Dear friends,

May had me on the move. Literally. Figuratively. Bookish-ly. There were a lot of things I wanted to get done and I have no sense of whether or not they happened. It could just be that time of the year. I think we’re all pulled in a lot of directions right now.

Your attention could be anywhere (and maybe it is) but I’m glad you’re here. I took some time to write thoughts about stepping away from collaboration to trust my gut. I’ll be curious to see what you think.

Book updates seem to be more frequent these months and I’m sharing them with you first, of course. So I hope you’ll stay till the end.

Have a seat, take a breath. Open the window if it’s nice out. Let’s get into it.

I’m a collaborative person by nature. I live for the flow of bouncing ideas back and forth, hitting a challenge and spitballing ideas and finding team members whose strengths and weaknesses balance one another out. There is nothing like the feeling of working on a team where everyone just gets it.

Part of the reason I started Bold & Bookish, to make writing less lonely and insular. At every point in my writing process I have tagged in friends. You’ve heard me talk a lot about that. I’m indebted to their brains and hearts. Their finger prints will be all over the final product of this book. 

And there comes a time when an indie author has to trust her gut. I’m hitting that point now. There are decisions to be made about cover design, printing platforms, marketing strategies…dozens of little choices that don’t feel little at all. As they come across my desk, my instinct is to ask for input, to share my pros and cons and thought spirals. But the more help I ask for, the more twisted I get. 

This tells me that it’s time to trust my inner voice. Yes. It’s cheesy. It’s also super uncomfortable. Being an indie author or artist of any kind means betting on yourself. It’s looking in the mirror and saying, “I know my story. I’ve done my research. I can do this.” 

It’s making design choices that feel right in my stomach. It’s choosing where to spend money not knowing what the return will be. It’s realizing that the mistakes will be my fault…but so will the victories.

Where in your life can you trust yourself more? What stops you from going out on a limb? What would you do if self-doubt got out of the way?

Pen Pal Patrons is a paid level of the Bold & Bookish subscription. All contributions will go toward supporting the design and marketing costs of publication. 

For $7 a month, you get a piece of snail mail that connects to the theme of the monthly newsletter. The mail will include a hand written message and a creative token. Tokens could be book recommendations, affirmation cards, a creative challenge/games or even a whimsical recipe.

Last month’s challenge was to make a creative space in your home. It included a checklist and affirmation card to hang in your space. Here’s a snap shot of the space my nieces set up to complete their challenge.

We’ve moved on the map!

I finished reading through my manuscript for the last time. Four pages in, I got a little emotional. I used to open these drafts and by line two or three I was making comments and striking things through. But this I stopped a few pages in and just paused.

It reads like a book. A real book. It’s so close. I can’t believe it, but I can believe it and I’m so dang proud and wildly excited.

The read through took a little over a week after which I spent another week inputting my edits. Now, it’s in the hands of my editor for copy edits aka hard core grammar and spelling check. Both this and the cover design process will most likely take the summer month which means I’m hoping to announce a fall release date. As newsletter subscribers you will be the first to know!

I’ve said a lot so I won’t say any more. Aside from…

Trust yourself. Bet on yourself. You’ve got this.

Much loves,

Cat