From the Compost Heap header. A pencil style illustration of a compost heap with flowers and plants growing around it. A bee buzzes by and a white rabbit hops by.

  • Chaos Gardening & Neurodivergence

    This month’s zine is Chaos Gardening: tips from a chronically ill & neurodivergent gardener.

    You can buy a copy or subscribe for monthly zines.*

    If you want a peek at my own chaos garden I’ve posted several photos and videos on my microblog.†

    Here is the wild bunny that’s taken up residence under my art studio (which I named The Rabbit Hole before this beauty moved in.)

    How it Feels to Me

    Here’s an update, on How it Feels to Me, the picture book about neurodiversity I’m co-creating with illustrator Gracie Klumpp.

    We’ve reached the proofing stage! I couldn’t be more excited to share a peek our progress.

    Click here to see more!

    Cover design test for How it Feels to Me - a cream cover with swatches of colors: blues, greens, oranges, the title and a dark skinned human standing at the center surrounded by a halo of objects: tokens, leaves, a traffic cone, seashell, and more color swatches. Written by Sarah Shotts. Illustrated by Gracie Klumpp. Proof #1.

    Unfortunately, this book is needed more than ever.

    Harmful information is being spread by the US government categorizing autism and ADHD as epidemics. Neurodiversity is not a broken brain! It is a brain that experiences the world differently and this picture book shows how.

    If you’d like to support the project you can preorder or donate a copy to a school, library, or a neurodivergent family in financial hardship.**

    PREORDER OR DONATE A COPY

    What is autism?

    If you missed my last email I wrote a post called What is Autism? that breaks down sensory processing and autistic differences.

    Two brain scans. The one on the left is a rainbow web reaching into all areas of the brain. The image on the right is a rainbow ribbon traveling along the language center of the brain.
    The brain on the left is autistic.
    we process a lot more information in any given moment.

    I end the post with this footnote,

    “Being neurotypical just means that your brain is processing the world like most others. This means the dominant culture has been made to support the way your brain processes the world around you. You are surrounded by supports for your neurotype every single day.”

    This is a concept I’d like to explore further. It really turns the idea of supports on it’s head.

    Click here to read the whole post.

    Novel Writing

    I finally finished the mood board for my fantasy novel.

    I’ve hung this right in my living room so it can stay in my consciousness.

    You can see the timelapse where I make it here.

    I’ve come to the conclusion I need to free up some mental capacity to really delve into this world in the way that’s needed. Turns out proofing three separate books for self publishing is kind of a lot. I’m being patient with myself. There’s no rush on this.

    Here’s a peek at my writing workspace.

    Laptop with yellow hobbit hole wallpaper. An edison bulb lamp sheds a dim golden glow on a goddess vase filled with pens. The workspace is otherwise shrouded in darkness.

    I set this up in the living room when it was too cold to be in the studio (and soon it will be too hot.) It turns out that extreme heat and cold trigger migraines so I’m afraid I am a fair weather studio artist. Accepting that my body needs what it needs means making spaces that work for me.

    I love seeing my zines land in your life.

    Here are a few photos you’ve sent me recently.

    Oh, did I mention I’ve started printmaking again?

    My I'm Fine zine, Wheel of Time mini zine and a campfire linocut print lay on a table by a row of blue and green books.
    A hand holding my Choose Your Adventure zine while wearing colorful yellow pants, striped shirt, and yellow shoes.

    Shoutout to A. Wilder and Paige Meredith Ray. You should visit their blogs.

    Ways to Support drawing of a white rabbit hopping into flowers

    The Compost Heap is handmade without the use of AI. 🐝

    Support doing things the old fashioned way by joining my Patrons ($5) and I’ll send paper zines each month with the coolest postage stamps I can find.

    Drawing of a tin can telephone and the words Let's chat

    If you’re reading this in your email inbox you can just hit reply to message me directly. I’d love to hear what you think. It makes it worth the time I put in.

    Thanks for being here.

    I appreciate you.

    Sarah signed with a swoopy S
    FOOTNOTES

    * I’m no longer digitizing zines. Due to chronic migraines I’m attempting to cut down on screentime. I wrote a bit about that here.

    † What is a microblog? Basically a social media style blog feed that I archive on my own site. I’m working on setting this up to autopost to Bluesky. I call my microblog scraps – evoking both a scrapbook or commonplace book and also the bits of kitchen scrap that end up in the compost heap.

