This is a long post. So I’m putting these jump links right at the top for folks who want to skip to the what I liked section and/or the TL;DR. I won’t think any less of you for skipping ahead. Trust me, I wrote it. I know it’s a lot.
- Start At the End
- She Who Left Us
- Those Bloody Books
- Chasing Blue Skies
- Things That I Liked This Year
- Last Words
- TL;DR
Start At the End
It’s impossible to start a year in review blog post about 2025 without mentioning something that happened in October of 2024: My mother died unexpectedly.
I’m not sure that’s the right word. None of us were truly surprised. Mom’s health had been fading for years. A lifetime of battling inner demons with alcohol and cigarettes can really only end one way.
She left us a week after I published SHEPHERDS OF LOST THINGS. My first attempt at the mystery-thriller genre, which was her favorite genre, and she never got to read it. She never got to discover that I’d based Detective Bataille on her.
But we carry on. There was a celebration of her life to plan. Her apartment to clean out. Scattered papers of a life in motion to pick up. An estate to resolve. A eulogy to write. Honestly, I staggered through the holidays last year.
When 2025 arrived, I had hoped that after a long sad winter I could get on to the fun stuff. Writing the second SHEPHERDS book. Getting a draft of my vampire detective novel into test reader hands. Go on some trips with my wonderful wife. However, before any of that could happen, my sister decided she no longer wanted to be part of our lives.
She Who Left Us
The relationship between my sister and our mother fell apart many, many, many years ago. It would do no justice to either of them for me to try and explain to you what happened because I wasn’t part of those events. I will say only that neither of them was without fault.
I spent years playing mediator between my sister and our mother. My home became Switzerland. My phone the middleman, passing notes back and forth. Each of them always asked how the other was doing. Respecting my sister’s wishes, I never shared information about her with our mother. I tried my best to steer each of them away from old grievances. I thought by playing my part I’d help them find their way back to each other.
They were unable to reconcile before my mother passed.
For my sister, I’m sure sitting there at the funeral, listening to everyone get up and speak to mom’s many wonderful qualities, was excruciatingly painful. In hindsight, I could have been more supportive of her. She experienced a lot of cold shoulders that day from mom’s friends.
I hadn’t realized it would be the last time we’d ever sit in the same room. Two moments stand out in my memory of that last day with her:
- When I sat down after delivering my eulogy that had the room laughing and crying, she asked me, “Did you get the response you wanted?” Not, “that was well said,” or “I’m sure mom would have loved that.” It felt cold and detached. Over time I’ve come to believe she was likely unhappy to see me grieve a woman she felt had wronged her.
- We sparred that day, but not about our mother. Rather, I snapped when she started telling her friend a story about our father being ill mannered. In her telling, she removed all the details that explained his actions until the tale framed herself as the victim of a thoughtless parent. She didn’t believe her actions were responsible for other people’s emotions. Which, isn’t correct at all. We’re not ultimately responsible for people’s actions, but our own actions can greatly impact how other people feel about themselves and the world around them.
After the ceremony, my sister started becoming distant. I thought she was just going through the same heartbreak many of us went through last fall after the election. Now I can see clearly that she was, to use the therapy buzz words, “going low contact.” Why wouldn’t she? With mom dead she had no need for me to keep her in the loop.
She slowly pulled away from one family member after another, even going so far as to ask people not to send her partner birthday cards. When she finally cut communication down so much that people started worrying about her physical wellbeing — I looked into how to request a welfare check. But, I didn’t want to do that and inflame the situation.
Instead I called and texted until she finally responded.
During our last, heated, conversation she stated that our relationship couldn’t include other people. Which is a strange way of saying that I should be okay with her ghosting family members without telling them why. I got emotional and told her that we couldn’t have a relationship where other members of the family just didn’t exist. She told me she didn’t want to be yelled at. I told her I loved her and wanted only the best for her. Then she hung up on me.
I’m respecting her decision to not be a part of our lives.
It makes for a strange hole in my life to try and explain to people. When you hear someone say they’ve cut ties with their family, you usually assume it’s because their family was toxic. To this day I don’t know why she cut me and the rest of our family out of her life. I’ve thought about contacting her again, if only for closure, but I can’t imagine of a version of that conversation that ends with me feeling better about any of this.
In the past nine months I’ve had time to re-evaluate my actions as well as hers. Things said and unsaid. Here in the silence that was once our relationship, an original sin screams at me from the past. The longer I’ve had to sit with it, the more I feel ashamed of my actions. Simply put, I should never have tolerated the way my sister treated family members. Or me.
Those Bloody Books
My sister had been one of my go to test readers. She’d offered feedback for both THE HEART OF LIGHTSPEED and SHEPHERDS OF LOST THINGS. Her book blurbs live on the back of both covers to this day. However, she never responded when I sent her an early copy of VAMPIRE DETECTIVE AGENCY. I don’t know what she thought of it. Or if she even read it at all.
