Happy Holidays! Christmas is officially over and I’m emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted—which seems to be the theme of 2025. I’m not gonna lie, it was a fucked-up year. 2025 was pretty much a shitshow from start to finish. Now, I’m not saying that the entire year was a disaster, but it was definitely a year where the bad outweighed the good. It was a year filled with chaos. Between illnesses, death, and unwanted surprises, 2025 will go down as the year of, “if it could go wrong, it fucking did.”

Fuck 2025. It can kiss my ass on its way out. Now that I’ve got that little rant out of my system, it’s time to reflect on my year.

2025: The Good Bits

Like I said, 2025 wasn’t a complete wash. Even though I didn’t work on my WIPs as much as I wanted to, I still got some writing done. I still worked on edits and revisions. I came up with some new story ideas, and most importantly I finally got around to sharing one of my favorite backstories, Adopting Aria. I think that was one of my writing highs of this past year.

But writing wasn’t my only outlet. I also did a lot of reading, which was another positive during a particularly craptacular year. When I wasn’t busy escaping into my own fictional fantasy land, I found solace in other authors’ fictional worlds.

Books helped me get through a tough year. They provided an escape when the words refused to flow, when I couldn’t form a coherent sentence to save my life, and spent hours fighting with a blank page. Reading provided me with the ultimate escape, erasing my troubles and freeing me from reality’s chokehold.

And as I lost myself in these stories—as I ventured on these journeys with these characters and fell in love with them—I realized that I wanted to provide that same form of escapism for others. I want readers to pick up one of my books, and I want them to get lost in my fictional fantasy world. I want them to fall in love with my fictional people, and I want them to forget all their problems, even if it’s just for a little while.

But if I want people to read my novels, I’ve got to publish them first. And honestly, the thought of publishing scares me. A part of me wants to release these stories out into the wild, but the selfish part of me wants to hold on to them and keep them all to myself.

And it’s because Nick and Karina have been with me for well over a decade—since May 11, 2011, to be exact. That’s when I started working on their story off and on throughout the years. Nick strolled into my head one day while I was working on a short story for my creative writing class, and he’s been with me since. Karina followed immediately after and so did the rest of my fictional squad.

My fictional people have lived rent-free in my head for years. I’ve heard their conversations, listened to their inner thoughts, and watched their stories play out like movies in my mind. Luna Cove became a second home. It was a place of comfort, a fictional haven for me to disappear to whenever reality got to be too much. And it was mine. This mystical modern world is my creation, and I love spending time in it. And a small part of me doesn’t want to share that magic. A small part of me doesn’t want to release this book into the world. But a bigger part of me does.

I don’t want to be selfish. I want people to experience the magical entirety of Luna Cove, not just the small tidbits I share online. So, I bit the proverbial bullet and set a tentative publishing date for Nick and Karina’s book. I’m not announcing it just yet, but you can expect to hear something next year.

2026: A Look Ahead

The road to publishing isn’t a short or easy one. There’s a lot I need to do before I send Nick and Karina’s story out into the world. The first thing I’ve gotta do is read through Nick and Karina’s manuscript and finish polishing it up. There’s still a couple of plot holes that need filling, a few scenes that need sprucing up, and a couple of chapters that need overhauling before I send it out for edits. So, that will be my main priority next year.

I’m still going to work on my side projects and character blogs, but I won’t be posting as many blogs this coming year. Time is a major obstacle and it’s not something I have a lot of. So, I’m going to focus on the character blogs that were the most popular with readers over the past four years. And surprise-surprise—not surprised at all—Nick and Karina’s blogs along with their takeovers won by a landslide. The Halloween specials came in at a close second and the rest varied by popularity from year-to-year.

Based on those stats, I’ve decided that Nick and Karina’s blogs along with their takeover will continue in 2026. The Halloween special will also continue and will feature Ryan and Ash’s story.

Other goals for 2026:

✨ Read lots of books

✨ Practice daily self-care

✨ Get outside more

✨ Be more active on social media

✨ Maintain my boundaries and remove any toxicity from my life

✨ Spend time with my family and friends

Update

My Writing Life blogs will continue. They’ll be more like journal entries where I take you behind the scenes of my writing life so you can get more insight into the method behind my madness. I’ll be sharing my thoughts, my highs and lows, and maybe I’ll even post a tiny snippet or two.

Now, I’ve posted the tentative winter blog schedule, but the dates might change. I might have one of the MC’s (Nick or Karina) kick off the year, and another finish it off around the holidays. I’m not sure yet. As of now, the dates stand. But if anything changes, it will be posted on the Announcements page.

I’ll also be posting new mood boards, life bites, playlists, and outtakes from my freestyle character interviews this coming year. So, keep your eyes out for those.

And that’s all I have for you today. I want to thank you all for staying with me on this chaotic journey. It’s been a wild and bumpy ride, and your continued support means the world to me. Thank you so much for visiting my site and reading my blogs.

I also want to thank my husband along with my close family and friends who have listened to my rants and raves, encouraged me, and lifted me up along the way. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. I love you all more than any words can ever say.

As always, I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe New Year.

Cheers,

 

 

 

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