Another year in the books: Lessons Learned

Heather Nimmo
Dec 23, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Dec 28, 2025

blessings. I refuse to suggest luck, becauAs 2025 winds to a close, I wanted to reflect on a monumental year in my life—though monumental in its defeats, also. I turned fifty-five, retired from teaching, wrote a new manuscript, continued in my security role at the Canadian Tire Centre, and learned some tough lessons. And I’m sure my grown sons have equally. It was a challenging year, all around, in many regards.

Highlights:

For a few months, I queried my second manuscript, to no avail.
I coached intermediate girls’ basketball for the first time, and it was thoroughly rewarding.
My high school softball team were champions—quite literally—and we were profiled on the evening news.
While joining a new soccer team is no surprise for those who know me, I joined a Futsal team. A very different style of play, for sure!
After my formal retirement, I returned to teaching for seven weeks. I had two big, busy grade 9 classes and one grade 11 Indigenous lit class.
I submitted two short stories to the CBC competition (fingers crossed) and now approach every single chapter I write as a short story with its own conflict, mini-inciting event, and resolution—well, not entirely resolved, of course:-)—Mini cliffhangers at chapters’ ends are fun.
I saw Springsteen in concert. Twice.
Two of my grown sons moved back home with me—until March, they say.

Insights:

I’m over the insinuation that writers who use AI use em dashes. I love the em dash and the (subjectively effective:-) use of sentence fragments, and I won’t stop.
I imagined that writing a classic retelling would be easier, since I had the story's framework. It was no easier, though, boy, I am proud of my finished product and would consider another retelling. PM me which you prefer: I was thinking Little Women, with sons. Perhaps a Macbeth retelling with light speculative fiction and a little cli-fi backdrop, though thorough research into wiccanry might be a good starting point.
People in writing groups discuss how much they love writing. For me, after three full manuscripts these past few years, many short stories, and one novella, I am not entirely sure it’s a love—more of a compulsion. I need to quell the stories and characters in my head.
I find it hard to read when I am writing so much. But now that the manuscript is complete…
My instincts were correct about balance after retirement: I have managed to balance (well, it should be noted) my security job, time with friends and family, writing, interests, and exercise. I couldn't be happier!

Lessons learned:

✔ Professional editors, even highly vetted, highly rated ones, may not be worth it. I avoided one for my most recent project.

✔ I need to keep trusting my instincts.

✔ Sometimes, when querying a project is not panning out, I should simply start a new one.

✔ AI still sucks. See my summer blog post. My disdain for it was one of the reasons I retired a smidgen earlier than I had planned to.

✔ Tenacity does, and will, pay off.

Here’s to another year around the sun! May 2026 be filled with laughs, successes, and blessings. I refuse to suggest luck, because frankly, I think we make our own.