Category Archives: #amwriting

Year in review 2023 #indieauthor #amwriting #amreading

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Another year has flown by. I don’t feel it’s been the most productive, but I do have some achievements worth remembering.

Looking back at the post of my goals for 2023 I could probably copy and paste it and try for the same goals in 2024. Not a good sign!

But I’m feeling positive for 2024, so while we wait for the New Year celebrations to begin, here are some of my successes worth celebrating;

I got a part time job in April 2023 and I don’t hate it! It has taken time away from writing, but it feels good to have funds to support my writing endeavours.

The opening of book 1 in the Mermaid Hotel series won second place in the Flash 500 novel opening competition. See my post here.

I wrote 50K of book 3 in the Mermaid Hotel Series during Nanowrimo 2023 and finished the draft in December.

I’ve written plans for books 4, 5 and 6, plus a prequel in the Mermaid Hotel series.

I’ve planned some short stories for a new Christmas collection that I want to release in 2024.

I managed to get my first ever international Book Bub deal for The Lost Sentinel and hit some best seller lists on Australia! It really helped with sales and proves that you can easily make the huge cost back. I would have done that and more if I hadn’t booked in other ads at the same time. A lesson learned.

I’ve taken part in several month long online writing workshops with Jessica Redland run by the Romantic Novelist Association. One was all about setting, and the other about writing a series. They were informative, fun, and I learnt a lot, and I’ve made some new friends with other writers. I would definitely recommend online courses.

Reading achievements.

In 2023 I set my Goodreads challenge to read 26 books. To date I’ve only read 22. I don’t think I will manage to add anymore to that in the next few days, but I’ve read some excellent books and all have been 4 to 5 star reads. Here’s the link to my Goodreads challenge.

I usually share my fav books of the year, but it will be a struggle to pick the best – they have all been so good. I may do another post with the books I’ve read, perhaps sharing those authors that have inspired me whilst I write my romance series.

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That’s about it for my year in review. How did you do in 2023?

Did you reach your goals, whether that’s writing, reading or life related? Or do you hate setting any goals and prefer to take life as it comes?

I love setting goals and making plans and I’ll back soon to share what I hope to achieve in 2024.

Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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Competition win for Secrets and Love Songs at The Mermaid Hotel

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I’m really excited to share the news that I came second in The Flash 500 Novel opening 2023 competition. The winners were announced this afternoon and I’m still buzzing.

Here’s what the judges from Headline Publishing had to say…

‘There is much to admire in this submission and it is a thoroughly deserving runner-up. We found it hugely readable and, in the end, there wasn’t much between this and the winner. We found ourselves immediately drawn in by the author’s characterisations, which seemed considered, believable and satisfyingly complex…’

You can read the full comments and learn more about the competition here Flash 500 Novel Opening competition.

It’s a wonderful feeling to reach the final and be placed second in this competition. The book is a special one for me as writing it helped me through those long months of lockdown. I’ve spent the last few years editing it and planning a series around the original story.

Secrets and Love Songs at The Mermaid Hotel will be published in 2024. I still haven’t decided whether that will be with me self publishing it, or through a publisher. Keep following my blog for updates.

I hope to post next week with a 2023 writing and reading annual wrap up, and my plans for 2024.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories. You can follow me on;

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

NaNoWinner2023 I made it!

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I reached the deadline a day early!

Here is my very cute certificate. I shall have to print it out and admire it on the noticeboard above my desk.

I’ve taken the day off today to watch a few live masterclasses with the publisher Canelo via Iaminprint. It was an informative morning, but now I must get back to work.

My next task is to submit book 1 in The Mermaid Hotel Series to publishers. I have my short list and will hopefully work through it this afternoon.

Then, on my long weekend away I will be picking up where I left on on book 3 and will hopefully get close to completing the first draft. It’s exciting to get it down on the computer where the real editing and shaping can begin.

Roll on 2024 – The year of The Mermaid Hotel Series!

How did you get on with the challenge?

It’s not all about hitting the big numbers, but about giving yourself permission to write. I wish we could do that every month.

