It is hard to believe that 2025 has already passed, but here we are. Was it a good year? Yes, and no. I managed to do some things, but failed with others. Surprisingly I visited fewer conventions than usually but some were pretty important ones.
52 Articles Challenge
In 2024 I set myself for a challenge to write 52 articles in 2025. I knew it was not an easy challenge, but I hoped that it would help me to write more. As many expected, I didn’t succeed, but I still consider the challenge a success. In total I wrote 35 articles (including 4 LOCs). Out of those, eight are still pending for publication. Possibly they will be published this year – but who knows?
Will keep remembering the rules!
Did I get something from the challenge? Well it was harder than I thought but it helped me a bit with ideas as to what to write about. I appreciate a lot that I managed to set myself for a challenge and not be mad at myself for not being able to complete it. Accepting failure, and being happy about how far did I manage to get, may be the most important lessons.
I want to repeat the challenge again in 2026. Will I write 52 texts? I doubt it, but I will do my best. Maybe this time I will be able to write a bit more? The future will tell. Let’s consider this piece as 1/52. (Probably I will keep forgetting about marking the numbers in the pub
Few Conventions
I am aware that my routine when it comes to attending convention is not a standard. A lot of people would consider ten conventions in a year as a lot. For me it was a bit fewer than usually. As a matter of fact the last time I got 10 or less was in 2009. (I was doing doing a postgraduate diploma then, and thus had a lot of weekends occupied). Was there any cause this year? Not really. Some conventions, that I wanted to attend, took place at the same time as other cons or important events (e.g. Corflu, Bilcon, and Nordcon). Others, I couldn’t attend because of family matters (e.g. Eastercon 2025), and lastly there were such that were out of my range (e.g. Seattle Worldcon 2025).
HAL-CON 2025 (and my Japanese trip) prevented me from attending Corflu 42.
I think that not pushing myself to attend events when I was not in a mood was a good decision. Of course I could do a few more cons but would it bring me value? Maybe, but I thought, and I still think, that it wouldn’t make sense.
Still out of the cons I visited a few were important ones. First of those was HAL-CON 2025. Attending a convention in Japan was a dream for some time and I managed to fulfil it. It would be easier should I speak Japanese. Speaking the language would allow me to participate in the convention to a larger extent. Still HAL-CON was an Experience with a capital E. Should I get the chance to repeat it I would love doing so. The second very important con was Lajconik 14. It is one of my favourite cons and last year it gave me a learning opportunity. Said opportunity was not not something I wanted, but it was very educational nevertheless. It was the first time in my career that we had to reschedule the convention in less than a week before it (due to National Mourning). The third to mention was Opolcon. For years I wanted to visit a convention in this part of the Poland, but every time something was standing in my way. Finally I managed to do so in 2025. And the last one to list here was SMOFcon 42. It was a completely different experience compared to my first one back in 2017. It was “only” eight years but a lot has changed to the better.
I brought to Poland four awards for Polish SFF creators and fans from Archieplacon 2.
The list above doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate other cons I visited. They were all quite amazing. I enjoyed my time there and each of them was also important for some reasons. Looking back, I can write something about each of them without any difficulty. In fact all of the cons I visited in 2025 were unique.
Fanzines
I hoped to publish more fanzines but I ended the year with three. Two of those (Forged Zine 2&3) were quite short, and one (A~Zyn 10) was a longer one. My plan was to publish also 11th issue of A~Zyn but there was not enough time. I plan to publish it this year. I also had hopes that I would finish my zine from my first trip to Japan (back in 2023), but instead I travelled there for the second time. Thus now have I have two Japanese zines to publish. Will I manage to do it? I cannot promise anything but would love doing so.
The cover of the tenth issue of A~Zyn. Cover picture was made by Sebastian Dębski.
I still find it difficult to think of ideas as to what to write about. Forged Zine is a big help here as it allows me to experiment more. Thanks to that my third issue (a submission to WOOF 50) was “a Japanese issue”. Only one of the articles was created basing on my trip to Japan. The others others covered topics related to Japan but were not coming from my visit there.
I regret that I didn’t manage to write the article I promised Claire for Banana Wings. This needs to be my New Year’s Resolution. I want to finally sit and do the writing. I already did some research and thus it should not be that difficult.
Japan
My geeky year cannot be summarized without mentioning Japan. I already wrote about two aspects related to it (HAL-CON and Forged Zine 3) but it is not all. My trip was an occasion to experience more aspects of my geekiness. Back in 2023 I learned about the exhibitions of original manga drawings. During my 2025 visit to Japan I managed to see a few such exhibits. It is an experience that I definitely would like to repeat.
My registration packet at HAL-CON 2025.
I also visited two manga museums – International Manga Museum in Kyoto, and Toshima City Tokiwaso Manga Museum. Both were pretty interesting for different reasons. The first was a bigger place with plenty of things to see and read. (I didn’t read the mangas because of my language skills). It also featured a very good exhibition about preservation of artefacts related to manga, anime, and games. The second one uses a building which was home to many manga artists – including the famous Osamu Tezuka. Sadly the original building was demolished and some years later it was rebuilt to host the museum.
Lastly I should mention that during my trip to Japan I decided to have the theme for A~Zyn 11. The topic I selected was Japan. I asked for the texts about Japanese SFF, geeky culture, and everything surrounding it. My friends submitted a few articles, and a few came from me. Stay tuned (although it will be available only in Polish).
Happy author posing in front of one of the original drawing for Trigun which is one on my favourtie anime.
Internal Affairs
I made one New Year’s Resolution early in 2025. (Well maybe it was closer to the end of first quarter? I am not sure). What I wanted to do was to decrease my to read pile(s) a bit. Thus I thought that I would allow myself to buy a book only once I would finish reading two others. I cheated a bit (asking for a lot of books as gifts from my family). I also bought some books “on credit”. Still thanks to the resolution I bought fewer books and I read more than in any year since the pandemic started. It is still not what I used to do when I was a child or when I was studying but at least I went into a good direction.
Yet more important “internal” aspect of my fannish life was the local SFF club (KSF). I made the final decision not to candidate in the next elections (which will take place in less than a week). This means that 2025 was a bit a year of “closure”. A lot of good things happened in the club – most of them were done by the others. I am very grateful for that.
Fan Table of our local SFF club during Imladris XXIII.
I am quite happy about a few things we did in 2025, but I am also aware of my failures. Would I change some things? For sure! Yet, it was not a bad year for the club, and although I added only a a little bit to the success, I am quite happy about it.
Last, but definitely not least, 2025 was a social year for me. I met a lot of old friends and made a few new ones. I didn’t visit many cons but those that I did, gave me opportunity to engage in a lot of discussions. Absolutely every time I look back, I can see how finding fandom reshaped my life. Currently most of the people I interact with were met through fandom – conventions, online forums, etc. I am not able to imagine where I would have been if not for this meaningful conversation about Slayers back in 2001. Having said that, I want to thank all of my friends for the simple fact that they are here. Even if we meet only at cons I appreciate our connection.
Volunteers at the registration desk during Lajconic 14 – an RPG convention ran by KSF.
And to finish I will mention two last things that brought me joy in 2025. I was very happy to see my name in the long list for the Best Fan Writer Hugo category. I was far from being the finalist but it was still an amazing feeling. The other thing may not be so fannish or geeky but I managed to work on printmaking. I still don’t consider myself a good artist but I am glad of the progress and the joy it brings me.
What 2026 will bring? Time will tell, but I hope that I will manage to continue my writing, publishing, reading, congoing, and printmaking. As Geri often puts is: Onward!
My next post will appear in February.