My 2025 Wrap-Up

On By Jayde HolmesIn Essays, My Stories, Reading Challenges, Review, Uncategorized, World of Green and Black

2025 is almost over, and I managed to get a lot done. Not as much as I would have liked, but there’s been some downs this year, so that’s to be expected. At the start of the year I set myself a few goals, so now it’s time to see how I went. These were my 2025 goals:

  • Post monthly artwork related to the World of Green and Black series
  • Publish the next World of Green and Black novella
  • Have more short stories published
  • Finish my novel Robot Town
  • Complete a 100% glitchless Ocarina of Time run
  • Complete the 2025 Book Bingo card.

WORLD OF GREEN AND BLACK

The cover for "The Strongest in the Forest" by Jayde Holmes. The background is red and covered in dark red splatters like bloodstains. In the four ground is a digital sketch coloured only in black, white and gray of a crumbling square tower with a lone human on top facing down a large dragonlike creature that is clinging to the tower railings, with just a sword. The text is in white, with the book title at the top and the author name at the bottom.

The first two goals are both related to my World of Green and Black series. I waned to do a monthly artwork project, and I wanted to publish a new novella. Both of these were a success. I have been doing monthly ‘featured creatures’ from a fictitious in-universe bestiary, and in April I published a new novella in the series, The Strongest in the Forest. More information on both of these projects can be found on my World of Green and Black page, which can be found by clicking HERE.

The Strongest in the Forest is a prequel to my earlier novella, Neighbour, and follows the strongest tactician of an alien forest navigating first contact with a group of exiled humans. I love this world, and I am really excited to share another big story set amongst my aliens with everyone. I also think this story has the best fight scene I’ve ever written. You can read The Strongest in the Forest on this site, or download digital versions from my Buy Me a Coffee shop, found by clicking HERE. The digital downloads are free, but a tip is very much appreciated.

OTHER FICTION

A white hand holding up a paperback book copy of "Madam, Don't Forget Your Sword" edited by H. Davis and E. Davis. Has the tagline "Tales of the Companions, Sidekicks, and Minions" and a cover illustration featuring a man in a hooded robe holding out a sword.

When it comes to my other fiction we have a more mixed bag. I had the somewhat vague goal of having more short fiction published, and the solid goal of finishing my first novel, Robot Town. I have made some good progress with Robot Town, but that was in the form of re-writing everything I’d done so far, and now I have a bit of a block. Hopefully next year I can complete it.

As for short stories, I did indeed get two shorts published in semi-professional markets this year. The first is The Feeding and Breeding Habits of Southern Treasure Mimics which appeared in the May 2025 issue of Dirty Magick Magazine. This is my take on mimics, and I tried to make it amusing. The second was my superhero short Lucky Charm which was published in the Madam, Don’t Forget Your Sword anthology by Dead Fish Books. Links to purchase both can be found by clicking on the titles. I’m quite proud of both of these stories, and I hope other people out there have been enjoying them.

I do have one more short story forthcoming, but things have been quiet on the story selling front. Still, there are a couple of stories I’m shopping around that I have really high hopes for. Hopefully next year I’ll have the chance to share them.

OCARINA OF TIME AND MY TWITCH CHANNEL

My next goal wasn’t writing or reading related, but revolves around the gaming I do over at my Twitch channel (I’m Trilobytes11 at Twitch, come follow me). I play a lot of games over there, especially randomizers. My go to game though is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Randomizer (or, Zootr for short). I have been addicted to this randomizer for years. Through this, I’ve learnt a lot of speedrunning techniques, and I would love to one day complete an actual speedrun. I was hoping to learn the 100% glitchless route this year, because that seems like it would be quite an accomplishment. Unfortunately, I just never got around to it.

But let me talk about what I did get to do instead. Last year, I entered my first Zootr tournament, a Scrubs (beginner) level tourney with five divisions. I was in the lowest division, called Group Minuet, and I came third out of eight. This year I entered again, and qualified in the middle ranked division, Group Serenade, and I came second! This group Serenade was considered quite stacked, but I still managed to make it to the grand final.