Until next time…

Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

Mini NaNoWriMo update and competition news

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It’s Sunday 26th and I’m feeling pretty good to have reached the 45k mark on book three in my Mermaid Hotel series.

Here’s a graphic of my progress. It’s been fun to keep track in this way and I think I will continue to use it for future books. It’s a little grubby as Daisy, my cocker spaniel, jumped on my work with muddy paws. Still, you can’t have a dog without a bit of mess and I wouldn’t change that for anything.

I’ve also had some good news over the weekend about book one reaching the long list in a competition. I’m really happy with that, but obviously I’m hoping it will go a lot further.

Book 2 is still at the same state. I haven’t even opened the folder of notes and edits to do. I’m really getting excited about it though. Hopefully in a week or two I’ll be in a position to start working on it.

Before that I have Nano to complete. I’m really hoping the draft of book 3 will be completed in just over a week. I’m going on a sort of writing retreat straight after November where I plan to write during the day and listen to music / entertainment in the evening. All meals are cooked for me and I won’t have any chores to worry about. Bliss!

I’m looking for inspiration for some short stories while I’m away as well as working on finishing book three.

On a different note, A Christmas Wish has been selling well this month. I was surprised to open the KDP dashboard today to see 9 paperback copies had been bought in the US. Great news!

Even a year later, I’m still proud of this book and can’t resist sharing a little cover pic from last year.

Next year I will 100% release another Christmas collection, I’m so sad that I didn’t manage to this year. Working part time has definitely limited my writing time. But on the plus side, Nanowrimo has given me a reason and an excuse to focus on writing again. I’m so glad I decided to go for it. I wish every month could be the same as this!

I’ll be back soon with a last Nano update and a book review.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

Update on NaNoWriMo 2023 #amwriting

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This is a quick update as I really should be getting on with the word count!

It’s day 20 of NaNoWriMo 2023. So far, I’ve been able to stick with the daily target of hitting around 1667 words a day. My word count currently stands at 32,027 and should be 33,340 by the end of the day. Fingers crossed!

But that’s only on book 3 in my romance series and I had set myself a target of adding word count to book 2 as well. As yet, I haven’t even looked at extending the draft for book 2. That may be a task for December if I don’t get a chance to work on it before.

Through November, I’ve been busy editing book 1 after some great beta reader feedback. Hopefully, I will soon be sending it out to publishers, I want to act before it gets too close to Christmas.

I’m hoping in these last 10 days of Nano I can really pick up the pace on book 3. It would be great to beat the 50k target. I know I can do it if I really get my head down, but I also know it’s easy to get distracted. This blog post is a perfect example! HA HA.

With that in mind, I think I will wrap this up. I may try for another update at the weekend, if not I’ll been back at the end of the month hopefully with good news on my word count.

Are you taking part in Nano? How are you finding the daily demands?

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

NaNoWriMo 2023 starts today #amwriting #indieauthor

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Today is the start of NaNoWriMo, where thousands of writers pledge to dedicate themselves to writing a novel, or 50k of a writing project, during November.

I’ve tried the challenge on and off since 2011 with varying levels of success.

In 2023 I’ve pledged to type up my handwritten draft of book 3 in the Mermaid’s Hotel series and expand it to 50k (or more if I can!).

I also want to increase the word count of book 2 in the series which currently stands at 24,096. I would like to add 20k to this, but that would be an added extra as my main focus is book 3.

I have written a novel plan of each book in the 6 book series on excel to help me. This is a break down of each chapter showing what happens and whose VP it is.

I have some cool printed word count sheets to keep me going. And I’ve signed up to Nanowrimo where you can post your daily word count and watch it grow. You can also see how your buddies are getting along.

I’m hoping to post weekly updates on my progress, so look out for that. These sheets should have a bit of colour on them by then!

Now I really must get on. It’s been a slow start for me so far with only 500 words achieved today. Hopefully I can put in a big stint before bed.

See you next week for that update.

P.S. Are you taking part. Let’s cheer each other on.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

Writing update and signing up to NaNoWriMo 2023

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It hasn’t been that long since my last update back in July (see the post here), but I thought October was a good point in the year for another brief writing update.

