2023 at last

Is it just me, or did 2022 go on for far longer than a year??

It's that time of the year when I look back over the past year and look forward to the coming year.

2022

Releases: I finished the Guardians of The Realm series with the publication of the final book, "Chaos" - something that was personally very challenging, as one of the themes explored in the book linked all too closely with the loss of my father in late 2021.

Sales increased again last year (in general), though perhaps not as much as I might have hoped. Certainly not what I had aimed for. Still, an increase is an increase, right? The US is still a market I struggle in, but the UK, Canada and Australia have all been pretty reasonable.

I read 44 books over the year, including all of the Reacher books. I kind of got on a roll with them! I must confess to not enjoying the latest ones which are a joint venture between Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child. Both the characterisation and the plotting seem 'off'. I don't think I will read any more of the jointly written ones. I would happily re-read some of the earlier ones though (and I'm not one for re-reading books all that much).

My knitting has come on leaps and bounds and I've even been designing my own sweaters! I finally mastered knitting in two colours and holding a yarn in each hand. I still haven't mastered "The Norwegian purl". Considering that I only learned to knit 3 years ago, I'm pretty chuffed with my progress. You can see pictures of my sweaters on my Instagram page @amandafleet.

We had an influx of hedgehogs in the garden (though we can currently see no sign of them, not even in the hog-houses we made for them... I hope they return in Spring). Again, you can see pictures and videos of them on my Instagram page.

All of the audiobooks are now recorded, and the first three ("Aegyir Rises", "Aeron Returns" and "War") are available both on Audible and most other audiobook sites.

2023

I've still to finish processing the audiobook files for "Invasion" and "Chaos". I'm not going to put an estimated date for completion on it, because I totally suck at those and they get pushed back and pushed back! It can be mind-numbingly dull to do the "cut out all the breath sounds" processing so I never get as much done in a day as I hope I might. I'll aim for no more than "They'll be released in 2023".

I have my time-travel romance book to edit and I really am aiming to get that released this year. I wrote it so long ago!

After such a long time when the little people in my head have been silent, they've finally started talking to me again. If they would just get a little louder, there should be some writing going on this year. I wrote nothing new last year, and that felt very strange.

And of course, there will be more knitting, more learning of Gaelic, and holidays! We're already booked for two weeks away in Orkney, plus a visit to family, earlier in the year. If Orkney can't wake up the little people in my head, I don't know what will.

What has everyone else got planned for 2023?