2025 Wrap-Up
- Jerrica Black
- Dec 31, 2025
- 12 min read
Updated: Jan 7
It’s been a wild year…
In 2025, I finished my work placement, graduated from college, co-hosted a launch for the program’s short story anthology, and started a freelancing business. I also adopted a second cat, read more than twice as many books as I thought I could, and started taking better care of my mind and body.
Here’s a wrap-up of all that I did and some things I wish I had and how I will try to incorporate new things into next year both professionally and personally.
Stuff I made
Reflection on the anthology
Being able to point to a physical copy of a book I have a short story in is very cool. I definitely have some mental blocks on calling myself published because the story wasn’t chosen and the anthology is “self” published, but it’s still a very cool thing and a lot of people have expressed being proud of me for it which feels good.
The process was odd. I’m not sure, had I been doing this on my own, I would have made the same choices. That being said, according to faculty, this was the most successful anthology and launch in recent years. Since I was part of the writing, editing and launch planning, I feel good about this!
Where my writing projects are at
This is certainly an area that I wish I had done more in this year. I did finish one story, which I will talk about in a little bit, but the other writing projects I talked about in the summer wrap up have had very little work done on them since then.
That being said, I did participate in a writing challenge, which I will also talk about in a little bit, so it’s not like I didn’t write. I just don’t know that it was the smartest use of my time. It was fun though.
I have set some proper writing goals to make progress on my linked short stories collection, novella and some other stand alone short stories as well as continuing the Inktober project from the aforementioned writing challenge.
The story I submitted
Okay, that story I submitted. This was a story that was created for a specific journal where very story uses the same first line. I started working on “Grief” while I was still in school and got critiques on it during my critique course. I went through two more rounds of self editing and then submitted. This is where I was at when I did my summer update. A few weeks later I received the email that it had been rejected.
I haven’t gone back to it yet or tried submitting anywhere else. Part of me wants to try again with it mostly as is, and part of me wants to take the story in a slightly different direction.
Content warning: grief, loss of a loved one, suicide and suicidal thoughts.
“Grief” is about a woman mourning the recent loss of her brother. She is on the way to scatter his ashes. She’s coming to terms with her guilt over his death by suicide as well as still grieving the loss of her parents. The story mostly takes place in her car with a few flashbacks and the final few scenes at his cabin and on the mountain hiking trail.
The changes I might make include details on the deaths. It was something brought up during critique, but I wasn’t sure it was necessary at the time. I now think there might not be enough “excitement” in the story. It might feel “too safe” to some readers. Though I also got feedback that my writing was transparent and relatable; that leads me to believe that I can do the darker details justice.
Crochet tank top
I talked about crocheting and how I had the bug again… I kept at it for a bit but I did not finish what I thought I would by now. I tried to finish the tank top a few days ago, decided to change the construction a bit, then tried it on near completion and… I’ve lost too much weight. I plan on taking it apart and reusing the pieces: maybe together, maybe in separate garments.
My Year in Content
My top performing videos
And because this continues to do well, I have some future ideas for videos. Particularly, I’d like to do some multi-book recommendations/reviews videos (like my top five horror, classic monsters, [monster/trope] but with a spin) alongside my regular reviews and wrap-ups.
Because this did so well, I’m going to do more writing and editing vlogs. You’ll see these with the Inktober project and my other personal writing projects. Maybe some professional projects too!
I don’t really know why this one did so well considering my other Inktober videos did not… I’m learning nothing from this except that “Inktober” was a popular term and this was a short video.
My favourite video
I enjoy videos where I can just say my thoughts out loud rather than following a script. It scratches close to the itch of streaming live (which I miss quite a lot.) There was something different about this one from my TBRs or Reading Wrap-Ups, more passion or something lolol. It's newer, so you may not have seen it yet!
My top performing blog
Considering this is a newer post I’m surprised it has the most views! I’m happy it does though since it’s going to be a series.
Actually my top performing blog post is the welcome post, but I don’t want to count that!
My favourite blog
This blog post started out as simply "CTRL+F is Your Editing Friend." Then as I started to work on it, I realized it could be a series and there were some pretty easy categories to break it down to. Making it more focused made it more fun to work on. Creating examples (even if some are a little out there) was a fun exercise for me too.
This was such a fun project and the shorts were a huge hit. I enjoyed the vlogging parts, but I do wish you guys did too! I thought they’d be a hit since Revising My Flash Fiction from Over a Decade Ago was so good!
We’ll keep moving forward to things that more closely resemble that video though as we figure out a few of my faves. Really I’m just proud of sticking with a challenge for as long as I did! I did learn about my writing style and some genres I should experiment with more.