I’ve been making some decisions over the last few days and feel positive about the future of my Mermaid Hotel series. Book 1 is currently with beta readers and I am embarking on a re-read myself. Once I’ve had some feedback, and made any changes, I hope to send off the whole book to a few publishers on the short list I’m currently compiling.

I do have some sad news for my fantasy readers. Starlight Prophecy is still on hold. I feel the whole series needs more time dedicated to it but my head and heart are too much into the romance books at the moment. I hope to look at it again towards Christmas time, it depends how my other plans go. Which leads me to…

I’m signing up to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year with not one, but two books!

I originally signed up to force myself to type of the draft I have of book 3. Because it is already partly written it felt like cheating, so I decided I would also try to increase the word count of book 2 – from 24k to 44k. Obviously it will still need a lot of work to reach the 90k mark I’m looking for, but I can’t set my sights too high for one month! Or can I?

Considering I’m working part time now, it may be a bit much of an ask to write 70k in a month, but I seem to work better to a deadline. After all, I did write and prepare to publish ‘A Christmas Wish’ in just 6 weeks last year. I guess I like a challenge.

On the reading side, I still have three books from netgalley / publishers to read and review by December so look out for some more reviews coming your way soon.

I’ve also played around with the colours and background on my website. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Now, I best get back to work planning for Nano and reading book 1. I’ll be back with another update before the end of the year.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on Twitter Goodreads BookBub Amazon Facebook Instagram

You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

Mid-year (sort of) Writing Update #amwriting

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I’ve been meaning to review my writing goals for 2023 for a while. It was good to look back at last year’s post Writing Plans for 2023 to see what I’ve achieved, what I still need to do and also judge if these goals are still important to me. I have to admit that even though we’re over half way through July, it doesn’t look good for my long list of tasks.

You can also see straight away why this blog has been so quiet – it’s all down to goal 1.

Goal 1 achieved – Get a part time job to bring in some money and support my writing. I’ve been employed for just over 3 months now. It’s been good getting back into the workplace and I’m enjoying my role, but fitting writing into my new schedule has been harder than expected.

As well as working in my new job and trying to keep everyone sane at home through the stresses of exams, I’ve been busy editing Secrets and Love Songs at The Mermaid Hotel (formerly known as Evie’s Song). This leads me to…

Goal 2 achieved – Join the Romantic Novelist Association’s New Writer Scheme. I managed to secure my membership the day it opened in January. Since then I’ve been able to send a full MS off to a professional reader for feedback. I hope to get that report back by the end of the month and then I can decide my next steps. While I wait, I’ve been reading the draft of book two to see where the story needs development. I’m also planning to add in the VP of the hotel owner, especially as part of the storyline for book 2 links back to her past. How I’m going to deal with that is still a mystery to me so there is still lots of work to do. I need to write approx 60K to this draft to bring it close to the word count of book 1. No problem!

An extra achievement – Whilst looking for work at the beginning of the year, I received some 1-2-1 help from A2 Housing Association’s employment service. It played a big part in helping me gain the confidence to apply for jobs and I’ve recently appeared on their website. You can read the news article here.

Delayed goals

My fantasy series The Starlight Prophecy is still stalling and I’m struggling to find my way back into the story. I tried for a month of frustrated false starts that left me feeling deflated. Maybe I need to accept that I’m still not ready to write this series even though it really hurts me to give up on it. I love Delphine, my troubled anti-heroine, and I want to tell her story and share it with the world. Maybe her time will come soon…

A new short story collection – I haven’t written much short fiction, at least not much that is worthy of putting in a new book. This is disappointing as I really enjoyed writing last year’s books, especially A Christmas Wish. Those stories still make me feel good when I think about them and I desperately want to replicate that. I also still want to revisit the world of the Silent Sea Chronicles but again not much has happened there apart from a vague storyline that won’t leave me alone.

Goals that are still in progress… or at least I still plan to do at some point.

Approach libraries to stock my books and see what formats they accept. This will lead on to whether I should publish large print editions of my short story collections and if hardback editions of all books are worthwhile.

Update all books with publication details of the short story collections published in 2022, which also means I need to reformat all books to conform with the new table of contents Amazon prefer.

