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I posted five fics to AO3 in 2025, in addition to being a neutral spreadsheet mod for Battleship. I watched a couple TV shows, a lot of movies, and read a whopping 12 books for the first time in years. 2025 was a weird year.

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( End of Year Fandom Meme )

Fandom Goals

Here are my 2025 fandom goals, none of which I accomplished:

Don't participate in bangs/fests/exchanges until July 1 or I've posted 2 fics outside an event, whichever comes first (not counting my in-progress treat for Candy Hearts)
Post 4 fics outside of bangs/fests/exchanges
Post 3 unfinished fics from the past two years
Post one work to AO3 that isn't fic
Post my Stranger Things post-canon Will/Mike/Eleven fic before the final season comes out and josses everything

My 2025 royally sucked for reasons that had nothing to do with politics or current events (so all that suckiness was happening in addition to the other suckiness). It's honestly a miracle that I wrote anything, let alone that I wrote things and modded one of the biggest most complex exchanges in fandom and read twelve books to completion.

Instead of making more goals I won't meet, I'm going to list a bunch of good things that happened to me in 2025, because it's important to remember that good things happened.

-I finished twelve books, the most I've read in probably a decade. Some of those books are going to be forever favorites.
-A lot of people had a great time with Battleship despite the stress, and my hard work and time commitment made that happen.
-Oasis reunited!! I couldn't travel to see their reunion tour because life sucked, but good quality concert videos on YouTube got me through a really tough month.
-I got to see Jaws and Scream on the big screen for the first time.
-The "I Lied To You" dance sequence in Sinners exists.
-Will Byers got a nosebleed, which I've been desperately wanting to see since season two.
-I got to see Mission Impossible stunts in IMAX for the first time, and the arctic sub sequence in Final Reckoning was absolutely worth the wait.
-I got to see The Brutalist in 70mm, and the part in the beginning where the camera flips over to film the upside down Statue of Liberty took my breath away.
-Stardew Valley was a much needed escape this year, and my himbo husband Alex was always there to tell me how buff I'd gotten from farming.
-The Stranger Things finale was much kinder to my ships than I anticipated, and the Duffers did two things I really wanted them to do.

turps

Weight management exercise only class restarted again today, and I was glad to get back into an accountability routine because I've sucked lately. As class doesn't start until 11 I decided to go to the gym first too, and it was good to be back there too, saying hello to the regulars and doing a mini leg day. I also got to use my new nifty magnetic gym bag, which works beautifully attaching itself to the machines.

James was supposed to be back to work after bereavement leave, but ended up being sent home by his team leader, who said he was nowhere close to being in the right headspace to take calls. I knew it would be a hard day as he always used to call his mam on the way to work, making sure she was doing okay, and of course, couldn't do that today. But I didn't expect a call an hour after leaving for work saying he was coming home. Work suggested he stay off until after the funeral, and he's got a sick note from the doctor that covers that period.

Now he's tucked up under his heated throw and fast asleep, which will, hopefully, do him good. But man, it's so cold here today. The sink in the downstairs toilet didn't drain due to frozen pipes and the pavements are so slippery, with more snow and ice forecast for tonight.

Despite having a load of recorded stuff to watch, I've been binge-watching Star Trek Strange New Worlds the last few nights, and enjoying it lots. I'm getting close to the end of season one right now, and suspect I'll watch more tonight. That's despite having an ep of The Traitors, Pottery Throwdown, New Year Bake Off, New Year Taskmaster, Celeb SAS Who Dares Win, Christmas All Creatures Great and Small, two eps of The Masked Singer to watch, and then tonight, new Pete Wicks, For Dogs Sake, and man, do I love that show, and Pete, so much.

But before any of that, time to make tea, then lobster bath time.

romantical

So it's a whole new year and this is when most of us promise to write more in our journals, right? I think I did better last year than the year before, but that's not a high bar.

I spent most of the holiday time in a meh sort of funk, and I go back to work tomorrow, so that was kind of a waste of the break, but it is what it is. Having a real routine will probably help my brain, but it sucks that it has to involve work. Why can't I be independently wealthy?

Spent today moving the Booster Club storage unit to a bigger storage unit and organizing everything and I can honestly say, I would love to just organize for life. Not my life, mind you, but someone else's. I'm really good at someone else's.

I'm trying to come up with 26 goals for 2026, and I'm not quite there.

