I have a theory that each year seems to pass faster because a single year makes up a smaller and smaller percentage of my total life. When I was 5 years old, a year was 20% of my life. Now, that I am much older, it is 2.5% of my life and feels accordingly (you may do the math if you truly wish to figure out my current age). Also, when I was 5, I had a lot less responsibilities. Now, I am balancing a lot more on my plate between work, family, home/garden, volunteering, and other hobbies. This is all to say that I just realized today that I did not post about anything of consequence in all of 2025 (aside from my brief apology post). This lack of posting coincides with the year that I actually published the most work. I briefly considered just skipping all of 2025. Start with a clean slate. And then, I started looking at the work that was published this year, and I knew I had to do at least 1 post celebrating each win, each story and poem that touch on something important to me. So, here is the giant post of work published in 2025 (the year that disappeared on me):
Short Stories
“For the Love of Death” Iridescence anthology; Kinsman Avenue Publishing; February 2025
2025 started out with a big win. “For the Love of Death” placed second in the Iridescence contest on supernatural poetry and fiction written by authors of color that was organized by Kinsman Avenue Publishing. As part of that, it was also published in the Iridescence anthology. It’s a story of an older woman who is literally facing death and learns to love again.
Most of the things I read have protagonists that are in their teens and twenties. As I grow older, I’ve realized there is a dearth of stories that focus on older women with grown children, especially ones that allow them to confront the supernatural (without being some sort of witch or wise woman) or to find new love. As I wrote, it became a lovely little story of longing and wanting to live one day more.
The icing on the cake came later on in the year as Kinsman Avenue honored my story with a Pushcart nomination. This is my first Pushcart nomination for a fiction story since 2012, and I’m so glad it was for this story.
“Daciana’s Pack” – Dog Save the King anthology; Hemelein Publications and LTUE Press; February 2025
“Daciana’s Pack” was a story I’d written a while ago but just had trouble finding the right place. It’s about a father and son and the choices they must make for their kingdom. It’s probably the most “traditional fantasy” of most of my stories, and it involves a pack of wolves. I think wolves are such fascinating animals, their teamwork and intelligence and the way they support whole ecosystems.
When I read the prompt for the Dog Save the King anthology, which requested stories about royalty and dogs/wolves, I knew this would be the perfect place for my story. I’m glad the editors agreed. It is a charity anthology by Hemelein Publications, and all profits are donated to support student memberships to the LTUE symposium.
“The Dead-Seer and the Death-Seer” – Andromeda Spaceways; Issue 98, May 2025
I came up with a whole system regulating magical powers for “The Dead-Seer and the Death-Seer,” which is one of my longer stories. These magical powers are more along the lines of X-men, where people are born with a specific power and therefore must take the bad consequences along with the good that comes with having said powers. The story centers around 2 men who both have powers relating to death who come together under difficult circumstances and find love with each other.
While this story had gone through multiple iterations, the core characters and main points of the plot stayed the same throughout. To see these two beloved characters find a home at Andromeda Spaceways was very satisfying.
“Yue and the Fox” – Promised Protagonists anthology, Volume 1; August 2025
It’s always rare when I’m able to share one of my published stories with my currently 8-year-old daughter. “Yue and the Fox” started off as a possible children’s book, then was rewritten as a script, then rewritten once again as a piece of short fiction. Yue, the main character, is named after the moon and is inspired by my daughter, also named after the moon. The fox is patterned off a traditional Chinese mythological creature (hence its ability to talk). So, this children’s story contains elements that are very important to me. I was so happy to have it published in the Promised Protagonists anthology as it’s an anthology specifically to empower children and promote diversity in children’s literature.
“At the Heart of It” – Saros; Issue 4, October 2025
A recurring motif in my writing is the relationship between a mother and daughter. It is this relationship that plays the deciding factor in “At the Heart of It”. This story came to me as an image: a ticket to the moon. I has also been recently recovering from surgery. So, the two topics of “organs” and “moon” came together. I had particular trouble with the ending of this story and had written it in many different ways with the main character making many different choices, but I think the final ending that was published in Saros works the best and I’m so pleased with how it turned out.
An interview of my thoughts behind the story and writing in general can also be found in the issue. It’s a pay-what-you-want model and you can also get the accompanying sister publication Fusion Fragments at the same time.
“The House on the Hill” – Bowery Gothic; Edition XI, Fall 2025
This story came to me in a dream, literally. For much of my life, I’ve often dreamed of a house on a hill. It’s always the same house, and it’s this house that inspired “The House on the Hill.” Of course, the story is unique; I didn’t dream the exact events that happen in the story. After reading it, my husband asked me my interpretation of what was happening, and I told him that it was best to have his own interpretation without mine changing what he thought. So, yes, I’ll let you do the same. This story is my first in the gothic horror genre, and I’m glad that it found a home (pun intended!) in the Fall 2025 edition of Bowery Gothic.
