I’ve never been one to really celebrate New Year’s to be honest. I usually just play video games until midnight, have a bit of champagne, and then go to bed. But it is nice to take a moment to reflect over the past year and I do make New Year’s resolutions.

Obviously this last year was one of massive changes for me, with my debut novel coming out. It’s been a wildly positive experience. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of wonderful people, both in the publishing industry and from meeting readers at the author events I’ve been at. I’ve learned a ton and can see a lot of personal growth from the start of 2025 to the end of it here. There was one thing that caught me by surprise around the release of the book though! Throughout the spring and summer I was having a sort of identity crisis, where I was reframing how I thought of myself from “computer programmer” to “author.” Because let’s be honest, if I’m going to talk about what I do, the latter is way more interesting than the former. You start explaining what a “dead letter queue” is and people’s eyes glaze over.

But if you do want to talk about Kafka (the event bus, not the author), I’m your girl.

I’m approaching 2026 a lot more confident as an author, with two books on the horizons. Book 2 of How to Survive Camping - The Lady in Chains (UK) and The Lady in Chains (US) will be out in April and you can preorder it now. We’re working on getting book 3 ready next.

Okay, with that reflection out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff. What is my New Year’s resolution this year?! Well, last year it was “stop doomscrolling” and I’ve mostly accomplished that. Kind of boring though. The year before it was “learn to be a better swimmer” and I took lessons and can swim decently well now, which had the added benefit of helping me get over my fear of deep water.

This year my goal is going to be to run a 10k. I’ve done one already, and I think this is the year I go for a second one. The dog will be thrilled. We have a great time running together and he doesn’t seem to mind that he’s half-dragging me along for that last mile or so.

I actually got to give my favorite book of 2025 to io9, so if you hop over there you can see my full recommendation. But in short, my favorite book of this past year was The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

My second favorite was The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. It had great worldbuilding and a fun main character. I’ve been recommending this one to all my friends.

Some other books that have stuck with me me (not necessarily 2025 releases, just ones I read this year) include Greenteeth by Molly O’Neil, The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas, Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green, Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris, Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon, and Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel.

Well, the reason this newsletter is coming out in the latter half of the month is because I wanted to meet with my agent to talk about plans for 2026! Unfortunately I don’t have anything I can really share at the moment. I tend to write a bunch of different things to see what clicks, so we’re still in the “throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” stage.

But as far as How to Survive Camping goes, I’ve getting near the end of edits on book three. I’m very happy with how they’ve gone. I think my favorite bit of revisions we’ve done on this one is involving Tyler, Kate’s brother, a lot more. I enjoy their sibling dynamic, in that Tyler really doesn’t want much to do with the campground, but he’s always there for Kate regardless.

And every month we’re getting closer to release date for The Lady in Chains! And on that note, I’ll just share this photo of my next album drop - I mean - me and a couple friends dressed as Vikings for no particular reason other than perhaps it might be a clue as to the kind of summer events Kate hosts at her campground and might have to deal with in the next book…