Category: Personal

Side Quests I’ve been up to lately

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

Happy April afternoon, dear readers! It has been a minute since I’ve done a personal update so here we go!

Over on my tiktok, I have been posting about reframing activities in my personal life as “sidequests” and, let me tell you, this has increased my enjoyment in regards to the activities significantly. (Except for the taxes sidequest. That one will always suck. I hate it I hate it I hate it).

All that being said, I wanted to update ya’ll on a few “sidequests” I have been up to lately!

1. I watched the new Mario Galaxy Movie

    My review? It was cute and kind of chaotic. Like a Mario fever dream. I do wish they had gone a little deeper with some of their characterization, especially when you have Roslina, the absolute queen to write for but, alas, this is too much to ask for in kids’ movies these days. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun watch, but I do think a lot of that was due to the fact that I am a Nintendo kid, and the references were NOT lost on me. Nothing crazy, it was just fun. Plus I went with friends and that always improves the viewing experience. Nothing like a bunch of adults giggling in the back row over Jack Black Bowser…

    2. I’ve started growing mushrooms in my basement

    So, for Christmas, my mother gifted me a mushroom growing kit, and I have been putting it to good use. It actually took me awhile to get started because I forgot about it on a random shelf in my laundry room (sorry mom) and it started growing OUT of the cardboard box without my permission, so I figured I had better set it up because those mushrooms were gonna grow, whether I liked it or not.

    Oyster mushrooms by the way. Quite yummy fried in a pan with butter.

    3. I’ve been making more Tiktoks lately…

    Forgive me, but I’ve been feeding the shortform content beast. Mostly, I’ve been experimenting with the many fun ways one can engage their audience with very specific opinions on dragon designs in media. TikTok has a very active and opinionated user base so, sometimes, it’s fun to tap into that. I’m having a fun time over there, what can I say. Plus it feels like a much more casual space to share things that I like or have been up to.

    4. I’ve started a war with the wasps on the porch

    I’m winning by the way.

    Spring has brought an onslaught of awful bugs, and wasps are at the top of that awful list. For some reason, my front porch is a piece of highly valued real estate in the wasp world. I took it upon myself to bring the property values down. Like way down.

    5. I’ve taken to a more intuitive approach when writing

    I do have writing goals I’d love to get to, but I’ve been a lot less likely to sit down and write on something when I don’t feel like it lately. My job has been picking up in busy-ness lately, so I have given myself permission to write a chapter or two on whatever project I feel like and not touch it for a week. This is NOT a great way to have an extensive writing output, let me make that clear. If you want to make writing progress, maybe don’t do this because I hasn’t proven productive for my many WIP’s HOWEVER I’m okay with that right now. I’m learning to be okay with Writing being a hobby and that I don’t have to set large, lofty goals with it. My goal should simply be to enjoy it, first and foremost, and in certain life phases that may look differently than in others.

    And that feels like a good note to leave on. I’ve been up to more, I’m sure if I’d sit down and think about it really hard, but I think this is a good place to leave it. If you want more details on what I’ve been up to, you can check out my aforementioned TikTok. Take care, friends! Hope you are treating yourselves kindly this spring!

    Book Trends I’m Low-Key Hating Right Now

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 1 Comment

    Look, I know reading is supposed to be fun. And if you love any of these tropes, that’s great. Truly. I’m not judging you. I promise, dear, reader. I’m directing my judgment towards the industry that keeps churning out the same lukewarm leftovers and calling it gourmet fiction. I know these tropes have a place in fiction somewhere but I have a few gripes as they become widespread…

    So buckle up while I gently roast some beloved tropes. If I hit your comfort trope… I’m sorry. (I’m not sorry.)

    Enemies to Lovers (I’m begging… please stop)

    Look, I know this trope is BookTok’s golden child. But at this point, it’s been done so much that authors are scrambling to manufacture hostility out of absolutely nothing. Or worse…they’re romanticizing behaviors that go way beyond a mild red flag.

    I’m tired. I want conflict with substance, not passive-aggressive banter and emotional constipation that magically becomes love in chapter 17.

    Morally Grey / Redeemed Villain (Rarely Done Well)

    It’s either:

    legitimately abusive people who get a redemption arc because they’re hot

    or

    villains who are “morally grey,” except their actions are… actually just evil?

    There’s a difference between “tragic complexity” and “this man kills entire villages but has one soft scene with a kitten so we swoon.”

