Thoughts on Publishing a Novel in 2025

I didn’t have much time to write outside of Counter Craft this year, beyond publishing the short story “The Tugwort” in Nightmare. Of course, my most important publication this year was my second novel, Metallic Realms. It is a weird novel that was written initially for my own enjoyment, attempting to cram as many things that I love about literature into one book without worrying myself about publication. I wrote about that process, and writing for yourself instead of the market, in this post. The fact that this weird and personal novel has received many glowing reviews, appeared on best of the year lists, and made strangers reach out to me to say it was the most fun they had reading this year or that it made them fall in love with science fiction again is extremely gratifying.