In 2024, I wrote four new books. In 2025, I released those four books. Three short story collections (Down the Fox Hole, Life as a Cat, and Mrs. Owl's Treatment Plan for OCD), and an illustrated chapter book (Ninja Kitties). And I couldn't be more pleased with my productive output in the past year. The reception to my new books has been very rewarding. I've had people tell me that my writing has brought them to tears, and in some cases even inspired them to begin their own writing journey. And I've had people call my work profound, poignant, and my best yet.
In fact, my first new book I released earlier in the year, Down the Fox Hole, has received multiple requests by a number of people for a sequel, something I hadn't really experienced with any of my prior works. I have indeed been toying around with sequel ideas in the past year, but nothing has really stuck that I've been satisfied with just yet. However, I just gotta remind myself not to rush the process. After all, the books that I wrote last year were all years in the making before I finally got to a place where I was able to sit down and write them all out. And besides, as one friend told me, I probably just need to go out and have more adventures and more life experience before a sequel will truly come to me, so it's important that I not pressure myself too much in the meantime.
The past year saw me taking part in some of those life experiences though, as I traveled to see Babymetal a couple of times, driving down to see them in Tampa over the summer, and even flying out to see them in LA again this past November, and meeting a great group of friends while I was out there. I also already have my tickets to my next Babymetal concert which will happen in August of next year, as I'll be seeing them yet again with a group of friends, while also seeing My Chemical Romance for the first time in what's certainly a dream lineup come true, so I'm definitely looking forward to that upcoming adventure as well.
And while still on the subject of Babymetal, I was also featured as a superfan in Kerrang magazine, which was incredibly cool. I also won some phenomenal drawings of Su-metal and the other girls in a fandom giveaway contest, and I successfully held my own fandom giveaway as well, in which three winners won both a copy of Down the Fox Hole and Metal Galaxy.
To emphasize the point of how long I've been sitting on some of these projects of mine though, I had been outlining and plotting them out for quite some time prior to writing them. Ninja Kitties goes way back, and is something I had been planning since some time after the title litter of kittens was born in real life. Down the Fox Hole I had been playing with since around the summer of 2019, and Life as a Cat has its origins somewhere around that time frame, too. Even my most recent outing, Mrs. Owl's Treatment Plan for OCD, has stories that have been in mind since at least 2023, while I was in the midst of my personal journey of recovery. So to have all these stories that have been sitting with me for such a long time finally get put out there for the world to enjoy has been such a satisfying experience, and like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.
As to new projects, I was able to write at least one more complete book in 2025, which will be released shortly after I acquire illustrations for it in the next year. And I've continued trudging away at other projects as well, some of which I hope will see the light of day in the not too distant future. I was also able to attend a number of conventions for the first time in several years, where I was able to sell my books in person again. It's been great being able to do these sorts of events again, and I look forward to continuing on with even more to come in the coming year.
So yeah, the past year has brought a lot of good into my life. After years of being in an especially dark place where it was hard to get anything done, I've been able to catch up on years worth of backlog, and get back to a place where I'm able to enjoy a more relatively normal life, as I've spent the past couple of months unpacking and decluttering. It's a year that's brought productivity and adventure, and I'm already looking forward to going even further in the next years to come.