    BookTok, release him. I’m begging.

    Every Brooding Love Interest, Ever

    I’ve reached my broody quota for the decade. If has “shadows behind his eyes” one more time, I’m throwing the book.

    Can we get more emotionally balanced romantic leads??? Men who communicate??? Men who don’t describe themselves as a monster but just… deal with it in other ways? They don’t even always have to be healthy, I just need a break from the “I treat X main character like crap because of the tragedy.” What if he deals with his feelings by cracking jokes all time? Trying to be liked and loved by everyone? A greed for money or power because it would have prevented his personal tragedy? Idk, I’ll even take a shopping addiction at this point. Please, just change it up sometimes.

    Mythological Retellings

    I’ve my breaking point. Every Greek myth, Roman myth, Celtic myth, minor footnote of a myth has been rewritten, gender-swapped, aestheticized, and thrown into a love triangle. You name it, its been done but with a twist!

    I used to love these, but the market is so flooded I feel like I need a snorkel. Give the myths a nap. Let them rest.

    Underdeveloped Magic Systems

    I’m tired of magic that’s basically:

    ✨ vibes ✨

    and zero rules.

    Magic doesn’t need to be hard sci-fi level, but if plot problems are solved with “because the magic suddenly works this time,” then I’m checking out. I need a little structure here. Develop. Elaborate. Establish. Please.

    Fantasy Formula Fatigue

    A much more broader complaint but the BookTok effect is real. Something goes viral, sells 10 billion copies, and suddenly we get:

    the same cover,

    the same “aesthetic”,

    the same plot beats,

    the same protagonist with “fire in her veins” or whatever.

    It feels like copy-paste culture. I want fresh stories, not reskinned bestsellers.

    Childhood Friends Who End Up Together

    This one is personal: I just don’t care for it.

    Also applies to “the leads always end up together” no matter how incompatible, underdeveloped, or generically pleasant they are. Sometimes characters should just… not date? Sometimes the chemistry isn’t there?

    And that’s okay!

    Let them end the book with growth, not forced romance. Ghibli has been doing this right since forever.

    Tragic Backstories (Especially the Last-Minute Ones)

    Not everyone needs a traumatic fifteen-page flashback to be interesting.

    And oh my goodness, can we PLEASE have more stories where the characters have loving, functional families? Actual parents? Actual siblings? Families that aren’t evil, dead, or conveniently absent so the protagonist can be “strong and independent”?

    There is so much narrative potential in healthy, intact families.

    Imagine:

    an adventuring party that’s literally a family business

    siblings questing together and bickering the whole time

    a fantasy inn run by a chaotic family who’ve seen every hero, villain, and bard in the realm

    a family cracking a mystery together and following clues

    Tell me that wouldn’t slap.

    Broody Mentors

    Sorry if I’m repeating myself but this combo of tropes specifically gets under my skin. If the mentor is mysterious, brooding, evasive, emotionally stunted, and 500 years old… no thank you.

    There is something inherently weird about that dynamic, and adding brooding on top of it makes my skin crawl. Give me wise, funny mentors. Give me competent, happy mentors. Give me mentors who aren’t one bad day away from a villain arc.

    The Chosen One (I Don’t Hate It, But Please Cool It)

    It started as a classic but hasn’t evolved much since.

    I’d love to see more stories about the supporting character who never becomes the star, who chooses loyalty over destiny, who stays in the background and is okay with it.

    There’s beauty in being the one who helps and not the one who saves the world.

    Aaaand I think that about wraps it up! I could probably go on but that’s enough venting and negativity for the day. Hopefully you got some mild enjoyment from this post or at least related a little to some of my reading icks.

    Hopefully see you in the next post, reader!

    October Life Update

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 2 Comments

    I’ll probably keep making these posts until I die. Yaknow, the obligatory “I haven’t posted in X months but! I’m not dead!” posts. All that being said, wow! I haven’t posted in about 2 months, and yes! I am indeed not dead. I think ya’ll are used to this song and dance by now.

    So! What have I been up to, two or maybe even THREE of you may be wondering. In short: not writing. But before you bring out the tomatoes and fruit to throw at me (as I literally wrote a post about not procrastinating writing like three posts ago), I will say, it’s been a busy past couple of weeks. This was less of me blobbing around and doing anything but writing and more of me rushing around and doing anything but writing. Big difference.

