January was a hard month for me. My father-in-law lost his battle with cancer at the end of the month. He declined fairly rapidly after Christmas, and even though it was expected, it was hard to say goodbye.
Although it was difficult with the passing of my father-in-law, writing has been a solace to help me through, and sticking to my normal writing routine helps as well, although I didn’t get as much done as usual, which is understandable.
During those hard weeks there was some exciting writing news that provided a little bit of joy amidst the sadness.
Incase you didn’t see my previous post, I signed a contract with Harlequin’s Love Inspired line. last year I entered the 2025 Love Inspired author search, and out of the initial 380 entries, 64 made it into round two, including myself. Out of those 64, I was offered a contract, along with 13 others. I can’t wait to share my small town contemporary romance with you. At this stage it is looking like it will be released mid 2027.
More exciting news that I haven’t announced on here before now:
My graphic novel script has been shortlisted for the Perentie Prize!
I feel so blessed just making the shortlist for this. The winner receives a contract with Perentie Press, so I would love to win, as I can’t wait to share this story with you. It is a humerous middle grade fantasy that features a library and dragons and a whole lot of other things I can’t share yet. Winner is announced in March.
Short Story news:
I wrote and submitted five flash fiction stories to Havok Publishing.
Yes, you read that right. For context, five is the number of stories I submitted for the entirety of 2025.
The theme was sensational, so I had to write a story based on one of the senses. It occurred to me that there are 5 senses (traditional senses anyway), and Havok have 5 different genres that they accept. I thought to myself, imagine if I wrote a story based on each of the senses, in each of the genres. And then I couldn’t let the idea go, so I did it.
It was extremely difficult, and I’m not sure if I’ll do it again, but it was a great challenge as a one off.
Three of the five stories have been accepted, so you’ll have three stories from me in April!
If you’ve never heard of Havok before, it is a flash fiction website that publishes stories in the mystery, sci-fi, wacky/humerous, thriller and fantasy genres. They have a free daily story Monday to Friday, and if you become a member for 4.99 US a year you can access all of their stories, including past ones from me.
A Dragon For Christmas Update:
You can read this story free on my blog. I had been posting chapters regularly, as I wrote them, and I got some chapters out during the first half of January, but with everything happening with my father-in-law I had to put a pause on it. I do hope to have this finished by the end of Feb though.
Novels:
All the way back in February last year I finished the first draft of a novel I called ‘Project Portal Fantasy’. I haven’t talked about it again as it was put aside to work on my Love Inspired manuscript and my graphic novel script. I have been itching to work on it though, so I pulled it out during January and very slowly started working on draft two. Right now I am reading through it and highlight the parts I need to change, and then I’ll go through and make those changes.
With everything going on, I didn’t get too far through it. I’m hoping to get through a big chunk of it during February before I start working on my Love Inspired edits in March.
My goal with this one is to get it traditionally published, so I want to polish it up and submit it sometime around the middle of the year. We’ll see how we go. I’ll reveal more about it as I get closer to finishing this draft.
That’s it from me. How did you’re writing go in January? If your not a writer, what was your favourite read?
Let me know in the comments.
Rochelle L. Sharpe 