Welcome, 2026

Hello there, new year. I guess I should have some goals.

If you are like me the new year seems sort of baffling. How did we get here? Where did 2025 go? What did I even do then?¹ But lo, it is here upon us, the dark month of January where we turn blind eyes towards the incremental increase of light.

So what am I planning for 2026, you ask? Certainly you must be asking, since you’re here. Let me tell you, reader! But first – a poll.

Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming of looking forward to 2026!

This year, I will have a new book!

A novella, to be precise, one that was originally meant to publish last year but was extended, as happens. We’re aiming for the summer, more to come. I am obviously quite excited about that.

Other goals for 2026 are much more nebulous. I’d like to blog more than once every three months, for a start, so hopefully you will be seeing me more here. Also perhaps I will revive the mailing list? At least to push the new book? Do marketing?²

I’ve got a weird zero draft of a novel to read through and scrape into something at least semi-sound before I let it rest, and then it will be time to pick a new project. Which is a bit intimidating, but exciting stuff. Perhaps by the time you have read this I will have managed – there are several contenders. A couple of them are sequels³, one of them is a totally original foray into sci-fi I would love to finally finish⁴, and it’s anyone’s guess which one will stick this time through.

I’d also like to get back into querying, since I actually have a mostly queryable book that hasn’t seen the light of day yet that I could be shopping around with just a little polishing. And there are some short stories I’d like to polish up. And a poetry project I’d like to finish. And a chapbook I’ve been pondering… Anyway, I clearly have an abundance of ideas. Your guess is as good as mine on where that goes. But once the new Chosen One appears, I will be right here babbling about it.

The hard part of making any progress on the publishing end of things at the moment is that publishing itself is really hard. Writing is hard but something my brain needs to do to feel good. Publishing is hard and also like hitting myself in the head with a hammer, which is not a healthy activity. Obviously in times of stress the body desires to prioritize writing itself over all the fiddly parts that are publishing⁵. As various aspects of my life have conspired to create one long stress tunnel, this has made me disinclined to do the publishing bits. But I do have some hope that things will be a little better this year⁶. So it’s at least a possibility that I will do some throwing of my writing-babies into the fire of the slushpit.

So yeah, 2026. We’ll see.

1. I kid, here is what I did. ↩︎
2. Cringe. ↩︎
3. Yes, that sequel, but also I’ve pondered another Appalachian witch book and another novella in the vein of Viridian, both of which are attractive because they are short. I know you are all cringing at that list – “just finish something,” you say in my head! Agreed, darlings. ↩︎
4. There is a heist, and also nanos, climate projections, meditations on poetry and the human condition….I am not sure I am capable of writing the book in my head on this one, but I am willing to try! But also slightly guilty to be considering trying… ↩︎
5. Editing does not feel like hitting oneself in the head with a hammer but also doesn’t spark joy necessarily. So…there’s that. ↩︎
6. Please. ↩︎