    Okay, okay, I’ll cut to the chase. I got married.

    And gosh, it was lovely.

    (Relevant instagram post inserted above because I actually have no pictures on my computer yet).

    So yeah! It’s been busy. Making room in your house for another human is also an arduous task, especially if you find yourself a collector of a wide array of trinkets and are used to being utterly selfish with your use of space. It has been accomplished, however (if you ignore the study/office space), and we find ourselves finally lapsing into a semblance of routine that we now call normal.

    The aftermath is very real though. I am a routine person by nature. When this routine is messed with, I find myself collecting a nice little bouquet of bad habits before I try to get my crap together and shed them again. And that pretty much sums up where I’m at currently.

    Living with a lovely man, now known as my husband, and learning to share my life. I have also, as of late, found myself struggling to manage my time (namely, overusing my phone, a constant frenemy of mine), struggling to read, and struggling to eat actual meals, not just a weird variety of snacks and junk food. And then I got sick.

    I write this post sitting at home during regular business hours with a cup of mint coffee in a mug beside me (which I’m quite proud of actually, because another bad habit that has been wriggling its way into my life is my over-eagerness to spend $7 on a fancy but delicious coffee. Great treat, but not an everyday purchase.). I caught an annoying cold, which required me to call out sick for probably the rest of the week. Irksome, but I have decided to use the time to do a few dishes and reflect on my life.

    This reflecting has yielded a few conclusions: One, I need to get back on track with both my caffeine and time management. Second, I need to work on a new writing project. Now, figuring out what this creative project is, is a whole other problem of its own.

    I love thinking up writing ideas, but I think it’s an entirely separate hobby from writing them. I am overflowing with concepts and projects I would love to see brought to life, but I often find myself grasping to find the motivation and time management skills to produce something (ugh, there it is again. Time management. Ick).

    Creating an actual end product writing-wise just takes so darn long, and, possibly, linking me back to the whole time management thing, I don’t like taking that time. I often find myself spending that time making a Pinterest board for it and nothing more. This, unsurprisingly, leaves me entirely dissatisfied. And I’m tired of being dissatisfied.

    (After all, it’s been a few months since my latest poetry book release and I’m getting ANTSY)

    So! The anthem for the next month or so is to work on SOMETHING. It doesn’t matter if it’s a singular huge project or a bunch of tiny little ones. I just need to get back into the creative mindset of making something and letting it suck. And perhaps, in all this project bouncing around, I’ll find out what I want to set my eyes and attention on consistently, and that elusive next project will make itself known.

    So stick around, there’ll hopefully be more to come as I’m getting back into the swing of things. And if not, I give you permission to throw the fruit this time. Throw a few “boos” in there too if you’d like.

    Have you Written a Book? Drop a link down below!

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 9 Comments

    Have You Written Something Outside Your Blog? Tell Me Everything.

    Lately I’ve been realizing that a surprising number of bloggers have written books. Like actual, full books. Some self-published, some traditionally published, some still tucked away in Google Docs waiting for the right moment to be unleashed upon on the world. And it made me wonder…what else have we all been up to?

    Blogging is already such a creative thing, but it turns out it’s just the tip of the iceberg for a lot of people. So this is me being nosy in the best way possible. If you’ve written a book, I want to hear about it. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, cookbook, anything. Drop the title, maybe a synopsis, and a link if you’ve got one.

    And even if you haven’t written a book, I’d still love to know if you’ve done something creative outside your blog. Art? Music? Zines? A newsletter you’re proud of? I want to cheer you on.

    Leave a comment below and let’s build each other up. I’m excited to read what you’ve been working on.

    k byeeeee!

    Finding My Lazy Genre (And Escaping Reader’s Block with Cozy Mysteries)

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 4 Comments

    Reader’s block hit me like a wet paper towel after college. Who knew years of reading ONLY for school and committing every braincell to your degree could burn you out on books??

    I used to devour books as if they were my favorite dessert. But once I graduated high school, I’d open a book, read two paragraphs, and suddenly remember I needed to reorganize my closet or wanted to scroll on pinterested for an hour. I could not for the life of me focus.

    Then, I cracked open a cozy mystery a month ago, and, just like that, I was back. Not back in an “I’m suddenly reading 700-page literary fiction before bed” way. No, I was back in the “I finished this paperback in two sittings with a latte and a blanket and now I want ten more just like it” kind of way.