1 - Finish all current physical books (I currently have 52 of those)
2 - Read 100 kindle books (This was made before I realized that I have 52 physical books, so that probably won't be happening)
3 - Send 52 cards
4 - Road trip somewhere
5 - Try six new restaurants
6 - Try six new recipes
7 - $500 in savings a month/total of $6000
8 - Exercise at least once a week
9 - Use 2 journals
10 - Finish the boys' "school days" scrapbooks
11 - Update "adventures" scrapbook
12 - Do four jigsaw puzzles
13 - Burn three candles
14 - Use three fancy soaps

Still need 12 more, so feel free to offer ideas if you've got them. They're not really "goals" like resolution type goals, but more fun things I'd like to accomplish.

For now though, I have made my to-do list for the next couple of days so I'm going to go to bed so I can get up and be a human and deal with middle schoolers. Yay?

turps

Thank you to

jacieleigh,

stellamira and

spikedluv for the Christmas cards. While my decorations are down now I've left up the cards, so I can enjoy the cheerful greetings for a bit longer.

As I said, all decorations are down and apart from one crate, put away. Though I did find a springy legged gonk propped up in the corner of the living room this morning. This year, we also bought two succulents in plant pots in the shape of dinosaurs wearing jaunty Santa hats, and those were deliberately left on the kitchen windowsill as I doubt the plants would like being stored for a year. I'm going to see if the hats will come off easily, if not, I don't mind seeing santa!dinos all year.

While the boxes were out of the huge hall cupboard I took advantage of space and had a good declutter in there. That resulted in six binbags of stuff to donate and stuff that needed throwing away, including a load of extra packaging from Christmas. We do have a tip slot booked for midday for today, and were all ready to go, but it's snowing really heavily just now. And while I don't mind walking in it to the car and at the tip, it's the driving that's making me wonder if we should postpone. Oh well, there's a couple of hours to our spot, it may stop before then.

Yuletide authors were revealed and I can now rec in you I have absolute faith a Magnificent Seven film fic by

sperrywink. I really enjoyed reading this, and helped bounce some ideas at the start, so yeah, if you like h/c go read, it's good stuff.

Doing that bouncing of ideas also reminded me how much I enjoy thinking about writing, and that along with some really nice comments I've been getting on my bandom stuff makes me a little sad that I haven't written for so long. I have to wonder if I've been recced somewhere for my bandom stories as I have had so many, and on longer stories, too. Lately I've reread due to answering comments, Tints verse, Mr Bob, Sing the Revolution and Painted Ponies, and you know, I still like my own writing.

When I went to bed last night I looked outside and saw a package sitting on the corner of the bin. The package hadn't been there earlier and as the bin is against the fence, the delivery driver had obviously just dropped it over, without knocking or any email to say it had been delivered. Which meant I had to go back out and retrieve it, and I'm glad I did as it was a customised water bottle I'd bought for one of James' Christmas presents. I'd got his pyrography name and logo printed onto the bottle, and I would have hated if someone had reached over and taken it, especially as the delivery was already weeks late.

Heated Rivalry starts here very soon and seeing how many people are talking about it, I'm very eager to watch. It sounds like it could be something I really enjoy. Between that and The Pitt season two, bring on the new shows!

aethel

1. Two days into 2026, and I've already finished a novel, if rereading KJ Charles romances counts.

2. Reflecting on my 2025 reads:
-I found another dreamwidth user's review of The Ministry of Time. I read it last January, marked it as 5 stars, and then forgot all about it. It felt like at least three different novels shoehorned into one--interesting stuff happened, but it didn't necessarily add up to a good novel. It also reminded me of Never Let Me Go in that it didn't read like science fiction despite being unquestionably science fiction. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
-Andy Serkis's narration of The Lord of the Rings audiobook was so good I'm going to give it a relisten in 2026. Every time I reread The Lord of the Rings I'm reminded that the movie is actually quite different from the book, and then my memory of the book immediately gets overwritten by the movie again. Guess I'll just have to keep rereading the book.
-I started binge-reading M/M historical romances in the fall of 2024, and by late winter I was afraid I'd already run out of the good ones, but then I read the Enlightenment series by Joanna Chambers, and hope was restored. Hope withered again when I looked at her other books. I combed through ffa recs threads and goodreads lists and found some more authors to try, but it looks like these are less likely to be available for library checkouts. I'm also highly skeptical of the many M/M book covers with naked torsos on them; I'm looking for romance, not erotica! But I still have a few more to read before the well runs dry.

