Rochelle L. Sharpe

I have been meaning to post my goals for 2025 all of January, and now we are in February! I thought I better combine them with my January wrap up post or I’ll never get around to it.

Here are my blogging/reading/writing goals for this year:

Blogging Goals:

Last year I got back into blogging on a regular basis, but not as regular as I wanted it to be. This year I hope to continue that and post even more regularly.

I am hoping to do an interview once a month with an author sharing a bit about their journey to publication.

I am also wanting to do a monthly wrap up post as a regular feature, as well as reviews, recommendations, cover reveals, books I’m looking forward to reading, and sharing my writing journey with you. I am aiming for a minimum of 2 posts a week but 3 would be better.

Reading Goals:

I failed my Goodreads reading challenge last year, so I lowered it this year. I plan on reading 75 books during 2025.

My aim is for the majority of those 75 books to be books I actually own. I have approximately 300 books that I own and I haven’t read – almost half of those eBooks. I keep borrowing books from the library and getting review books instead of reading what I own, and there are so many that I’ve been wanting to read for so long I thought it was about time I start prioritising those instead.

I also want to participate in the #AussieYAChallenge again this year. I only read 6 of my planned 12 books last year, so I am determined to read 12 this year. One a month. And since I own at least 12 YA books by Aussie authors, I have no excuse.

Writing Goals:

The biggest goal I would like to achieve this year is to get a book contract for my ‘Dragon Book’. It is a YA Christian Fantasy set at an academy, has twins as the main protagonists, and of course, dragons. The Christian market is a lot smaller than the secular market, so I don’t have as many opportunities to submit it.

The top agent I want to query is currently closed to queries, and one of the small presses I would love to publish with is not open to submissions until mid-year, so it is a bit of a waiting game.

I am almost finished a first draft of a cosy portal fantasy aimed at adults that I am absolutely loving writing. I am hoping to get this fully edited and done within 6 months and then see want I want to do with it. I am really eager for people to start reading this one and traditional publishing is rather slow, so I may end up self-publishing it, but we will see.

Once I finish the first draft of my portal fantasy, I will be working on a first draft for an adult contemporary romance. Though fantasy is my first love, I do have a few contemporaries up my sleeves for both adults and YA, but alas, I can only write one at a time!

I am working on a short story I am hoping to get published. It’s different to what I usually write and been a challenge. I do enjoy a writing challenge though.

I really enjoyed writing and submitting short stories to anthologies last year, so I am keeping my eye out for more opportunities to continue this in 2025.

I am wanting to start a newsletter and am deciding whether Substack is what I’d like to use.

I am also planning on creating an Instagram account.

That’s all my goals for this year. God willing, I can achieve them all. We will see what the year holds.

January Wrap UP!

January is my month off from regular life. I don’t have to take my teens to their medical appointments, or homeschool, giving me 4 weeks of freedom. I took advantage of this extra time to focus on my writing.

I decided to set a goal of adding 40,000 words to my portal fantasy. I had started it a few years ago and it was sitting at 35k, and I decided it was time to focus on it. I am pleased to say that I reached my goal and a tiny bit more, ending up with 40,148 words written. I am not much of a plotter. I usually know the start, ending, and maybe a few scenes before I begin writing, and this book has surprised me so much. There was one character I had only planned on being in one chapter and ended up demanding to be in the rest of the book! This book has a lot of humor in it (I hope) and has been one of the most fun stories I have worked on. I am aiming for 90k so am almost finished the first draft.

I was writing the portal fantasy during the day, and at night I have been working on my challenging short story. I need this one complete by march and praying I can get it done in time.

I received a rejection on a middle grade story I had sent to an anthology, which was disappointing, but they gave me some positive feedback too, so that was a nice upside.

I read 4 books in January, and 1 short story. I have reviews for some of them coming.

You can read my review for ‘With All Her Heart’ here.

I blogged only three times during January as I was so focus on my writing. You can see my first author interview here. It is with the talented Christian fantasy author J. J Fischer.

Now that February is here it is time to get back to regular life, but I am still going to prioritise writing. My mornings are busy so I write in the afternoons, and also at night if I still have enough energy after all the chores are done.

That’s it from me. Feel free to share your 2025 goals or how your January went. I love to hear from you.