2025 Goals

Hey! How's it going?

I hope you all had an awesome festive season.

Since December is coming to an end, it's time for me to take a look at the goals I posted back in January.

Looking back at what I wanted to achieve versus what I did achieve is always interesting. And I have to admit that my 2025 writing projects really surprised me. I didn't intend to write so many stories in the same vampire world, but really enjoyed telling every character's story.

So, here's how this year turned out:

• Continue to go for long daily walks: I KEPT THIS GOING ALL YEAR BECAUSE I LOVE WALKING AROUND THE RIVER. IT'S GREAT EXERCISE, FUELS MY IMAGINATION, AND I ENJOY THE WILDLIFE.

• Try to get back into (at least one weekly) yoga workout: ALTHOUGH WE FAILED THIS GOAL FOR MOST OF THE YEAR (😧), WE DID GET BACK INTO YOGA WORKOUTS IN NOVEMBER (😃).

• Finish writing my current first draft WIP: I TOTALLY DID THIS BACK IN JANUARY (92,907w).

• Celebrate the release of my first short story collection, MELANCHOLY DELUSIONS: THE RELEASE HAPPENED BACK IN LATE JANUARY AND I'M STILL EXCITED! I'M VERY PROUD OF THIS BOOK AND HOPE MORE READERS GIVE IT A GO. 😁

• Write between 100-200k words: YES! I WROTE A TOTAL OF 184,313 WORDS. (100,227 ARE SHORT STORIES.)

• Read 52 books:: I READ 87 (DNFd 2).

• Revise/finalise the two vampire first drafts: I WORKED ON THESE REVISIONS DURING APRIL (VampNovel1: 90,075w) AND MAY (VampNovel2: 90,746w).

• Work on edits when they hit my Inbox: THE ONLY EDITS I HAD THIS YEAR WERE FOR FALLEN DESTINY AND I GOT THOSE DONE DURING JULY.

• Write a novel (or two): I SPENT MOST OF THE YEAR WORKING ON STORIES ATTACHED TO MY VAMPIRE NOVELS, SO I DIDN'T WRITE ANY OTHER NOVELS. (ASIDES FROM FINISHING VampNovel2, OF COURSE.)

• Write a novella (or two): I DIDN'T WRITE ANY NOVELLAS THIS YEAR, BUT I WROTE A NOVELETTE (12,929w).

• Write a few short stories: 2025 TURNED OUT TO BE THE YEAR WHERE I COULDN'T STOP WRITING SHORT STORIES. I STARTED THE YEAR BY WRITING A HANDFUL OF STANDALONE SHORTIES AND THEN MOVED ON TO WRITING AND REVISING A WHOLE LOT OF STORIES SET IN MY VAMPIRE WORLD. I ENDED UP WRITING 30 SHORT STORIES, WHICH IS A TOTAL WORD COUNT OF: 100,227.

• Keep playing Animal Crossing daily: STILL PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS EVERY SINGLE DAY. 😁

• Get into other cozy, cute puzzle games:  I PLAYED MANY, MANY HOURS OF HELLO KITTY AND FRIENDS HAPPINESS PARADE BECAUSE IT'S SO MUCH FUN AND I LOVE THE CATCHY TUNES. I ALSO SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS PLAYING SUIKA GAME, ZOO KEEPER (ON MY PHONE), AND TETRIS® 99 (LOVE PUZZLE GAMES).

This year, I had two books published:

MELANCHOLY DELUSIONS features 17 creepy tales and is my debut short story collection published by Cemetery Gates Media on January 28. I'm very proud of every shortie.

FALLEN DESTINY is a cozy urban fantasy novel published by Brigids Gate Press on November 11. This is a story I had a lot of fun writing and I'm excited that it's out in the wild.

This year I managed to get a lot of spring cleaning/decluttering done. That included sorting through my toys/plushies, books, and loads of stationery. As a result, we donated, sold, threw away, and downsized. A lot. I feel really good about all the work I put in and the countless hours I spent sorting through stuff. I plan to do even more next year. 

Very early on, I deactivated my Threads and IG accounts because I can't stand Meta and totally disagree with every disgusting thing the owner of that shitty company is doing and supporting. 

So Bluesky is still my only social media. And I've been posting on my blog all year, of course. 😁

Guess I should put together a 2026 list soon... 

Have a great day!