January 2025 Roundup

New Year Writing Reset Tips For Overcoming Authoring Burnout

January 2025 Roundup

Welcome to the January 2025 roundup!

And welcome to a new year! Here we are, already at the end of January, which means it’s definitely time for me to start rambling about how fast the year is going already .

Just kidding (kind of). After a month-long break, I’ve been back at my writing desk for two weeks, ready to slip back into routine, work on my goals for the year, get some more books written, and actually publish them too!

If you’ve got similar goals or just goals in general, I hope the year ahead brings you the opportunity to achieve them, and I wish you the best of luck! I’ll be rooting for you in between my rambles and writing and editing my own work. We’ve got this!

As for what I specifically got up to this month, it’s all listed below…

Let it be known that in January 2025, I started a new manuscript! Having not written anything creative in over a year, and having not worked on a story that wasn’t from my Blackbirch series in decades, it was so fun and creatively freeing to write new words again.

Unfortunately, it only lasted a few days, spanned a few hundred words, and mostly involved note sorting and planning before I got caught up in other things. One of those other things was of course the two Writing Checklist books I worked on for the majority of last year.

They are coming this year—I promise! I stopped working on my shiny new idea to get back to them after finalizing the format for the checklists with my graphic designer. Now that I have a template for the design, I’m working as fast as I can toward an ARC version, which will get the project even closer to the publication version.

We Live In Time

Told in the present day and in flashbacks, We Live In Time covers the life of Almut and Tobias. Switching between their current lives, the day they met, their dates, the crazy birth of their daughter, and two cancer battles, it’s a movie about love and family. It’s also about making the most of what time you have when it’s cut short and poses the question of whether chasing your own dreams at the cost of others is selfish or a fact of life. As usual, the performances of Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield are amazing, and they elevate the story, giving it the heart it needs to cover such heavy topics.

The Pitt

With each episode covering an hour in a single day, The Pitt is a modern-day version of medical show classics like ER, and it helps that Dr. Carter himself, Noah Wyle, plays one of the main characters. Grittier than slicker medical shows, there’s an interesting crop of doctors, med students, nurses, and patients full of real-life problems, all while shining a light on the triumphs and tragedies of working and ending up in a hospital emergency room.

Eleanor Jones Can’t Keep A Secret by Amy Doak

Picking up with Eleanor Jones a few weeks after the events of the first book, this sequel builds on the characters’ relationships and has Eleanor finally admitting that her feelings for one friend may be deeper than she’s letting on (and it’s such a great relationship to ship).

It of course wouldn’t be an Eleanor story without a crime to solve, and this time it comes about as Eleanor’s class spends time with residents in a nursing home and Eleanor’s companion tells her a decades-old secret about a rumored runaway, a body, and danger. Highly recommended for readers of YA books with deep friendships, great characters, a little romance, and an exciting, yet not too dark, mystery.

All Shall Mourn by Ellie Marney

This is the third and final book in the None Shall Sleep series by Ellie Marney, which is all about two teens working with the FBI to help catch serial killers. After infamous serial killer Simon Gutmunsson escapes the US with his twin sister in tow, the FBI lures him back with the help of final girl, Emma, and her FBI trainee-turned-boyfriend, Travis.

Wreaking havoc and dropping bodies, Simon and Kristen stay ahead of the authorities, but not Emma and Travis, who manage to cross paths with them on more than one occasion. Uncovering the biggest secrets, and devastating lies, All Shall Mourn ties up the series’ long strings, character arcs, and character relationships, and nails the ending. Definitely one for fans of entertaining thrillers.

There’s Something About You, Olivia Bennet by Valerie G. Miller

After the loss of her last remaining family member, Olivia Bennet is given a trunk containing items belonging to her mother, Rosemary, who passed away in tragic circumstances when Olivia was a teen. Never knowing about her mother’s heritage, or who her father was, Olivia finds clues in the trunk that force her to confront her own issues and discover secrets that change her world.

Effortlessly switching between the POV of Olivia and Rosemary, the story takes you on a journey across generations, features relatable characters, real relationships, touches of sweet romance, and a dash of mystery as Olivia unravels her origins. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction that features secrets, immigrant stories, first love romance, and found family.

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

When Bel was a toddler, she was found in the backseat of her car, and her mother was missing. Sixteen years later, Rachel’s disappearance is part of a new documentary, but as it’s being filmed, she reappears. The story of where she’s been doesn’t add up for Bel, who teams up with Ash from the film crew to look into Rachel’s secrets, discovering she may not be the only one lying. Great characters, hints of mystery, fantastic foreshadowing, a climactic ending, and a masterclass on flipping good characters to bad and vice versa, this is hands down my favorite book by Holly Jackson so far, which is saying something as I also loved her other books.

Let’s Be Book Friends!

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your faves! You can also find and follow my book reviews on Amazon and BookBub.

This month, I’ve been taking photos of… my routine!

After a busy 2024, I really needed the break I took, but by the end of the four weeks, I was also eager to get back into my routine and I took the photos to prove it! Under the supervision of my office shadow cat, Luna, I set goals, drank lots of tea, read/listened to books, and went back to my usual morning walks.