She loved the things I made.

It didn’t matter what it was. Macaroni glued to a paper plate. A play my brother and I performed for her and Dad. A painting. An outfit. A song.

She’s why I keep making, keep creating. Because she told me the world needs to hear what I have to say.

She’s the only one to have ever read the first half of my unfinished and decidedly terrible first novel. The only one to lament my never finishing it.

Many years, countless creations, and three novels later, I have something new to give her. A story. And a song.

A story that feels as though it were harvested from my own body, untangled from my sinew and cut away from my bone.

So, here is the beginning. The first chapter of 13. It’s written and ready. All that’s left is for me to speak it into being.

For you, Mama.

Clashwood Ep 1

This is the first draft of the narration track to my upcoming podcast. Feel free to subscribe if you’d like to stay in the know.