I went on Instagram earlier in the week and asked you all to ask me questions about life, moving, parenting, writing, pretty much anything about anything to kick off my website dropping today. Thanks so much for asking! You all had such good questions! I’m excited to let you in a little on our life and what’s next for us.
Where are you moving to and why?
We’ve lived in Southwest Missouri for almost a decade; my husband, Josiah (Siah), and I both moved down here from St. Louis to attend a Christian college and we’ve haven’t left since. His whole family now lives along the East Coast, so we are selling our house and moving to Philadelphia in early January. Our house in under contract and we are all set to close on January 8th!
A big reason of why we’re moving is to be closer to his family. We see them all only once a year, so we’re excited for our girls to be closer to their cousins, aunts and uncles, and Mimi and Gramps. We’ve also wanted to live in a bigger city since we’ve been married. It’s one of our values to grow in community with other people and learn from those around us. So we’re moving to be in a place we really like, get to experience the big city life, and figure out what we’re about while we’re also with family.
What’s the inspiration for your book?
I had an idea about a magical book that helps reveal my main character’s next steps in the form of poems. So starting there and adding loads of complications and intrigue for my characters, this idea has been growing for about a year and a half! I also pretty much only read fantasy novels so of course there has to be sword fighting and multiple magic systems! But I really want to focus on dealing with mental health struggles as I myself deal with anxiety and build beautiful character arcs and relationships. So it’s a dream come true story of an adventure, magic systems, slow burn side romance, family, evil magic, archery and sword fighting, and missing memories.
What are you going to grad school for and what do you want to do with it?
I’m starting my MA in English with a focus on Creative Writing through a really awesome course load at UNK online. I am SO THRILLED and completely over the moon about it. My first two classes are on fiction writing (!!!) and American Literature from 1855-present. I’m starting with two courses that are pretty different to see how I do with them during the transition and being home with the kiddos. Thankfully, the first month or so, my husband will be around a good amount, so I’ll have help with the girls and it’ll be great.
I would love to get more insight on how to write a beautiful novel by studying beautiful works and novels. I have so many ideas for books that I’d love to write someday, so this degree will help prepare me for that. I’d also really like to start working on publishing articles for magazines or websites or copy editing, so I’m starting to work on those on the side when I can. I think it’d be fun to maybe teach some English courses later on when both girls are in school too. In reality though, I’m an overachiever lol and I adore literature and world building and characters that light up the things inside you that you didn’t even know needed to have light shed on them. So whatever I can do to cultivate that love in other people and bring out their writer voice, I’m all for it.
How is packing and moving with two kids 2 years old and under?
I will say that it’s extremely slow going. I had a hard realization the other day that we have about three weeks until the house sells, so it’s really time for us to kick it into gear and get stuff done haha! A lot of my time during the day with the girls is teeter tottered with cleaning up after them and playing, but also working on attempting to pack and making piles to donate. As well as trying to spend good time with friends in town and start saying good goodbyes. 🙁 Which again, I just started taking packing seriously like 4 days ago. Siah and I work on stuff after the girls go to bed for the night too, so that helps. Both girls are teething and having growth spurts at the same time, so they’re needing lots of snuggles and patience. Please send coffee. I also just found out that I need to get my gall bladder removed, so that’s happening on Tuesday – super good timing lol.
Thank you all for celebrating the drop of this website with me! It really feels like a huge accomplishment and a perfect next step in the right direction for my writing and the novel I’m working on. If you’re interested in keeping up with my process of writing my novel, moving, my MA, and just random thoughts on life, please sign up for my newsletter in the link below.
Appreciate you all! Happy weekend and Happy holidays!