    It made me realize something: I’d finally found my lazy genre.

    Now allow me to explain. A lazy genre isn’t a dig at the books, first off. It’s a term of endearment. It’s the genre you can slide into like sweatpants after a long day. The kind that requires zero brain gymnastics but still gives you all the serotonin of a well-timed twist or a slow-burn romance. For some people, that’s YA fantasy with dragons and chosen ones. For others, it’s angsty romance with dramatic rainstorms and not-so-conveniently timed confessions (hey, Jane Austin readers. How ya doing?)

    For me I had just found out that It’s cozy mysteries with predictable plots, modern settings, and characters who are funny without being emotionally exhausting. Like, please don’t give me a main character going through too much. I’m tired. I want her to bake muffins, accidentally find a dead body, and flirt with the local cop. Is that so much to ask?

    There’s something comforting in knowing exactly what’s going to happen: someone dies, someone investigates, someone has a quirky pet, and justice is served along with with tea and cookies. It’s like watching reruns of your favorite show. You’re not surprised, but you are deeply content.

    So here’s a thought for you all that I wanted to share: If you’ve been struggling to get back into reading, maybe you don’t need a “better” book. Maybe you just need your lazy genre. The one that goes down easy. The one that feels like a warm cup of Jo for your overstimulated brain.

    Find it. Embrace it. Stack your nightstand with it.

    And if anyone judges your reading choices, remind them that reading is reading. Whether it’s Tolstoy or a sassy amateur sleuth named Mabel who keeps stumbling over corpses in her idyllic coastal town.

    Cozy Mysteries & the Comfort of Middle Age

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 2 Comments

    Lately, I’ve been knee-deep in cozy mysteries. Yaknow how it plays out…someone finds a body behind the bakery, a curious woman with a knack for observation decides to poke around, and somehow, nobody calls the actual police until chapter five. It’s great. Consider me hooked for the evening.

    But beyond the suspiciously high crime rates in picturesque small towns, I’ve realized something about these books that’s quietly comforting: the main characters are almost always middle-aged women.

    Sometimes they’re divorced, sometimes they’re married. Sometimes they’ve got grown kids, sometimes they’ve got a fussy cat or an energetic pug. But they all have one thing in common: they’re living full, interesting, capable lives in a stage that media usually treats like a punchline or a fade-to-black moment not worth elaborating on.

    A quick observation: a lot of movies and shows act like you disappear once you hit 30. If you’re not a twenty-something trying to figure it all out, you’re suddenly cast as the mom in the background or the boss with no backstory. It’s like middle age is a void we’re meant to quietly fall into. But being middle-aged doesn’t mean your story is over. It means you’re in a new chapter…and that chapter is still worth telling.

    That’s what I love about cozy mysteries. They don’t shy away from this life phase. They embrace it with all the romanticism it deserves. These women aren’t afraid of getting older. They’re too busy living, investigating, starting businesses, baking bread or pies, and sometimes flirting with the town sheriff or local detective. It makes middle age seem less like a dreaded milestone and more like a whole new book.

    And get this, friends! They’re not described as drop-dead gorgeous in a movie-star kind of way. They wear sensible shoes and clothes. They have laugh lines, grey hair and even a wrinkle or two. And yet they’re treated as worthy of romance, admiration, and mystery-solving greatness, never less than. It’s like reading the full and beautiful adventures of a bunch of cool aunts.

    It’s encouraging.

    So if you’re feeling a little weird about growing older or just need something to read with a cup of tea and a throw blanket, cozy mysteries might be your new friend. They’ve certainly become mine. 🙂

    Drop your Blog Suggestions in the Comments!!

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 8 Comments

    Hey friends!

    So I’ve been dipping back into the blogging world recently and I realized something kind of sad… a lot of the blogs I used to love during college are either inactive or completely gone. Like a ghost town complete with tumbleweeds.🥲

    I used to hop on here and scroll through such thoughtful, funny, honest posts. People sharing everything from life updates to poetry to book reviews and rambling thoughts and while that’s not completely gone, many of the blogs I regularly interacted with and community feeling is greatly missed.

    I’d love to get plugged back into the WordPress community and discover some fresh blogs to read. So if you have any favorite blogs you follow, or if you blog (please do!), drop a link in the comments! Whether it’s cozy lifestyle content, creative writing, faith-based posts, deep thoughts, or just good ol’ fashioned life updates, I’m right here, friend, and I’m all ears.