Contact reviewers

Set up book Ads

The dreaded tax return – this really should be a priority!

Short term plans

Work on the romance series – Decide if book 1 is ready for the next stage. Edit and develop book 2.

I’m enjoying reading a fellow author’s book – ‘Your book won’t well itself: An introduction to writing and publishing’ by GJ Stevens. I’ll share a review here as soon as I’ve finished reading it, but spoiler alert I think it’s a great starting point for those considering becoming an Indie author.

I’ve signed up for an RNA course that runs through September. Led by Jessica Redland, it’s called ‘A series bestseller’s guide to writing a series’. I attended her last course in series settings in March and enjoyed it, so I’m really looking forward to this one. It could be just what I need to get me writing again. Plus I hope to see some familiar faces amongst the other writers taking part as I know a few of the writers on the March course were signing up to this as well.

Now it’s time to leave this update and get on with some writing!

I will try to review my goals again during the last quarter of 2023 and I hope to have some positive news on both the romance and fantasy series I’m writing. Wish me luck.

How are your goals for 2023 shaping up? What have you achieved so far this year?

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

Monthly round up – reading and writing #amreading #amwriting

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I am not great at sharing reviews, which is a shame as I know how important they are to authors, so I’ve decided to try a monthly wrap up post to share what I’ve been reading through the month. I also plan to share any progress on my writing projects as well as trying to stick to a quarterly plan.

January Update

Reading

I’ve made a good start to the year and my Goodreads goal of 26. Reading 4 books this month has set me up well.

The Fifth Sun Series by Talis Jones has kept me entertained and I’m looking forward to the final installment.

Writing Romance Novels and Love Stories has given me plenty to think about and work through with The Mermaid Hotel Series.

Rules for dating a Romantic Hero was a quick read and enjoyable. A good choice to get someone into reading who is daunted by bigger books.

Christmas Kisses by Alison May was a great read. I loved how the three novellas were interlinked and how it all came together at the end. Very enjoyable.

Writing

My new audiobook came out in January – Love, Loss and Life In Between. I have free audio codes available for reviewers, so please get in touch.

Romance series

Book 1 has a new title (formerly known as Evie’s Song) – Secrets and Love Songs at The Mermaid Hotel. It really fits the story and the genre. Feedback so far has been brilliant. What do you think?

I’ve also decided that I’ve been mentally putting the book in the wrong category – thinking of it as Contemporary Women’s fiction when it’s closer to the Cosy Seaside Romance genre.

I’m still editing the above and have quite a bit of work to do on the descriptions and layout of the novel.

Other Writing

Starlight Prophecy – No progress

Other writing – Nothing to report.

Other relevant writing news

I have joined the Romantic Novelist Association’s New Writers Scheme, which turned out to be easier than anticipated. It means I can send ‘Secrets and Love Songs at The Mermaid Hotel’ to a reader in March and get new professional eyes on the story.

I have subscribed to Mslexia, the women’s writing magazine and taken out their special Salon membership which has various perks throughout the year.

I have signed up to the RNA’s course ‘Writing a series with a coastal or countryside setting’ taught by Jessica Redland (I’m reading one of her books for the first time and loving it!). I think this course will be really helpful as I plan the rest of The Mermaid Hotel Series.

Plans for February

Books I hope to read this month

Writing projects for February

Complete the latest draft of Secrets and Love Songs at the Mermaid Hotel in preparation for the New Writer’s Scheme.

Write something new for my writing group meeting mid-February.

I think that about sums up my plans for February. Short and sweet!

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

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You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.

My first author appearance of 2023 #indieauthor #interview #author

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At the weekend I was lucky enough to feature on Becca’s blog – Avoiding reality of books. My interview discusses my writing journey, where I get inspiration and questions about genre amongst other things. See the full interview here.

This is a short post this morning, so don’t forget to check out Becca’s blog where she has her series 7 questions with an author, book reviews and more.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy, heart-warming romance and short stories

You can follow me on

Twitter   Goodreads   BookBub   Amazon   Facebook Instagram

You can also join my Newsletter for writing updates and news of promotions.