2025 – The unwritten year: why I paused and what is coming next

Now that I have found my writing voice—if there’s any such word—I think it might just be apt to reflect on some of the things that have happened in the last 14 or 18 months.

When I started writing in 2019, it was way before the blog and before COVID. I then spent a lot of time during the pandemic writing, and that’s one of the things that birthed my first two works: Prisoner of Fate: Waste of Sin and Blood and Water. These were my first sets of published works, spanning three different books.

It was quite adventurous for me. I was content with simply writing every week on my blog and posting to a small circle of friends on my contact list. From that point on, life was pretty sane. I wasn’t disrupting anything. If I reached out to a few people in my contacts, the worst they would say was, “Oh, I didn’t know you could write.” The best I’d hear was, “Oh, I knew you had it in you. You speak so well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t write as well.”

Then, it turned out to be about the storylines. People could relate to them; they liked the descriptive nature, enjoyed the passion I put into it, and they wanted more. That demand drove me to write even more. I didn’t just write one story or episode every week—I was sometimes writing in the middle of the week. Because I didn’t want to disrupt my work schedule and routine, I would wake up late in the night just to write.

It was such an elevating and relieving time for me because I was expressing myself with ease. It didn’t require me to wait for somebody’s input or to go online. My brain was simply churning out as many storylines as possible, and I was finding creative ways to put them down and bring them to life.

I loved the fact that I could get almost instantaneous feedback from the blog. You put it up, and somebody says, “Hey, nice work. I love the storyline. I love this character. I think this character could be this person or that.” In fact, some even thought the characters I created were twisted versions of myself. That’s understandable; it just alludes to the fact that I may have been an enigma to them, so they were trying to find pieces of me in the characters I was developing.

But that’s fine. The moment you put your work out there, you subject yourself to all kinds of scrutiny, thoughts, reviews, and poking. People question your thoughts, your ideas, and your concepts. You are left with a choice: you can report it, refuse it, review it, accept it in its entirety, or simply ignore it—which is the option I typically choose.

After COVID, I got the idea that I could actually publish a book every year. And since 2021, I have done just that. My first book was Prisoner of Fate in 2021. In 2022, it was Waste of Sin and Blood and Water—two books in one year. Then in 2023, I released Dreams from Yesterday, which, in my opinion, was one of my most well-received and popularly acclaimed books. It featured a combination of 14 different storylines tackling societal issues that sparked very intensive discussions among readers.

I remember the book reading event for Dreams from Yesterday. It was relieving. People were engaged. It felt like the story was taken away from me and owned by the readers, and that was incredibly exciting to watch. I literally became a moderator at an event where I was supposed to be telling them about the story—all because the readers loved it, internalized it, and understood the clear message. That was very heartwarming because each story was deliberately selected for just that purpose.

In 2024, I published Damaged Goods, a short story intended to show a different side of my storytelling. The style was consistent, but the kind of story had evolved. It felt like I was developing one of the shorter stories from Dreams from Yesterday into much longer prose, allowing readers to bask in the twists and turns and enjoy the literary prowess of the evolving author I had become.

But in 2025, I hit a blank. I didn’t publish any book.

I had previously promised myself that I was going to publish one book every year until I turned 50. Having skipped 2025, that means I should be dropping two books in 2026, right? The interesting thing is that I do not lack the material. Some of these books have been written way ahead of time. In fact, I have three unpublished works that have been edited and are ready for publishing, but I haven’t quite taken the step to release them.

What could it be? Did life happen? Not really. It’s more about my evolving self. I’ve begun to pay very deliberate attention to the kind of stories I write and the messages I intend to push out. It’s becoming clear that there are divides within the readership regarding how they perceive these messages.

For instance, some might see rape as an underlying conversation they do not want to broach. They might easily attribute the cause to different parties involved and take a position. Others see it as a societal evil that, irrespective of which side you’re on, should not be condoned or even discussed. My stories don’t look at these issues superficially. We dig deeper into the concept, looking at it from a granular point of view that allows for rigorous and intense conversations between parties. That’s exactly what played out during the book reading for Dreams from Yesterday, as rape was one of the central themes.

The good news is, I will indeed be publishing a book this year. I’m saying this because I mean it, not just to make up for last year. I have two options: I can either publish two books this year or simply do one and see how I can catch up as we go.

The book coming this year is something I’m very excited about. I’ve worked with several editors to bring it to light, and we’re about 80 or 90% done. We’re at the point where we need to get the book into your hands. While it will be available on digital platforms like Amazon and Goodreads, it will also be physically published and look just as beautiful. I’m sharing the proposed front cover design—just to elicit some excitement from my readers.

I want to commit to this because I’ve said it now, and I don’t have a choice but to get it out this year. When? Certainly in the first half of this year, God willing.

It’s called The Kept Dark. That’s the name that’s been playing around in my head. It’s one of the few books where I’ve had a title from the get-go, even though that title was completely dismembered and annihilated by the time the book was severely edited.

It’s a psychological thriller about a lady named Tara. Ironically, it’s been on the blog already, but it’s been nicely edited to make it a more compelling read. It’s a story that’s going to grab you from the start and keep you glued to the pages—one of the signature styles of my writing.

I’m excited to share the synopsis so you can get excited about it too. Look through the front and back cover. What do you think? Is there something I could change? Is it too similar to my previous stories? Should I do something differently?

Watch out, because after this one is published, the next one is The Nitrons. I’ve had that on the blog for a bit too, and it’s currently going through some editing. Hopefully, before the end of the year, we’ll be close to publishing it for 2027.

The truth is, I’m excited about putting a book back into your hands. More than that, I’m excited to hear your feedback—to sit in a room with everyone who reads the book, young or old, and hear how you process the message this story speaks about.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Bye!