3. Among other Fanlore edits, I started a page for Barack Obama.

rivers_bend

I've been watching a lot of reactions to Heated Rivalry lately (between rewatching the episodes themselves), and there's one scene in episode 6 that has some people losing their minds in stress and dismay and other people completely taking it in stride, and I've been fixating on why I fall into the latter group, so decided I should write about it. I'm not interested in writing fic about it, so thought I'd dust off my essay writing skills (such as they are).

( Spoilers )

glitteryv

I know there was a book reading meme somewhere, but I can't find it so we're going a bit bare bones today. 😅

Total books I picked up to read: 51

Total DNFs: 14

Fave books

Sweep in Peace and One Fell sweep from Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles series. They were the ONLY books I gave 5 stars to. Also loved Skyla Dawn Cameron's intense mystery set in the Canadian wilderness The Silent Places.

Biggest Disappointments

* Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll - A roman a clef abt the victims and survivors of Ted Bundy that was lauded everywhere. I still don't know WHO this book is for, LOLsob.

* Murder by Memory by Olivia Wilde - ANOTHER DISSENTING OPINION because the mystery was so weak that I decided to not continue the series. (But I'll continue to give this author a chance.)

Biggest Surprises

* The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kane - A shorter-than-expected novella that I enjoyed so much I'm going to read more books by this author.

* The Silent Places gets a tip of the hat as well cuz it was a good suspense novel that had the best ending I've read in a long while.

Worst books

* Make Room for Love by Darci Liao - Was excited abt a butch Chinese-American lesbian and a transgender Indian-American bisexual woman. But the story veered into a whole thing abt a student union and I ended up hating the whole thing.

* A Court of Deceit and Ruin by Jessaca Willis - Promoted as "a slow-burn sapphic fantasy romance perfect for fans of fairy tale retellings, dark magic, and star-crossed fates" --which turned out to be lies. The book WAS well-written, but this wasn't a romance, there was zero slow burn (again, NOT a romance), and the rest of the description is off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

* Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise - An alleged "assassin x target romantasy" that had too many plotpoints that weren't quite resolved, a weak-ass romance, and a TERRIBLE ending (given the premise.)

Average rating for the year: 3. No idea how that happened.

Overall thoughts

It was a super strange reading year, NGL. I tried a lot of new-to-me authors (DNF'd a lot of them too, LOLsob) and had a meh reading year. Wished I'd tackled a lot more of my TBR and that I'd done Nonfiction November.

OTOH, I'm participating on two different reading challenges, so I'm going to not mood read as much as I did last year. :P

FICS

Total fics I picked up to read: 222 - I feel like this was lower than other years, huh.

Total DNFs: 103 - Way better than I expected given that there were months where I kept DNF'ing stuff left and right, LOL.

Total wordcount read: 2,126,551 - FTR, I don't feel one way or another abt this number. It's just interesting to know I've read 2.1M words, but there's no self-worth type of attachment from me toward it.

Highest reading month? January --which was 29 fics total. Makes sense to me!

Lowest reading month? April and August -- where I only read 9 fics each. IDK what distracted me in April, but I've got an idea that Summer SADs got to me in August.

Fandom I read the most: BTS. 😋 77 fics with Yoonjin being the ship I read the most (35).

Other fandoms 41 fics total split between Seventeen (multiple ships), TXT (multiple ships), TCGF (Hualian), BTVS (Buffy/Faith, Faith/Other), Shinee (Minho/Key)

Fave fics I read in 2025

* the last person i could ever love by

miraclesofpaul (BTS, Explicit, Omegaverse, endgame ship is Jin/Yoongi, other background ships, 152k total ) - This fic was rollercoaster of LOLs, DRAHMAHZ, and many sweet moments. *Chef's kiss* due to it being a TRUE Enemies-to-Lovers AU.

* Interlude by

duets (BTS, Rated Teen, Jin/Yoongi, 2.4k words total) - AU in which BTS never happens, but Yoongi ends up as a famous rapper and Jin is an actor. LOVED THE MIXED MEDIA format.

* You have seven [7] new calendar invites by

andlovetoo (Mature, OT7, 5.8k words total) - BTS trying to sync their calendar is all you need to know abt this wonderful chatfic.

* Stacks by

tender_tenderly (Explicit, RM/V, 9.8k words total) - A librarian AU of win with one-sided rivals-to-lovers, heheh.

