This week I’ve been soft launching two books that I’ve been working on for six years. I crowdfunded these books last spring and have been working on this project since I was postpartum… that’s been six years. It feels like I’ve finally given birth to twins.
Here’s a bit about the books.
Scroll down for more behind-the-scenes goodness. I probably have enough here for whole email campaign, but I’m sending it one email.
Entwined is an anthology of creativity & motherhood weaving together stories from mothers in United States, Mexico, Canada, England, Qatar, and M’chigeeng First Nation. 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.
Ember is an art journal companion to the Entwined anthology. It presents a variety of creative prompts (writing, observation, ideating, dreaming, and making) to help parents kindle their creative sparks. There are two versions Ember for Parents & Ember for Mothers.
Free PDF ebooks are available to anyone experiencing financial hardship.
And a number of paperbacks have been donated & can be claimed here.
Resources for Creative Parents
I spent the first two years of parenthood reading everything I could about parenthood and creativity. I still couldn’t find the book I was looking for so I wrote my own – a massive manuscript that became two books and two art journals.
Click here to read the book launch blog hop. Watch the crowdfunding video below for clips of some of the creative parents involved.
If you’d like to support this indie book project here are some ways to get involved.
Leave a review! (This is the best way to help these books reach more parents. Even if you didn’t buy on Amazon that is the best place to leave a review. If we reach 100 reviews we get an algorithmic bump!)
Buy or donate a copy. (If you’re not a parent you can gift a copy to a friend or donate a copy to a parent in financial hardship. If you would benefit from a free copy yourself you can claim one here.)
Tell a friend. (Share this post directly with a parent who would enjoy these books.)
P.S. For those of you who backed my picture book project – it is also nearing completion. Here’s a peek at one of the illustrations in progress by the talented illustrator Gracie Klumpp.
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?!)
