A year or two before David was born my mom gifted me a weeping cherry tree for my birthday. It bloomed happily for a while and then a freeze split its bark and it became diseased and distressed.
I did my best to save the tree, but last year it didn’t come back after winter. After a year of mentally preparing myself for this I decided to use the sinuous wood to make a sculpture and Nathan helped dig up as much of the root as possible.
This month I’ve started stripping the bark.
My title for this work is Bloom Where You’re Planted. As an autistic person this has always rankled because I am not always able to thrive in unsuitable environments.
Here are some process photos.
A time when the tree was happy.
Before
Sad tree half dead and half distressed.
Shoutout to Nathan’s farm boy muscle. I never could have dug this up myself because of my connective tissue disorder.
Progress
After pruning and removing some branches I found it balanced nicely upside down.
Cleaning
David helped me clean the mud off the root. This project has been a family affair.
Stripping Bark
Removing the bark has been a very satisfying (if incredibly slow) process. Because of all the twists and turns in this particular tree I think I’m going to need some finer carving tools soon.
If you’re autistic or ADHD and you’ve struggled with learning a foreign language you are not alone! The typical class structures are not made for our brains.
Growing up I had no idea I was autistic.
I was an early talker, a self taught reader, and my social differences were percieved as “shy.”
Flash forward thirty years and I am learning so much about myself alongside my autistic child. For one thing, our brains process language completely differently than neurotypicals.
If you want to do a deep dive into language development I suggest starting with Alexandria Zachos of Meaningful Speech. She has a lot of free resources on her blog and Instagram.
While I was learning to support my child’s speech development I had some big epiphanies about my own use of language and specifically why I struggled with Spanish classes in university.
Neurotypical humans learn speech word by word.
This is why most babies point at objects to learn their names. They learn a bunch of single words and eventually use them like building blocks to make sentences.
This is the way foreign language classes are structured because this is the way most brains process language.
I’m thinking of the times in class we would recite conjugations – as if that was at all useful outside the context of a sentence. 🫠
Autistic humans (and some ADHDers) learn speech in chunks. 🤯
Our natural language progression is to pick up phrases or sentences like shiny objects.
Bonus points for musicality, expression, or relating to our interests.
Once we have enough chunks we naturally start to mix and match.
How can we use this to teach (or learn) a second language?
Now we know why traditional curriculum aren’t going to work for us.
So what do we do instead?
1. If you do use a curriculum look for something that introduces phrases. Not words. 💬
Learning individual words is not helpful for gestalt language processors.
We need to see them in action.
Even if you find a curriculum that does this, you’re still going to need to supplement it to really engage a neurodivergent student.
2. We need hear a human native speaker. 🧑
Because we’re picking up on the whole language gestalt – including intonation.
Google AI is not the way forward here.
This doesn’t mean you need a private tutor, but whatever you are watching or listening to should be a real human who is a native speaker of the language you are learning.
3. Find expressive & interesting material. 📺
We’re incredibly lucky to live in a time where our favorite TV shows are probably dubbed over in multiple languages. Here’s the secret sauce where you engage with your student about whatever they are most passionate about.
We are currently loving the Spanish dubs of Numberblocks on Netflix. (My kid literally falls asleep listening to the soundtrack – which is also available in Spanish!)
I find that it’s easier to pick up on language if you’re watching shows that are made for emerging speakers (toddlers). Vocabulary is simpler and the speed of speech is (usually) slower.
But we also love watching Totoro in Japanese.
There’s something to be said for the immersion of watching something you love. Before my child was fluent in English he was singing the theme song to Totoro in Japanese.
Sometimes it’s about what speaks to your heart.
4. Sing! 🎶
Our brains engage with music on a different level than spoken language. Sometimes neurodivergent folks even sing before speaking.
99% of what I do remember from Spanish class was from songs.
Just search for children’s songs in whatever language you want to learn.
Or jump in the deep end and try translating a pop song. I did this for Kudai’s Quiero after studying abroad in Mexico. It’s twenty years later and I still know it by heart.
