The Work Begins
News from Crowhill Cove
A summary for you on what to expect in this edition in case you want to scroll down to the interesting bits: working on the new manuscript; looking ahead to dissertation time; this week on TikTok; and the progress report with an update on my week-on-week sales and writing progress.
I’ve started writing
This is very exciting! I got my new little keyboard for my laptop - very nice, pink, slightly harder keys to push than the laptop but still one of the lowest-effort out there which is good for my hands, works via bluetooth so I can shift around as much as I like - and I’ve started work on the 55,000-word manuscript I need to turn in by the 31st July to see if I can get a contract with a big five publisher. Eek! (If you have no idea what I’m on about, I announced last week that I have a full request for a book I haven’t finished writing yet).
The writing is going well. Slightly hard because I’m a little out of practice with the daily writing habit, having dedicated a lot of time to study lately, but getting easier as we go. I’m really feeling good feelings about this one. Let’s see how it goes.
I will say, though, one teensy annoying thing about the keyboard is that sometimes when I move my hand forward to use the laptop’s trackpad, my sleeve rests on the backspace or enter buttons and presses them and I get very confused about why things are appearing or disappearing on my screen without my input. Hopefully I’ll stop doing that with practice.
Upcoming topics for this newsletter include current thoughts on Best Picture watches from yesteryear (several posts underway, one about BPs I didn’t ‘get’ queued); something about Love, Simon’s structure; trees in Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Jane Eyre (20% done); a series of essays about The 100, continuing the show’s exploration of colonisation (queued) and ecocriticism (50% done); an essay about walking; a critical essay about my essay about walking (lol); and an essay about gender in walking (I’ve been studying a module about walking).
Dissertation prep begins
This week, I’ve started at last on the module that will be the formation of my proposal for my dissertation. This is very exciting, too. This is where all the research starts. I’ve narrowed it down to a few potential topics (The 100 being one of them, yes, but since I’m studying Literature and Culture I’m quite keen to figure out how to get a book or two into it as well). Across the next couple of months, I’ll be researching and putting the proposal together, and then in September, I’ll start writing the dissertation itself. It’s 14,000 words, which seems like a lot until you realise that at my peak I write 5,000 words a day, and now I’m concerned I won’t be able to constrain myself enough to make 14,000 words enough for the topics I want to cover. Welp. Time to start editing the ideas down before I need to edit the essay down!
Each week, I share the latest update from Operation Published! If you’re looking for the best bits from the week, please do follow me on TikTok instead.
All of these videos are available on TikTok for free, but if you’re a) not a TikTok user or b) just want the highlights, this is a convenient place to see it.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Note: Changes are in bold, comments in italics.
TOTAL SALES:
Crowhill Cove series (Don’t Move Out, Don’t Go Outside, Don’t Fly Home, Don’t Leave Town, Don’t Check Out, the 1-5 boxset, and Don’t Move Your Desk): ebook - 1,288, paperback/hardback - 60, KU pages read - 884,335, free downloads - 6,304
Crowhill Kitchen series (Kiss The Cook, Cook Up A Storm, Too Many Cooks, What’s Cooking, Good Looking, Cooking on Gas): ebook - 73, paperback - 10, KU pages read - 39,756
Serial Investigations full series (Pre-Substack releases: books 1-12, 2 bonus novellas, 2 boxsets): ebook - 600, paperback/hardback - 120, KU pages read - 525,857, free downloads - 4,825
WRITING:
Project Darling: cover design bought, research underway, idea generated…
Project Survivor: First submission rejected, chapter 11 done
Project Emergency Crime: 10k words done
Project Library: Plot outline done, playlist made, Scrivener project started
Project Hydropower: Hiatus, new plot done in detail
Project Dark Romance: cover design bought, initial ideas started
Serial Investigations: Hiatus, books 13-20 loosely planned
Crowhill Club: Hiatus, all covers and titles done, characters created and romances/interpersonal relationships between books set up
Client status: Free!
SUBSTACK:
Subscribers: free - 105, paid - 1 - hello, new friends!
Followers: 669
CONSUMING:
Read: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (PR book), White Spaces by Elvin James Mensah (PR book)
Reading: These Days by Lucy Caldwell, Her Hidden Fire by Cliodhna O’Sullivan (PR book)
Watched and watching: Fear the Walking Dead s5, Survivor Australia S7/5, The Masked Singer UK, Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938, Nomandland, 12 Years a Slave, Gone With the Wind, Mutiny on the Bounty
By the way, please like this post if you enjoyed it and would like to see more! This helps me decide what to do for future content.
XO Rhiannon