Bye-bye 2025, no to boxes, and a cozy poem

Dec 18, 2025 3:36 pm

Adriana Kantcheva

Catching Words

Dispatches from a writer of speculative fiction.

Hello, ,

Astronomically, it might not yet be winter in the northern hemisphere, but the mood is definitely wintry and festive here in Germany. After a couple of weeks of being down with an assortment of viruses, I feel like I’ve turned the page, and I hope it stays that way.

Turning the page... It’s an appropriate phrase as another year is about to wrap up. I wish everybody lovely holidays and a crispy, brand-new page of life waiting to be filled with wonderful moments.

What I’ve been up to

Revising, revising, revising, revising, revising. Up to my ears in it. I’m about halfway through the scenes of my secondary world fantasy novel but not halfway in terms of word count. Still, I feel the hardest part is over after having drafted the necessary new scenes and done some major restructuring. What is now left will require milder revision.

Also, Catching Words is a year and a month old. That’s definitely something I’ve been up to. :-)

My latest blog post...

... in which I talk about how 2025 has been and what I hope for 2026.

What happened in 2025, and a look forward to 2026.

(Image description: a pencil-colored mandala placed atop a wooden desk with pencils around it.)

It’s time for my yearly overview and reckoning. 2025 has been anything but uneventful — a mandala of experiences, choices, and revelations. In May, I gave up my beloved flight attendant job. I’m still sad about it, but I don’t regret the decision. It was taking a toll on my health and family, so I had no choice but to be realistic about the situation. Currently, I’m at home, being a full-time parent and focusing on writing. Click here to read more.

A recent snapshot

In winter, every gorge, every dale and valley in the Black Forest mountains fills up with fog. 700 meters above sea level is where the fog’s upper edge usually frays to nonexistence. As that’s the altitude I live at, sometimes we are in the fog, and sometimes I see it lying below us, like in the picture. (The Alps are in the far back, by the way.)

On such days, I’m treated to the most hopeful view ever, when I’m allowed to gaze far and imagine possibilities.

(Image description: A wintry yet snow-less, cloudy landscape of fields and hills with a few trees in between and fog lying in the lower parts.)

Books and music

Reading: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this quiet story. It handles the big questions about purpose, autonomy, and climate in the coziest possible way.

Music: Right now, I’m listening to Anathema. Though on hiatus, they have been around for decades. They started out singing various types of metal and now... well, I think they’ve created a genre of their own. I guess it’s rock — more in the Pink-Floyd-sense than the Bon-Jovi-sense — but I have a hard time putting their evolved style in any kind of box. Who needs boxes anyway?