The vast majority of my 2025 projects were created for fests as I decided to commit to more social tasks over independent pursuits. I joined in for all Voiceteams (technically three since Mystery Box straddles the year), became a moderator for #ITPE, dipped my toe in the 9-1-1 Podic fest, exchanged gifts for Summer Swap, auctioned off two podfics for Fandom Trumps Hate charities, and added a new fandom to the Pioneer Podfic collection. I also meant to do a Pod-O-Ween project but didn’t finish in time for the fest, though I did finish eventually!
Besides the more direct fanworks I also did fannish labor for various projects supporting the podfic community. I processed more than 1.7k new authors into the FPSList database and set up a Discord server for easy communication. For the Audiofic Archive mific & I shared the task of adding metadata, uploading and posting more than 2.6k podfics that were submitted in spreadsheets, and I went through two fandoms’ older posts and added unzipped files and streaming players. I also joined Fanlore as an editor and updated and expanded pages for several podfic events.
2025 was pretty rough, so I worked to make sure my hobby projects stayed fun, fulfilling and emotionally sustainable.
My favorite project (and my longest!) this year was Heuristic Analysis, a multivoiced Murderbot pod that I had started in May 2023 before losing steam and eventually returning to for Voiceteam 2025. It’s a fun character study/adventure about the minor book character SecUnit Three, and I think it turned out really well. All my collaborators did amazing work and it made the project shine. I had a lot of fun editing it, partially because I love editing multivoices in general, but also because I trialed using a kazoo while recording the narration/SU3 track to mark character lines and it was a gleefully chaotic joy to listen back to.
Next year I hope to record at least one solo project that beats my previous length record (2.3 hours), and return to all my favorite events. I’m really excited that in January Flowerparrish & I are planning to begin posting a multichapter collaboration that we’ve been working on (and using for Voiceteam points) since 2023. I also hope to continue my slightly-vague effort to make sure all of my old beloved fandoms are represented in my AO3 works, a goal I’ve had since late 2024 when I noticed that my fandom stats didn’t particularly represent the pieces of media that have had the biggest impacts on my life. Targets for this year include: Babylon 5, more Stargate SG-1, Red Dwarf, Jeeves & Wooster and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New fandoms I’d like to make works for include: Star Trek: Lower Decks, Heated Rivalry, more Étoile and Ted Lasso.
Hope y’all have a safe 2026, stay lively!