5. Consider auditory processing supports. 🎧
Not all neurodivergent folks struggle with auditory processing, but plenty of us do. Sometimes I can’t “hear” sounds unless I see them.
If you’re watching a show or YouTube channel look at your options for captions. Captions in the native language are really helpful. But sometimes they do differ from the recorded audio so you have to watch out for that. (This is always the case even with English.) Or English captions can help with understanding the context.
Another great tool for students who need to see to hear is AAC.
David already had the Proloquo2Go app as a support for communicating in English. He hasn’t used his AAC in months so I set up a second user in Spanish. (I’m sure there’s a way to set up a bilingual user too.)
It looks like this. When you tap the word the tablet speaks it.
I wish this app were not so expensive.
But language curriculum is also quite an investment. I wanted to mention this because it is such a powerful tool. Since we already have it – using it for a second language is an exciting way to put that investment to good use.
I started with a template for an emerging speaker and then customized folders with phrases from Numberblocks.
It’s really important to put in phrases for our neurodivergent kids in addition to the single words that come preloaded.
I’ll probably write a second post specifically about how we use this.
The caveat is that AAC tablets are not very expressive. This is like a speaking dictionary, but it will not teach you the natural musicality of a language. You still need a native speaker (in real life, recordings, TV, or YouTube) to model language. This is a tool for making that material accessible.
6. Read books together! 📖
I love bilingual books with two languages printed side by side.
But I learned the hard way to look for books that are for “early readers” versus classic favorites.
La oruga muy hambrienta is a mouthful.
While I didn’t learn much conversational Spanish during my time studying abroad, I am fairly confident at sight reading words. (It helps that the sounds in Spanish are very consistent versus what we’re used to in English.)
If you’re not comfortable reading aloud yourself (yet) try audiobooks!
But it’s also okay to be imperfect and make mistakes while you are learning. It’s all part of the process. If you’re a parent reading with a kid – seeing you make mistakes and correct yourself can be a good life lesson.
7. Practice with friends. 👭
Once you have phrases use them in your daily life.
Weave in what you’ve learned with your family or a friend group. My little extrovert is already having short conversations with native Spanish speakers in our area.
Follow his lead and look for opportunities to practice and learn in community.
8. Play! 🕹️
Try simple games in another language. Learn the phrases needed for a card game. Play “I spy” or charades. Put the words you’ve learned to good use.
You may even find video games or apps with multiple languages. Toddler apps are designed for emergent speakers (we love Eric Carle’s), but they do tend to focus on words versus phrases. If you’re picking up individual words (numbers, colors, nouns) try to learn phrases too so the words don’t get “stuck.”
Toolbox for ND Language Learners 🧰
Learn phrases and sentences. Not words.
Learn from a human native speaker. Not AI.
Find expressive & interesting material.
Learn songs!
Try captions and AAC.
Read books for “early readers.”
Speak the language in daily life.
Play!
If you found this useful I’d love to hear from you. I’m always open to chat or share resources, but simply hearing that you enjoyed this will make my day.
Season 3 is airing in March – just in time for my birthday.
If you love fantasy books like Lord of the Rings… I’d love for you to give this a watch next month and nerd out with me. Even if you haven’t read the books – the visual design and performances for this show are so stunning I’d really recommend watching first and then diving into the books.
This season is based on my favorite book in the series!
The Shadow Risingis when Wheel of Time steps away from Tolkien and starts being it’s own thing.
Half the characters travel to the desert and meet a complex warrior culture. The others go hunting down some very dangerous women. The layers build from there! I can’t even mention my two favorite parts because they are too spoilerific, but check this image out:
Don’t you want to know what’s happening there?
I’m dying to see this scene. It happens “off page” in the books. 👀
[This Clip Contains Spoilers]
If you’re a book reader (or just don’t care about spoilers) here is the first scene of Season 3. We are starting out with a bang!
What else happened this month?
Well… I completely redesigned my website. 😂
It’s still “under construction” so pardon my dust (and broken links) as you’re poking around. I hope to “unveil” the new site properly next month.
