Quick news: residency, and some boxes ticked

It's Christmas Eve and I'm about to be called away to eat dinner and watch KPop Demon Hunters (you know, that traditional seasonal movie from days gone by) but I want to quickly share a few things with you.

Big news I hinted at last time: I'm excited and grateful to be the recipient of the 2026 d/Deaf and/or Disabled Artist Development Development Residency.

Here's a whole article about it!

In practice, this means for two months next year I get an office space in the Toi Pōneke Arts Centre, a mentor, and some paid hours every week to focus on a new YA novel.

Some of you have been saying I should write YA for... a while now, and I know some of my work has a fair bit of overlap with it. It hasn't been the right time until now, but I have a project in my head and I'm really excited to get the time and support to write it. I'm also really looking forward to spending more time in Central Wellington. Remote working has been a godsend for me - fulltime office work had become unsustainable - and it's still the best option for me overall, but sometimes the pendulum swings a bit far the other way for my wellbeing and I... maybe don't leave the house as often as I should.

I'm hoping this will be an opportunity to work out what the best balance for me looks like.

I spent a lot of time in that part of Central Wellington in my twenties, and it's going to be good to have a base there - and as Toi Pōneke is moving later in the year, after twenty years, it's a real privilege to have the opportunity.

The end of the year is when I frantically rush to finish things. I'm still working on a couple of reading challenges 😬 but I did get a bunch of things ticked off my list. I tied up some loose ends at my day job, finished my Level 1 certificate in te reo Māori (hoping to enrol in Level 2 next year), finally got my short fiction submissions up to date, and just today I finished edits on the non-fiction book I've been writing over the past couple of years. I am tired and very deserving of cider and cheese now!

This is my first book-length piece of non-fiction. In some ways it's been easier to write than fiction, in others much harder. The final edits had been lingering for a while, and I was determined to have them sorted before Christmas.

You'd think, with years of tertiary study and an MA under my belt, I would have learned my lesson about referencing as I go, rather than trying to work it out at the end. Reader, I have not. There were a couple of tears. HOWEVER it is done, and I hope to be able to share more about it in 2026.

I'll be back to share some highlights of the year and plans for 2026. If you are celebrating tomorrow, I wish you a very happy Christmas. Irrespective, I hope you get to enjoy these last few days of 2025.

Mā te wā - see you later

Andi

writing as Andi C. Buchanan and Andi R. Christopher