* Growing Toward The Sun by

Nevaeh - Non-Idol AU abt the ups and downs of queer life in Seoul. I loved the balance of angst and fluff.

* Break Thru Everything by

aceaceaceace - (Rated Teen, established Minho/Key, 11.5k words total) SHINee's Key starts to organize with other queer idols to come out as a collective. Loved everything abt it (including the mentions of other idols who did come out too.)

* Sediment by

belledamn (BTVS, Mature, Buffy/Faith, 27k words total) - A perfect Noir AU in which Buffy's a PI, Faith's a sex worker, and they have a hella complicated relationship. I liked the way the author integrated other characters into the story.

annemari

Hii! It's almost (or already, depends on when I get this posted) 2026 so it's time for the year 2025 post!

I haven't even properly filled my dw scrapbook this year, all of my info is scattered on different apps, lol. But I'm always determined to make this post! So here we go!

( year 2025 )

pushkin666

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: on my Chandler/Joey chair
Current Music: About to watch the NYE fireworks

aethel

( 113 books!! )

I would like to thank Hoopla, Overdrive, and my local public library for helping me read an absolutely ridiculous number of books this year: 113 books by 62 authors, of which 33-36 books were re-reads. (Re-reads marked with an asterisk, or a question mark on the three I couldn't remember whether I had read before or not.) Goodreads calculated my top genres as Fantasy, Romance, and Science Fiction. According to my lifetime-books-read spreadsheet, the top three most-read authors this year were KJ Charles, Cat Sebastian, and Terry Pratchett. Four-way tie for fourth place: T. Kingfisher, Rex Stout, P.G. Wodehouse, Isaac Asimov.

I also tried to classify all 941 books in my spreadsheet by genre and found some predictable differences in the average number of books by the same author I read in each genre. Averages are for all-time, not this year alone:

romance - 4 books per author
fantasy - 3
sf - 2.7
horror - 2.3
mystery - 1.9
general fiction - 1.4
nonfiction - 1.2

I succeeded by the numbers, but failed some of my content goals: only 2 histories; only 1-3 new-to-me 19th century classics; and 3 works by Indigenous authors and 4 works by Black authors doesn't sound like a lot compared to the total. Categorizing books by the identity of the author was also fraught, as the information is not always easily accessible, not to mention the question of how these identity categories are even defined and who "counts". Plus, the whole point of the exercise for me was to find books with different settings and perspectives and maybe learn something new. I went with citizenship/tribal enrollment for the Native American authors, so as a result, I ended up dropping some of the most recommended titles from my TBR list. However, I enjoyed the books I did read, and have several left on my TBR list, so maybe I'll try the same goal in 2026. I also added a bunch of novels in translation to my TBR list, so I'm hoping to make headway on those next year. Plus all the history books and pre-20th century classics I didn't read this year.

And finally, I need to find some more book-themed user icons.

darkrosaleen

It's the spookiest time of the year, and I have a fandom update.

Media Consumed

I Was a Teenage Slasher - Stephen Graham Jones

Funny meta horror about a bullied eighties teenager stuck as the slasher in a horror movie. I read this in less than ideal circumstances, 5-10 pages at a time over three months, and that made the book drag more than I think it deserves. Tolly's narration was really absorbing, and I loved the eventual reveal of the fated dance between slasher and final girl, even if it felt like it took way too long to manifest. I'm curious to read more of this author, once I have more reading time in my schedule.

Saw, Saw II

Most of the franchise was free on Tubi in September, and I got through the first two before they left the platform. These are really fun, twisty mysteries with complex characters and satisfying amounts of gruesome gore. I didn't expect the escape room logic puzzle elements, and those were easily the best part of the movies. I'll keep an eye out for the rest on streaming.

Him

This got absolutely trashed in reviews and I don't really understand it. It was a stylish, sexy, creepy dive into the trauma football inflicts on the body and the lengths people will go to achieve sports excellence. The ending goes a bit off the rails, but I enjoyed the performances and visuals and had a good time.

Frankenstein (2025)

I was lucky enough to see this in theaters Halloween weekend, and it was gorgeous and powerful on the big screen, but I haven't rewatched it on Netflix since. I think this movie has amazing performances and design, and it's very good at conveying its thesis, but that thesis is pretty simplistic: humans are the real monsters, and monsters are innocent (which differs pretty strongly from the original novel). If you like grotesquely beautiful Del Torro movies with tragic fuckable monsters and the alienated women who love them, you'll enjoy this one. I think I liked Eggers' Nosferatu better, the themes and subtext left more for me to chew on.