I wrote a few posts including this one about website design as worldmaking. My old website was a minimalist website (which lives on as a virtual art gallery.) But I’m letting the rest of my site be weirder and more me.
I hope it will sprawl and grow into a proper labyrinth.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with visuals and texture. But my favorite detail so far is this “page not found” design, which feels very me.
If you want to read the boring reasons about why I’m switching web & newsletter platforms I’ve written about my online ecosystem here.
I’m leveling up my zines!
This month I used a printing press to make the February zine.
You can see the process (including a timelapse video) here. You can also see a mini Wheel of Time zine I made. I’m going to print them up and leave them around town as guerrilla fan marketing. (Let me know if you’d like to do the same and I’ll share the file.)
Now that I have a printing press I’ve added a $10 tier where you can subscribe for quarterly prints as well as zines.
I’ve also realized that the time I’m spending on these zines has been growing each month. (Especially in contrast to the simple letters I started with.) So I’m phasing out pledges below $5. This means I have more freedom to play with color and multiple page zines if I’m so inspired.
I’m also stepping away from Patreon and Substack to host subscriptions on my own website.†
Everything in one spot. (Finally!)
Works in Progress
Here’s a peek at what else I’ve been working on this month.
SOFT SCULPTURE BRAIN
Nearly done with my soft sculpture brain sewn from baby clothes. I have two hemispheres complete and need to spend some time refining them and doing finishing work. (They’re a little unbalanced at the moment.)
home education rhythm
The transition from holiday chaos back to a normal routine is hard for neurodivergents. Here is how we’re finding our feet again and freedom within structure.
Now that I’m integrating my various blogs into one location my archive is much larger than I realized.
I’m planning to move the archives month by month. Motivated in part by sharing this time hop with you. Which means (if all goes to plan) I’ll be done by next February. ‡
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 copies of my zines with the coolest postage stamps I can find.
Not into snail mail?
Here are other ways you can support.
Share with a friend. (It’s free!)
Art swap! Let me know if you’d like to swap your art for a zine.
* To share the Neuro Nest Retreat. The workshops were all recorded so you can still join in here. I’d love to have a weaving from you. (Yes, you!)
† Substack supporters will continue to be charged through Stripe. Patreon has been shut down so anyone supporting there will need to resubscribe. (You should already have emails from those platforms, but if you have any questions at all just ask.)
‡ Something I’ve learned by moving blogging platforms a couple of times is that something always goes funky. Formatting is strange. Photos are hotlinked. Multimedia elements (audio, video, embeds) are missing or broken. And hardly anything has alt text. I’m using this chance to dust all the cobwebs before making posts public.
This month’s zine is a collaboration between 38 year old me and 13 year old me. I made it with stickers and journal entries from my millennial time capsule – created in 1999.
To celebrate waiting 26 years to open this time capsule I’ve made a full color zine this month! To go with the Crayola vibes I used rubber stamps instead of my typewriter this month. Sometimes it’s nice to get your hands dirty.
Patrons watch your mailboxes. The rest of you can buy a copy from my shop.
I was SO sure there was a Tamogotchi inside! But the only “artifacts” were a dried out gel pen (I’m 90% sure it was dried out before I put it in) and a McDonalds Beanie Babies Happy Meal bag. I remember being really confused about what to include that I wouldn’t somehow miss in the next 26 years. 😂
What would you have put in a time capsule to represent the year 1999?
In the Studio ✂️
Something I realized during NaNoWriMo is that I want to make my noveling process more interdisciplinary. My first step was printing out images from my novel’s mood board. Holding these in my hands and moving them around was incredibly regulating after an overstimulating holiday season.
10/10 would recommend paper mood boards.
I’m planning to pin these on a cork board so I can continue to move them around rather than gluing them down. I may even use string. (I have a long standing thing for conspiracy corkboards.)
The added benefit will be keeping my story visible to my conscious and unconcious mind throughout the year. Here’s a time lapse since I’m not on Instagram anymore.
Over the last month I’ve realized (reading Ray Bradbury & Dorothea Brande) that my creative ecosystem needs more time for dreaming and ideation. So my word of the year is Reverie and I made this phone wallpaper as a visual reminder. The painting by John William Waterhouse is titled Boreas.
