2025: That was the year that was!
A round up of the year gone by — the highs, the lows and the hopes for 2026
It’s that time again, when we look back at the last 12 months and prepare to reset for the year ahead.
So what have I been up to?
A YEAR OF MILESTONES
2025 marked some big milestones in my life and career.
It was:
- 10 years since I started writing Star Wars.
- 15 years since I quit the day job as a magazine editor and went freelance.
- 20 years since I got married.
- 25 years since my first professional piece of fiction was published (the short story ‘Christmas Spirit’ co-written with Mark Wright and published in the now out-of-print Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries)
- 30 years since my first professional magazine article saw print.
A YEAR OF ENDINGS
It was also a year that brought with it some endings — the biggest being the conclusion of my eight-year Star Wars: The High Republic adventure.
It was such an honour to bring the initiative to a close (in its current form at least) with The Finale, but it still feels odd not to be working on the project.
Luckily, the team still hangs out as much as we can, either virtually in monthly get-togethers or in real life when we’re on the same continent — like a lush meal I shared with Michael Siglain, Charles Soule and Zoraida Cordova in New York a couple of weeks ago.
A YEAR OF NEW BEGINNINGS
As for new things, well…
- George Mann and I have picked up some exciting work for Strange Matter, starting a new IP development consultancy with a tabletop gaming company.
- I started writing not one but two novels — one for me and one work-for-hire, returning to a franchise I haven’t been a part of for a while.
- There have been two Marvel superhero mini-series and my first foray into Robert E. Howard's literary universe with my Solomon Kane story, Where the Whitethorn Meets the Black, which comes out next April.
- My first Star Wars Audible Original — The Jaws of Jakku — was released.
- I also adapted a novel into graphic novel format and wrote a new all-ages graphic novel to boot!
Away from work, I started lino printing classes and formed a new Dungeons & Dragons group with George as our ever-creative DM and a party made up of pals (including my eldest who has discovered a love for the game this year.) We had our Session Zero a couple of weeks ago and will be kicking off the campaign in the new year. I’m playing a faun warlock with a painful past. Here’s my miniature for the game:
A YEAR OF CHALLENGES
As for 2025 as a whole… well, time for some real talk… it’s been bruising, especially when it comes to comics. The Diamond bankruptcy sent shockwaves through the industry, affecting three of my projects.
Night of the Slashers got a LOT of love from great places like Fangoria, but many of the trade paperbacks were stuck on pallets in the Diamond warehouse. They still are!
Godfather of Hell was almost another casualty of the bankruptcy, but instead of being cancelled outright, we pivoted, cancelling the floppies after issue one. The whole story will now be released as a graphic novel next year. Look out for more about that in a couple of days, including a brand new cover!
And then came the biggest blow of all — the new creator-owned title I was working on with my Dead Seas collaborator, Nick Brokenshire. We were firing on all cylinders. All 44 pages of the first book were coloured, lettered, and designed, ready to go to press, and then — WHAM — we received the call that the publisher was pulling the book. On the very day we were due to send the files to the printer, no less!
It soon became clear we weren’t alone, with other titles also getting the chop, but boy, was it a kick in the teeth!
Rights for the series are now back with us and we’re exploring ways of getting it out there, but the triple hit of Slashers, Godfather and the cancellation took the wind out of my sails.
It meant that my usually thick skin was preeeetty thin when Gwenpool came out midway through the year and I received a fair amount of rage long before issue one even hit the stands. The pile-on sparked by the announcement was fierce to say the least, and was further amplified by one particular member of the Gwenpool Reddit group who took it upon themselves to send long and detailed diatribes on a nearly daily basis.
At any other time it would’ve been water off the proverbial duck’s back, but the traumatic start of the year had left me feeling more than a little fragile. The near-constant messages almost broke me, which I guess was the point, but fortunately, my brilliant assistant stood between me and most of the vitriol. In the grand scheme of things, all it really did was push me away from social media, which probably isn’t such a bad thing, and the fantastic response to both Iron & Frost and Tales from the Nightlands soon had me smiling again.
But I think it’s important to talk about these moments, the lows as well as the highs. At the very least, it reminds us that there are real people on the other side of the screen and we never know their state of mind when we fire of hostile messages or the effect our words may have.
A NEW YEAR AHEAD
But that was then, and this is now – time to look forward rather than back.
I’ll be writing more about my plans for 2026 soon – including how this newsletter will continue to evolve in the next twelve months – but in the meantime, I hope you have the happiest of New Years.
May your 2026 be filled with fun, love and creativity, my friends — and I’ll see you soon!
The Cavletter is the newsletter of NYT bestselling author, comic creator and screenwriter Cavan Scott — sharing thoughts on the creative life, bookish adventures, and recommendations for things to read, watch and listen to.
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