This tournament and my good performance was huge for me. I’ve always struggled with anxiety, self-doubt, and struggled connecting with other people. All of these are things I had to work through for this tournament, and even though I didn’t win, I feel so much more confident in myself. The ScrubsCentral community that hosts the tournament is super friendly and welcoming. If zootr sounds like something you’d be interested in, go check them out. Here’s a link to their Twitch channel. And here’s a link to their Discord server.

As for my 100% speedrun goal, that’s not dead. After participating in the Scrubs tournament, I feel I need to work on my movement. Learning a speedrun should help with that. I plan to have a fastish casual 100% playthrough before the end of the year, just to see how long it takes me to complete the vanilla game without any extra work. Then I’ll see if I can actually whip together a speedrun.

BOOK BINGO

Lastly, let’s take a look at my 2025 Book Bingo Card. Here’s what it looked like at the start of the year:

A five-by-five bingo card with the following challenges, In the heading is the title ‘2025’, and the website address jaydeholmes.com/book-bingo-cards/ It has the following challenges, listed row-by-row and left-to-right: Row One: 1. Written by Terry Pratchett 2. Locus Award for Best Horror Novel Winner 3. Breaking a Curse 4. Translated from Russian 5. Written in Your Year of Birth Row 2: 1. Set on a Spaceship 2. Told from a ‘Villain’ POV 3. World Fantasy Award Winner 4. Been Adapted into a Movie 5. Been Sitting on the Shelf for More Than a Year Row 3: 1. Title Starts with O 2. Has Dragons 3. Free Square 4. Afrofuturism 5. Written Between 1930 – 1950 Row 4: 1. Set During the Cold War 2. King Arthur (Retelling, Inspired, or Original) 3. Has Witches 4. Has Immortality 5. Australian, Canadian or New Zealand Author Row 5: 1. Translated from Japanese 2. Non-Marvel or DC Superheroes 3. Has Ghosts 4. Title Starts with P 5. Short Fiction Magazine

And here is where I’m at today:

A five-by-five bingo card with the following challenges, In the heading is the title ‘2025’, and the website address jaydeholmes.com/book-bingo-cards/ It has the following challenges, listed row-by-row and left-to-right: Row One: 1. Written by Terry Pratchett (Hogfather) 2. Locus Award for Best Horror Novel Winner (What Moves the Dead) 3. Breaking a Curse (Someone You Can Build a Nest In) 4. Translated from Russian (Monday Starts on Saturday) 5. Written in Your Year of Birth Row 2: 1. Set on a Spaceship (Murder by Memory) 2. Told from a ‘Villain’ POV (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) 3. World Fantasy Award Winner 4. Been Adapted into a Movie (Redwall) 5. Been Sitting on the Shelf for More Than a Year (Runaways: Teenage Wasteland) Row 3: 1. Title Starts with O 2. Has Dragons (Onyx Storm) 3. Free Square 4. Afrofuturism (After the Flare) 5. Written Between 1930 – 1950 (The Case of Charlse Dexter Ward) Row 4: 1. Set During the Cold War (Three Miles Down) “ 2. King Arthur (Retelling, Inspired, or Original) (Spear) 3. Has Witches (The Summer War) 4. Has Immortality (A Court of Mist and Fury) 5. Australian, Canadian or New Zealand Author Row 5: 1. Translated from Japanese (The Liminal Zone) 2. Non-Marvel or DC Superheroes (Dreadnought) 3. Has Ghosts (Haunt Sweet Home 4. Title Starts with P (Penric and the Bandit) 5. Short Fiction Magazine (Dirty Magick Magazine Jan 2025)

As of writing this post, I am just finishing off the short story collection One Step From Earth by Harry Harrison for the “Title Starts with O” square. I have books picked out for the last three tiles after that, but it’ll be a challenge to read all of them before the end of the year. Still, this is the closest I have come in years to filling out one of these cards, and I have read a lot of great books this year.

I’ve already reviewed a decent number of these book bingo books, but I’ll make a special post just for the reviews later in the month. Then next month (next year!) I’ll unveil a brand new 2026 card. So keep your eyes on this space, there will be more book reviews here soon.

So, I will still be posting the Book Bingo Reviews and one last Featured Creature, so we aren’t quite done with 2025 yet. Still, I want to thank everyone who has supported me and my work. It means a lot to know that people read what I write and find value in it, and I’m grateful to everyone who has been hanging around and reading my work over the years.

Thank you everyone for a great 2025.

~ Jayde

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