I’m also starting a “writing from life” practice – separate from my self reflective journaling – to keep up my prose writing throughout the year. I both need space to think about my novel and space to write. I’m using this gorgeous spreadsheet to track my progress. Something I love about it is that you track time as well as words. Time researching, writing, prepping all counts. There’s tons of flexibility in setting goals and the spreadsheet even encourages you to allow for missing days.
My kid is 5 1/2 years old and this feels like the first time I’ve had the energy and capacity to stay up late writing most nights. (Brain fog in the morning means waking up early never worked for me.) I’m so grateful to home education for giving us the flexibility to set our own hours.
Reading these together really formed a constellation of creative process. Observing what overlapped and what differed. I learned years ago I can’t use another creative process wholecloth, but reading about other people’s experience can help demystify the process. Studying early drafts of Tolkien and Sanderson’s work is really doing that for me as well.
Apparently a Rat Rod “is a custom car with a deliberately worn-down, unfinished appearance, typically lacking paint, showing rust, and made from cheap or cast-off parts.” Pretty cool.
Wicked’s ‘Dancing Through Life’ Full Scene Breakdown (I love the stage production and never expected to like the film version, but with Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman at the helm this is a stunning adaptation so far.)
This time last year…
Hello from a Human Jungle Gym is a reflection on time and energetic capacity. I had similar goals last year, but continued to sink too much time into Substack. I’m hoping that making the big jump to Beehiiv will help me realize some of these intentions.
We’ll see what happens long term, but I had twice the open rate on my last email as I have on Substack recently. People are starting to treat Substack like a social media and posts get lost in the feed.
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 copies of my zines with the coolest postage stamps I can find.
Not into snail mail?
Here are other ways you can support.
Share with a friend. (It’s free!)
Art swap! Let me know if you’d like to swap your art for a zine.
Because The Medium is the Message I’ve given up weekly blogging and I’m making monthly zines instead.
Here’s how it works.
First, I noodle around with an idea. I type up a few notes on my phone and mull it over.
I might browse are.na to find some images or I might use a photograph.
Next, I do 2-3 rounds of edits. This process is powered by my kid’s hyperfocus when playing Zelda Breath of the Wild.
Then, I go out to my studio and load up my 1950’s Underwood typewriter.
Unless there’s a big problem (like above: when I loaded my typewriter ribbon backwards) I do my best to type the zine in one go. The mistakes and typos are part of the zine aesthetic and show it was made by hand.
I actually love when the letters print twice or a little crooked. It feels punk rock in a world with AI.
Then I add any images with double stick tape. I’ve decided to go full analogue and not do any digital touch ups.
I Xerox the final product on my laser printer and send physical copies to my patrons (pledges starting at $3 on Patreon.)
But you don’t have to pay to read. I’ll be sending a virtual zine every month to YOU.
If this works.
I’m not sure how well the zine will read on phone screens so this is a bit of an experiment. You may have to pinch and zoom.
Or read on a computer. You can click here to read on archive.org. It’s pretty cool over there because you can flip the pages and see the spreads as they were designed.
Websites cost money. If we don’t pay directly they are making their money by selling our attention (ads) or mining our data (for advertisers or to train AI.)
Here are some algorithm free websites I have been enjoying. I am happy to chip in my support for the services they are providing.
A simple microblogging platform. This is the passion project of Manton Reece, author of Indie Microblogging. He created micro.blog as a simple solution to own your own microblogging content. I could write a whole post about how great this is (for $5 a month), but I’ll try to keep it short. You can use it to build a website, make a blog, or microblog (like a Twitter or Instagram alternative.)
I am playing around with a photo blog which automatically publishes to Bluesky. You can also subscribe to it via RSS.
micro.blog is the way the web should work. It can be integrated with so many different things. I’ve even set up Beehiiv to automatically archive itself at sarahshotts.blog
Bluesky is a public benefit corporation with the mission to “to develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.” (Source)
This is a radical experiment in prioritizing the open web over commercial success.
