I’m going to always remember 2025 because baebee… this year drained me lol. Whew, it drained meeee. It demanded a lot, and instead of breaking, I bent.

It’s wild how a year can be equal parts amazing and challenging, but here we are. Another year in review, and honestly, I’m just happy to be here in one piece, feel me?

The Wins

This year held more milestones than I realized when it began.

In my personal life, everyone in my house—my husband, my children, and me—celebrated milestone birthdays. In my writing life, I celebrated ten years in self-publishing and the one-year anniversary of my paid newsletter, Brookelynite Daily.

The support from readers this year truly touched me. From personal emails and DMs to pre-orders on my website, ByBrookelynMosley.com, y’all really showed up. I don’t take that lightly.

This year also marked my first full year publishing my stories wide, not just on Amazon, and I genuinely couldn’t have predicted how much better that decision would make my life as a writer.

When I kept my books exclusive to Kindle Unlimited, I wasn’t happy. After a lot of careful thought, I realized KU simply wasn’t a good fit for me anymore. Instead of sitting in that frustration, I made a change, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made for both my career and my mental health.

No regrets there.

Here are the stories I released wide this year…

Stories I released exclusively on ByBK…

Completed serial published exclusively on Brookelynite Daily…

The Lessons

Now, with wins come lessons (instead of losses!), and the lessons in 2025 showed up in abundance.

If I had to describe them with one word, it would be…

I’m grateful for those lessons, though. Because those lessons played a huge role in helping me decide the direction I want to take moving forward, which we’ll get into in a moment.

But whew… my lessons came fast, hard, unapologetically, and always after tests.

Some of those lessons included coming to terms with the shifting landscape of self-publishing, shaping my plans and goals in alignment with reality (basically, me being so fucking for real 🤭), and finally understanding that what works for others may not work for me, and that’s perfectly okay.

In fact, things not working for me gave me the freedom to go find what does and build from there instead of sticking with something that was going absolutely nowhere.

Learning to truly lead my own journey after years of studying so-called tried-and-true methods was profound. I’m still adjusting. Still moving through uncertainty. Still doing things scared… but doing me anyway.

Creating in Chaos

Creating during a time of collective chaos was beyond a struggle. But at the start of this year, one of my main goals was to cultivate peace within myself and protect it.

Because I can’t control what happens outside of me, but through strengthening my mental, practicing meditation, journaling, and allowing myself time to sit quietly and alone, I’ve learned how to navigate any storm.

They say skilled sailors aren’t built from calm waters, and this year tested that truth repeatedly.

That focus on cultivating peace was so important to me that I dedicated an entire quadrant of my vision board to it, tucked right into the planner I carry with me daily.

I also spent significantly less time online. That choice came from compassion, for myself and for us all. I realized we were all collectively frustrated and hurting, and reacting from that frustration and pain. Coping and handling it in the ways we knew how to. Instead of judging, I chose understanding. Instead of reacting, I chose stillness.

We’re hurting. We have been hurting all year. And I pray we continue catching the lessons, sitting with them, and moving forward in search of love and light.

The Focus Moving Forward

With all of that behind me, I’ve already decided that 2026 will be productive in a very different way.

For the first time in a long time, I only have one story planned for publication… thus far. My focus will be spending time with my backlist because I’ll be focusing a lot of my time and attention developing what will be my largest series to date—The Love Is Cure, Vol. 2 series.

This volume will span at least eight standalone novels, and the concept is so damn good, y’all. I can’t share anything yet, but I will be taking my Brookelynite Daily subscribers along for the journey through a content series I’m calling Draft Diaries which will include blogs, audio diaries, and vlogs that document the process in real time. I’ll have a little something for everyone else as well so you can stay updated, too.

Next year, I’m also releasing myself from rigid deadlines and constant forward pressure. The growth that came from pushing myself these ten years is appreciated, but I see a bigger picture now and will choose ease in every way possible.

Life isn’t short. It’s fragile. And it deserves to be nurtured, filled with fulfilling experiences that help me grow, and moments that support me staying aligned with purpose.

That was my intention this year—from home to work—and I loved the results so much that I’m carrying it with me into 2026.

Gratitude

Thank you for an incredible year.

Despite everything happening around us, 2025 was still amazing for me, and I’m still trying to understand how, honestly 😆. I’ve reasoned it was all the praying I was doing. Because for this year to have been equal parts stressed and blessed… only God!

Thank you for your support. For the downloads. The pre-orders. The comments. The emails. The messages. The shoutouts, oh my goodness, the shoutouts y’all! 🥹😭. All of it came right on time and meant more than you know.

And finally, to my Black romance readers, you are so valued. You do enough. You are enough. I am so grateful 😘.

This year, you showed up and showed out. You sought the Black romance stories you wanted to read, shared them ecstatically, and made your presence known. Your voices were heard loud and clear in 2025, okay!

Bring that same positive, excited energy into 2026 and beyond. The world might pretend it isn’t watching, but it is. And it’s taking notes.

I’m excited for what’s ahead. At this point, anything has to be better than this year, right? 😅. Thank you again for rocking with me in 2025.

Let’s do it again next year. ❤️