Once again trying to return to blogging. As you saw last year, didn’t get far. So, once more, figured the best way to start off is with one of these. As in previous years, I take this time to look back at the past year in my SFF writing life–and what I might hope for in 2026. Here we go!

The first time I did one of these was waay back in 2015. Can’t believe a decade has passed! In that initial installment I wrote about discovering that I was indeed a writer and my hopes for my writing life. A lot has happened since then. I became a junior tenure-track assistant professor in 2016 and in 2024 I got tenure–so make that a not-so junior Associate Professor now. In 2017 I bought a small Edwardian castle in New England. In 2018 I expanded my family by a factor of twins. Can you believe they’re both seven now and in second grade? Also in 2018, I had my first book published–a novella called The Black God’s Drums. Then I wrote some more stuff, won a few awards, somebody actually put up a wiki page on me… yadda yadda yadda, and here I am. I became an author, with all the perks and responsibilities that entails. It’s been fun, exciting, humbling, surreal, and… actual work! Writing went from something I did on the side, to real job. With deadlines and tax forms and lawyers and accountants. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for this turn of fortune. But work is work, and that remains a sobering part of this new reality.

I’ve had to figure out how to balance everything from family to academic life (yes, I chose a second writing career) so it doesn’t all collapse in on me. Or I don’t burn myself out trying. So, how am I doing? Were my goals met this year? Did I finally manage to find the perfect balance and reach the flawless Omega molecule state of writing-work life-family-life-uniformity? Did the spinning top fall at the end of Inception, or what? What happened in HBO’s Watchmen when Angela ate that egg exactly? Was Ritchie from IT: Welcome to Derry, the GOAT, or what? What are we going I can’t answer none of that, but stick around and I’ll tell you about the rest.

Write More: At the top of the list, of course, remains every writers pledge to just “write more.” Writing is like a stunning spell–to paraphrase Harry, it’s an author’s bread and butter. So if you wanna be a writer, you gotta get in the writing. Alas, my writing in the past year was pretty “meh.” Part of that was just a year of lots of personal things to deal with, including the loss of a parent. I’m actually on deadline for a book right now, that I am having a hard time to complete. Writer’s block isn’t a problem–it’s writer’s time. There’s only so many minutes in a day, and I find myself struggling more to carve out those minutes. However, in the middle of this dismal writing year, I did mange to finish and publish a short story–which is surprising as short stories for me had become a kind of graveyard. It came about through a solicitation for an anthology for Amazon (I know!) about time travel. In the end, my short story CRONUS appeared in a collection called The Time Traveler’s Passport. alongside other stories by John Scalzi, R. F. Kuang, Peng Shepherd, Kaliane Bradley, and Olivie Blake. Moving away from my usual stories, it’s a bit of a dystopia–about a young woman who works for a time travel agency in futurist Baltimore, searching for the secrets behind a mysterious ailment.

Finish.The.Damn.Story:  As I’ve said many times, there are folders, endless folders, on my computer (now Dropbox) with unfinished stories. Because I’ve had novels and novellas to finish, I put this one on the back burner. Let’s be real, some of these need to be surrendered to sleep in the abyss. There are stories’ dating back to the early aughts. The person writing back then was me, but not me. How I thought, my writing style, my ideas, have changed vastly in 20+ years. Some of those stories still excite me. Others are embarrassing, or worse, boring. Some, will no longer work, because I’ve cannibalized them for new ideas that have been published. But there are a few I’d like to fiddle with. However, time, remains the greatest challenge.

Novel Writing: So as you all know, before 2010 I was a would-be novel-writer. Only, that idea went nowhere. I decided instead to focus on short-stories and my first published long-form works were novelettes and novellas. My novel-writing game diminished to nothing. Then in 2021, I wrote and published a whole NOVEL! Two years later, in 2023, published my first middle grade novel–Abeni’s Song. Then I wrote a second one, Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold, which was published in April 2024. The third and FINAL in the trilogy… I’m currently stuck on and is a year overdue. Uggh. Eager to get it done. It’s an amazing story. Then, we’ll see what happens on the adult novel front. I have…ideas.

Read More: Reading is fundamental. Support RIF. As a writer, it also helps the imagination. Can’t even begin to understand how anyone writes without reading. After a quasi-hiatus on reading due to academic life, in 2015 I pledged to start reading more genre. And I’ve been doing a decent job of it. In 2025, I returned to the world of craft in Max Gladstone’s Craft Wars series. Great to be reunited with Tara Abernathy and the gang. I also read some trippy edgy Enjoyed both. One of my favorite reads of the year was John Wiswell’s Someone You Can Build a Nest In, which was funny, gory, and beautiful. I also dug into the crates and reread some oldies, including Octavia Butler’s Fledgling and Stephen King’s IT. There’s a few more I’m missing, including some shorts. I got through a lot of reading this past year. Let’s see if I can continue it in 2026

Submit: So my submitting in 2025 was pretty… non-existent. Not a single short story. Part of this is the reality of having contracted long form works. The whole writing a thing, not really with a hard deadline, and then pitching it out to see what happens, and then moving onto the next thing, has been replaced. Now it’s: I promised the thing, I signed a contract for it, I got an advance, editors are expecting the thing, get it done already! Like I said before, it’s a job now. .

Get More Involved in Mainstream Genre: When I first started doing this way back when, I promised to become more involved in genre culture, to see what I might be missing out on. Because so much of this literary world is about creating relationships and just being aware of what goes on in these spaces. I’m not for the drama that also takes place in those spaces–cuz watching nerds beef will always be weird to me. But, thanks to having books out and a fiyah publicist, I’ve also been doing a fair share of interviews, podcasts, cons, book festivals, school visits, etc.–forcing me to get out there. It’s been a learning experience: figuring out how to navigate these spaces; strategizing how to utilize them; meeting and greeting readers (my fave part!); meeting, sharing, and learning from other authors.

Last year I did my first actual book tour, for The Dead Cat Tail Assassins–as my previous books all debuted too close to the pandemic. It was brief, but fun. I’ve also had the chance to enter the MG/YA convention/festival world, thanks to the second novel in the Abeni’s Song series. It’s been illuminating, if only because it’s so different from mainstream genre. Kids as your audience is a whole notha thing. In Fall 2025 I Tor Nightfire also released the paperback edition of Ring Shout, which had me on numerous panels and tours. Did I mention I also got to go to Madrid for the Sui Generis festival? All of the traveling can be tiring–and the schedule at times hectic–but it’s always worth it! Cuz these books don’t sell themselves!

Brand New Year: So, what’s in store for 2026? Getting the final novel done in my middle grade trilogy, Abeni and the People Who Could Fly. Will be attending cons and doing interviews and stuff. You can keep up with them on the News & Events page of my author site. In the mean and between time, have lots of new things I want to write. My plate stays full!

Blog More: We’ll see. I’m out here trying.

So, all in all, a decent year in this SFF writing life. I’m thankful to be here. Thankful to all I’ve managed to accomplish or be blessed with. Thankful for readers (LIKE YOU) that make it happen. Here’s hoping that 2026 lives up to your own writing hopes as well. Till next time. Excelsior!