You have so much control over your experience there and you can even follow Bluesky feeds through RSS or on other platforms (like the micro.blog app).
Come on over to blue skies. Claim your name at least!
My biggest frustration the last time I tested Beehiiv was the friction in the comment system. But I overlooked the simplest solution.
I’ve turned comments off.
Just hit reply to message me directly (or text me if you know me.)
So much cozier.
P.S. I should probably port over my “ways to support” banner, but it’s nearly midnight and we are drowning in sales emails this month anyway. I’ll put it back in January.
A few years ago I started making artwork with a gallery setting in mind (rather than Instagram.) That completely changed the kinds of things I was making.
I started the series My Brain on Motherhood and have been in over 10 fine art exhibitions. That never would have happened if I kept making art “for” the Internet.
The medium is the message.
The platform that we create for work for informs the work.
Earlier this year, I stopped writing paywalled posts for paying supporters and started sending letters in the mail.
Changing the medium of the message has made that work feel more personal and also more like human connection and less like work. So I’ve been wondering how to bring that energy to what I’m making here.
I’m contemplating the ways in which I might go analogue with my newsletter in the new year.
This will be going out to my paid supporters this month as an experiment. (You can sub for as little as $3 a month via Patreon.) I’ll might alternate letters and zines depending on what I have to say.
What’s interesting to me is how much this is about intention.
Once made the work with an art gallery in mind – I can then share it on Instagram. (My “I’m Fine” cross stitch actually went low key viral.)
But the frame in which I formulate ideas changes what I make.
So when I say I’m going “analogue” I’m thinking of creating physical zines on my typewriter. That’s the medium. I’ll send paper copies to paying supporters (a sliding scale starting at $3 a month.)
Once I’ve made that I can then archive digital versions of that zine on my website or Internet Archive (like this). I’ll send fewer emails (monthly or quarterly) that point directly to my website and / or compost heap. So the email newsletter becomes a channel to share my work and not the medium of the work itself.
I’m less and less comfortable having the work that I make live on someone else’s platform and this is an experiment I am excited to try.
I’ve been circling around this idea for months now and I finally discovered Mail Blog and it inspired me to give it a go.
If you’re considering how creating for the Internet in general is informing your work I’d really recommend the book The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan.
In the Studio ✂️
Meanwhile here are a few updates from my creative ecosystem.
I’m also taking a course on sensory regulation with my partner. David and I are painting these sensory regulation cards and I’m very excited about them. (I don’t have it handy, but let me know if you’d like an affiliate link.)
A lot of creative energy is also going into creating spaces for learning.
And I’m also using our new laser printer to design our own handwriting sheets. (We’re saving the paper for a recycled paper bookmark project I’ve been ideating for about 5 years.)
I also made this Wheel of Time inspired snowflake for WoTtober
In the Garden 🌱
Our garden is completely feral.
But these volunteer tomatoes are VERY happy.
Reading 📖
Inspired by Hayley Dunlop I thought I might share more of the picture books we’re reading. This one has been a big hit. (No loose teeth yet, but we’re preparing to understand when it does happen.)
You can see another example of The Medium is the Message by these flashbacks to the time I was a “YouTuber.” I’m exhausted just thinking about trying to mask as much as I did in 2016.
Two of my favorite authors and educators (John & Hank Green) founded good.store which donates 100% of profits to charity.
Over the past year they have donated 9 million dollars to support maternal mortality and tuberculosis treatment in impoverished countries.
If you’d like to gift loose leaf tea, coffee, soap, or quirky socks, swing by good.store and use my affiliate code SARAHDSHOTTS for 25% off.
I don’t do much affiliate marketing, but I really love good.store’s mission. And the Keats & Co. Breakfast Tea is my new favorite. ☕️
The Compost Heap is free to all. Thanks for exchanging your time and energy. If you’re feeling particularly generous here are other ways you can lend your support.
Join during November to get this zine in your mailbox!
If you missed my last post I’m planning to shapeshift this newsletter into a zine in 2025. This month was an experiment and I really loved making this. I’m definitely leaning into analogue in the new year.
