My Life in Fiction, 2025
Welcome to the other side of the threshold, fellow time travelers.
We've crossed over into 2026. A blank slate. Right? New beginnings, new chances, new resolutions.
Never mind that the Death Cult steering this ship is trotting out the same old nightmare scenarios, that war and hate and hunger and genocide still loom large. We will cling to hope, to power, to the belief that we can help shape a future that averts apocalypse.
One of the things I genuinely love about January is the chance to look back at all the great writing I consumed in the previous year. And this year I am excited to revisit an old tradition of mine: a round-up of "My Life in Fiction" - annual highlights as a reader and as a writer.
I read so much great stuff in 2025!! Not nearly as much as I wanted to - it's never enough - but tons of excellence. I'm excited to shout out some of those stories.
First, though, I'll talk about the two published things I'm proudest of, from 2025. "For your consideration," as they say, in case you're filling out an award ballot and have a couple empty slots 🙏🙏🙏
NOVELETTE: "Courtney Lovecraft's Book of the Dead"
Originally published in Nightmare Magazine, this horror story is rooted my rage at the way the world is treating trans and nonbinary folks. People have said it's an "absolute banger," "full of beautiful queer rage," "equal parts chilling and beautiful," with "angry ghosts who are sick of humanity's bullshit" - and "the best drag name ever?... yes, obviously" 🥹🥹🥹
NOVEL: RED STAR HUSTLE
Published as a "Saga Double" with APPREHENSION by Mary Robinette Kowal, my fifth novel was an instant USA Today bestseller!! People said it was "fast and punchy, full of action and intrigue," "just the gay-as-fuck vibe I needed," "a nail-biting ride," "powerful, thoughtful, and propulsive," and "the kind of queer chaotic energy only Sam J. Miller can deliver." 😍😍😍
As always, I so so appreciate you for reading.
Now, on to the stuff I loved as a reader.
I have to say, up top - I don't know what it says about me, or the world, that my two favorite stories of the year - "Ichthyosis" and "Nacre" - were raw wild aching screaming cries of pain and grief. With water monsters.
"Ichthyosis," by M.L. Krishnan, in Psychopomp. I said it on Bluesky and I'll say it again. This story breaks all the right rules for all the right reasons. Proof that if you're a phenomenally skilled writer, you can just give me intense vivid emotion so compelling I won't mind if it's missing some of the things we are taught are "essential" to storytelling.
"Nacre," by E. Catherine Tobler, in Three-Lobed Burning Eye. Ouch. Wow. This one hurt. It hurt so fucking good. One of the best speculative looks at grief I've ever read. Just as its protagonist undergoes an unimaginable transformation, this story transmutes incredible pain into astonishing beauty.
"The Husband," by P.C. Verrone, in Podcastle #874. I've been a big fan of P.C. Verrone since reading "A Review of Slime Tutorial: The Musical" in the fantastic anthology Elemental Forces (both worth hunting down and devouring), and this story bit me hard and sucked me dry with its queer twisted horny hunger.
"Corporate Policy," by Eden Royce, in Psychopomp. A fabulous short story told in corporate memos and group chats!! And it's funny! And it's fucked up.
What a great year for Psychopomp!!
"The Heart is Hungry Above All Things," by Avra Margariti, in Three-Lobed Burning Eye. This somehow feels like something I've never read before, AND something that cleaves to the very heart of what speculative fiction can accomplish, how it can help us understand the harrowing world we inhabit. Also it has sentences like: "And that is our first memory, and our first glimpse of the burden we call brother." 😍😍😍
What a wonderful year for Three-Lobed Burning Eye!
"Into Duty, Into Longing, Into Sparrows" by Somto Ihezue, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I have yet to be disappointed by a Somto Ihezue story, and this one took the fantastic narrative craft and the vivid human emotion and the incantatory prose to a whole new level.
"Blanquitos" by Karlo Yeager Rodriguez, in Typebar Magazine. Another short story writer who rarely fails to knock it out of the park, Karlo delivered a fantastic piece this year - there are monsters here, but presented in such a lovely understated way that it does a great job of asking one of my favorite questions: when weighed against U.S. imperialism, are eldritch abominations really so scary?
"The Flaming Embusen," by Tade Thompson, in Uncanny Magazine. Tade always finds new ways to hit me right in the feels; this one did so by pairing the wide-eyed technological sense of wonder that characterizes the foundational classics of the genre with the grim stoic cynicism (flimsy armor for a broken heart) of the best vintage noir.
"Written on the Subway Walls," by Jennifer Hudak, in The Sunday Morning Transport. A couple of years ago, at the World Fantasy Convention, on the final day, when I asked folks what the highlight of their con weekend was, multiple people said "Jennifer Hudak's reading," which would be impressive under any circumstances - but was especially astonishing given how many incredible famous rock star writers gave readings at the event. Jennifer Hudak's writing, when I've sought it out since then, delivers on that promise - and nowhere more so than in this lovely haunting story narrated by a subway tunnel. Possibly. Or is it an entire gorgeous forgotten powerful city?
"The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For," by Cameron Reed, on Reactor. I mean COME ON, look at that title!! And the story lives up to that high bar. Corporate dystopia + worldbuilding I've never seen before + rad trans protagonist + clones + high-stakes pulse-pounding action + + + so much other awesome stuff...
"A Tall Glass of Water," by Xochilt Avila, in Night Shades. Fiction that truly goes by all in a flash, but so fucking fantastic - it's fun, it's funny, it's hot, it hurts.
"To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter," by V.M. Ayala, in Lightspeed. My favorite thing - queer horniness as force for revolutionary transformation! The excellent worldbuilding and powerful characterization are just extra olives in the martini that is this brilliant story.
I regret to inform that I read hardly any 2025 novels in 2025. Some fabulous 2026 stuff that I was honored to be asked to blurb - some of which is so fucking fantastic I can't wait for it to be out so I can start squeeing about it on every street corner, like SUBLIMATION by Isabel J. Kim and MUÑECA by Cynthia Gomez (both of which you should preorder right now) - and a lot of older stuff - neither of which, sadly are helpful to y'all if you're looking for things to read to fill an awards ballot out.
Alas, I am all too aware that this is the tip of the iceberg, that there is so much more magnificent fiction in so many excellent outlets that I totally missed! So, like lots of the protagonists of these stories, I will let glorious hunger lead me through the year to come - even though I know I can never read ALL THE THINGS, and thus can never truly be satiated.
May we all stay hungry - for justice, and for stories.