Mom would have gotten a kick out of it. She loved Ann Rice’s vampire novels, and I certainly had the blood, sex, and violence of those books in the back of my mind when I started crafting the adventures of Veronica and Larry.
I got a lot of wonderful feedback from my friends on those early drafts. Some people might hate it, but I love it when I get a suggestion or criticism that makes me rethink my writing. That feeling of “oh, of course, why didn’t I think of that?” is what drives me to continually edit my writing with a razor sharp critical eye.
That internal critic must be okay, because reviews for my first stab at paranormal romance have been good. I’d like to think I’ve gotten better as a writer with every book, but it’s that same sharp critical eye that lets me be honest when I tell you… SHEPHERDS OF FRAGILE CREATURES is not as good as you deserved. It suffered greatly from the drama in my family this past year. I should have delayed it, but I’d promised readers a release date and I wanted to hit it no matter what. So I dragged myself, and the novel, across the finish line.
Because of that rushed, painful, experience I won’t even begin to guess when the final entry in the trilogy (TIMEWORN DREAMS) will be ready for readers. I wanted to have it out in 2026, but right now it doesn’t feel like that will happen. I know exactly how I want to end it. I’ve even written the last lines of dialogue that will appear. But, right now it feels like a book that plods along until the last act starts. I’m not giving up on it. I just need more time.
On the flip side, the second VAMPIRE DETECTIVE AGENCY novel, DOUBLE DATE, is coming along smoothly. I’ve got it plotted out and have started writing it when time allows. I don’t foresee any issues with delivering it to reader’s hands in October. It remains my goal to have a new one out every year until the series concludes with SEVEN WAYS TO DIE PAINFULLY IN NYC.
Chasing Blue Skies
Things that don’t need another year are my love of photography. I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole so far that I’ve even managed to drag my wife along with me. There’s an immediacy to the process of snapping a picture, editing it, and sharing it that is absent from writing. Novels take months of work to craft. But a photograph? It can go from a scene in front of my lens to an image you can engage with online in the same day.
I’m still happy with my Sony A7C2, but I have been looking longingly at the Fujifilm GFX100RF. Something about that camera speaks to me. Yes, I am well aware of its faults and limitations. A reviewer called it “a photographer’s midlife crisis purchase,” and I can’t say I disagree. I turn 45 next year and well… midlife? Crisis? Certainly if the price continues to go up. If nothing else, I’ll probably try and rent or borrow one this coming year.
My wife asked me why I wanted to continue our membership with the Portland Japanese Gardens since we’d already been there a few times and photographed. To me this series of photos of the same stone lantern tells the story. The gardens are a living thing, constantly in motion from season to season. Even the difference in light and shadow from one day to the next can make a dramatic difference.
That’s probably my only complaint about photography this year. I’d like some better luck with light. During the last few trips we’ve taken out of town, the day we set aside for picture taking turns out to be the grayest or wettest day of the entire trip. I’m not kidding. We went to the Oregon coast in July and somehow found the only stretch of beach that spent three days under heavy fog. Granted, that did lead to these great photos.
But, still… I’d like some blue skies and golden sunsets in 2026.
Things That I Liked This Year
Movies
Nostalgia has me tight in her grips and the never ending cycle of old movies getting a fresh coat of paint with 4k releases has been great this year. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World. TMNT. Hard Boiled! I’d never seen that film on any format other than a well loved DVD that played like a cheap scan of a VHS copy of the film.
As for more recent films, K-Pop Demon Hunters was a hoot! Superman was great. I think I love Man of Steel as a film a bit more, but James Gunn’s version of that universe is the brighter more hopeful version that I’d like to see more of in the future.
Books
Haven’t read nearly enough this year. My apologies to all the authors out there. I’m also behind on posting reviews to Goodreads. Rectifying both those sins is near the top of my to do list for 2026.
Was happy to read an advance review copy for The Witch’s Pet. It starts off strong, builds towards an unbelievable first dramatic moment (the union of two people who do not want to be wed to one another) and then it just sizzles. Dialogue is full of wit, drama, and painful truths. The banter here is second to none. They clash against each other until literally the last page. It makes for a great tense read of “Will they? Won’t they? Who’s going to die next?”
Devoured Nenia Campbell’s Through A Glass, Darkly after seeing her social media posts about it. I loved how she played with the vampire mythology. The way her villain became detached from the world by their immortality was fascinating. As was the way he pursued the love interest across a decade. It gave me a few things to think about when I was writing my own vampire book.
I went on a romance book kick and finished reading the Stay A Spell series by Juliette Cross. How she connected her characters together across the books is something I’ll be thinking back on when working on the later stories in my vampire detective series.
Alexa Sullivan’s I Dream of Demigods was a book that I finished in 2024, but I’m going to mention it here because I didn’t do this kind of post last year, and her book does an amazing job mixing law firm office politics with magic and monsters.
