I wrote quite a few short stories this year, which is a new-ish format for me. I’ve written a whole lot more novels than short stories — but I do write shorts. I guess the difference is that this year I sought to publish them with others.
“Time Traveler” was published in Bright Flash Literary Review
I had other short stories accepted for publication, but they’re not appearing until 2026. This list will already be quite a bit longer for next year’s roundup.
I’ve also been publishing reviews with The Geekiary this year.
My biggest accomplishment in 2025 was publishing 400,000 words of epic fantasy – a new-to-me genre. Kinda. Actually, the very first book I ever wrote (when I was twelve years old) was an epic fantasy novel, but I moved onto urban fantasy for the twenty-some years thereafter.
Atop the Trees, Beneath the Mountains is a sweeping queer romantasy novel that took me about five years to produce in its totality. It features a nonbinary hero unexpectedly dropped in the middle of a long-running war, with an unusual love triangle between two men (one elf, one dwarf).
The Liar’s Throne is more action-oriented fantasy featuring a chaotic bisexual group of elves trying to win a county election for a lord. There are giant dead monsters, an extremely disaffected assassin, and gender shenanigans.
I’m going to keep writing in this universe for a while because it makes me happy. <3
Most of my time was focused on special edition hardbacks. I don’t really like publishing logistics, per se, but I do love a lot of the non-writing parts of publishing. By which I mean design. I love design.
I lightly revised and expanded some of my oldest books. Giving them new covers, artwork, and interiors was a delight. I spent a lot of time illustrating art to go inside of these!
Unfortunately, I only make these hardbacks available through Kickstarters. Fortunately, I’ve got another one coming up, so you can get the special editions in January.
Today I got a rejection that especially stung. I didn’t realize how much I was hoping for an acceptance until the rejection showed up and I felt it all over my body.
I’ve been getting a lot of rejections lately.
In 2024, my New Years Resolution was getting at least one or two stories accepted by lit mags. I ended up abandoning that resolution promptly. I think I only wrote one story, which was rejected by the only magazine that might have published it, and decided to go do something else.
One image I used as reference for an illustration.
I’m not sure why late-2025 turned into my year of short stories, more than a year after I forgot that resolution.
Writing short stories has been nice, anyway. I haven’t finished a book this year yet, besides the one I published in January (which took me five years to prepare). I’m chugging along on one, but I have a sort of…conflicted relationship with it. I refuse to give up, even though it keeps making me angry. I’m approaching its end so slowly.
this book is almost exactly 66,600 words at the moment, which perfectly captures how we are mortal enemies. book hates me, i hate book, burn in hell.— SM Reine of Cawdor (@smreine.itch.io) August 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
That’s not to say I’ve been unproductive. I did a bunch of reissues to celebrate the 13th anniversary of one series; I’ve been writing for an online magazine; I still write movie reviews sometimes.
I’ve also been doing lots of art.
Another stock photo I referenced for an illustration.
A big part of that 13th anniversary project has been doing oodles of drawings. I illustrated my characters and some scenes from the books, sharing what I imagined when I wrote them.
I’ve gotten a lot better at drawing, although I struggle to do more complicated pieces. It’s hard taking the time to build a drawing up piece by piece, using all the technical skills and planning that good art demands.
When I draw, I really like to just sit down and draw.
The methodical approach to art has reminded me that a great many things in life require building piece by piece.
Life requires practicing skills you’re bad at until you’re good at them.
It also demands Doing The Thing a lot. In art, it’s called “pencil time.” You just have to spend so many hours throwing yourself at art before you can expect yourself to be any good at it, and I think this is true of writing, but also the career of publishing.
A stock photo composite I made for reference.
The fact is that I have not been writing or submitting enough to get rejected the last few years, and I think the lack of rejections has been a problem.
I had two books fail on submission to traditional publishing. My agent loved them and believed in them, but the two of us were alone in this matter.
It stings to try so hard and get so far, when in the end, it doesn’t even matter. (Cue angsty music.)
My big slowdown in writing–when I used to write 6-10 books every single year–is only partially attributable to those books failing, but…it’s definitely some factor in the whole thing.
Because some rejections feel very routine, but some of them really hurt.
The short story rejection I got today hurt because I was holding some hope for that collection in particular, but I was also cultivating a lot of doubt since I sent in the story. I was pretty sure what I wrote wasn’t exactly what they wanted. It didn’t have enough focus on the unifying theme for the collection.
You’d think that suspecting a rejection is coming makes it better, but it does not.
All the other rejections I’ve received lately don’t really bother me. I like the stories I’m shopping around quite a lot. I also know it’s an industry with narrow odds and a strong element of subjectivity.
I’m not gifted at convincing people to read what I’ve written. I’m a very good writer! But that social element of writing a beginning that hooks, in convincing them I fit some narrow window of expectations, is generally absent from my work.
(It was a miracle I got an agent who loves my stuff, and even she remarks upon how weird my books are.)
(I tend to regard my weirdness as a positive thing, as an artist, but less-positive from a commercial standpoint.)