I talked quite a bit about my experience with Inktober in this video if you really want to know more :)
My Year in Books
My top three
(In brackets are the Story Graph then Good Reads star ratings)
Honestly, you’re probably sick of hearing about this book by now, but it is most definitely my favourite book I read this year. I love the zombie genre, and this was a super different take from everything I’ve consumed before. Rather than being in the throes of an apocalypse, our characters are found in a state of living when zombies still roam the earth and pose a threat, but civilization lives on even if it looks a little different.
Frankenstein (3.88)(3.9)
I couldn’t let myself watch the new movie without reading the original text and boy am I happy that I read it! It was nothing like what I expected but was phenomenal nonetheless. It’s wild to me that in every adaptation and reference I’ve seen, so much of the story has focused on such a small portion of the original text. I also went in not knowing the structure of the story which was also relatively unique especially when we consider that at some point we are reading a story within a story within a story.
Coming Through Slaughter.(3.73)(3.86)
I thought the content and structure of this novel was interesting; it’s loosely based on a real guy who’s story just couldn't be told. It touches on mental illness, racial inequality and creative talent.
I did really struggle to pick a top three; I read some great books this year and very few that I'd consider duds. Though I definitely have critiques on a few, I still enjoyed even those is one way or another. Not a single DNF (though I came close a few times.)
Top three according to Story Graph
(In brackets are the Story Graph then Good Reads star ratings)
What I find interesting about the difference between my top three and the Storygraph/GoodReads rating top three is… 2 of these are definitely nearer the bottom of my list.
Crime and Punishment (4.16)(4.29)
This was a bit of a mid book for me. I really liked the content, but I felt like it was too long and too slow paced. Which is weird because slow pacing doesn’t really bother me too much. It just very much felt like it didn't need to be 600 pages and maybe even could have explored the end in more pages.
Confessions of an Igloo Dweller (4.03)(4.07)
This one, out of these top three, is nearest the top of my list. It’s also the only nonfiction I read this year (I plan on changing that next year, because I have so many on my list!) There were a lot of things I liked about this book. The content was super interesting with a focus on art and culture but a lot about what it’s like to live in the arctic too. The shorter, slightly more off topic chapters added a lot to the experience.
Black No More (3.95)(4)
I really did not enjoy this book. I think I wasn't the audience for it and I really just didn't “get” it. I kept thinking about how it’s not the way I feel this would play out now and would love to see someone take the same concept and tell it in a more modern setting. I think something that shows I didn't “get” it is that I did not realize it was in humour.
All the others
I set a goal to read a book a month and thought that was nearly unreachable since I hadn't been reading very much while I was in school. (Well I was reading for school but wasn’t counting any of that) But it turns out reading 2 to 3 books a month is actually where I’m at. Since I’m hoping work will ramp up in the new year I’m planning on setting my goal at 18 books for next year (and maybe doing a page read goal too so my brain can feel better about taking the time on longer books!). But here’s what I read:
Books 2 through 10 of The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
Coming Through Slaughter - Michael Ondaatje
Confessions of an Igloo Dweller - James Houston
Feed - Mira Grant (Review video available)
Black No More - George Schuyler
The Troop - Nick Cutter (Review video available)
Nostalgia - M. G. Vassanji
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Crime and Punishment - Fydor Dostoevsky
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The in Crowd - Nicholas Pine
Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews
City of Bones - Michael Connelly
Missing You - Harlan Coben
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Gremlins - George Gipe
Other Media I Enjoyed
Top 3 movies
I know I said I was gonna keep up with my LetterBoxd but I didn’t…that being said…
The Lighthouse
What a strange movie. But I absolutely love strange. The biggest strengths of this movie were the atmosphere and the monologues. The atmosphere is created through “old-timey” framing of the shots and the soundscape. There just felt to be a lot of emotion in all of the “silence” or rather lack of dialogue. It is a relatively dialogue light movie but when one of the characters gets going, they really get going. I will say, I’m not sure I entirely understand everything that occurred.
The Woman in the Yard
This would have been a five star movie if it weren’t for the sound design! Sometimes less is more and silence serves so much better than a musical score. This definitely falls into one of my favourite sub genres of horror but I fear saying too much is a bit of a spoiler, so I won’t.
Cabin in the Woods
A much older movie but the first time I watched it. I’m usually not a huge fan of comedy horrors but this one was quite different and didn’t feel super humour based, more just self aware of its genre. The whole concept was cool and I’d love to see more in that universe. (Which I do see there is a Cabin in the Woods 2 for me to watch.)
