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... and that was 2025

  • joelcmckay
  • Dec 29, 2025
  • 7 min read

A quick fly by of a bunch of nerdy writing things as we round out 2025:


It's been four-and-a-half months or so since The Dungeoneers and the Treasure of Roan was released. To be honest, I haven't bothered to check on sales or noticed a significant increase in my income so I'm going to take a wild guess that it hasn't hit "New York Times Bestseller" status as of yet. Yet. Yet ... the feedback has been resoundingly positive, which I'll take as a good sign.




First, as of yesterday, I can announce the novel was named a 'finalist' in the 2025 Global Book Awards Dark Fantasy category, which is a nice little bit of recognition as I round out the year. You can find that information here: The Global Book Awards


The awards are for us self-published types and indie authors. I've been fortunate to have all three of my books now recognized through this outfit, Wolf at the Door even won the gold medal for horror.



Reviews


There's a decent review for The Dungeoneers in Uncaged Magazine right now. Reviews start at page 98: Uncaged Book Reviews - December 2025


And here's a link to the BookLife Review from Publishers Weekly for it: The Dungeoneers and the Treasure of Roan by Joel McKay | BookLife - a subsequent BookLife review gave the novel an 8.25/10 (highest points in there for character and execution. I don't think they mean execution of characters). Anyway, I'll take an A- any day of the week (being a solid C- student in high school).


Here's what the reviewer said:


"Readers can't help but like Wincott and Sish, who have thievery in their blood. The author pulls all the stops, with danger lurking at every turn, and welcome tenderness in the least expected moments." - The BookLife Prize

Annnnnnd here's another review from August: The Dungeoneers and the Treasure of Roan – passionduniya


And The Dungeoneers featured again in Connections eMagazine in September: Connections eMagazine September 2025 Edition by Connections eMagazine - Issuu



Podcast Appearances


My publicist kept me busy through summer and fall with lots of interviews (where I could fit them in my schedule). Here's a few links if you feel inclined to watch me blather for an extended period of time about a variety of things:



The High Strangeness Podcast with Tony H.: #99-2 Thrilling Tales & Savage Twists (w/Joel McKay)



I was back on Tea Time with Miss Liz here: Miss Liz Serves Real Tea Today We Serve



And an interview in Uncaged Magazine back in September: Uncaged Book Reviews - September 2025


Writing ... sorta


Can't say there's been a lot of original writing happening this year, largely because of big personal changes, a new career, one or two incidents at an institution where I sit as board chair and had to provide additional assistance, and the fact that I'm staring down the barrel of completing my master's in English lit.


Listen, I have to tell you, listen to what your profs say when they tell you to not put things off - I put my thesis off way too long and paid for it this past fall. It was easily the hardest thing I ever had to write. Mine is interesting in that the bulk of it is the first one hundred pages of a new horror novel I've teased here before, while another substantial chunk of it is a research paper designed to interpret what I tried to do with the novel based in some kind of literary theory. The good thing about studying English is that you can borrow from a lot of different disciplines to scaffold your argument about a text or multiple texts. The equally bad thing about that is the possibilities are limitless so you can become easily overwhelmed. This is what happened to me.


I kid you not, while drafting the research paper this fall forward momentum was measure at a pace of one clause at a time. It was slow. Slow and painful. And my brain hurt. Frankly it still does.


Good news is I completed it and a research course, which was my goal for this calendar year. And damn did it feel good to fire that thesis in ... until the edits came back, which I now have to do.


Anyway, listen to your profs. Plan ahead. Chip away at it. Do your reading, etc. etc. Now I'm back into editing mode then thesis defense this spring. I also have one more research course to complete. It's going to be a busy start to 2026, but the good news is I'm still enjoying it.


All that is to say, I haven't done much new fiction writing this year, save the opening chapter in the next Dungeoneers book. It's good. Really good. That said, standing at the end of 2025, here's how I see things going:

  • 2026 - finish MA, find a publishing path for the next full-blown horror novel

  • 2027 - get that novel out while turning my mind back to a new book and some shorts.


So, it'll be a bit until you see anything new from me, but if you haven't yet read all my stuff - here's a handy link to a page where you can: Fiction | joelmckay.ca


(by all means, buy the books - but also check out the short story anthologies I'm in. This is how you can support other authors as well as me.)


Reading


Well, I didn't read as much as I wanted to this year, logging only 26 books (about half of what I typically read in recent years). But I do have some recommendations:


My top three fiction reads of 2025:

Runners up include: Stephen Graham Jones' The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Kealan Patrick Burke's The Widows of Winding Gale and an oldie but a goodie ... The Black Company by Glen Cook.


My top three non-fiction reads of 2025:

Of TV and Games...


Some quick thoughts:

  • Stranger Things remains one of my favourite shows but the final season isn't very good. Episodes are too long for what they actually deliver, the script is often wooden or doesn't present any emotional resolution along the way and it just seems ... too in love with itself. It's like the first four seasons were created for a broad audience and the final season was created for the fandom. Frankly, I think it remains one of the best TV series of all time, but also a lesson in Geek culture betting on itself way too much and there being too much time between seasons. It reminds me of 90210 ... it was never believable those actors were in high school, and that remains the case here. The last time I recall a major show fumbling the ball so bad in its last season was Game of Thrones, which we've largely memory-holed on account of that very fact (to this day, I believe the show is the reason GRRM hasn't written any further. It cursed him. Ironic, no?) Feels like the same thing is happening with Stranger Things.


  • Speaking of TV, someone in the Hollywoods (s is intentional) needs to figure out how to get us back to more normalized show schedules and longer seasons - multi-year gaps between seasons for serialized shows with intricate plot details is cancer for audiences. It also doesn't make sense that it takes this long to produce these shows - they're investing a little too much in production instead of writing and on-camera talent. Again, my opinion. But it feels like Hollywood's own little bureaucracy at play here.


  • As for streaming services, they're getting worse not better. They now remind me of air travel - despite constant improvements in technology and convenience since mass air travel was invented in the 20th Century, it remains one of the few retail sectors that has steadily gotten worse - more expensive, less room, poorer food, poorer service, no reliability. Streaming services are rapidly becoming the same thing - too much shitty content, the premiere content is spaced too far apart, and, often, the thing you're looking for isn't on any of the six services you pay for ... so you end up renting it. If that's what we're going back to, we might as well return to physical media and Blockbuster Video - I miss my weekly trips to the movie store where scarcity dictated what you watched, what you found, etc. Not to mention it's all become far too expensive.


Three great games I played this year:

  • Donkey Kong Bonanza (just fantastic, Nintendo outdid itself)

  • Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (I've said this before but it's like playing a new movie)

  • Ori and the Blind Forest


A great board game my girls and I got into this year was Labyrinth ... tons of fun, especially playing it co-op. I also got hard into puzzles for the first time in my life over the Christmas holiday, completing four. Yeah. I'm proud of that.


Final Note


Anyway, we're rounding out this annus horribilis 2025 with a positive note .. what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. I took a few figurative punches this year, some I earned others not so much. That's life. Time to get up, get better, go harder and lean into the discipline and positive frame of mind. That's the mission for 2026 - discipline, peace, hard work, fun and more than a few laughs along the way.


There were a lot of bright notes this year too, one of which is Daphne Moon the Maine Coon (pictured below). Yes, I'm the proud owner of a designer cat with mitts so big you can high-five her. She actually has thumbs and uses them. So ... let's end on that positivity with a picture of this fine lookin' furry companion and her resting bitch face (she's a total sweetheart).


Thanks for all the fish, 2025. On to 2026.



 
 
 

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