December 15, 2025

This was an interesting year for me.

I traveled more than I’m used to, and more than I’d like, with a two week trip to Spain for the Celsius 232 Festival in Aviles and a two month promotional tour to support The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre. I also did a smaller tour earlier in the year to promote The Third Rule of Time Travel, as well as trips to AuthorCon in March and StokerCon in June.

Next year I’ll be doing everything I can to keep my travel lighter than 2025. I definitely want to spend more time writing and less time promoting and editing my writing, so that’s a New Year’s goal for me, even though I will be getting on the road, for at least a couple weeks, to support my April release, Sarafina. Other than that, my hope is to stay home and at the writing desk as much as possible.

WRITING RECAP

For the first time in years, I did not complete a new novel in 2025. I can’t tell you how disappointing that is for me, but given all the time on the road, plus edits for Autumn Springs and Sarafina, as well as final passes on the paperback edition of A Child Alone with Strangers and the reissue of Gothic, plus numerous special editions, I just ran out of time.

I did manage to complete a long novella, called Overpass, which will release in 2026. I also write a few longer pieces of fiction for different anthology commissions and a standalone book for Rapture Publishing, called The Servitor. I also wrote several essays, did dozens of interviews and podcasts, and worked on pitches for several film & tv projects.

But overall, that’s less than 100k words of new material for an entire year, and as a full-time writer that’s just not good enough.

I am driven to do better in 2026. My hope is to finish two novels next year (one of which I’ve already started), as well as a novella that’s on deadline. Like I said, more time at the writing desk is my #1 goal heading into the new year. Maybe that means I cut back on promotion, or maybe it means I start cutting back on the number of new releases I spend so much of my time promoting, editing, or working on… but something definitely has to give.

So, a disappointing year writing-wise, but I am happy with the stories I managed to finish, as well as the long novella, which I think folks will have fun with.

PUBLISHING RECAP

Publishing-wise, it’s been an insane year of releases.

My Orbit novel, The Third Rule of Time Travel, released in March. The book was published by Orbit in the US and UK, as well as special editions produced by Phantasia Press and Broken Binding.

My Tor Nightfire novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, released on September 30 from Nightfire in the US and Orbit / Run For It in the UK. The novel was also part of the Aardvark Book Club, and had a special edition from Broken Binding. Next year, there will be deluxe editions from Twisted Retreat and Earthling Publications. The book has been a minor hit for me, making the USA Today Bestseller list and selling to multiple international markets.

In October, Talos Press released the new paperback edition of A Child Alone with Strangers, which featured a bonus story, a new introduction from Clay McLeod Chapman, new artwork, and revised text.

In November, CLASH Books reissued my 2023 novel, Gothic, which was originally published by Cemetery Dance, but had been out of print for almost a year before getting re-released with a new design, a bonus story, and revised text. Gothic was the first book in a three-book deal with CLASH, which will include my novel, Sarafina, in April 2026, and Gothic 2: The End in April 2027. All three books were also sold to Black Crow Books in the UK for trade paperback and deluxe editions.

I had a short novella, D7, come out from Shortwave Publishing in May.

I had three deluxe editions release from Thunderstorm Books: Four to Die For, a collection of four novellas, and two early novels, Don’t Let Them Get You Down and The Egotist.

My short fiction appeared in the anthologies Earth Bleeds at Night, Interzone Magazine, Weird Fiction Review, and Fever Dreams, and I published an essay in the Lividian anthology, Carrie’s Legacy. I was also thrilled to write my first-ever comic book story for CREEPSHOW.

In addition to the above, I created three original books for my Patreon—two chapbooks and an exclusive hardcover story collection.

I wrote several introductions for various books and authors, and published essays with CrimeReads, Capes and Tights, BookTrib, and Writer’s Digest.

Lastly, I had several editions of my books release in Spain, Russia, Hungary, Germany, and the Czech Republic. I’m so grateful to all my international publishers for taking on my work.

Here’ s a family photo of my 2025 releases. A busy year!

Looking forward to 2026, I currently have two trade editions scheduled for release.

First up will be my horror novel, Sarafina, coming out in April from CLASH Books in the US and Black Crow Books in the UK. Later in the year I’ll release a new story collection, Traps and Specters, from Shortwave Publishing.

I’ll most likely be releasing two deluxe editions of Autumn Springs, plus the aforementioned Overpass from a new publisher I haven’t worked with yet. I’ll still be publishing two chapbooks for my patrons, and I’ll have stories appearing in a few different anthologies, but overall a much lighter year release-wise than 2025.

I’m also working on a massive, multi-volume short fiction retrospective, but that might be more than a year off. Lastly, I currently have two novels scheduled for 2027 as well, but we’ll get into that next year.

READING RECAP

Again, with all the travel and promotion, 2025 was a down year for me on the reading and writing front. Reading-wise, I was only able to finish around 50 books. Granted, many of them were chonkers, like King Sorrow and Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series, not to mention the Robin Hobb and Brandon Sanderson fantasy books I tore through. I also read some non-fiction and poetry, but few of those were cover-to-cover.

Of the 50+ novels and short story collections I read, here is a list of books I would definitely recommend:

The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons

American Rapture - CJ Leede

The Reformatory - Tananarive Due

Corpsemouth - John Langan

8114 - Joshua Hull

Breathe In, Bleed Out - Brian McAuley

The Shining - Stephen King

The Place They Buried Your Heart - Christina Henry

Eminence Front - Rebecca Rowland

Noro - Willam F. Gray

Dungeon Crawler Carl series - Matt Dinniman

Stoner - John Williams

The Haunting of Room 904 - Erika Wurth

Fahrenheit-182 - Mark Hoppus (non-fiction)

The Eris Ridge Trail - Larry Hinkle

Coffin Moon - Keith Rosson

The Carrow Heart - Darcy Coates

James - Percival Everett

The Widows of Wending Gale - Kealan Patrick Burke

Assassin’s Apprentice trilogy - Robin Hobb

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones

Daytide - Chris Panatier

Another - Paul Tremblay

The Only One Left - Riley Sager

Operation Bounce House - Matt Dinniman

Man, Fuck This House - Brian Asman

Good Dog - Neil McRobert

The Devils - Joe Abercrombie

King Sorrow - Joe Hill

Every Dead Thing - John Connolly

All the Colours of the Dark - Chris Whitaker

Requiem - John Palisano

Of all the books listed, my favorite of the year was Stoner by John Williams. A wonderful, non-genre novel that completely took over my heart and mind. My favorite genre novel was The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. A riveting slice of historical horror that I’ll never forget. My favorite 2025 release was King Sorrow by Joe Hill. This book was such a blast to read and I had a ton of fun with it.

But I really enjoyed everything listed here. Some of them I blurbed or wrote introductions for, some of them are friends or peers, and some were new discoveries, but they are all deserving of space on your shelves.

I have an absolute mountain of books on my TBR table for 2026, and I can’t wait to dive into them all.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and best wishes to everyone—hope you all have a blessed holiday season and an outstanding 2026.

For more information on buying any of my titles, please visit my BOOKS page.