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Books       Letters       Me

TELEPATHY, DAISY, AND DON'T SHELVE A DREAM

Jan 08, 2025

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!!

First book of 2025: I was gifted my dream gift: a Daunte Books subscription (shout out to my #1 family member, Linsey!! jkjk), and the first novel they sent me was DISOBEDIENT by Elizabeth Fremantle. It's a historical novel set in 1600s Rome (not normally my era of choice!) and follows rising artist Artemisia Gentileschi, who was a survivor who refused to stay silent. Despite a society that routinely dismissed women's voices (so glad we've come so far, sigh), she took the extraordinary step of speaking truth to power. Artemesia, if you're unfamiliar (I was!!), was one of the most significant baroque painters of her era, turning trauma into artistic triumph. I devoured this book.

What I'm writing: I ended 2024 by writing the very first scenes of Evangeline, my second novel! And I started 2025 ripping open boxes of Daisy, my first novel! It was a heck of a few days, to say the least. Starting Evangeline was intimidating. It's been so long since I've looked at a blank page like that, even though I've been researching and outlining most of last year. My goal is to have the zero draft done by June! 2,000 words down, 88,000 to go, LOL.

 

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history. Stop what you're doing right now and follow the podcast Telepathy Tapes and listen to all 9 episodes in rapid succession. You'll be in awe. You'll probably cry. And you will thank me. While the tapes are #1 on the pod charts, I take partial responsibility because I was sending the link to every single person I know...finding a way to talk about it in every single conversation...and yet I still don't have words for how special it is. But I'll try: Ky Dickens, a documentarian and self-proclaimed skeptical person, takes a look at the seemingly indescribable powers of non-speaking autistic people. I don't want to say too much here other than each episode builds, and by episode 9 you're in a full-on spiritual examination of what it means to be human. It's a doozy and was so completely nourishing.


PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine:

On January 2nd, Daisy books arrived at a warehouse here in Savannah, and my 45-month wait to see, hold, and sniff this book was finally over. And the work began!! Every book is signed, numbered, and has a few special surprises inside. Thank you to everyone who ordered one, and if you're hoping to get your hands on one of these keepsake edition books, better do it now. I printed a very small run!

It took me about 6 days until I finally cried with joy, and honestly: pride. I'm really f*cking proud of myself for seeing Daisy through to this beautiful, glowing hardback that looks like sunshine on a shelf (it was even prettier than I imagined!!). There were a lot of times it would have been so much easier to just quit: when the first half of the book needed to be a page 1 rewrite, when the “done book” needed to be heavily revised and reworked over the next year, when ~20 publishers at all of the top houses passed on acquiring it (and one deal fell through), when the easier thing to do would be to shelve it until it hopefully gets a deal later when I've finished book #2. When getting this limited run out myself requires (another) sizable investment of money, time, and resources. Ya...at all of those points over the last 3.5 years, the easier thing to do would be to lay the project down for now. But I believed in it too much, in the Daisy way too much, in myself and in your support. So, thank you for all of your orders (they're coming to you soon!!), all of your encouragement, and all of your love. If there's something creative pulling at your heart. Listen regardless of the doubt and the rejection that often sounds a little bit louder. In 2025, refuse to let your dreams be shelved!

Woman on xx



My words are written just for you.