The last half of this year I’ve been reading through the Hallow’s Cove series. Interconnected romance novellas set in the same paranormal monster filled town. Cute, short, and to the point. I can’t find anything to complain about here.
Music
Was all over the place this year. Loved the new 65daysofstatic album No Man’s Sky: Journeys. Put in a lot of repeats with Florence+theMachine’s new album Everybody Scream. Ghost of Yotei’s Watanabe Mode EP got more than a few spins on my speakers. Finally, The Midnight’s Syndicate scratched an emo-cyberpunk itch that I didn’t even know I had.
But none of those albums came close to the top played song of the year for me: Mogwai’s Auto Rock. That song was set to repeat while I wrote SHEPHERDS OF FRAGILE CREATURES.
Technology
There wasn’t really any new technology in my bag this year. I picked up an artsy fartsy lens for my camera (Lomography Petzval 55 MKII Art Lens) that can shoot dreamy portraits with swirly bokeh.
Mostly, it was old stuff that impressed me this year. My trusty little iPad Mini remains my favorite of the Apple iPad line up. It fits easily into my travel bag, is easier to pull out and use on a plane, and is a great companion when watching bad TV.
On the other end of the spectrum, the iPad Pro finally feels complete with iOS 26. It chews through photo and writing editing with the pencil accessory. At this point, there’s literally only one piece of software in my life that keeps me tethered to my Mac mini – the book publishing software Vellum. If they ever make an iPad version, or if the iPad ever gets the ability to run Mac apps I will be free of the desktop forever.
TV Shows
Star Wars Skeleton Crew – Really loved it. Goonies in SW. Wish more people had given it a shot. Would have been better as a movie, but I’m glad we got it.
Reacher – He punches people real hard. That’s all it needs to be, and yet they keep finding ways to push the character further. Can’t wait for the next season.
Severance – I’m starting to worry the final end to the many mysteries they’ve spun up will disappoint, but at least we got this gorgeous beast of a show to enjoy along the way.
Murderbot – Dark, humor filled, and almost perfectly acted. The pacing doesn’t work as a weekly TV show at all, but now that it’s all out you can watch it in one binge session.
Fallout – Pitch perfect take on the vibe of the videogames without being just a boring retread of those stories again. Everything about this show makes the Halo TV show feel less like a missed opportunity and more like a crime against gamers.
Videogames
It was a terrible year for the people who make videogames. Too many layoffs happened that were driven entirely by poor management and corporate fuckery. Yet, for the people who play videogames it was an amazing year. Which makes every fun filled game all the more precious. The industry lost a lot of talent this year and we will feel it in the years to come.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle– Gives you the experience of living an unreleased indy film. Pitch perfect. No notes. Go play it.
Sword of the Sea – It’s more of a visual/audio experience than it is a game, but it feels too good to play for me to bitch about that fact.
33 Immortals – A game that boils down the end of an MMO raid into a repeatable rogue like multiplayer experience that’s fun to play over and over.
Dispatch – The story, visuals, and voice acting pull this together and put it at the top of anyone’s list more than the gameplay. If I was being bitchy I’d point out that the only real “gameplay” barely gets interesting until the very end, but I can’t be bitchy about this game because the story was so damn good.
Donkey Kong Bananza – It works despite all the concerns you might have about the core mechanic getting old. You just smash your way from start to finish and it’s a blast the whole way through.
Jump Space – Saying it’s just like Sea of Thieves in space doesn’t do it justice. It’s early access and often the networking feels held together more by prayer than duct tape… but if you have friends you should go buy it now. I can’t wait to see how the devs grow the game on the foundations they’ve built.
Avowed – It boils an 80hr Bethesda RPG experience down into a manageable 20hr RPG experience by stripping out all the faff and excess. Which would have been good enough to get it on my list, but then they also delivered a story that goes places with colonialism & religion that I never expected. Play it.
Eternal Strands – Super strong gameplay loops, beautiful visuals, and a story with so much heart. This is a great game. I’d love to see a sequel even if all they did was sand off the rough edges.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition – Its worth revisiting this game just to experience the adventure in 60fps. It changes how the game feels so dramatically that it’s like playing a brand new game. You walk away wondering what the developers will do with all the power the Switch 2 can offer this gameplay mechanic.
Last Words
It’s been a rough mix of highs and lows this year, and I’m hoping that next year has either more steady waters or a whole hell of a lot less bullshit. I’ll do a blog post in January with an outline of what I hope to deliver to readers and myself in 2026. Until then, take care of each other because in the end we are the ones who are left.
TL;DR
2025 summed up in super fast mode for folks that don’t wanna read through all that drama: Mom died. Sister decided to ghost everyone in the family. Wrote and published TWO books. One of them is good, more folks should read it. The final book in my supernatural thriller trilogy will take longer than anticipated. I took a bunch of photos and want to take more next year. I like stuff too.
RossWeisfish.com 