Happy New Year: 2026 - More Reading and Writing.

I know there will be lots of writing for me this year, plus more reading too.

Sydney Harbour New Year's Eve fireworks. Each year is more spectacular.

Happy New Year: 2026 - More Reading and Writing.

Well, 2025 was a bit of a milestone year for this writer. I retired from full time work as a corporate writer to become a full time author. This happened in late August and I have never been busier. My job was two days a week for the last year, so I headed into retirement prepared and knew what was ahead of me.

What I didn't know is that an issue with Dropbox meant I lost many of my manuscript files, which was devastating! Emails back and forth with Dropbox support were not helpful, so I checked my back up external drives. Thankfully, most of the files were there.

After a huge sigh of relief, I discovered I had only lost two files, Xenure Station Trilogy, my young adult science fantasy and one of my first short stories, The Shop on the Princes Highway, also a young adult story but this one is loosely based on my early years growing up in a shop.

What I did have was an older version of each one. So, equipped with an older manuscript, I edited 'The Shop on the Princes Highway' and published it as a print book, it was already available as an ebook.

I'm now in the process of fixing 'Xenure Station Trilogy', which will take more time than the short story. However, the process of revisiting my back catalogue has had a purpose, I'm able to publish these two books as second editions and give them slight improvements. As these books were some of my first stories, re-editing them is useful because I have learned so much more about writing and character arcs since then.

The life of a writer is full of learning, rewriting and editing. This is not a bad thing, improving your craft is always good. The other thing I have planned for this year is a full year course at Writing NSW called 'The Year of the Novel'. I'm looking forward to going back to study more about how to write and keep improving my writing skills.

Also, there will be events such as 'Writers at the Pub presented by Sydney Authors Inked' at The Oxford Hotel, Drummoyne. These events were successful in 2025 and in 2026 we're adding some evening events on Thursday nights as well as the usual Wednesday afternoon events. Stay tuned for more information on these events that will start in February.

Follow Sydney Authors Inked on Instagram and Facebook or visit the website - https://sydneyauthorsinked.wordpress.com/ to keep informed of what's happening.

Check out my books on my website - www.mariapfrino.com, follow me on Instagram, Threads and Facebook.

We have 2026 ahead of us, so I hope you're looking forward to an eventful and productive 2026, I know I am.

Happy reading (and writing)

Maria P Frino