A Strong Start
Every year, as December winds to an end, I like to look back and see what the hell I spent all my writing time doing. I wake up every morning before work, fill up a cup of coffee and sit in front of my laptop. Mostly, the intention is to write, but that’s not always what ends up happening. Sometimes, I’m sitting in front of a manuscript that’s 80% done and decide to write a blog post about writing for the year instead. By day, I’m a data scientist, so it tracks that I’ve got a spreadsheet and charts of writing. 2025 looked like this:
The year started very strong, pretty much linear until June. In that time, I wrote a brand new book that is tentatively titled, The Metalhead. It’s the story of a teenage girl having a dead rockstar stuck in her head and their inevitable battle against The Queen of the Damned. I have no idea when/if it will see the light of day, but I had a blast writing it.
The Flatline
Then BAM, flatline in June. Part of that was the high of finishing a manuscript, but the bigger part was:
Yeah, we adopted Alan from Little Dog Rescue (yeah, someone didn’t want this guy) in June. Having a puppy meant morning writing time was now morning playtime. Puppies are adorable, a lot, and Alan was a hand grenade to my productivity. I didn’t get back on my writing routine until the Fall. Coincidentally, Fall was a big deal for other reasons:
I launched my new comedic sci-fi novel, One Night at Kedasi!
I wrote the first draft of Kedasi three years ago and after hitting the query cycle HARD in 2024, I landed a publisher (Artemesia Publishing) and it released on 9/23/25. For the first time, I had a book in bookstores, I got to do solo signing events, and I’ll be honest, I spent a lot of time basking in that rather than actually writing. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came out and packed these bookstores to support me.
Back to Routine
But, I did eventually get back on my routine, and that has me here, at my laptop, puppy sitting next to me, writing every morning again. All in all, here’s how my wordcount stacked up:
Most of my writing total came from The Metalhead, which makes sense because it’s a whole damned manuscript. I also had the chance to flex with some children’s fiction with Devil’s Tower (maybe more on that in the future). But, funny enough, the project I want to talk about is second from the bottom, Chadpocalypse.
If you’ve followed me, read samples, or talked to me at any period of length, you’ll know I’ve been working on Chadpocalypse for a long time.
The short pitch: It’s my love letter to Good Omens, Dogma, and Constantine. It tells the story of Chad, a washed up college dropout, and his struggle as he becomes humanity’s herald/protector for the biblical apocalypse. I’m not religious, but I have always enjoyed projects that mix theology with humor. Good Omens is my favorite example of this genre (to be clear, f*** Neil Gaiman, but we still love Terry Pratchett). Good Omens pokes fun at religious dogma, but in a way that still seems like it shows some reverence for the practice. People might disagree, but I feel Dogma is very similar, albeit with more sh** demons and cursing.
For the last few months, I’ve worked on my fourth revision to this manuscript with the intent of sending it out to publishers next year. I think with all the hype around Dungeon Crawler Carl, the time is ripe for this type of book and I might actually be able to get it published. That said, religion is always a hot stove, so there’s a chance publishers won’t want to touch it. If that ends up being the case, I’ll probably release it myself on Kindle. Either way, look forward to hearing more about Chad in the new year.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As usual, there are a ton of projects I want to work on, but I’m going to stick to my top 3 here.
1. The Sequel to One Night at Kedasi
I’ve got the outline fully penned for this and I’m really stoked about the concept. It goes hard at the dipsh**s running generative AI companies and has some adventurous temple-exploring DNA. I’m waiting on sales numbers for One Night at Kedasi at the beginning of the year. If they’re high enough, I’ll get cracking.
Side Note: If you’ve read One Night at Kedasi and made it this far in the blog, please encourage your friends to read it and leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. Those reviews help other people pick it up and make a sequel way more likely.
2. A Woman of the Swamp
The Nick Ventner Adventures have been dormant since 2020. Unfortunately, their original publisher, Aberrant Literature, closed down before we could publish the third book in the series, Maelstrom. You may notice, this bullet is not titled Maelstrom. I have that manuscript written, but it needs a new middle bit, and that’s the hardest to rewrite. Instead, I have A Woman of the Swamp, a new entry in the Nick Ventner Adventures focusing on both Nick and an amateur necromancer in Louisiana. I love this story, I love these characters, and I will find a way to get it out to you all this year. Whether that’s Kindle only, a new publisher, or as a free PDF, I’ll find a way.
3. New Audiobooks & Storytime With Ash
Speaking of the Nick Ventner Adventures, A Man of the Mountain has suddenly started doing very well as an audiobook on Spotify. So, I made the decision late this year to get Stuart Bentley (a wonderful Canadian actor and narrator) to work on a full audiobook of Whiteout. It’s slated to come out sometime this spring, just shy of 8 years after the book’s original release.
Story Time With Ash is a podcast I’ve been working on where you can listen to my short stories for free!
The catch, you have to hear them with my narration. Part of my goal for next year is to improve my skills as a narrator. So, Storytime with Ash is a way to do that and put out some stories that would have otherwise dwindled on my hard drive. Also, I’ll have some guest narrators on like the incredibly talented Joel Simler (narrator of The First Ambassador to Crustacea).
Closing Thoughts
Another year down and another novel out in the world. Indie writing is a perilous journey full of ups, downs, and secret spike pits no one tells you about. This year has been very good to me as a writer, despite my puppy slump, and I’m excited about what comes next. For everyone who read my work, showed up to events, and bought my new book this year, thank you. I can’t express with words—ironically—how much that means to me. Even if I never crack the midlist, I’ll still be here putting out new stories. So, thanks for staying this long, see you all in the new year.
Ashton Macaulay 