Happy New Year everybody! How did you celebrate?
I used to get so hung up on "doing something" for New Year's Eve, but these days, I just don't care. Sometimes, I don't even stay up until midnight 🤷♀️
This time, I watched Glass Onion with T (pretty fun, but overall an average film), then we played EXIT: The Sinister Mansion (SUCH FUN!). By then it was nearly midnight, so we stayed awake in bed and counted the last ten seconds until 1 Jan.
My word of the year for 2023 was going to be “nourish,” but now I think “cosy” might be more appropriate. My vision board is all steaming hot drinks, woollen socks/scarves/blankets, and soft lighting. I plan to spend most of 2023 wearing comfy loungewear, reading, writing, and drinking copious amounts of tea. Not much different than 2022, tbh, only more intentional.
I talked briefly about my goals in my last newsletter, but here's a little more detail about my Q1 goals. I'm keeping them easy and achievable this year, as I tend to be overly ambitious.
Write for at least 20 minutes, undistracted (to the best of my control), every day.
Check Tiktok and interact with relevant videos every day.
Update my Substack newsletter graphics, about page, etc, and outline a new free story for subscribers.
Continue the Couch to 5k programme, at whatever pace my body can handle. Supplement this with going to the pool/gym around once per fortnight.
If I manage to do these goals to 90% completion, I will consider that a win and reward myself!
-Sara
Did you manage to grab a free copy of The Practice Kiss in the last newsletter? If so, you might enjoy book 2 in the My K-Drama Life trilogy, The Dating Drama.
Chloe Gibson’s dating the man of her dreams—a talented and gorgeous K-drama star. But there’s just one catch: they have to keep their relationship secret. This isn’t the ideal romance Chloe used to fantasise about.
Fortunately, there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon. The couple have an agreement that after one year of dating in secret, they’ll front up to the South Korean media and go public with their relationship.
But the year won’t be smooth sailing.
When a mysterious package shows up, Chloe’s life is thrust into chaos. Soon she’s being plagued by creepy anonymous messages and the unsettling feeling she’s being followed.
The question is no longer whether the relationship will survive, it’s will Chloe survive?
Link roundup
TikTok Figured Out an Easy Way to Recommend Books. The Results Were Dubious. [Slate]
Readers on TikTok—at least some of them—went from familiarity with tropes to, in 2022, oversaturation. Video creators who addressed this issue said they felt as if newer books were being “built around the tropes.”
Novelist Appears to Announce She's Alive 2 Years After Faking Suicide: 'Let the Fun Begin' [Jezebel]
I’m tempted to make a joke about leaving it to a self-published romance novelist to give you the twist of a lifetime, but the whole ordeal is all so baffling and upsetting.