This year marked my first full year as a published author, and an exciting year it was. I published two books, created and published a novel puzzle game, started two new writing projects, and expanded my online presence. In the sections below, I’ll outline what I’ve accomplished month by month, then discuss my plans for 2025.
2024 in Review
January
Continuing my work in 2023, I worked on the finishing touches on my book Mental Mosaics and put everything in place for its publication. I then began working on my first fiction project: a series of short stories about two private investigators who own and run their own investigation firm. I’ve continued work on these stories throughout the months since and have made significant progress. I also began work on Hexakai, a Sudoku-inspired game of Hexagons.
February
On the first day of the month, I published Mental Mosaics: A Unique Collection of 200 Puzzles on Logic, Lies, and the Limitless, in paperback format. I spent the next three weeks creating the ebook edition, a process which proved challenging due to the page-flipping nature of the puzzle question, hint, and answer triplets each of the 200 puzzles belonged to. I completed and published the ebook edition on the third week of the month.
March
This month marked the beginning of my monthly book recommendations, starting with my review of 2001, A Space Odyssey. I’ve since published a book review each month showcasing a book I’ve personally read and enjoyed with a review that indicates the book’s strong points, weak points, and the reasons I picked it specifically as a book-of-the-month recommendation, all without spoiling any of the book’s contents.
April
I dedicated this month to developing Hexakai to the point where it was nearly ready for release and spent a significant amount of time planning and writing short stories for my private investigator project.
May
My work on Hexakai continued. By the second week of the month, it was ready for an early-preview release. I dedicated the rest of this month primarily to Hexakai development, along with the occasional writing session to make incremental progress on some of my other projects.
June
After months of hard work in the forms of research into algorithms, game-concept design, user interface standards, and app creation, I successfully launched Hexakai!
July
Method Matters, my first book, received an influx of glowing editorial reviews from multiple organizations including Kirkus Indie Review and Manhattan Book Review. These reviews served as a source of motivation to continue writing and, in a sense, a justification for the thousands of hours I’ve already spent across my writing projects. I look forward to seeing the reception of my upcoming books, which I’ll discuss more later in this post.
July also marks the beginning of my presence on YouTube. I began publishing my first videos on my channel (link) during the last week of the month. My channel started with Hexakai daily puzzle playthroughs and quickly expanded to include weekly logic and math puzzles, as well as other content related to chess, AI, and more. This channel has since grown to 9k subscribers with more than one hundred videos published.
I also published the official book of Hexakai featuring 150 puzzles, a chapter on strategies for completing Hexakai boards, and a chapter which explores some of the mathematics that drive the game.
August
This month was the month of book covers. I modified the cover of Method Matters to feature a quote from the Kirkus review on the front, with some other minor layout shifts, and to feature quotes from all professional reviews on the back. Then, I created hardcover editions for all three of my books: Method Matters, Mental Mosaics, and Hexakai. All but Hexakai are available in three formats: ebook, paperback, and hardcover, while Hexakai is available in paperback and hardcover formats.
I also began work on a nonfiction book on logical thinking. My goal for this book is to introduce the fundamentals of formal and informal logic to the reader, then demonstrate how these principles can be applied in your careers, hobbies, and daily tasks. It’ll balance the task of teaching substantive logical thinking with my desire to keep things light and accessible for its intended audience. I’ve since written and edited a partial draft, but I have much work to do before this book will be ready for publishing.
September
September was an interesting month for me. My YouTube channel crossed the major milestone of 1,000 subscribers, a goal I anticipated would be out of reach for several months at least. On a more personal note, I turned 30 this month, leaving my twenties behind in the dust. That’s fine, though; due to inflation and time dilation, 30 today is really more like 27. As a hobby, I play chess, and this month marked my achievement of my highest Elo rating of 1264 in rapid (10-minute) chess online. I don’t plan on pursuing chess with the same vigor as my writing and app development, but I would like to gradually improve over time and gain some small level of capability in the game.
October - November
These two months were relatively quiet compared to the others. I continued writing my logic book, and after a break that lasted a few months, resumed my work on my private investigator short stories. In the last week of November, I released my year-end book review video on YouTube showcasing my monthly book recommendations for this year (link).
December
On the second day of December, I released a preview version of my blindfold chess app with its core functionality in place. This app pairs you against an AI player with easy, medium, and difficult modes that define the AI’s level of play, but for most, all modes will be highly difficult due to the fact that the board is never shown to you during your game. Once the game is concluded, a board will be presented with an interface that will allow you to view the game and look at moves back and forth. In the next few weeks, I made minor bug fixes and added features such as blindfold puzzles and timed blindfold exercises.
I also began work on a new game, tentatively titled Anagramia, based on a puzzle I created in Mental Mosaics. This is still in the very early stages. In the meantime, I released a slew of Hexakai daily puzzle playthrough videos on YouTube for the holiday season.
Plans for 2025
Writing
Both of my current projects, the fictional P.I. short stories and the non-fiction book on logic, have a strong foundation, but they both require significant additional time and effort to complete. I will set aside as much time as possible in 2025 to complete, and potentially even publish, one of these books. This three-sentence paragraph alone encapsulates hundreds of hours of hard, often tedious work.
Hexakai
I have big plans for Hexakai in 2025 which I’ve discussed in detail on Hexakai’s blog.
Blindfold Chess App
I will continue actively working on this app in the coming months, then plan for an official app launch. It is available to play now on playblindfoldchess.com, but once my work is done, it will also be available as a smartphone app and as a smartwatch app.
Anagramia
Anagramia is a game I’m creating based on a challenge I created in Mental Mosaics. So far, I’ve only completed a small amount of work on this app. Over the next few months, I will work to create a proof-of-concept app to ensure the project is viable, assess the situation in light of learnings I may have gained from that development, and move things forward from there.
Monthly Book Recommendations
Last year, I took some small opportunities to broaden my reading horizons. I read and recommended two books that I typically wouldn’t have picked up: Never Lie by Frieda McFadden, and The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales, a compilation of works by H.P. Lovecraft. This year, I’d like to further expand into genres I’ve not yet explored and make a more diverse set of book recommendations.
Conclusion
My first full year as a published author has been both rewarding and educational. I’ve crossed major thresholds and achieved major milestones, but I’ve also made some mistakes and miscalculations that have served to delay my work or impede my progress. As always, we have our wins and our losses, progressions made and lessons learned. I look forward to seeing what I’ll accomplish in 2025, and I thank you and everyone who has contributed to my initiatives by reading my books, downloading my apps, and even simply reading my blog posts. None of this would be possible without you.
