March 2022 Roundup

On By K.M. Allan

Welcome to the March 2022 roundup!

And that’s the third month of 2022 down. I feel like it’s flying by.

I did have a few fun weekends, the first was hot air ballooning, and the second was attending my first writing retreat with some very lovely and talented writer friends.

The retreat was held near the beach, but the weather was too cold to do anything other than walk the perimeter of the sandy shores, plus we had too much writing to do! It was 2-and-a-half days of creativity and progress, and I highly recommend holding your own retreat, either in a group or solo, if you can.

I hope whatever you achieved this month was just as fun. Below is what else I got up to…

What I’ve Been…

Writing

Blackbirch 3 – This month I made some great progress, managing to edit through half of draft 10. It was the last half of the MS, so now I need to go back to the start and edit the first half. As that half is the one that didn’t need a lot of rejigging, I’m confident it won’t take too long to get through. I’ve just got to smooth out some story ripples created by changing ideas/events and finish writing/editing 4 of 5 new scenes, which are still at the first draft stage. Wish me luck!

Watching/Reading

The Afterparty – This awesome limited series takes place during an afterparty for a high school reunion. Thrown by loser-turned-superstar celebrity, Xavier (Dave Franco), things go sideways when he’s murdered, and it’s up to Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) to figure it who did it. Each episode is told from a different point of view of a character and is shown in its own unique style. It’s not only interesting storytelling, and dramedy gold, but the killer is a real surprise. Highly recommended.

Uncharted – I know nothing about the video game this movie is based on, so I just sat back in the cinema and enjoyed the adventure-filled story. After losing touch with his brother, Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), finds out he’s been off treasure hunting with Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), and the two team up to finish the search. There are mysteries, heists, hidden clues, a rival team of hunters, and unrealistic action sequences galore, but it’s a fun movie. Make sure to stay for the two post-credit scenes and obvious sequel bait.

Unpublished Manuscripts – I didn’t get around to reading any published books this month, but I did beta read two different manuscripts for fellow writers and loved them both.

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your books/recommendations with me!

If you’d like to add the Blackbirch books to your “Want to Read” shelf and/or check out the reviews, click the following images!

Taking Photos Of

The #6amAusWriters Retreat! We had so much fun writing, talking about books, manuscripts, and eating lots of cheese!

On The Blog…

In case you missed any of my posts, or want to read them again, here are the latest blogs.

And a big thank you to poet and fiction writer, Lily Lawson, for asking me to write a guest post for her blog Lily’s Writing Life. You can read it at the link below.

Writing Tip Of The Month…

#WritingTipWednesday posts are added to my social media feeds every week and here is the most popular tip for this month. It’s taken from my blog post, Writing Do’s and Don’ts: Room Settings.

For more tips, visit my Writing Tips Pinterest Board.

Blackbirch Teaser Of The Month…

I’ve been a bit slack with promoting my books on social media, so I’ve brought snippets and reviews back to my feeds. This teaser comes courtesy of Blackbirch: The Beginning and was the most popular teaser posted this month!

If you’d like to read the books released so far or find out more about each novel, here are the links:

If you’ve read either of my books—and haven’t done so already—please consider leaving a review or a star rating. It really helps indie authors get their books noticed, and also helps fellow readers find books they’ll like.

Quote Of The Month…

I’ve hoped you’ve enjoyed my March Roundup. Let me know what you’ve been up to in the comments!

— K.M. Allan

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

14 thoughts on “March 2022 Roundup”

  1. Hi Kate! A writing retreat sounds like a good idea. Glad it was helpful for you. I’ve been busy fixing a plot thread that just didn’t work out. Lots of new material. editing of the old, and rearranging the sequence of events. So far, my beta readers are very happy with the changes. Glad I caught it halfway through! Hoping to publish this one In June.

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    1. Hi Alexander! Your current editing sounds like my current editing, but I unfortunately finished my MS twice before realising things needed more work 🤣. I’m hopeful my next round of betas will like the changes I’ve made. Best of luck with yours and with making your June publishing deadline 😊.

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  2. Amazing writing tip for this instalment. I could really use reminders like that, because an editor once told me I suffer from white room syndrome, in that she’d read the entire manuscript and had no idea what my world looked like, lol. Great roundup as usual!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Totally understand where you’re coming from, Stuart! I did a course that mentioned White Room Syndrome, which inspired the blog that tip is from. It’s one of those things that’s easy to forget to add, but once you do, your book is always better for it 😊.

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  3. Hi. I’m glad you enjoyed your writing retreat and that it was helpful to you.
    This month I’ve been editing book 4 in The Wolves of Vimar series. I’ve not (yet) found any major plot holes. Fingers crossed, but I do need to find somewhere for a bit of foreshadowing.

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  5. Sounds like March was pretty productive, but I know what you mean – where are all these months going? I can’t believe we are down 1 quarter all ready.

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  6. Love your newsy roundup. I saw Uncharted, too. It was fun to just zone out in the theater and not have to put much thought into a storyline. I took my kids and their friends. I thought the Wahlberg character was supposed to provide the jokes for the grownups–I appreciated that! I just finished Lauren Groff’s MATRIX, which I really loved but I am reticent to suggest to people because it’s pretty niche, I feel. (There’s a whole lot of Catholic stuff in this one!) Your retreat sounded like a blast. I went to AWP here in the U.S., which is always rather daunting, but it’s fun to connect with other writers from all over the country.

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