Nothing motivates me more than opening this blog and seeing it’s been a year since I posted anything. This is pretty alarming. I’ve thought of so many things I wanted to write and apparently never brought any of them here. I’ll add it to my New Year’s Resolution to write here more next year, even if it’s only a few times. I’ve got some fun adventures planned so some journalling will probably be good for me.

I do always post around this time of year while I consolidate my thoughts on the year prior and shift my focus to the one ahead. I’m probably not the only one who sees the hot steaming pile of bullshit that lies ahead in 2025, but the only way out is through. I have to be strong and thrive and help to get us through until the next fight. I know it’s easier said than done, but the only way to guarantee the bad guys win is for the good guys to give up. So don’t give up.

So What Did You Do This Year, Dawn?

According to my invoices, I worked on 69 books! It may be off and I did tweak the number slightly to make sure it was a funny one, but I definitely worked on 69 books, and some pieces only published online. Last year I evidently worked on 45.

2024 was genuinely a great year for me in editing. I definitely feel like I am a legitimate professional after a whole 12 months working as an editor full-time. This was in different kinds of editing, mostly the regular kind, copyediting, and proofreading, but I also got to try my hand at slugging this year (those books are not included in my total count).

I made some images to visually depict what I’ve worked on but a list will follow. The images here are non-comprehensive because I’ve removed unannounced titles and those who don’t have a cover page released.

Pardon me for not elaborating on the titles in the alt text as they will be covered in the following list.

Editing (10)

I started working with Tapas at the end of last year (I think?) and while the position I occupy there is as the “first-round QC” (except in the case of A Ridiculous Drama, in which I’m second-round QC), I’ll be logging those titles here because it is basically the same kind of work that I do while editing at J-Novel Club.

• [JNC] Sometimes Even Reality is a Lie! Volume 4
• [JNC] This Art Club has a Problem! Volume 3-5
• [Tapas] The Fantasie of a Stepmom Novel (chapters 1-115)
• [Tapas] A Wicked Tale of Cinderella’s Stepmom Novel (chapters 1-153)
• [Tapas] A Ridiculous Drama
• plus three more unreleased titles. :)

My tenure on two of my Tapas novels ended due to schedule restructuring at the company, and not because I quit or was removed for other reasons. Also, how come all my JNC titles have exclamation points?

Novels (10)

In 2023 I think doing QA on novels with JNC was my bread and butter, but in 2024 I did less of those, phasing out of doing QA for novels at JNC so I could be more particular about the titles I was interested in. I thought I did more than this but I guess not!

Actually I just realized that all of these are from Tapas.

• Durara!! Side Stories?!
• Ishura 7-8 (I have a strange love/hate relationship with this series.)
• Princess of Convenient Plot Devices 5
• You Can Have My Back 3
• Hero Syndrome 2
• Hollow Regalia 5
• Love is Dark 2
• The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter 3
• The Summer Hikaru Died 1 (did you know they were adapting a novel of this?! I didn’t!)

Manga & Graphic Novels (49)

• [Square Enix] A Man and His Cat 11-13
• [SE] Ragna Crimson 12-13
• [Yen] Hazure Skill 6
• [Yen] Kiss the Scars of the Girls 2-3
• [JNC] Der Werwolf Origins 10
• [Yen] Bocchi the Rock! 3, 5, 6
• [SE] Otherside Picnic 10-12
• [Yen] After we Gazed at the Starry Skies 2
• [SE] Soul Eater Perfect Edition 15-17
• [SE] Daemons of the Shadow Realm 5, 7
• [JNC] Duchess in the Attic 2-4
• [Yen] Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet 7
• [Yen] Penguin Highway
• [Yen] Pandora Seven 3
• [IZE] Star Seekers 3, 5, 6
• [Yen] Vampire & His Pleasant Companions 5
• [Penguin Random House] Wet Sand 1-2
• [Yen] Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom 5
• [JNC] Through the Viewport 2-3
• [PRH] Nordlys 1
• [PRH] Dead Man Walking Graphic
• [Yen] Cheerful Amnesia 4-5
• [PRH] Little Witcher
• [IZE] Semantic Error 1-2
• [IZE] Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint 5
• [Yen] Hereditary Triangle
• [SE] The Angel Next Door Spoils me Rotten 2-3
• [PRH] Under the Oak Tree 2
• [Yen] It’s All Your Fault! 1
• [SE] Assassin and Cinderella 1
• [PRH] [REDACTED] Very exciting project that hasn’t been announced. :)

And the rest

• In January I got my driver’s license! At the age of 37
• Gardener Gin, a zine of cut-up poetry released in February 2024
• “Author Spotlight: James Tatam” with Nightmare Magazine, April 2024
• No One is From Here Anymore, a zine of writing about my feelings about a changing Halifax, released August 2024
• Attended DCAF 2024!
• Got to go to Finland and visit my wife in August and attend the wedding of a beloved friend.
• Updated my portfolio site! Finally
• Trigun Vashwood Comic complete! A two-year project and it still needs finishing touches (and a title) and it will be available to the public… at some point. :)
• Foster cats Oscar and Bram go to their forever homes, and keep their names!
• New foster cats arrive, Cookie and K2!

The summary of my cat fostering career in 2024 was “orange.”

At the end of 2022 I made a post about the media that affected me in the previous year, and I’d like to do that again this year. (I didn’t do one in 2023 because that holiday season was stressful and I was tired.

What About 2025?

I’m already exhausted thinking about 2025, like many of you, I’m sure. I haven’t finalized what my resolution will be for 2025 but, as cheesy as it sounds, I think it will have to center on family. I would not at all consider myself a family-centered person, but that’s partially because my idea of “family” is not traditional. My friends are also my family. But 2024 has been particularly hard on my niblings and I’ve seen now that I can be there for them. They can rely on me, but not unless I put myself out there and make myself available. There’s only so much of that I can do without compromising my own needs as a reclusive introvert, but they enrich my life and I think owe it to myself to give them what I can while they’re young to help them become stronger adults who can continue to rely on me.

I already have worked lined up in 2025 that I’m very excited about. Before that comes a trip to Japan at the end of January. This will be my first time going, and I’m very excited. The best way I think to keep track of my escapades there will be through instagram, where my account name is, predictably, playerprophet.

I’m also hoping to attend Anime NYC in 2025. This is more of a work and networking trip than a going to have fun at an anime convention trip, but it’ll be my first time in NYC as well, and I’m looking forward to that. My wife also intends to visit me in Halifax next year, so 2025 looks like it’ll be pretty busy! Hopefully not too busy. I need my alone time.

Anyway! That’s mostly it. Thanks for being around and supporting me, especially my Patrons.

xoxo -Dawn