember, if you want to see more information about my projects and some behind the scenes news, check out my Patreon.
You can find me on social media—please feel free to chit-chat, or quietly lurk to hear me natter on about life, writing, knitting, and fandom. My most used platforms are Bluesky, Mastodon, Pillowfort, Tumblr, and Dreamwidth. I’m tryslora everywhere!
Thank you for being here!
Tris
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