2025 in review

It’s a truism that every year seems to go faster, the older you get. It’s probably a good thing that I do this review of the year just so that I don’t forget what decade it is.

I started the year intending to change job and get my series of mystery thrillers accepted by a publisher. I achieved neither of those things, but I’m OK with the job thing, anyway. (See Writing and Looking Ahead for more on the novels.) I wanted a sensible ‘normal’ job for things like holiday pay, sick pay, a pension and, in a word, security. After a lot of getting rejected from jobs but being told repeatedly that I’m a wonderful interpreter, or the best interpreter, or the only interpreter someone will use, God finally managed to get it into my stubborn head that I’m supposed to stay in interpreting for now. And presumably he’ll take care of the security aspect.

I did change my name, though, or rather changed it back to Miller. I don’t talk much about my personal life on here but I am divorced now and it’s probably time to drop my husband’s name. All my books that are published as Murdarasi will still be Murdarasi, of course, and the title of this website won’t change because it’s far too complicated. I do have a new website as well, though… See Looking Ahead.

Writing

A friend predicted that 2025 would be a wildly successful year for me. It certainly hasn’t been in the way that I expected. Despite faithfully submitting The Sarcophagus Scroll to many, many publishers and agents, I got nowhere, although some of the rejections were nice. However, I’ve spent an enormous amount of time and effort this year supporting the Unbuyable campaign to criminalise the purchase of sex as part of the anti-trafficking charity Restore Glasgow. I wrote a myth-buster about prostitution which was sent to all MSPs, and a piece for the Herald that was trailed on the front page 😮

I also co-wrote a booklet about how to spot the signs of trafficking (available as a PDF here) which has been widely distributed. So I suppose, in that sense, it has been a successful writing year.

I’ve been steadily plugging away at my book on Glasgow’s history told through its bridges, and I have reached the 20th century! That doesn’t mean I’m very close to the end, though, because there’s so much research to be done. At the moment that means communism, razor gangs and the wars, with the mid-century slump to follow. Fun. But I’ll get to better times (after I was born – coincidence??) and I hope to finish it by the end of 2026. The church community cafe where I’ve been doing most of my writing has become less conducive to work as most people now seem to come to chat, and there are fewer people altogether, so it’s harder to be anti-social without being rude. If nothing changes next year, I may have to find a different venue.

Books

I rather liked this Goodreads graphic of this year’s books. It was probably a better-than-average year of reading, even though (or because) I didn’t have a reading list or guiding principle. If you look into my reading history you’ll see that there are a few books themed around my big Mitteleuropean adventure in spring (Dracula, The Trial, The Third Man, Magic Prague); I went on a wee serial killers jag in the middle of the year (nothing sinister, just one book led to another); there are a few books de la mode (Orbital, Misinterpretation, Sunrise on the Reaping); and many serendipitous finds. I picked up Lost in the Garden while waiting in a coffee shop queue, and it was one of my favourite reads of the year! And The Book of Doors was filed face-on on the wrong shelf of a bookshop in a town where I don’t live but had some time to kill. It was meant for me.

My parents gave me a book-themed handbag for Christmas, and I haven’t read all of the books on it, so my reading task for 2026 is to fill in the blanks. I’m going to start with Franny and Zooey because it seems to be pretty similar to The Catcher in the Rye, a book I really enjoyed. I’m probably making the same mistake I did last year of starting with the easy ones and leaving the harder ones ’til last, but never mind.

Travel

So, that Mitteleuropean adventure I mentioned. Regular followers of the blog will know all about it and I won’t rehash it here, but if you missed it, or want to revisit it, you can find day one here, and follow along from there.

Apart from that, I went to St Andrews with my niece Susannah, to Wales to visit an old friend, and to the middle of rural Perthshire for a wedding.

Friends and family

As well as visiting the friends above, I enjoyed going salsa dancing with my friend Eilidh this summer (I’m only a fair-weather dancer) and sharing my love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my niece, Isla, now she’s old enough for season one. She also read The Hunger Games series this year, another of my favourites.

Isla has to wait until her birthday to watch season two of Buffy, so in the meantime she has said she will give The Man From U.N.C.L.E. a try, which is brave of her. It’s sobering to think that Buffy seems as old to her as MFU does to me.

You may remember that last year’s resolution was to drink more champagne. It faltered a little in the middle of the year when I was a bit skint, but I got some good help to keep up with it, including my friend and colleague Angela who started the “Every day is champagne day” WhatsApp group.

Bishop Reuben, whom I have known since we were at Bible college together, came from Tanzania to Scotland to go to Balmoral and meet the king! Some of his old friends were able to catch up with him in Stirling, which was lovely.

Some sad news is that Artemis died this month. She was four and a half, which is a decent age for a budgie, and she had been suffering from arthritis. It was very sudden (I just came through in the morning to find her dead) which is easier on the owner than watching them take their last laboured breaths. Apollo still can’t fly and will probably never be able to because of a plumage problem, but he’s otherwise in good health and I hope we’ll become better friends now it’s just the two of us.

Learning

The main thing I learned this year was dressmaking. I have had a sewing machine for years (not always the same one) and I can sew simple things, but I wanted to improve – mostly because my mum gave me her fabric wrapping paper last Christmas and encouraged me to make something out if it. The only thing I could think to make out of such small pieces of fabric (other than bunting) was a bodice, and that was beyond my modest capabilities. So I took a leisure course at Glasgow Clyde College, trudging from Anniesland station each Thursday night in the cold, wet and dark, and now I can sew straight lines, darts and buttonholes, and I even know what the grain of the fabric is and why that matters.

As well as the Christmas bodice I made myself a shift to wear under it (I’ve been watching a lot of historical clothing videos on YouTube), a tiered skirt and a wee blouse. (Very wee; I underestimated the length.)

I also learned to tie the berluti knot. This is only a small change to my daily routine but it means that my shoelaces never come undone. For someone who used to have to re-tie her shoelaces at least once every time I’m out of the house, this is a game changer! I encourage you to try it.

One thing I did not learn was juggling. I used to sort of pretend-juggle with citrus fruits sometimes so I thought I’d have a go at learning actual juggling. I am very uncoordinated so I thought I’d be reasonable about it: practise every day for a month. I practised every day for a month and at the end I was better – but I still couldn’t juggle. So I followed W C Fields’ advice: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”

Funnily enough, though, my niece Ciara can now juggle because she decided to learn along with me and she has far more natural talent!

Crafts

As well as all the sewing (which was mostly from October onward), I did do some crochet and cardmaking, as usual. I didn’t get any figures added to my crochet nativity, but I made myself a nice sleeveless pullover and a few pieces for my patchwork blanket, including a miniature of a baby blanket I made at the start of the year for a baby called Thomas.

The cardmaking was mostly for weans (tr. children) but I did make one for my mum’s 70th, too. And I kept up my calligraphy by writing in my pretty quotes notebook.

And let’s finish crafts with this year’s gingerbread structure: a station and tunnel complete with gummy bear passengers and a moving train! Great fun to make, play with and eat.

Looking ahead

No new year’s resolutions, but plenty to do in 2026, as I would like to finish my bridges book, as I said, and I also intend to self-publish the Sarcophagus Scroll towards the end of the year. You heard it here first! I’ve got a new website in the name Kat Miller (easier to spell, you see) which will go live in the new year, but there won’t be much on it to start with apart from the covers – which you can exclusively see here now!

So wish me luck with that – and I wish you a wonderful 2026!

Happy New Year!