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Last night, for the first time, I believe I felt my baby kick. There have been flutters before, but I wasn’t sure. As the pregnancy has progressed, there’s been all sorts of movement down there, not all of it pleasant, and it’s hard to distinguish one sensation from another. But then there I was, in…… Continue reading Expecting

Every year is life-changing, but in 2023, mine was epically transformed. Here are some highlights: Moved into a new home. The plumbing is falling apart and there is a mysterious footprint in the basement but we’ve got room for all current and future books. Matched with my Little Sister, Skylar, through Big Brothers Big Sisters…… Continue reading 2023 Highlights

Growing up, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library was a second home. At the start of every week, I would venture through my neighborhood with last week’s treasures, ready to trade them in and head back to my house with bag bursting full of new picture books, chapter books, and eventually Young Adult adventures. My…… Continue reading Sitting Down with the Bookmark Podcast

I received a delightful set of questions about The Year of Second Chances from The Reading Corner, a non-profit organization out of the UK that focuses on increasing access to literature, and I thought I’d share. You can read the full interview here. The book is written in a first-person perspective, a decision I loved…… Continue reading Interview with The Reading Corner UK

Though I’ve expressed the desire to fill my free days starting something new, I can’t seem to bring myself to a place of inspiration. My editors and I were kicking around a concept, but I don’t think the pages I wrote were quite hitting the mark, so I’m stuck in limbo until we find a…… Continue reading Notes on Block

This morning I focused on another romance project I’m collaborating on with a friend: a romantic comedy screenplay about two very hurt people who meet each other at (what they believe is) the wrong time in their lives. Fate continues to intervene, however, bringing them together over and over. In the end, they realize it…… Continue reading How’s the Book Going: p. 249

In the middle of the night in March of 2021, someone was banging on my door in a dream. I opened my eyes. I could hear the burglar break the window of my bathroom and make their way into my apartment. I sat up in bed and called out, telling them as gently as I…… Continue reading Notes on Leaving

Last year, I made a hobby out of putting together playlists and writing about them. This is the fifth and final entry in a series called “Chaos.” If you’d like to read from the beginning of this playlist, start here. Normally I write about one song at a time, but it’s time to put this…… Continue reading Shelter in Playlist: The End of “Chaos”

One day, I came across a singular, thoughtful voice with a heavy Australian accent, narrating everything she saw as she walked down the street, the sound of evening insects and sprinklers behind her. I was struck by the quiet sincerity of the tone in this portrait of a small town, the complete lack of plot.…… Continue reading The Kansas Diaries

When I longed for my future, I never thought about a fixed name. I couldn’t see myself as mother or writer or wife, more just floating through different atmospheres, a sensory montage of days that begin by waking up in a high-ceilinged, long-windowed room in an old building, ending with the slow carousel of a neighborhood as…… Continue reading A New Internet