    ** If you donate a book we are happy to find the book a home or to send it to the school or library of your choice.

    Read more: Chaos Gardening & Neurodivergence

  • Chaos Gardening: Tips from a Chronically Ill & Neurodivergent Gardener

    Chaos Gardening black and white zine among blooming daisies in my garden. The title is cut out magazine letters and peony leaf rubbings are overlaid. The subtitle readers: tips from a chronically ill and neurodivergent gardener.

    I think I’m finding my groove with zine making. I had a lot of fun going analogue this month and in addition to my typewriter I also incorporated collage and nature rubbings.

    BUY A ZINE

    Or subscribe for zines delivered to your mailbox every month.

    The back of the zine. You can read some text typed on my typewriter and see peony leaf rubbings. The text reads: VI. No dig• A few strategies I use to minimize pain are: No dig garden beds (areas with soil piled on cardboard). Cardboard lined raised beds. A low gardeningstool (B to avoid back pain & dizziness). Suppressing weeds (minimizing weeding) with cardboard or spare paving stones. Anything that will block sunlight & not blow away will do. A Kindle Curiosity Zine. May 2025.

    Read more: Chaos Gardening: Tips from a Chronically Ill & Neurodivergent Gardener

  • I love seeing my zines land in your life!

    My I'm Fine zine, Wheel of Time mini zine and a campfire linocut print lay on a table by a row of blue and green books.
    A hand holding my Choose Your Adventure zine while wearing colorful yellow pants, striped shirt, and yellow shoes.
    My Not About Tetris and I'm Fine zine lay in a pile with an Angel Oak postcard, hobbit hole magnet, dinosaur connect the dots, and paperback of Notes on a Life by Eleanor Coppola.

    Thanks for sharing your photos!

    Read more: I love seeing my zines land in your life!
  • Survivor CBS screencap. Eva confides to Joe, "There are times when I get super overstimulated, I call them episodes. I'll be stuck in a loop in my head and the thing that I need to do it to get grounded. What I need from you is getting squeezed. Take my hands and squeeze as much as possible." The second image shows Joe and Eva forehead to forehead squeezing her hands to coregulate.

    This season of Survivor was close to my heart.

    Read more: untitled post 156078837

  • Our first picture book proof!

    Here’s an update, on How it Feels to Me, the picture book about neurodiversity I’m co-creating with illustrator Gracie Klumpp.

    We’ve reached the proofing stage!

    I couldn’t be more excited to share a peek our progress!

    Before finalizing color palettes and fonts we decided to order an early proof to see how everything looks on paper. Something I’ve learned about self publishing is that early proofs can really help save time by identifying problems early on before they multiply.

    Gracie put together a few spreads to test colors, fonts, and print quality. (Pinch & zoom to really get a good look on mobile.)

    A rose colored background with various figures hand illustrated under a tree and notes about the different brushes and styles. The character is wearing a sweater vest and plaid pants and is illusrated with a variety of different hair textures and face shapes. One is hanging upside down from a tree branch.

    Lucky we did because we’ve completely changed our printer! (But more about that later.)

    Here’s a really fun spread we’re experimenting with.

    This is a visualization of sensory modulation that invites the reader to turn the book upside down to see how the levels change.

    Volume level and dials across the page. Sounds in the red include siren and wind. Handwritten text reads: Try turning the book upside down! (Then, upside down.) Need to perfect this but, see how the levels are better now? That's sensory modulation. A note compares hard contrast buttons and lower light effect.

    The next spread continues on from the first page, “All brains are different.”

    “Just like all bodies are different.

    We can see some differences, like if someone is tall or has curly hair, but we can’t see people’s brains.”

    A cream page with a layer of grid paper cutout to depict a city skyline. Characters are illustrated in different body types, races, and ages. Some are quick sketches and those toward the front are more complete. To the right is a dark skinned character with curly hair and a blue halo of photographed objects surrounding them. The objects include: blue objects including seaweed, shells, and a ticket stub.

    Here’s one more peek at some of the character work Gracie has been doing. I love seeing the concepts I’ve written about come to life!

    Cream page with pencil style illustrations of a character in a plaid sweatervest. They have curly hair and mid tone skin. One vignette shows them looking through a kaleidescope. Another holding a teacup and tasting the tea with head turned and lips pursed. Another squatting down and smelling a flower. One holding a bunny on their shoulder. One holding a soda and listening to the bubbles with little popping stars around their head.

    These aren’t even finalized illustrations, but I’m already in love.