Fics Posted/Gifts Received

The only exchange I did was Trick or Treat, where I wrote and received two fics each.

My gifts, both for An American Werewolf in London:

Hungry Like The... by Missy - David Kessler/Alex Price. Alex wakes up beside a living, breathing David. They talk about the future, and Alex feels the drumbeat hunger of the wolf in her veins.

fate up against your will by hearthouses - Jack Goodman/David Kessler. David and Jack both make it off the moors.

My works, one pinch hit and one treat:

reach out and touch faith - The Locked Tomb Series, Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus. The corpse of Gideon Nav wanders the Mithraeum and yearns.

Mama's Boy - Scream, Billy Loomis/Stu Macher. It's a normal night for Stu Macher, watching Psycho and talking about murder and wanting to fuck his best friend.

In Progress/Upcoming

I'm neck deep in Stranger Things right now, and will probably write some fic or post some thoughts soon. I also had a fun doing an all horror Trick or Treat and thought it might be fun to do the same thing for Candy Hearts.

aethel

1. Fanlore: I was looking over new pages and saw one for Gerard Way/Patrick Stump. I thought I would add some livejournal links, but couldn't find much: gerard_patrick, which turned out to be a barely-used slash community for a different Gerard and Patrick, and two purged usernames not on the Wayback Machine so I can't verify whether they are Bandom communities (patrickxgerard and gerardpatrick). Were there ever any communities, primers, or reclists for this pairing?

Someone also created a new page for KJ Charles fandom and included a discord invite.

2. 2025 reading progress: 112 books.

Since my last post, I've finished four more novels, including one by a new-to-me author: The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi. It's a fantasy novella set in a desert, brutal, anti-authoritarian, possibly Marxist. I need to get my hands on the sequels. Most recently I finished After Hours at Dooryard Books, Cat Sebastian's latest novel. It is set in New York City 1968, but resonates with the present political moment. Nothing dramatic happens to any of the characters, at least not once they are introduced--they all have tragic backstories. Just 300+ pages of people minding a bookstore and not talking about their feelings while American history happens around them. I was genuinely riveted.

Currently reading: Native Nations and Slippery Creatures.

3. I read a new Starsky & Hutch fanfic: Cal's Lounge, Two Thirty-Six AM by triedunture. Highly recommend. It does feature the characters' very dated understanding of sexuality that I've seen mentioned on Fanlore pages--I don't know how accurate it is for real-life 1970s, but it is probably very in character for Starsky & Hutch.

romantical

I don't know where the year went. I don't know where I went. Many things. I don't know. Saw TAI in concert. They're coming to the PNW next year, so will see them again (twice). Hockey, whirlwind trips, Christmas, whatever. Everything. I don't even know.

How are you?

I have next week off as well (school holidays are the best). It is not chill, despite the hoped for chillness. So many things. I have not come up with my 26 things for 2026, so that doesn't bode well. Read 75 books this year (well, 73 1/2, but there's still time!). Haven't figured out what exactly to fill my time with now that school (school-school) is done, which means lots of sitting around brainlessly.

Favorite bb!hockey continues to wear a Yankees cap (a new one! wtf!), so he is no longer my favorite (lies). I'm looking for a new favorite though, because he's terrible (lies). We have a great team this year. They are the most dramatic of boys though. Come from behind wins, shoot-outs, overtime, everything. My blood pressure is not good during hockey.

Woke up at 4 AM with a very sore neck that is not responding to advil or tylenol, so that sucks. Kind of want to go back to bed, but fear it will only get worse.

Anyway, I am boring.

chibifukurou

ladiesbingo

Episode Tags and Missing Scenes	Wabi / Sabi	Journalist / Chronicler	Midnight	Found Families
Sacrifice / Letting Go	Neutral Colours	Revelations and Concealments	Kinetic Energy	Grooming (Brushing / Braiding Hair, Painting Nails, etc.)
Street Food	Truth or Dare	Wild Card	Landscape/Panorama	Superpowers
Ritual Marks and Body Decorations	Slice of Life	Character transformed into an animal	Coffee Shop AU	Habits and Routines
Sleeping arrangements	Hopelessly Devoted	Epistolary fic: Emails, letters etc.	Loss of Faith	Flesh and Bone

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