Top 3 shows
The Rookie
This show somehow jumps the shark immediately and yet is never actually too over the top. I think what’s really happening is that it doesn’t try to ramp up, it just starts a little on the ridiculous side. I love cop shows in general, and The Rookie has a great balance of serious and lighthearted moments. Something they’ve done super well is character growth. So many times a new character has been introduced and I've been like “I’ll never like this character," and they manage to flip me.
Alien Earth
You may already know that space and aliens in general are not really my bag, but the Alien franchise has always been an “exception that proves the rule.” I enjoyed Alien Earth a lot and, despite the loud minority on the internet, I loved the children's characters. I think that was such a fun concept to play around with and it was executed well.
Marvel Zombies
What can I say, I love zombies. I’m not even sure what to say… the show was just super entertaining. It was fast-paced, emotional and told a cool story.
Top 3 games
The King is Watching
A roguelike, city builder, resource management, tower defense game with unique mechanics. I’ve barely scratched the surface at this point, but enjoyed every minute of it. I think the two coolest parts are the gaze mechanic: only the buildings where the king is watching produce resources; and, the prophecy mechanic: you choose your battles and the order they attack your castle (within reason.) There is a demo available.
News Tower
A strategy, simulation, management game where you own a newspaper in 1930s New York. I spent many hours glued to this game building and breaking relationships with factions, stealing districts from other newspapers and trying to maximize profit all while keeping my employees comfortable. There’s too much to this game to explain in this small blurb but there is a demo available if managing a newspaper sounds like something up your alley.
Deck of Haunts
A rougelite, deck building, base building card-battler where you play as the villain: a haunted house. This is a game I've gone back to a few times in between playing other games. They've had some fun seasonal updates and the game play loop is a blast. By day, you build your mansion to create a maze for humans to wonder through looking for your heart. By night you drain and kill humans to sustain yourself while protecting the heart at the center of the building. There is demo available.
Honourable Mention: Darktide
And an honourable mention to Darktide since the friend group finally convinced me to play with them. I’ve been really enjoying it, and I think I'm getting better. I’m stashing this in the honourable mention because it’s not really the style of game I would usually play and it’s very much an “I only play with my friends” game and probably wouldn't enjoy it much playing solo (or rather with randos… eww.)
Other stuff I did
My Birthday
Books. Food. Cribbage. That was my birthday and it was exactly what I wanted :)
The Kitten
Canby joined the family in July and he’s certainly made himself at home. Iggy has mostly gotten used to having a fellow fuzzy friend.
The Holidays
We had four holiday events (plus we'll be hosting for NYE.) It was a lot of good company, good food and some lovely presents. I love to wear fun holiday outfits so enjoy scrolling through for fit checks, food pics and out gift haul. There are some warm socks, yummy treats, and a fun book themed gift box!
What’s in store for next year
From January to the end of March my current goal is to finish writing six short stories from three separate projects.
January is focused on setting my writing routine while finishing a WIP that has been kicking around for almost a year and jumping into the fleshing out of Inktober.
February will be more Inktober with the goal of having my top three (tier list here) short stories from that finished.
And March is currently slated to work on the overall structure and start writing some of the short stories for the linked collection I’ve been toying with. However, that’s a long way away, and I may switch over to the novella project instead.
Checking in with your goals and altering them when you need to is important!
Upcoming Content
I’ve mentioned a few things already as far as what’s going to be coming out next year.
Inktober writing vlogs and process discussion
A Writing Challenge (to be posted) vlogs, discussion and resources
Continued blog series
CTRL+F
Story Structure
So, You Want to Hire an Editor (Send me your questions!)
A Patreon (starting more as a newsletter with only a free option but we will see what else comes along)
Improved socials with more behind-the-scenes, resources and community building
Continued video series
Blogs Gone Video
Improved reading recaps
Improved TBRs
More and improved book reviews and recommendations
And, as usual, I would love to hear any feedback you have whether that’s ways to switch up and experiment with what I’m already doing or content you haven’t seen from me yet but would like to!
This was a long one, I hope you found it interesting to see what I got up to this year. If you’d like to get updates like this (but shorter and with more tips, tricks and resources!) more often be sure to become a free member on Patreon (Assuming you’re reading it on the website and not already there :P)
(I’d love to do a regular newsletter, but there are some legal hoops that I currently don’t feel comfortable jumping through.)
See you next year! <3
Some more pictures to enjoy...
Watch the Video Instead
Jerrica is a writer and editor who inspires up-and-coming writers to create compelling fiction and creative nonfiction works while providing them with the confidence to do it themselves or ask for a helping hand when they need it. She enjoys speculative fiction, horror and gut-wrenching emotion with a side of food & drink and the cozier things in life.
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