    Help a girl fill her reader with good stuff again 🫶
    Can’t wait to see what y’all share!

    Confessions of a KDP Survivor: A Tragedy writ in Poetry

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 4 Comments

    Look, I thought self-publishing my book would feel like presenting the world a piece of my soul and everyone would instantly clap at my literary genius *dramatic hair flip*. But let’s get back to reality and discuss it because while I’m not a genius with a masterpiece to produce, the whole process had moments where it felt a sort of like cyclical hell of reformatting the same script over and over again…just to reupload it and see A new problem had been invented by my means of fixing the previous problem. Lovely.

    So here, dear reader, are a few poems chronicling my deeply emotional, slightly ridiculous (and mundane) journey with Kindle Direct Publishing. May they bring you laughter, healing, and maybe a slight eye twitch in solidarity.

    The Upload Spiral

    (A sonnet, sort of. Shakespeare is not impressed.)

    I clicked “Upload”—how easy!—with coffee in hand,
    A hopeful young writer with dreams so grand.
    But lo! My margins were not flush, my gutter misbehaved,
    And half of my poem was tragically shaved.

    “Bleed error,” it screamed, “Fix your trim size, you doof!”
    My table of contents went straight up through the roof…(of the page.)
    I resized and reformatted, cursed Kindle’s name,
    Then tried a new layout… with results just the same.

    I whispered to Canva, “Make me a cover!”
    She laughed, “Sure thing… but your title’s hungover.”
    So I rage-ate some chips and prayed to the onedrive cloud,
    My PDF won’t open. I screamed… out loud.

    Formatting Hell: A Memoir in Free Verse

    I thought importing a Word doc
    would be simple.
    Just CTRL + C, CTRL + V.
    Easy. Peasy.

    Even…lemon squeasy.

    Then Kindle
    turned my paragraph breaks
    into a n spattered s p a c e d

    mess
    My images
    migrated to the top of the page
    like penguins heading north for winter.
    The title page
    had opinions,
    That differed from mine.

    rebellion.

    Page numbers?
    They exist in my mind only.

    Cover Designer’s Lament

    (A limerick)

    A gal thought her cover was sleek,
    ‘Til Kindle said, “Nope. Fix. Then tweak.”
    The spine was too thick,
    “This was supposed to be quick,“
    Now she cries into Canva each week.

    The Final Click

    (A motivational spoken-word poem performed under a single spotlight)

    I did it.
    I hit “Publish.”
    Tears in my eyes,

    Will it sell?
    Will it flop?
    Will I check the dashboard
    twice a day
    for three weeks
    and then forget I even wrote it?

    Yes.
    Yes, I will.
    And I’ll do it again,
    because I’m a KDP author.
    And I thrive
    on chaos.

    (Or so I tell myself)

    In Conclusion…

    If you’re about to upload your first book to Kindle Direct Publishing, just know you’re not alone. Your margins may be askew and cause you to weep. Your soul may briefly exit your body when the previewer crashes for the fifth time. But you’ll live to publish again.

    And hey, once you’ve cried it out and your book is live, you get to do the most magical thing of all: click “View on Amazon” and text your friends, “Look, I’m famous.”

    You earned this, you formatting fighter, you.

    Oh and my book is live now!

    Click here to check it out.

    A note- the title was changed in the second to last draft. From The Cottage, Christ, & Me, to Featherlight Faith.

    Alright! That’s it! Thanks for reading!

    If My Writing Projects Were Houseplants: A Survival Report

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 5 Comments

    Some people keep spreadsheets to track their writing projects. I, however, prefer chaos and absolutely unnecessary metaphors. So today, I bring you a survival report from the windowsill of my brain, where my various book projects live like needy houseplants (many desperate for water and fertilizer). Some are thriving. Some are shedding leaves. One may be compost by now. Come on inside, dear reader and let’s check in, shall we?

    1. The Cottagecore Christian Poetry Book (Christ, The Cottage, & Me)
    Status: Vibrantly alive. Blooming. Green as can be.

