I read this in my email but I'm back on Substack today and reading it again. This part - "allowing myself to experiment, to not think about what readers want but what I need to write, right now, to get through these hard days" resonates so completely with me right now. I am grappling with this, in the face of all that is impending. And yet I don't think it's going to get easier.

Thanks for the reminder about Nox - I haven't thought about that for years. I didn't know about The Gorgeous Nothings! It sounds like just what I need today. ♡ x

Edit: Also, I want to add - I was reading the discourse about Shy Girl on LinkedIn, and someone commented with “who cares who writes these books - a good story is a good story”. I shut the tab down and I ached and ached and ached. For all the stories I haven’t had the courage to write, for the words I haven’t published. For the dreams that keep slipping further from my reach with each new global crisis. For my heightened sensitivity and lack of audacity. For the way that creatives are being diminished by consumers who don’t understand blood and tears and craft. Sigh.