2024 Wrap Up

Welcome to our annual GraceBought End of Year Wrap-Up post where we take time to reflect on the major goals of the year and plan ahead for the new year. As promised in previous posts, I’ve got a major GraceBought update this year, so make sure you don’t miss the announcement below!

This is the Part I to my two-part post. Stay tuned for the 2025 New Year New Goals portion next week.

For our new GraceBought family members: I seek to live on purpose for a purpose, which means taking intentional time to pause and reflect. I feel it’s necessary to assess the past before strategically planning for the future. I believe it’s part of how we change and grow. Hence, the annual assessment and goal planning posts 🙂

Without further ado, our 2024 Wrap-Up!

Reading Wrap-Up

As you may have seen in my 2024 Reading Recap, Cassie and I hosted a TBR Reading Challenge on IG. The focus of the challenge was to prioritize our TBR lists. It can be so easy to endlessly add books to the TBR without ever getting to them, so we wanted to challenge ourselves to work on putting a dent in the TBR without the pressure of having to get through the whole TBR list.

Similar to the Books Owned challenge of 2023, we built a system to allow us to earn “impulse” reads and didn’t enact a book-buying ban–cause ain’t nobody got self-control for that! (P. S. Don’t miss the 2025 Variety Reading Challenge we’re hosting!)

The TBR challenge was more challenging for me than the Books Owned challenge, partially due to adjusting to editing for a living rather than teaching. But more on that below.

For the in-depth recap, see the 2024 Reading Recap post here. For now, here are the reading highlights:

I originally set my goal to 65 books, including 12 nonfiction books/3 devotionals – without the usual 1 writing book goal since I needed a writing respite this year (funnily enough, I ended up reading a book on editing for work!). However, I met and exceeded the 65 book goal mid-year and so adjusted it to 75. I still managed to surpass the goal, but since several of the books were work reads (and rereads of the same work book over and over again), I wanted to look a little more deeply at the numbers.

• Overall, I read 90 books for the year (still a little time left, so this may change!)
• 12 nonfiction reads, including 8 devotionals, and surprisingly, 1 editing book (for work)
• 24,527 pages, surpassing 2023, which had 25,355 pages

Cassie created a really cool spreadsheet which broke down some other neat stats, too. This year I read:

• 53 TBR Books
• 1 “Impulse” Books (not on the TBR prior to 2024)
• 36 ARCs, Group Reads, and/or Other (Children’s Books, work reads, etc. also go into this category)
• 19 different genres (the top genre was Fantasy, shocking – very closely followed this year by Middle Grade!)

Check out my 2024 Reading Recap to learn more about my favorite 2024 reads!

Each year I set goals for specific TBRs and here are some of the larger accomplishments for the year regarding those goals:

• Finished rereading the Inheritance Cycle and read Murtagh
• Reread The Giver trilogy and read Son for the first time
• Read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Continued my reread of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. I had hoped to finish rereading Books 4-6 and then go on to read 7-9 for the first time, but I didn’t make it through them all, so I’ll roll this one over to next year (again XD)
• Reread Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children Series and Running Out of Time
• Read 12 Enclave books (still many more to go on the TBR!)

Overall, a very successful reading year 😀

What about YOU? How did reading go for you this year? What reading accomplishment are you most proud of?

GraceBought Wrap-Up

GraceBought will be 7 in February. A good number. That comes with some bittersweet changes.

No. I’m not done with GraceBought! I will continue to post weekly book reviews, monthly reading updates, and the occasional other post – like this one! GraceBought is still a bit of a hobby, and I’m so thankful for the last 7 years with this little corner of the blogging world.

GraceBought has gone through a few changes in the past 7 years. Different types of posts and different frequency of posts, depending on the availability I’ve had over the years. We’ve added new menus and pages as I’ve branched out and begun a coaching and proofreading business. New segments, guest posts, blog tours, etc. It’s even gone through some fun updates with new graphics, banners, and overall visual updates!

And now, it’s time for a major update. The one I’ve been hinting at for a few weeks now.

GraceBought is moving.

Yup. This little WordPress blog is growing up and getting it’s own domain! GraceBought started as an experiment, a side-project for me to learn and explore the blogging world. I was fresh out of college and living with my grandparents for a year to save up for an apartment and search for a job in my career field. GraceBought was a place to write, build community, learn about graphics, organize thoughts, and begin building a platform for writing. It’s grown – and that’s because of YOU!

You guys have come alongside me in this bookish life journey, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you for it! My prayer is that GraceBought has found a way to serve you in these last 7 years, too.

I thought about keeping the WordPress site and just paying to remove the boorish ads (I hate those things, especially since I have zero control over them), but since I’ve spent the year working really hard on a new website with a paid domain, I think GraceBought deserves to live in a more permanent home.

You may have noticed in the last few posts, Book Reviews are beginning to link to this shiny new website 😀 I’ll be “double posting” until February to phase out of the WordPress site and give both you and me time to transition over to the new site. I’d love to have you guys along for the next leg of the GraceBought journey, so if you’re game, check out coralieterry.com/gracebought

GraceBought as a domain wasn’t available 🙁 But that’s okay! This new site will be my author home as well as my blog home. The GraceBought blog has a dedicated page all to itself and I’ve transferred over the archive of old posts, including the WWWednesdays and Book Reviews everyone loves.

Both the Services (formerly individual pages, Coaching and Proofreading) and the Book Review Index pages have some pretty big updates that I’m super excited about!

