Roll on 2025
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| photo by Kelly Sikkema |
It would be nice to say 2024 was the best year yet, but I think I can content myself with saying it was a Pretty Okay Year. There are lots of things still in limbo, both personally and professionally, and I don't think I'm the only person for whom that's true. It's okay to be a work-in-progress.
The end of the year now is filled with Rewinds from every app imaginable. On reflection, that's not the worst way to be. So before I go on to the year ahead, I want to look back at where I've been. If that's all right with all of you, of course.
Published Work
One good thing about this year is that I'm properly back to writing outside of the day job. As much as I'd like? No. But that's something to work on in 2025 as well.
With an aim to have a much higher output this year, last year brought:
- Overdue: Mystery, Adventure, and the World's Lost Books: I was a contributor to this 18thWall anthology with my short story "Wholly Holy," about the search for Kyot's Parsifal. This is my second Perceval-adjacent story for this publisher, which I suppose means I need to write a third to complete my Arthurian triptych.
- Ice Hot: My second time editing an anthology, counting past charity volume Unearthed for Altrix Books. I always love working with Obverse, and having a bigger hand in Stephen Wyatt's world of Paradise Tower was an honor.
New Gigs
While I only had two new books under my belt this year, there are several more long-form things I'm involved in that I'm very happy about.
- Celestial Toyroom: The longest-running Doctor Who fanzine in the world was all right with an American weighing in, for which I will be eternally grateful. While most of my contributions are in the form of book and tabletop game reviews, I also pen other articles for them.
- The Black Archive: Obverse wanted to add a new editor to the team for their book-length Doctor Who studies, and I couldn't be happier to be aboard. I've already gotten to read and work on several titles from incredibly talented writers and academics, and more are in the chutes. (And yes, I will be writing some more myself in the near future.)
- Boss Rush Network: I miss the freedom that Sci Fi Magazine afforded me to talk about things outside the world of anime. So now I'm doing that over on BRN! I weigh in with book reviews, game reviews, coverage of Oxventure actual plays, and anything else geek-adjacent that strikes my fancy.
Not work-related in any way, but I also finally got to return to the UK last year—hopefully resuming my annual trips. I also got to meet several people whose work I admire, and (doubly nice) they were all extremely lovely. Maybe do meet your heroes actually.
The Year Ahead
One thing I've learned from years past is to be more forgiving about the goals I set. If I don't make them, that's okay. I wanted to write more last year, but the fact that I'm writing at all is frankly huge.
I definitely have more published work on the way in 2025, which I can say with confidence because it's stuff I've finished and sent to the publisher. Life and work are a bit more under control, so ideally in between fixing my leaking ceiling and chasing after my day job I can finally lock in all these projects that I owe people.
There are also some sort of high-reaching major goals I still have in mind. Stuff I'm not going to say aloud but that I'm going to keep working toward.
Thank you for all your support in the past year. I've gotten to hear from a lot of you over the last few months, and knowing there are people out there who like what I do makes me all the more determined to push ahead. Watch this space.
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