    Two days before my birthday I opened a box to find this beauty inside…

    My pale hand holding a copy of How it Feels to Me. A dark skinned human standing at the center is surrounded by a halo of objects: tokens, leaves, a traffic cone, seashell, and more color swatches. Written by Sarah Shotts. Illustrated by Gracie Klumpp.

    Holding the proof in my hands was absolutely magical. It’s real. We are making this book.

    And (unfortunately) it’s more needed than ever.*

    Imagine my surprise when I opened the cover found someone else’s book inside.

    The first 2/3 of the proof were pages from a completely different picture book. 🤯

    I immediately texted Gracie to check the second proof. It had a completely different (but equally egregious) error. That edition had a huge white bar down the center.

    The way this printer works these books were considered “final” and not “proofs.” †

    Needless to say we are investigating different printers.

    We’re currently exploring 48 Hour Books.

    There are some pros and cons.

    The quality will be excellent. We’re very happy with the sample book they provided.

    But, the books are going to cost more than we budgeted. We haven’t finalized how much this will be yet. 48 Hour Books just invested in new printers and updated prices aren’t out yet. But the difference is considerable.

    We’ll also be required to purchase a full print run (with a minimum of 100 books) rather than print on demand. This is the only way for the price of each book to come even close to our original budget.

    There’s also the small matter that each proof will now be $40 instead of the budgeted $20. But this price difference ensures books (and proofs) are made with care.

    I’m prepared (and able) to cover the difference in cost, but if you’d like to pitch in you can send donations via Venmo. I’ll share more concrete information about the pricing differences once we have that.

    Is this the first time you’ve heard about How it Feels to Me?

    Here’s a video from our crowdfunding campaign sharing the inspiration behind the book and our goals for self publishing.

    If you haven’t preordered a copy yet you can preorder here.

    Changing printers will definitely extend our timeline.

    But we’re confident it will be worth the wait.

    While we wait for 48 Hour Books to update their printers Gracie will continue refining the illustrations. Allowing me bandwidth to focus on proofs for Entwined & Ember (this is a big year for me!)

    THANK YOU SO MUCH, each and every one of you, for all the ways you’ve supported this project!

    We appreciate you.

    P.S. If you’d like to support the project and don’t need a copy of the book you can also choose to donate a copy which will go to a school, library, or a neurodivergent family in financial hardship.**

    preorder or donate a book
    footnotes

    * The US Government has recently categorized autism and ADHD as “epidemics” and is spreading harmful misinformation. I addressed it briefly in my new post titled, What is Autism?

    † The printer was Ingram Spark, for the curious. We’d already dismissed Amazon for the hardcover edition. (Although we plan to release a paperback through Amazon later on to make the book as easy to find and accessible as possible.)

    ** If you donate a book we are happy to find the book a home or to send it to the school or library of your choice.

    Read more: Our first picture book proof!

  • Therapeutic weeding. The front bed is overrun with witch grass because I wasn’t well enough to garden last year, but reclaiming it one patch at a time. Excited about our first sea holly – it’s a variety called Hobbit.

    Runner grass surrounding plants in the garden bed. My rainboot, a narrow widger, and a sea holly are also visible.
    Mulch surrounding sea holly, sage, and russian sage with tall grass growing beyond.
    Read more: untitled post 156078797
  • Fence of treated wood opens on a patch of blue and white wildflowers in our backyard under a gray cloudy sky.
    Blue and white wildflowers with a mown path leading to a fence of treated wood.

    I really prefer British style fences, but with the wildflowers blooming I am coming around to ours.

    Read more: untitled post 156078927
  • Laptop with yellow hobbit hole wallpaper. An edison bulb lamp sheds a dim golden glow on a goddess vase filled with pens. The workspace is otherwise shrouded in darkness.

    Have I mentioned I set up a desk in our living room? I’ve been using it since January or February. It was especially nice when the severe winter weather meant I couldn’t use the studio.

    Read more: untitled post 156078924
  • Black and white photograph of a blood lab with materials for drawing blood arranged in a grid on the wall.

    New doctor new bloodwork. I’ll be writing about chronic illness soon so I thought I’d take a photo while I waited for the nurse.

    Read more: untitled post 156078921
  • A tiny oak tree sprouting from an acorn in a mason jar full of water.

    We found this beauty when we were weeding the mulch under the jungle gym. A fascinating science project to see how an acorn sprouts into a mighty oak.

    Read more: untitled post 156078918