Poetry
“the definition of kermes” – Places We Call Home: Celebrating the Voices of Anaheim, April 2025
I love the library. It’s my safe space, and you can find me there at least once a week, if not more. It’s also through the Anaheim libraries that I found this contest call. I had lost a friend early last year, and it was the loss and the community that came together because of it that inspired my poem, “the definition of kermes”. I was honored that it won first place in the “Family and Community” category. I spoke to one of the contest judges after the poetry reading, and he told me that sometimes you know which poem is going to win the moment you read it, and he said he knew when he read my poem. Those words have stayed with me and buoyed me in times when I’ve received too many rejections in a row. If you’re interested, the anthology can only be found at the Anaheim library system.
“ghost story of a lost sister” – Star*Line; Issue 48.3, Summer 2025
In my family, lore can be dropped on me out of nowhere. I’ll be minding my own business, and then all of a sudden, I’ll find out about a family member that I never knew existed. So what do I do? I write a poem inspired by it: “ghost story of a lost sister”. Without giving too much away, it’s a sad and horrible set of circumstances and talks about the death of a young child. It’s also a speculative poem, and Star*Line is a dream publication for speculative poetry.
“fireworks prayers” – Anaheim Poetry Review; Issue 3, October 2025
I’ve been attending open mic nights at the Anaheim library for a few years now. It’s been a great way for me to practice public speaking, to work on my social anxiety, and to build confidence in myself. It’s during these nights that I found out about the Anaheim Poetry Review, which is compiled by the resident Anaheim Poet Laureate (currently the fantastically talented Camille Hernandez). My poem, “fireworks prayers,” touches on my thoughts about living so close to Disneyland that I can see the fireworks from my backyard. The Anaheim Poetry Review is available online to read, but if you want a paper copy, you are only able to check it out from the Anaheim library system as well.
Articles
“Reach Out and Touch (Stamps)” – StampEd; Winter 2025
I had just completed my certificate in Braille transcription, which prompted my pitch to StampEd to write an article about Braille on postage stamps. I had a lot of fun researching the history behind the Braille alphabet, interviewing stamp designers, and learning more about the considerations that go behind embossing stamps. It also got me to start my own mini-topical collection on Braille stamps (so far, I have 3 stamps!).
“Rule My World: Micronations and Their Stamps” – The American Philatelist, February 2025; Reprinted in StampEd, Winter 2025
I had read an article on Atlas Obscura about micronations that mentioned that they designed their own stamps. So, alongside the design considerations, I really wanted to dig into the philosophy behind micronations and how postage stamps represent these micronations. Everyone I interviewed was so enthusiastic and helpful in sharing information, resources, and other people I could also interview. I ended up with so much information, and I hope my article reflected the thoughtful responses I received. This article was actually first published in The American Philatelist (the main publication of the American Philatelic Society, which also published StampEd) as a joint publication with StampEd, and as a member of the APS, it was quite an honor to be included alongside writers with deep expertise in philately.
“Rocket to the Moon” – Topical Time; November-December 2025 (Vol. 77, No. 6)
As a topical collector of postage stamps, I recently decided to join the American Topical Association. While reading their member publication, Topical Time, I came upon an article encouraging readers to write articles of their own. Of course this piqued my interest. The difference to writing for Topical Time is that it’s focused on using stamps (preferably stamps the writer owns themselves) to talk about a topic outside of the the stamps. One of my main topical collections is space and space exploration postage stamps, and I had recently done a 1-page exhibit on the Luna 1 mission. When I wrote to the Editor-in-Chief, he encouraged me to expand it into a full article. Imagine my excitement when I found out it had ended up being the cover article.
Photography
While this post is focused on my writing publications, I did want to mention that 2025 was also a good year for my photography, with my photos being included in multiple galleries both online and in-person as well as being featured in a Smithsonian Magazine article. Whenever writing gets to be too much, I work on the visual arts to clear my mind, and I’ve been working on photography for a long time. So, it’s nice to see my photos out in the real world. You can find out more on the photography page of the website.
Conclusion
At this point, while going over my body of work, I’m definitely seeing common themes and tropes start to emerge. This is actually quite exciting to me because it means that I’m starting to define my distinctive style more. At the same time, I’m branching out more and more into various subgenres and pushing my writing into new dimensions. I hope to keep this momentum going into 2026!