My Hope for 2025: Failure?

Plus 50% off sale + Audiobook Sale!

Before I get into the meat of this newsletter, which has been brewing about in my head for a month now, I want to let you know of two excellent sales right at the end of the year—but hurry, because they both end soon!

You can get the audiobook of Full Speed to a Crash Landing for just $2.99 over at Chirp Books—this is a discount audiobook site that does not require a subscription.

And the hardcover copies of both The Fate of Magic and Full Speed to a Crash Landing are available at half price over at Barnes & Noble! This sale is online-only, and both sales end at the end of the year…so in just a matter of days, because somehow 2024 is almost over??

I Hope You Fail in 2025

I kept meaning to do a fancy “Author Wrap” like Spotify does, but for books I worked on this year, and I finally did it here. Because it has been a big year for me:

But the thing I keep coming back to as I thought about this was that while I have done a lot this year…it came about because I’ve been failing a whole lot more.

I only wrote Full Speed because I was desperate. Desperate to prove someone wrong when they told me I couldn’t write the book, but also I was in a desperate rebound from the book of my heart getting a death knell of rejections. And I was extra desperate because at that point, I’d not really had much success at all in selling books…and earning enough money to care for my family.

The Fate of Magic is the sequel to Night of the Witch, a book Sara and I wrote together because we’d both had a dry spell. And our agents originally rejected the concept, which was, frankly, depressing. We cobbled together a new concept, keeping remarkably little from the original full draft that we trashed. And that became not just NOTW and FOM, but also a brand-new launch into a career with Sourcebooks (note that I’ve got more romantasy coming out next year…).

Plus, remember that book I said had been the book of my heart but was rejected and had to be shelved? Well, one editor who read it and ultimately rejected it reached back out to my agent months later. She couldn’t take the book of my heart, but she loved my writing style and she liked a part of the concept and offered to work with me on an exclusive proposal…and that’s how I’ve got an adult romantasy coming out next year.

Darkness Fills the Void was from a book that I originally wrote right after I finished A World Without You, which means I had the early draft done in about 2015/2016. I softball pitched the idea to my agent (who didn’t know I’d written a full draft already), and she wasn’t enthused about it—and rightly so, as the early concept was really rough. I put that book away, knowing it needed something, but that I hadn’t been able to pull it off…yet. And now, almost ten years later, I pulled it back out and turned it into a fully-formed novel with multimedia aspects, published on Patreon. I’m going to be spending January working on revising it and finishing up the multimedia concepts.

My point here is that every single success I have had this year came about thanks to a lot more failure before it.

Absolutely none of the books I published this year could have happened without direct failure before it. The truth of the matter is, I needed those failures to happen before I could succeed. I could not have written Full Speed without the anger and sorrow I had for the book of my heart failing. I could not have worked with Sara on Night of the Witch and the sequel(s) without btoh of us being in a writing slump and without our agents (correctly) rejecting the original concept. I could not have gotten the chance to write the new adult romantasy book I’ve been working on if the editor hadn’t already rejected the other book I sent her.

You cannot have success without failure. But more than that: your failures help define your subsequent successes, making them greater than you could have imagined when you first experienced the failure.

This happens for two reasons:

1. You have to try. If you fail at something, that means you attempted it. And you cannot succeed without attempting something. You’ll never have 100% success rate…unless you don’t take risks and reach for loftier goals. Your choice is simple: you can only consistently succeed if you stagnate. Failure means growth, change, and the chance for even greater things.

2. But also: your failures inform your success. What made Full Speed work is the way I turned my frustrations and anger into art—snarky art, sure, but still art. I needed the emotions of failure in order to create that art; it was a necessary ingredient. Likewise, failures of rejected books forced me to get better—failure means you’ve not settled for mediocrity. Failure means you’ve recognized the need for improvement, and success means you’ve learned and achieved that level of improvement.

So…I hope you fail in 2025

Because if you fail in 2025, that means you’ve tried new things. You’ve reached for higher goals. And you’ll learn what you need to do to grow and succeed in the future.

Take risks. Don’t give up. Fail a lot. And know that failure is inextricably linked to success.

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For the Writers

If you’re also a writer, I’ve got some exciting new things in the works for 2025 just for you!

First, I’ve joined up with UNC-Asheville’s Great Smokies Writer’s Program to do an online class on taking an idea to completed novel! This course is online entirely, so you don’t have to be in Asheville to participate. You also don’t have to be a college student to participate, and the program is going to feature a lot of one-on-one critical writing with instant feedback and guided lessons to bring you directly to the heart of your book.

If you’re in college, it may count as credits, and if you’re in education, there’s a chance it could count as continuing education courses for you (of course, check with your own programs).

I would also like to point you to the Patreon section of this newsletter—I’m launching a new video lesson program there in the new year!

And, finally, don’t forget to subscribe to

Wordsmith Workshops, Retreats, and News

—we’re going to be announcing new writer retreat programs in 2025 very, very soon!

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A few accolades to close out the year

I talked enough about failure, heh. But I had some great news at the end of the year that I want to share!

First, the Library Journal named Full Speed as one of the best sci fi and fantasy books published this year!! This is a huge honor, and I am absolutely thrilled!!! (They also gave Full Speed a starred review—a career highlight for me!)

Also! Amazon picked the sequel How to Steal a Galaxy as an Editor Pick for December! They already picked Full Speed as an editor’s pick earlier, so getting it for the sequel, too, is huge!

Over on Patreon

On Patreon, I’m gearing up for a new book and a new year of writing! If you join now, you can read the full archive of Darkness Fills the Void, as well as getting access to the full ebooks of all past Patreon books (Museum of Magic, House of Hex, and Blood and Feathers).

But ALSO…in January, I’m going to have a vote for what book to write next. If you’ve ever wanted to dictate an author to write what you want, now’s your chance! I’m going to be accepting ideas and holding a vote soon for whatever the 2025 Patreon book will be!

And if you’re a writer, I’m also launching a new video series in the new year (either late January or early February) going from initial idea all the way into the revision process. This video series will eventually become a paid option available for purchase on my webstore, but Patreon will not only get it early, but also get it as a part of their regular subscription!

What I’m Working on Now

• Adult romantasy novel: DONE and with my editor!

• YA historical fantasy: DONE except for copyedits

• Darkness Fills the Void: YA horror novel set in Western North Carolina. On Patreon. Writing is done, now on to copy edits.

• House of Hex: Currently in copy edits—will be done by January

• New sci fi idea? It’s more likely than you think. Except now it’s two, and idk how I’m going to write them both, but I WILL.

• Side gigs!

  • Weekly posts and videos about writing at Patreon

  • SNHU as an online adjunct in the MFA writing program

  • Accepting critique and coaching jobs with Wordsmith Workshops—in addition to doing Word Lab!

  • Actively doing in-person school, library, and book fair events—book me for panels, signings, and workshops for both adults and teens on writing! If you’d like to get an idea of some of the programming I do, I describe it a bit here.