Meanwhile you are welcome to reach out, but I am unlikely to respond in a timely fashion. November is for noveling.
A few years ago I started making artwork with a gallery setting in mind (rather than Instagram.) That completely changed the kinds of things I was making.
This will be going out to my paid supporters this month as an experiment. (You can also order one from my shop.)
I might alternate letters and zines depending on what I have to say.
What’s interesting to me is how much this is about intention.
Once I made the work with an art gallery in mind – I can then share it on Instagram. (My “I’m Fine” cross stitch actually went low key viral.)
But the frame in which I formulate ideas changes what I make.
So when I say I’m going “analogue” I’m thinking of creating physical zines on my typewriter. That’s the medium. I’ll send paper copies to paying supporters.
Once I’ve made that I can then archive digital versions of that zine on my website or Internet Archive (like this). I’ll send fewer emails (monthly or quarterly) that point directly to my website and / or compost heap. So the email newsletter becomes a channel to share my work and not the medium of the work itself.
I’m less and less comfortable having the work that I make live on someone else’s platform and this is an experiment I am excited to try.
I’ve been circling around this idea for months now and I finally discovered Mail Blogvia Independent Creative and it inspired me to give analogue a go.
If you’re considering how creating for the Internet in general is informing your work I’d really recommend the book The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan.
In the Studio ✂️
Meanwhile here are a few updates from my creative ecosystem.
I’m also taking a course on sensory regulation with my partner. David and I are painting these sensory regulation cards and I’m very excited about them. (I don’t have it handy, but let me know if you’d like an affiliate link.)
A lot of creative energy is also going into creating spaces for learning.
And I’m also using our new laser printer to design our own handwriting sheets. (We’re saving the paper for a recycled paper bookmark project I’ve been ideating for about 5 years.)
I also made this Wheel of Time inspired snowflake for WoTtober
In the Garden 🌱
Our garden is completely feral.
But these volunteer tomatoes are VERY happy.
Books 📖
Inspired by Hayley Dunlop I thought I might share more of the picture books we’re reading. This one has been a big hit. (No loose teeth yet, but we’re preparing to understand when it does happen.)
You can see another example of The Medium is the Message by these flashbacks to the time I was a “YouTuber.” I’m exhausted just thinking about trying to mask as much as I did in 2016.
The Compost Heap is free to all. Thanks for exchanging your time and energy. If you’re feeling particularly generous here are other ways you can lend your support.
Entwined weaves together stories of creativity and motherhood from mothers on the west coast of America, to Canada, Mexico, and the UK. Contributors include painters, writers, potters, visual artists, musicians, poets, and multipassionates.
Every mother has their own creative ecosystem. By sharing our stories we hope to inspire you to entwine creativity and motherhood in your own way.
New around here? Subscribe for updates from Sarah Shotts about pursuing creativity as a neurodivergent parent. 💌
Shoutout to all of the contributors! 🥰
I’m so honored to have such a brilliant constellation of mothers involved in this project. There are over 55 mothers involved from the writers and cover artists to our editor.
I’ll be turning into goo next week to recover my energy. (Like a caterpillar in a cocoon.) Even gentle book launches are a lot.
Thanks for your patience with the extra emails. We’ll go back to our normal creative compost heaps next month. I just want this book to reach as many mums as possible.
Cheers,
Originally Published to Kindle Curiosity on September 29, 2024
I’m so excited to (finally) open up preorders for Entwined & Ember an anthology and art journal for mums. This passion project has taken a lot of my energy this year along with 55 other mothers who submitted stories, prompts, and art.
I’ve been working at on this book for almost five years.
Here’s the origin story as documented on Instagram.
If you’d rather read more details about the books you can find those here.
It started when I was seven months postpartum.
“Last week when I was journaling I accidentally started writing a book. It’s a creative handbook for new mums. Not a one size fits all method, but a series of reflections and prompts to help other mothers nurture their inner artist.”
I read SO MANY books about motherhood as research.
