Looking Back at 2025
With the beginning of a new year, I like to not only take a look back at the previous year from a writing POV, but I also like to try and lay out what my upcoming year might look like. I set goals, hit some of them, miss others, and maybe get an incomplete on a few more.
Comic Books
The big idea in 2025 was trying to get multiple comics out through Kickstarter. One of the things I think/believe is that it hurts me to not have a somewhat consistent schedule of releases. Now, I see plenty of people in the comic space putting out a new comic nearly every month, and while that would be amazing (and likely a full-time job). I figured I would shoot for something a little more realistic for someone who had put out two comics in 2 years time. I laid out a scenario that at best I would target 3 potential projects. My bare minimum was to get Issue #3 of In Our Dreams Awake out.
In Our Dreams Awake
The two year gap between issue #1 and issue #2 couldn’t happen again. Talk about destroying what little momentum I might have built with the first campaign. So no matter what Issue #3’s Kickstarter was going to happen in 2025.
And it happened. Sadly the final version of the comic wasn’t completed until early Fall, which meant we ran the campaign in October and wrapped up at the beginning of November. But that was something that absolutely had to happen, and it did!
You Must Be This Tall To Ride
The other project that I was hoping to get out an issue of last year was You Must Be This Tall To Ride. And while I’ll no doubt talk a ton about what it is and where the idea came from, this comic is my attempt to have a more young adult comic rather than things that really are teens and up.
While I didn’t run a Kickstarter for this one, I do have the art for the first 2 issues completed. I’m in the process of securing a letterer for the comic.
The Crossing
Behind the scenes, script writing has been happening. There was a change in how we were going to present the story, so that caused Robert and I to put our heads together and make some adjustments. Issue #3’s script has been completed.
Prose/Novels
To the outside world, nothing is happening. Nothing has been released, so it is easy to think that. However, I’m still working on my Fantasy series. I’m still plugging away at short stories.
Blog Posts
I’ve gone nearly 11+ years writing a weekly blog for TesseraGuild.com. Over that time, I’ve only missed a handful of weeks with a post. In 2025, the site crashed/was attacked/etc. Everything was lost. And rather than restart and rebuild, Amanda, Jeremy, and myself made the decision to go ahead and call it a day.
It was definitely a sad day, and I have a two-part look back blog to post very soon.
After that, I took a couple of months off from blogging before using my own website to start again. For now that is my plan going forward.
Conventions
I got in a couple of appearances in the early portion of the year, but didn’t manage anything later in the year.
Social Media
Like every year, I did some, could probably (definitely) do more.
A Look Ahead to 2026
Comics
Remember where I said 2025 I wanted to possibly get 3 comics out, and then I was only able to get 1 out (and technically we are fulfilling in 2026… technically). Well this year, I’m setting the goal to 2 comics. That should be doable, right (famous last words). If things go “perfectly” (whatever that means), then I could have a 3rd issue as well.
In Our Dreams Awake
The 4th and final issue will come out this year. We have all the art save for 2 pages, and we have half the colors finished as well. We’ll still need to get the book lettered, but all of that is very reasonable to complete. The target for the Kickstarter is early summer (and I don’t go to crowdfunding until the book is finished and ready to go to print).
You Must Be This Tall To Ride
Like I said before, the art and colors for issues #1 and #2 are complete. Once I get the letters done, I’ll be ready to present it on Kickstarter! I’m looking to have that campaign in early Spring.
The Crossing
With Issue #3 being finished (minus some edits), I am tasked with writing issue #4. I will have that done in this first quarter of the year, and then it becomes getting the artwork done and pushing forward on the comic series. I’m not sure if that will mean any kind of release this year, but I’d like to think we’ll be in good shape for something in 2027.
Secret Comic(s)
With the eye to having more releases as time goes on, there are two projects that I would love to see get some real progress made. One is an older project looking for a fresh coat of paint, while the other is a very new idea. We’ll see how things progress with In Our Dreams Awake #4 and You Must Be This Tall To Ride #1 to know how hard to push on either of these.
Prose Work
Like I said above… others don’t get to see what you’re working on until you actually release it. My currently have a number of things written:
Fantasy Series – This is my “big one”. I have 2 1/2 books written. This series is set to be a total of 6 books, and the original plan was to have at least 4 of them finished before I released one of them. I’ve had some other thoughts recently about that and still am trying to figure out what the right plan is for these.
Sci-fi/Romance – I have one more pass before I get an editor involved. Honestly, this is most likely the next prose release since it is a standalone.
Hollow Empire Novella(s) – 1 is ready for an editor. 1 is just started. The last one is still being outlined. I definitely want to have all 3 finished before I release one of them. I’d like to have these done before the end of the year for a 2027 release.
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So that’s the game plan for 2026. I have some decent and, I think, achieveable goals. Hopefully when I write this blog for 2027, I’m talking about a bunch of successes for 2026!