Hello!

It’s July! My birthday month!

So it’s time for a good ol’ catch up. Grab a nice drink and cuddle up!

Behind The Words

I’m prepping to launch my next memoir, which is about finding joy after creative burnout (and also about quitting drinking—hey-hey, they go together for me!). I’m hoping to get it up on Kickstarter next month, and then everywhere else by October.

So it’s time for a cover reveal!

Isn’t she pretty? I love her so much!

Would you like a link to the Kickstarter preview page? Me, too! 😂 So much to do! I’ll send it to you as soon as I have it! I’ve worked on this book for YEARS and I’m so happy to finally be getting it into the world.

The Artist’s Way Club!

Where were you in 1992, when The Artist’s Way first came out?

(Some of you were not born yet. The fact that you might also be 34 and getting your first gray hairs rattles me to my core, but core-rattling is part of life, so all right.)

Me?

In 1992 I was trying not to flunk out of college and working in a little bookshop. It was a dream job—I worked with my mom and two other women, and when we weren’t busy, I really did get to sit on the counter stool and read the afternoons and evenings away.

The Artist’s Way came out, and OH MY GOD.

The way people talked about it! It changed their lives! Those who took part in the 12-week challenge of the book were changing careers, they were throwing out husbands like they were beads at Mardi Gras, and they were ELECTRIFIED.

I wanted some of that. So I got on board.

I did the morning pages (3 pages of writing every morning). I did the artist’s dates (I remember how scared I was to go do things alone).

And lo, I changed.

I changed majors from business to English. I realized that the secret dream of being a writer was an okay thing to want. I could claim it out loud (okay, maybe in a whisper). I dumped a bad boyfriend (only to pick up a different kind of bad boyfriend, but hey, I was young).

Even my mother did it! I wrote about finding her morning pages here. (She left them to me in her will, but I still haven’t finished reading them. When I’m done, I’ll be done, and I don’t want that. And please lord, no one will read mine. My people know that if I get hit by a meteor, I want my journals/pages destroyed out of love and respect for everyone I complain about.)

Did you do it? Did you make it through the 12 weeks? How did it go for you?

It’s my birthday on Sunday

And I’m going to do The Artist’s Way again. 33 years after I did it the first time (wow).

And I’m not going to do it alone this time. I’ve decided to lead an Artist’s Way Club and do it in community.

Want to join us?

(You don’t have to call yourself a writer or an artist to do this with us. You are creative, you know that. Let’s watch that bloom.)

Get This

Things I’ve been loving:

📚 Island of the Lost - Joan Druett: This is historical nonfiction, not always my bag, but it’s about two shipwrecks that happened at the same time on the same island, and the VERY different ways they played out. I couldn’t put it down.

📚 The Everlasting - Alix E. Harrow: I’m not going to recover from this one for a while. An alternate universe Arthurian tale about a female knight, Sir Una, and the one who loves her. I get goosebumps thinking about it. It’s the queerest straight book I ever did read, and it’s gorgeous.

📺 Widow’s Bay - I will love Matthew Rhys forever, and this, while scary, was doable for my chicken self if I painted my nails during the scariest bits (I’m a BABY and I enjoyed it a lot).

All right, dear ones. I hope your summer isn’t too hot (Europe, I’m looking at you) and your winter isn’t too cold (my fingers are freezing at the moment!) and that your drink is exactly the right temperature, wherever you are.

Thank you for being here.

love,

❤️ Rachael

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PS - Writers, make sure to join us on this list, which is different from this one! And Writing in the Junkyard is just around the corner!

PPS - Amazon affiliate links for those books above for ease, but please do utilize your own local indie bookstore and/or library!

PPPS - 100% human made and probably full of the typos to prove it