Books that affirmed creativity is good for mental health. Books that explained the myth of equal parenting. I read about burnout and overwhelm and “the art of doing nothing.”1 I read The Artist’s Way and immediately put it down because I needed sleep more than I needed morning pages.
I took notes on my iPhone. I journaled. I cobbled together the bones of the book I thought I needed. Starting in January of 2020 I went to the library each week to turn these notes into a book while my mom watched David.
Then COVID quarantine hit.
I started navigating a deep depression. I wrote my way through it.2
By June of 2020 I had a rough draft,
“It turns out the three months I took away from this work were actually very helpful. I’ve had enough distance it’s much easier to make cuts and changes. I’ve also spent that time doing more visual art like pottery and weaving and this is informing my book in a good way… This pandemic is teaching me to honor my creative rhythms and that’s no bad thing.”
I made it through one round of edits before I crashed into burn out. Whatever resilience and hyperfocus had propelled me through the early months of the pandemic vanished. My world shifted into survival mode and my manuscript got set to the side.
When I picked it up again it was like a different person had written it. But that space let me see that my manuscript was actually 2-3 books crammed together.
I took the first chapter and expanded that into my first book Discover Your Creative Ecosystem. I launched that book in autumn of 2022 and met my goal to break even with self publishing costs.
I still wanted the book that I needed as a new mum.
I just wasn’t sure I had written it.
Over the next year I considered a lot of avenues for reviving my “creative mama” book. Meanwhile, I was cautious of centering my own narrative because every mama needs different things. Early on in the process I knew I wanted alternate voices in the book, but I wasn’t sure how to weave them in.
Then I considered an anthology.
It was the perfect solution! I completely scrapped 30,000 words of my own and started reaching out to mothers I’d like to collaborate with. When Twiggy Boyer agreed to be our cover artist my vision snapped into place.
The visual team expanded to include Annie King as cover artist for the workbook, Emily Jalinsky for interior illustrated elements, and Jocelyn Mathewes for cyanotype textures.
Truly a dream team!
It was my honor to curate the stories and prompts that came rolling in for Entwined & Ember.
The last year I have been hard at work creating this book, designing the layout, printing proofs, preparing for the crowdfunding campaign, and sending sooooooo many emails to my collaborators.
This book baby has been gestating for almost 5 years and the last year has been one big “push” process.
I am so excited (and exhausted) to reach this phase.
Your preorder signals “social proof” that this is a trustworthy project. The first 30% of preorders almost always come from people who know you directly. Then pledges tip into friends of friends. So it’s more important to pledge now and share later.
If you don’t need a copy you can donate a book to your chosen library or nonprofit. This was a huge hit for our picture book project last year so I’m offering it again. You can also donate a copy to be made available to a mum in financial hardship.
After reading the the best way to help books reach new readers is to post a review on Amazon (even if you didn’t buy it there). Once a book has 100 Amazon reviews it gets an algorithmic bump which will help new people discover it. If you don’t have an Amazon account you can tell a friend, write a blog post, or ask for a local bookshop to carry it.
I’m so honored to have such a brilliant constellation of mothers involved in this project. There are over 55 mothers involved from the writers and cover artists to our editor.
We need your help to bring this project to life!
Here are the best ways to lend your support: preorder, donate a copy, or share!
Brownie points for interacting with posts on social media. Every comment, heart, emoji, or save helps signal to the algorithm that this is worth reaching more people. If you don’t have capacity to write a thoughtful comment I welcome a string of celebratory emojis! 🥳🌿🥰💫
I’m really excited to bring this to life! If you’d like to chat with one of the mother artists on your podcast, Instagram Live, or blog please reach out. I’d love for this project to reach as many mamas as possible.
Cheers,
P.S. If you haven’t watched the crowdfunding video yet do it now! It took 7 hours to edit and was a hyperfocus delight. There are dozens of short clips of everyday life woven together with a peek at our newest proof.
1 Are you interested in a creative parent reading list? I have all the titles saved here.
2 Shoutout to my fellow hyperfocus buds Alexander Hamilton and Lin Manuel Miranda. (Also, why do GIFS only move half the time Substack?!)
