Reading and Writing
2025 in Review Part I
It’s the day before Christmas and it’s going to be over 80°F (nearly 27°C) for the next four days in southeast Texas. For a few days it felt almost like autumn, but summer is back in full force and it kinda sucks!
But we’re not here to talk about the weather. This is the time of the year when I summarize things I’ve written, read, and watched over the past twelve months. Today is all about writing and reading, in that order.
I only had a few short stories published this year. In addition to the German edition of Shining in the Dark from Buchheim, which contains my story “Aeliana,” I had “Adrift” in the Canadian anthology Not the Same Road Out, “Lockdown” in The End of the World As We Know It: Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand (in English and German), and “My Tears Shall Drown the World,” my debut in Weird Tales. I have at least five stories queued up for 2026 already, though, so that’s okay.
Dark Books produced a beautiful illustrated Czech edition of The Road to the Dark Tower this year. The production quality is phenomenal and the illustrations are gorgeous.
Although I haven’t seen it yet, I have an essay called “Death Comes As the End” in My Scariest Stephen King Scene, and my contributor copies of the 2026 Stephen King Calendar from the Overlook Connection are on their way and should reach me by the end of the year.
I was lax about writing book reviews this year. I only published four: Free: My Search for Meaning by Amanda Knox and Return to Sender by Craig Johnson at Onyx Reviews and Never Flinch by Stephen King and Wreckage by Peter Straub at Cemetery Dance. I did a few film reviews there, too, including The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk and The Running Man, as well as The Institute miniseries.
I was interviewed a few times this year, and I have another one lined up for early in 2026:
The End of the World As We Know It – An Interview w/ Bev Vincent, Horror to Culture
An interview with editors of The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, and anthology contributors by Beth Tabler, Grimdark Magazine #43
I also participated in a few book events this year. I interviewed Martha Wells (author of the books that are being turned into the Murderbot TV series on Apple TV+) at a local arts event, and the father/son duo of Richard and W. H. Chizmar at Murder by the Book as part of the tour supporting Widow’s Point: The Complete Haunting. When my daughter and I were in Nova Scotia this summer, I did a signing with a fellow contributor to Not the Same Road out in Lunenburg, and I partnered with Joe R. Lansdale at Murder by the Book for the simultaneous signing event on launch day for The End of the World As We Know It.
I have some exciting things going on next year that I can’t talk about yet, so stay tuned. There will be another Lividian Publications patreon chapbook, I can reveal that much.
I only read 35 books this year, down a bit from 2024, and a lot of them were rereads and two of them are still in progress. You can see the whole list here. My top ten list, in no particular order:
Wreckage by Peter Straub
Departure 37 by Scott Carson
The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Hotel Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
Free: My Search for Meaning by Amanda Knox