Wrapping Up 2025

With 2025 in the rear-view mirror (thank goodness!), here’s my annual look back at last year! (If you’re looking for my 2025 Awards Eligibility list, click here!)

This post is broken down into the following sections:

1. Reflections on 2025
2. Annual Submission Statistics
3. Translation Submission Statistics
4. Retrospective: Goals for 2025 (AKA, did I achieve any of them?!)
5. Goals for 2026 (AKA, what will I try to do next?!)

1. Reflections on 2025

2025 was a rough year for me on many levels, but there were some bright spots!

Health-wise:

I started off the year trying out medicines for the autoimmune condition I mentioned in my last annual update, and in the meantime ended up needing a major surgery for yet another surgery. I spent a month barely able to walk at all (but at least I had my trusty cane!), and it took several more months before my fatigue started to improve (other than the autoimmune flare-ups, which set me back again).

Just as things were seeming almost back-to-normal, I caught COVID-19 again. Although it was initially mild, it turned into bronchitis. I had a couple weeks reprieve (thank you, antibiotics!) before I got really sick again… and this time, it was Parvovirus (yes, there is a human version)! Thankfully, the Parvo passed after 3 or 4 weeks, and I didn’t have any lingering side effects, but at some point, I tore a muscle in my hip and that’s still healing and I recently got diagnosed with another condition and…….

I am *so* tired of spending so much time playing phone tag with doctors and going to doctor’s appointments. Here’s hoping 2026 is the year I can finally get back to my old normal!

Writing-wise:

I only wrote a couple of new short stories, but I did a bunch of new translations and a couple handfuls of new poems. I also re-read my science fantasy novel draft, outlining as I went, and figured out what scenes need to be cut, added, and/or revised. I’ve been pondering trying to go on a writing retreat/residency like this one in 2026 or 2027 so that I can cut out distractions and power through revisions. I also really want to apply for Viable Paradise, but I need to figure out whether I’ll be able to afford to carve out the time (and budget enough money) for it. I did decide to throw money at a couple of writing contests that all provide critiques in 2026 as a way of guilting myself (via sunk cost fallacy) into writing more (and because my brain really enjoys responding to unexpected prompts). In 2025, I didn’t participate much in the writing community, but I am fortunate enough to belong to an excellent in-person writing group and some amazing online ones. I hope that 2026 will kindly let me rejoin my friends and colleagues.

Reading-wise:

In 2024, I almost exclusively opted for reading short fiction and graphic novels, but in 2025, I read a bunch of novels!!! I don’t have a Goodreads or Storygraph account, so I can’t give you a precise quantity or even list them all, but this is GOOD and makes me very happy! I so often felt like I was reconnecting with Past Me, who used to take stacks of books up into trees and read them all day until it got too dark.

You may remember that I made myself a reading list for 2025, and it was an admirable goal, but I derailed from following that list after re-reading The Monstrous Regiment, which made me only want to re-read more Discworld novels! So, of course… I did that just… completely forgot about the reading list, but that’s okay, because I was so happy to be reading fun books and immersing myself in Pratchett’s brain again! (GNU Terry Pratchett)

2. Annual Submission Statistics

My submission quantity in 2025 was, understandably, the lowest it has been since before 2020. Even so, I am still happy with my numbers!

According to my Submission Grinder dashboard, in 2025 I:

• made 164 submissions (vs. 191 in 2024; this number doesn’t include 2 non-English submissions)
  
• received 8 acceptances (vs. 8 in 2024! AKA, I had the same number of acceptances despite the lower submission rate!)
  
• received 118 form rejections (vs. 146 in 2024)
  
• received 19 personal rejections (vs. 25 in 2024)
  
• ended the year with 4 forthcoming translations, 1 forthcoming story, and 1 acceptance waiting on contract.

At the end of 2025, about 66% of the pieces I’m shopping around are translations and 33% of the pieces I’m shopping around are my own stories. I don’t think I did any poetry submissions in 2025.

3. Translation Submission Statistics

Here’s some submission data/averages for my successful translations submissions since 2020, as of 31 December 2025:

• Average number of submissions before a translation is accepted: 19 submissions
  
• Average number of personal rejections per translation:3.57 personal rejections
  
• Average number of holds per translation: 0.69 holds
  
• Average number of days it takes for me to sell a translation (from date of first submission): 582 days (or, 1.59 years)
  
• My quickest sale of a translation (from date of first submission): 66 days (or, 0.18 years)
  
• My slowest sale of a translation (from date of first submission): 1,332 days (or, 3.65 years)

I plan to update this data each year, because I think it’s helpful to see sometimes I’m able to sell a translation VERY quickly, but sometimes it takes a LONG time and a lot of persistence before I find a home for a translation.

4. Retrospective: Goals for 2025

These were my goals for 2025 – let’s see how many I completed…

• [INCOMPLETE] Make at least 200 submissions.
  
• [COMPLETE] Revise (and begin submitting) at least 3 of my own short stories.
  
• {INCOMPLETE] Continue revising the novel!
  
• [COMPLETE] Translate over 14,000 words of short speculative fiction! (I’m already nearly at 100,000 words of short spec-fic stories translated!)
  
• [INCOMPLETE] Write 5 more short stories!
  
• [COMPLETE] Write more poems!
  
• [INCOMPLETE] Attend an average of 1 spec-fic convention per quarter.
  
• [INCOMPLETE] Table at at least one event where creators sell their works.
  
• [COMPLETE] Set up an online store where I can sell my zines, art, and other creations!

Well, I didn’t complete as many as I’d planned, but I didn’t account for having medical issues or being in some degree of recovery for much of 2025. Alas!

5. Goals for 2026

• Make at least 200 submissions.
  
• Write 5 new short stories.
  
• Hit 200,000 words of translated short speculative fiction (currently at 125,000 words!)
  
• Finish revising the pearlhunter novelette/novella.
  
• Finish revising the novel and have it ready for beta reading.
  
• Write more poetry!
  
• Do more art (and share some of it!).
  
• Panel, table, and/or attend an average of 1 convention or event per quarter. (This *should* be easy to achieve, because I have a bunch of events penciled in on my calendar already, but we’ll seeeee….)

THANK YOU!!!

As always, THANK YOU to my family, friends, and colleagues who’ve supported me and encouraged my work this year. 2025 would have been a lot bleaker without you!

Don’t forget to seize any joy that comes your way in 2026!