In December 2019 my partner Sam + I left our house in Manchester, UK, to spend what was meant to be a couple of months at home in Australia. Then, of course, 2020 happened... and 2021, 2022, 2023... We’ve not yet returned. We’ve been living with my folks through it all.

I’ve written more books + worked as an author for longer in their house than my own. While us all living together was obviously unexpected, I am keenly aware, every day, that these have been + are the most precious family years of my adult life. I couldn’t have written + toured 2 books, filmed Back to Nature, experienced Alice Hart take life on screen, or shown up in my work + life in the same way that I have for the past 5 years without their glorious, bananas, beautiful, ferocious support.

All of my birthdays in my 40s have been spent with them. We’ve made new birthday traditions: party hats at lunch + self timer photos. These photos are the latest from our birthday files. I turned 44 on Monday. Our toast made me blub with joy + gratitude to be living + sharing life with them. To reflect together on the last year + look ahead to what’s coming: a new year of creativity + new book, and, very soon, a new form of writing for me.

The Joy Rise is my wholly-reader-supported online community space here, which includes a monthly newsletter - at the heart of which is creativity and connection. I’m writing it for anyone who’s ever felt their artistic courage flattened by fear. The first issue is dropping tomorrow, which I’ve written on Yugambeh Country, around walks with Sam, cups of tea with mum in the garden, my stepdad in the shed, our dogs at my feet. If my newsletter could include a soundtrack, you’d hear my folks mowing, the pups snoring, southeasterlies in the gum trees + mum’s trowel making space in the soil for seeds.

That’s what I hope The Joy Rise can offer you: space for new beginnings in your creativity and a season to bloom.

Link in profile to subscribe.

Love,

Holly