    This one is my thriving fiddle leaf fig. You know, the dramatic kind that requires attention and soft lighting but rewards you with beauty if you treat it right. I’ve been misting this plant faithfully for months (aka actually editing and writing consistently), and it’s nearly ready to be potted in something final and pretty. And let me tell you, I’m SO ready to enjoy the blooms. It’s the narrative poetry book about a girl in a cottage who shares daily life with Jesus. Cozy? Yes. Spiritual? Also yes. Almost finished? YOU BET. I’m just fussing with the final leaves before I give it a name tag and place it on the shelf with pride. It serves as proof that I CAN have a green thumb sometimes when I actually try and remember to water it.

    2. The “Living Alone” Book
    Status: That one houseplant that’s… still alive? Technically?

    Ah, this one. My little pothos in a cup of water. Not potted. Not dead. Just vibing in a state of suspended existence. This book started as a collection of tips, thoughts, and odd anecdotes from when I first moved out on my own. It’s half finished and half “maybe I’ll come back to this when inspiration strikes or I feel the urge to talk about the time I cried while assembling Amazon furniture.” It’s hanging out on the kitchen counter of my mind, roots growing slowly. Might thrive. Might not. Who knows? It’s future is undetermined at the moment.

    3. The Lighthouse Girl Poetry Book
    Status: Seedling. In the germination station. Do not disturb.

    I don’t want to say much yet, but let’s just say something tender and glowing is sprouting. It’s the spiritual sequel to the cottagecore book, but this one takes place by the sea. That’s all I’ll say. Don’t crowd it. It’s very delicate. It knows when it’s being watched.

    4. The Fairytale Mystery Novel (SNOW)
    Status: Dormant. Possibly in cryogenic freeze.

    SNOW was a burst of ambition of mine. A fairytale mystery with plot, twists, and actual chapters. I wrote a full draft, then a second half-draft, and then I stared at it like a succulent that’s gone leggy and weird. The story is technically there, but it needs pruning, restructuring, and maybe a resurrection spell. Honestly, I’ve emotionally moved on. Will I come back to it in five years and think, “Oh, this isn’t bad”? Possibly. Will I do it tomorrow? Not likely. I’m not watering it. But I haven’t tossed it in the compost heap either.

    And that’s it!

    So there you have it: a tour through my little greenhouse of stories. Some are thriving under gentle care. Some are barely hanging on. One is humming a sea shanty. And one has been wrapped in a blanket and placed in storage like a tulip bulb.

    If you’re also a writer with a shelf of plant-like projects, just know: survival is subjective. Growth is sneaky. And sometimes, a half-forgotten draft flowers when you least expect it. 🌿

    Big Life Update!!!!!!!

    ~ Brooke F. ~ 7 Comments

    I wrote a poetry book!!

    Cover reveal!
    Notes I’ve already made of things that need to be added and fixed.
    The book’s poems are separated by seasons.
    Back bio!

    Aaaand I’m officially in the thick of the ongoing battle that is trying to get it published through KDP. If you’ve never wrestled with Kindle’s formatting system, let me just say: it’s an extreme sport. This time around, my main enemy has been margin sizing. (Margins! The most boring yet somehow most powerful force known to man.) A few of my poems that originally played around with white space had to be rearranged, which was honestly heartbreaking. There’s nothing like fighting for your artistic vision against a stubborn little “your margins are off” warning box.

    But!! After many rounds of staring at my laptop, dramatically sighing, and reworking layouts, I finally got my proof copy in the mail today!
    For those who don’t know, a proof copy is basically the version you get to lovingly (or not-so-lovingly) scribble edits all over before you fix everything and upload your final manuscript. I immediately busted out my pen and started making notes because, of course, the second you see your book in print, all your little mistakes jump out like “SURPRISE! You missed me!”

    The book ended up being about 100 pages of narrative poetry, telling the story of a girl who lives in a cottage and her various adventures and conversations with the Carpenter (a stand-in for Christ). It’s cozy and intimate and feels like sitting on a creaky wooden porch, sharing life with someone who knows you inside and out.
    There are poems about baking bread, going on little walks, asking hard questions, sitting quietly, making things by hand…all the small, sacred moments that make up a life of faith.

    I’m honestly so excited (and so nervous) to share it when it’s ready. It’s one thing to write poems privately; it’s a whole other thing to send them out into the world and hope they land softly somewhere.
    Either way, just holding a physical copy of something I made…even a messy, needs-edits version…feels surreal and really, really special.

    Thanks for cheering me on through all the margins, the formatting fails, and the many, many sighs. I can’t wait to show you more soon! 💛