Services is now one page, but there are downloadable FAQs, testimonials, and contact forms for each service (Coaching and Proofreading). Additionally, each service has a fun “freebie.” For those who are interested in Coaching Services, you can sign up for a free 20 minute coaching call. For those interested in Proofreading Services, you can request a free quote.

The brand new Book Review Index is probably my favorite part of this new website! This beast of a page has been split into 3 new Book Review pages. Don’t worry! There is one master Book Review page that explains everything and at the bottom of each of the new Book Review pages, there are easy, clear links to each of the pages.

Basically, the current Book Review page here on the blog lists out 3 different categories, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry/Children’s (rebranded as Miscellaneous so I can expand that one!). Instead of one master page with all three categories, we now have three separate pages, one for each category!

These new pages are a lot easier to navigate than the clunky old one and each with all new graphics I designed myself! I’m really hoping you guys love them as much as I do! Check them out and tell me your thoughts below!!

Fiction

Nonfiction

Miscellaneous

Okay, I know this section has been longer than normal, but I did warn you it was a major update! One I’m incredibly excited about! I can’t think of any better way to end this section than with our traditional stats and some all time stats to boot!

For 2024

• 56 posts in 2024
• 37,236+ words

From 2017 to 2024 *cue proud motherly tear*

• 478 posts
• 1,106 comments from YOU guys
• 428,670+ words

Thank you guys so much for growing GraceBought to the point we can not only upgrade to a new domain, but expand while we do it! You guys are amazing!

Writing Wrap-Up

Writing in 2024 was…difficult. Practically nonexistent. But I do have a few updates for the year that are writing-adjacent.

As you may remember, last year threw a curveball that impacted my writing deeply. I had thought that this year I was “better” enough to get back into writing, but it was still like pulling teeth every time I tried. In spite of that, I wrote 3,000 words on a new story idea – the first new story idea I’ve had in almost three years, which was cool! I also co-wrote an almost 8,000 word short story (a prize for the annual Reading Challenge Cassie and I host).

While 11,000 words is probably the least number of words I’ve written in I don’t know how many years, it was better than 0. And sometimes we need the slower years to better appreciate the more plentiful ones. And words aren’t the only measurement of progress.

Launching an author website is a huge writing milestone I’ve worked toward for years! And this year I finally did it! By God’s grace, I not only have a new website with a paid for domain, professional headshots, and updated pages, but I’ve also begun working toward launching an email list!

I created a free Cinderella Retelling Guide with over 30 different Cinderella stories for the fairytale enthusiast, designed the guide, and set up the email delivery system (with a lot of help from courses, podcasts, YouTube, and Google!) so that anyone who wants either the free Cinderella guide or to sign up to follow along on my writing journey, they can!

I’m not currently sending monthly emails (yet), but that’s the next step I plan to work toward in 2025. That’ll be the best place to keep up with writing updates and I’m also hoping to do something fun for readers, exclusive to the list (haven’t figured out what yet, but that’ll come in time).

If you’d like to receive monthly emails from me when they do start, sign up here and you’ll be ready to go! (You can still totally unsubscribe at any time, but I’d love to see my GraceBought community in the emails since you guys are the foundation that my platform began on <3)

The other really big writing update I have is that I sort of started a business? So, okay, I’ve been coaching for a few years, but this year I began freelance editing as well. Toward the end of the year, I realized that this has actually become a real business (like one-you-gotta-pay-taxes-on real XD). It’s bringing in a side income and paying for it’s own expenses. As it’s grown over the last year and a half or so, it’s also been able to cover some writing investments, like paying for Nadine Brandes’s Self-Edit Your Novel and Freelance Editing Business courses and Sara Ella’s mentorship program I participated in for the last year. I want to expand and grow it even more in the years to come.

In line with the scaling back on actual writing this year, I only attended one conference: the beloved Realm Makers conference! But it was a blast and I’m hoping to continue attending in the future as I work toward writing again.

All in all, some worthwhile writing updates, despite the low word count 😉

Personal Wrap-Up

A few 2024 Personal highlights:

• Joined the incredible Story Warren team and helped bring new books, audiobooks, and ebooks to the world!
• Joined the one and only Enclave team and cannot wait to work with them again!
• Fasted from all non-work or -Bible related reading for 21 days (and still crushed the TBR Challenge ;D)
• Turned 30! *cue confetti cannon!!*
• Was blessed by the support of family and friends in the midst of yet another unexpected major life crisis (2 years in a row *cackles* Lord, please, let’s not make it 3 for 3!)
• Attended my 16th annual Barns & Noble (& dinner) date with my grandpa – we’ve officially been doing these for over half my life!
• Participated in NoLightNovember for the 2nd year in a row – a delight
• Welcomed my third niece into the world <3 (I have yet to meet her in person, but I have pictures!!)

Much like last year, this year has presented challenges new and old. But much unlike last year, it was a year of healing rather than upheaval. I still don’t know why God has chosen to put me where I am, but I do know that I am learning new things and I as I “thaw out” from the grieving, I am beginning to truly enjoy where He’s placed me. Through much continued prayer, I hope to see yet another year of healing, growth, and trust in Him.

I pray you find the deep, abounding joy of the Lord and His comfort in 2024, even if it was a difficult year for you. And, as always, may your 2025 overflow with new blessings <3

~*~

What about YOU?! What’s one thing you learned in 2024 or one way you grew? What’s one thing you accomplished and are proud of?