2025 has been a strange journey; I can’t quite pin if it was a difficult or triumphant year for me.
Three major setbacks kicked me off my feet. However, not only did I prevail over each setback, I spun them into net-positive events. And 2025 proved to be the most productive writing year of my life. Not bad!
This year, I…
- Finished The Last Goddess rewrite. I wrote the original version of this story over ten years ago. This year, I decided to totally butcher my book and re-write 95% of it from scratch. Somehow, I managed to accomplish this in under 5.5 months (with only four days off). Throughout the process, I had an editor and three alpha readers read and comment on chapters as soon I finished them. It was brutal but felt wonderful.
- Wrote 25% of The Witherwood Choir. Despite being in a dark place at the beginning of this year, I wrote a quarter of my speculative Appalachian novel. The concept came to me in a dream (which is unusual for me), and it took most of last year to work out the plotting. This one is super weird, and I’m stoked to find time to continue working on it in 2026.
- Had my 1-line short story published in Punk Noir Press. Check it out in issue #1 of One Shot Kill. When I saw the prompt (write a noir story in 1-sentence), I dropped everything to give it a whirl. I’m flattered that a couple of people have asked me if there’ll be a sequel.
- Released the Sigilsmith D&D class. If you didn’t know already, I’m a huge D&D nerd and run two campaigns while playing in two more. I created the Hedgewitch class a few years ago, and in July, I released the Sigilsmith homebrew.
- Fablesmithy officially launched! My book production company for indie authors launched this year! We do cover design, editing, and audiobook narration. As the graphic designer, I’m been fortunate to work on a number of awesome titles this year, including:
As for 2026, I will be cranking out another novel, traveling, and painting more.