The first month of 2023 has passed by, and I can say it was an eventful and busy month. Let’s have a look…

Reading

Unfortunately, I’ve managed to read exactly one book only, which I reviewed a week ago. That was caused by the fact that early January was still focused on finishing the beta read for Rebecca. February seems more promising as the end of the month marked the release of one book I was waiting for, and another from a series I’ve read before that I didn’t know about (and discovered when buying the first book) – I hope to read both during the next month.

Writing

As for writing, there was a bit of work done as well. I’ve made a couple more edits (mostly cuts and relevant adjustments) in my draft of book two and will consider more pruning to get the book closer to its final form.

Aside from these minor things, I’ve been working on a summary of both books one and two that will serve as supporting material for my beta readers when they get to book three, which took a bit more time than I expected: over 16 hours of pure writing time, spread over two weeks.

Hiking

January ended up being quite… varied month for hiking. I managed four hikes with a total length of around 65km, which isn’t bad. The first hike of the year, right on 1st January, was a walk through the suburbs in weather that matched October more than early January, with temperatures around +10°C. The second, a week later, was similar.

The third, on the 21st… I had to cut short – the amount of fresh snow made things way harder than I expected and I was tired from trudging through 20+cm of fresh powder after mere 8km and thus took the nearest way out. Most of the snow melted in the lowlands, though, so the next hike – a suburb walk again – was with the land being merely sprinkled with snow.

I’ll try to share more soon, though I have yet to sort out the photos. As the picture above shows, I maybe figured out the night photo mode on my phone.

In related news, I’m getting more involved in the hiking club I’m part of, and our (now ex) leader stepping down had definitely led to some time dedicated to it as we shuffled various tasks and responsibilities our previous leader had taken care of, to divide them among the rest of us. Things will need a while to settle down on that front as well.

Personal

Aside from the abovementioned changes in the hiking club, January had some busy days at work. But, aside from that, there wasn’t anything major going on. I’ve been playing computer games a bit more lately, to help me relax in a way that lets me switch off my thinking side, which I guess is expected.

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I hope the year started well for you and has been treating you well. Things may not be perfect, but as long as they’re moving forward, I’d say it’s good. So, let’s stay positive in these sometimes still troubled times, and hope for a good February.