2025 in Review

I think 2025 has been a strange year all around. It has definitely been weird for me, and even after a few months to process some of the specific weirdness, that’s still the only word that seems adequate to describe it. 2025 has been weird.

But there has been a lot of good too, and that’s what I’d like to focus on more than anything.

The Good Stuff (Writing!)

We’ll start with the first and most obvious good thing that happened to me this year: I published Wraith and the Revolution. The reception so far has been great, and I love that people are enjoying that world. Some of the characters have been with me for almost 30 years, so to finally have a book that I’m happy with in print is a pretty incredible feeling.

I also finished drafting 2 novels this year, both of which still need revisions and beta feedback before I do anything official with them, so don’t get too excited with questions about “What is AJ going to publish next?” The answer to that is still tentative (more on that a little later.)

I finished book 7 in The Mage War Chronicles, which has a placeholder title for now. This was Daggerborn’s POV book, and he’s a career assassin. It wasn’t an easy book for me to write, mostly because he is so morally gray. I had a tough time getting into his headspace. That being said, I will probably need to revise this one heavily when I get back to it (and before my beta team even gets a sneak peek.)

The other book I finished was Into the Beyond, book 2 in The Fontayne Company duology. I’m happy with how this one turned out, and I really love this particular world and its main character. This book is also in its waiting period, but I’ll probably be revisiting and revising sometime in 2026. I’m planning to get book 1 of the duology (Rites of Departure) polished and ready for my editor in a few months.

Rites of Departure is most likely going to be the next book I publish solo, but it won’t be next year. I’m targeting 2027 so I have time to finalize everything, get cover art, and market it properly without unnecessary stress. Once things go to my editor, I will figure out a publication date, so for now, it’ll just be sometime in 2027.

Then there is the amazing insanity that was The Book of Spores Kickstarter. I don’t think anyone involved with that anthology could have anticipated the level of support and interest it had, but to see it fund within the first hour was incredible. I contributed a story to the anthology (Not All Books are Worth Reading), and I’m excited to see it and everyone else’s in print. I believe the Kickstarter editions will be shipping out in September 2026, but other editions will be available at some point too. I just don’t have the details on when yet.

Since the end of September, I’ve been drafting a new standalone fantasy story set in the world of The Caein Legacy. It takes place 23 years after Legend, and some familiar characters from the series do show up. Right now, I’m calling it a “story” because I don’t know yet if it will be a full-length novel or a novella. (I never know the approximate length something will be going in. I write until the story is told and figure out the classifications later.)

More Fun Stuff (Still Book-Related)

It was a pretty good reading year, though I didn’t match last years total. Still, 59 books read in one year is a lot! There were, as always, some great and memorable titles (I featured some on last week’s Random Book Awards post.)

I also joined Willow Wraith Press over the summer. At first, it was just to help out with their book club, but it’s also a great group of people, and I’d like to more as time allows. I’ve done a couple book series spotlights on their blog, and more will be forthcoming in the new year.

I did more livestream interviews this year than I’ve ever done in the past. I want to thank the Four Beardsmen of the Bookpocalypse, Bald & Balding, A Scurmudgeon of Curmudgeon, Already Overbooked, the Bearded Book Beast, and the FanFiAddict family for having me on their various shows. One of my goals for 2025 was to do more of these things (partly for marketing, but mostly because I’m trying to overcome some fears I have of being live on YouTube.) Every one of the shows I’ve been on has been fun, and I’m so grateful they gave me the opportunity to chat.

And then the live events… I did more of those this year too, including WorldCon in Seattle, where I was on a live panel. That was nerve-wracking, but I made it, and it turned out really good in the end. I was a vendor for the other events, and I’m hoping to do more of that type of stuff next year too. It’s a really fun experience talking with people about books and making those unexpected connections over nerdy things like dragons.

The Weird Bit (Not Book- or Writing-Related)

My work situation has been the epicenter of the weirdness in my life since about June. The company I work for got a new CEO, who immediately promised “swift and decisive” change. Over the past 6 months, they’ve cut over half the workforce (myself included; my last day is December 31.) The culture of the company has shifted dramatically too, and in such a way that I’m actually glad to be leaving. I don’t like where it’s heading.

While I’ve been through layoffs before, this is the first time I’ve been more or less forced to stay on until a set date, and the purpose for that was to close our site down. I think it has been especially weird since I built the microbiology lab at our site from nothing. When I started, it was an empty room. I had the unique (and really cool) opportunity to choose all the equipment, write all of the procedures, and implement our testing programs. Now, I’m on the other end of things—shutting down the equipment (and shipping some of it elsewhere), disposing of the lab chemicals, and watching it revert back to that empty shell. It’s been surreal, and not just for me. Everyone I work with is feeling it too.

I have less than 2 weeks left there, and while the weirdness hasn’t abated, I’ve come to accept the situation and I’m ready to move on.

Looking forward to next year

Even before everything happened at work, I wasn’t planning to publish anything solo in 2026. I wanted a slower year for myself; I’ve done a lot of publishing and marketing since 2022, and I need a break. I’m hoping this will year of self-imposed downtime will allow me to finally finish drafting the Mage War Chronicles. Some of the earlier books need a bit of updating too (timelines and such shifted a bit as I moved through the series. This is why I wanted to finish the drafts before I started publishing. It’s easier to change things now than it will be once it’s out in the world.)

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing work-wise yet. I’d like to see how the full-time writer thing goes for a bit while I have severance to cover my bills, but I don’t know if I can make it stick or not. We’ll see what the New Year brings. Here’s hoping 2026 turns out better than 2025—for everyone!