My first monthly blog of the year will cover what happened last year and my plans for the year coming. I’ll also talk about some changes in my social media profile and take a peek between my fingers to see how I did against my 2024 goals.
One of the exciting part of last year, from a writing perspective, was finally writing and publishing a ‘Christmas’ story. The fourth book in the DI Joanne Christie series was set around Christmas and allowed me to bring in the atmosphere of the festive season and the winter weather (as well as dropping in some classic festive tunes, even some with a classic rock flavour). The book was released at the start of December and although modest in number, the sales have been higher than the previous book. I know that some bought it purely as a festive read and a couple of readers have reached out to say they enjoyed it so much, they have purchased other books in the series. I’m really proud of these novels and I think they have improved as the series has progressed.
As well as celebrating a significant birthday last year, I also read a number of really good books. Johnny Got His Gun has been on my radar for a while and it was such a powerful novel, perhaps only surpassed by Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. From a crime fiction perspective, I loved Mark Billingham’s The Last Dance and look forward to reading the next one this year. My book of the year, however, was Ian Rankin’s most recent Rebus novel, Midnight and Blue. I bought a signed, first edition hardback copy of this and it was brilliant. I worry that there may not be many left in the series, but I’m glad they continue to be of the highest quality.
Before I look ahead to this year, I’ll check against my 2024 goals, so here we go –
1 – Blog More Often – definitely achieved, but I did miss some months throughout the year which was disappointing.
2 – Finish My Novella – achieved this and currently deciding on the best way to make this available, whilst raising the most for a chosen charity/fundraiser.
3 – Write and Publish DI Christie Book 4 – achieved this too, and very happy with the outcome.
4 – Agent Planning and Novel Structuring – more work required on this, however, I did attend an event with an agent which was very insightful and will help with my ambitions.
5 – Publish at Least One More Short Story – failed to achieve. I did have two stories completed that just didn’t get over the line, but both were worthwhile for different reasons and something I can come back to.
I’m not going to make a list of definite plans for 2025, however, I have a few things I want to achieve. I want to continue with the DI Christie series and try and get a fifth book out. I’ve already started the planning for this one, taking my unused locked room short story and developing that into a novel. Also, I would like to write a novel that I can query agents with. Writing 2 novels in one year will be a challenge, so that one may spill over into 2026. The main thing is to get the main character right and the outline of the story before I begin. I have a WIP which may well be used with a change in main character. The one definite plan I do have, however, is a monthly blog, every month with the option of additional ones as things happen that are worth sharing.
Finally, I wanted to touch on my Social Media presence and some recent changes I have made. I don’t have the greatest number of followers, but over the years my main platform for interaction was the site formally known as Twitter. Like many others, I have found so many faults with it and with how it is now run that I have started to pull back and focus on other platforms. You’ll find me on all the major ones (details in the LINKS tab of this website), but I’ll not be posting on this site. I find this incredibly sad as I have made lots of friends on the old Twitter and had some great interactions with writers and readers, but it is so hard reaching the right people and not being followed and trolled by Bots. I hope those who continue to use the platform understand my decision and follow me elsewhere for more content and updates.
To finish on a positive, thank you to everyone who found me on this once great platform and hopefully I’ll see you over on one of the others. I hope you all have a fantastic 2025, wherever you plan to hang out virtually.
Thanks as always for reading my blog. Please follow me on all the socials on the LINKS tab and subscribe to my website to be notified as soon as a blog is published. Books, as always, are listed on the BOOKS tab.
Ross Alexander Writer 