An illustration of a boy and a girl standing together, foreheads touching, under a canopy of leaves. The girls’ mouth is bloody. He’s wearing a gun holster. Art by SM Reine 2025
Ultimately, more rejections are good because it means I’m giving myself more opportunity to fail.
I am trying to build a new career that looks very different from my old career, when I wrote 6-10 books a year, sold directly to readers, and burned myself out with the hustle.
I’m going piece by piece now, looking for some more sustainable route toward reaching readers that I also find more creatively fulfilling.
Right now, my eggs are in a lot of little baskets, or I’m sowing a lot of seeds, or whatever metaphor we wanna use. It’s hard to know what will turn into something, if anything does.
The hope is good, though. Even if it means that hope sometimes turns into hurt.
you really don’t need genAI. just draw a lot and accept that you’re gonna kinda suck at it.
It’s so satisfying. You learn stuff. And it’s okay to be kinda sucky.
i genuinely think, from talking to people who are using genAI, that it appeals to depthless insecurity. they have never felt Good Enough to Do the Art. “we’re different. you have talent,” they say, and also, “you have THE EYE,” unaware that talent is developed rather than innate.
AI appeals to hustle culture, to the need to monetize everything. your art doesn’t start out commercially viable. genAI needs only a few words to produce something that looks way better than you think you can do. “i can’t afford to work at art for a year or two until i’m better,” you say, as if the ART is the pain point preventing you from making a living in this hellscape called reality. the AI looks like an easy escape route, but it’s pretending to solve problems by making things worse for artists. a year or two will pass whether or not you work on improving yourself. take the time.
self-esteem, self-worth, and a willingness to practice something you suck at is so important. it is very, very hard. many of us have had our emotions invalidated throughout life. sometimes the people closest to us have said horrible things about us, and those voices linger.
art asks a lot of you. it asks for honesty and insecurity and an ability to accept your limitations. but it gives you so much in return: a portfolio of accomplishments, a true expression of your internal state, the visualization of your voice.
i tend to think i have a nuanced view of AI. i am strongly opposed to using it in professional products – that means book covers, the text in books, supplemental art, advertisements, audiobook generation, etc. i think using it for fun, like modding games or silly “how I look in Bridgerton” filters, is relatively benign despite the environmental impacts (personal impact is overrated compared to systemic responsibility). i think it’s simply bad at what it does when given the burden of creation (book cover components) while smaller tools like Adobe’s Content Aware Fill are just sensible developments to improve workflow.
but on a purely human, emotional level, i wish i could plead with everyone to do something extremely radical and Just Make Sucky Art. I truly believe the world gets worse whenever we use AI and even your worst art makes the world better. i wish i could ask everyone to let themselves be vulnerable in whatever medium they like, even though it’s a HUGE request. i wanna ask everyone to waste their time dicking around with things that aren’t profitable or productive because i think it will heal you, and playing like a kid is important at every age, and it’s cheaper than buying credits to make yet another soulless Bratz doll romantasy character card.
My new fantasy book has been out for a couple weeks now, and my friend V.C. Lluxe was kind enough to read it and give me her feedback.
I thought the conversation that unfolded was interesting. No surprise there: Like me, V.C. Lluxe has been a super-prolific author over the course of her career, and she has a well-developed sense of story. She’s an extremely cerebral person who isn’t afraid to color outside the lines in search of fundamental truths.
With VC’s permission, I reposted a big chunk of our conversation, edited for length and coherency.
Please note that this spoils a LOT of “Atop the Trees, Beneath the Mountains”, including critical character deaths. You should probably read the book first if you care about spoilers.
I never care about spoilers, so it wouldn’t stop me, but that’s your choice.
(If the article looks like it ends here, click “comment” to expand the post. I need to fix my website so this feature works properly. Thanks for your patience.)
Although sometimes it feels like everyone and their brother is in publishing, the truth is that it’s a small community. Most everyone knows most everyone else. Every loss is felt keenly.
Lou Harper of Cover Affairs was a cover designer whose work appeared on thousands of novels. She was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; after a short time in hospice, she passed away.
An associate of Lou’s made a statement on Facebook.
She worked with a lot of my friends, who praised her professionalism, kindness, and consistency. What a huge loss.
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We also lost MJ Rose, one of the founders of 1001 Dark Nights.
Melisse Shapiro, also known as M.J. Rose, an early self-publishing advocate as well as bestselling author, died unexpectedly on December 10 while in Florida visiting her father. She was 71.
[…] Liz Berry remembered Rose best for being “innovative, and brave, and fierce, and an icon. She will be sorely missed.” Jillian Stein also said her partner will be missed. “M.J. was a force of nature both in the industry and out,” Stein said. “She was both bold and tender hearted and she was always happy to share her experiences and use what she’s learned in her long career to help anyone who asked. The amount of people she’s touched over the years is incredible.”
~
Author Jana DeLeon also tragically, unexpectedly lost her husband this week.
