Greta here.

I’ve decided I’m taking over the August featured piece because Christina is burnt out. Just like I warned her she’d be.

She didn’t have a short story or essay for you this month. So I figured I’d write something instead.

This is the second year in a row where August rolls around and things start to unravel. Her vision isn’t so clear anymore. She’s been trying to do it all and, no matter how many times it blows up in her face, she never learns.

The truth is, she’ll never be a great writer.

We spent some time reading other people’s work here on Substack the other day. Then she finished Hazelthorn and started The Dead of Summer. Honestly, I didn’t even have to work that hard after that. I just had to remind her that she’s simply not on their level. If she actually wants to be good, she needs to work much harder. She can’t keep taking breaks to watch birds or wander around the garden pretending she’s “filling the creative well.”

It took me a week, but I finally broke her. I convinced her to numb out. Watch dumb videos. Scroll social media. Stop trying so hard.

I honestly don’t understand why she’s so desperate to shake things up. She has a good life. I constantly have to remind her how hard things were growing up. She should be grateful for the life she has now. Why risk it? Just go to your mediocre accounting job. Stick to the routine. Stop putting pressure on yourself to be someone special.

Nothing you do is ever going to be enough anyway. You’re better off quitting now before you get your heart broken again.

She really wanted to finish her short story about anxiety for this month’s feature, but she mismanaged her time. Instead, she wasted every writing session on her novel convincing herself it’s actually going somewhere. Then there were those newsletters and precious little garden diaries. She actually thought she could finish a quality story in a few days.

I told her not to bother.

“Go watch a movie,” I whispered. “Scroll for a while. There’s always tomorrow.”

And she listened. She always does.

If I can keep her looking at her phone instead of at the page, my job here is done.

By September, I might just convince her to stop writing altogether.

P.S.

Christina here.

Writing this felt terrifying, but honestly, keeping these thoughts locked in my head felt even worse. Plus, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing from Greta’s (my inner gremlin’s) perspective for a while now. So when I was trying to figure out what to write for August’s featured piece, nothing felt right. I started beating myself up for not having anything finished, and somehow I landed on this.

Instead of forcing a story, I decided to share what was actually happening inside my head. Something I have a feeling many of us go through in our own way.

I could sit here and tell you I’ve figured out how to silence Greta, but clearly that would be a lie. Writing is incredibly vulnerable for me, and every time I step a little farther outside my comfort zone, Greta works overtime trying to pull me back in.

But I refuse to let her win.

Maybe that’s what courage looks like.

Writing anyway.

With the weight of feeling behind and like she was losing momentum with her writing career, she wandered into the garden that afternoon looking for a little magic.

Within seconds, a monarch butterfly drifted past her, weaving through the towering sunflower stalks before gently landing on the golden eye of a dusty pink zinnia. Its large wings reminded her of orange stained glass with black veins and white spots along the edges. The butterfly uncurled its long tongue and drank.

Fransisca stood there in awe, appreciating the beauty in the ordinary. Maybe she herself was still just a baby caterpillar of a writer, and maybe that was okay.

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July is when the garden goes from sweet and manageable to a zero f’s given wild jungle. It’s not holding back or staying small for anyone. It sparkles, blooms, and takes up space unapologetically.

The black-eyed Susans are putting on a show. Every single plant is in bloom, their yellow and red petals glistening as they soak up the sunshine. The snapdragons, while not as lush and vibrant as they were in June, are still trucking along, blooming and doing their best to produce seed. That is, if I don’t get to them first and deadhead them so they can produce even more blooms.

Foxgloves are standing tall, giving the garden fairytale vibes. Their purple, speckled tubular blooms are a bee’s tunnel of delight. But don’t let their beauty fool you. These plants are poisonous, which is why I don’t let our dogs in the enclosure and always wear gloves when handling them.

The dahlias, since they were started from seed, are slowly beginning to bloom. Each new flower is a surprise, and I never know what it’s going to look like until it finally opens. But their big moment usually comes toward the end of summer.

The celosias are my rule breakers. Their unique velvety blooms look like they should only exist underwater. They are so strange and beautiful that they have officially become my witchy flowers.

The stars of the garden this month... drumroll please... zinnias and sunflowers.

The sunflowers follow the sun, soaking in its warmth only to cast it right back out, lighting up me and the rest of the garden. While I devoted an entire raised bed to dwarf sunflowers, a few taller volunteer varieties found their way into the garden, growing so tall they’ve reached the roof of the enclosure.

Zinnias are the rainbow scattered across the entire garden. Their blooms are like bursts of fireworks, displaying every color imaginable in so many different shapes and sizes. They are my favorite flower to grow. Most of my zinnias are Floret Originals, and I find every single bloom stunning. If you’re unfamiliar with Floret Flower Farms, I highly recommend checking out either their YouTube channel or their TV series on Magnolia Network. Truly inspiring.

Let’s not forget about the Triple B.

Bees. Birds. Butterflies.

The garden has become the local hotspot for the Triple B. The goldfinches and sparrows squeeze their way through the quarter-sized chicken wire and devour the zinnias, plucking at the petals to get to the seeds. Soon their attention will turn to the fresh sunflower seeds.

The monarch butterflies drift through the garden, gracefully landing on the zinnias to sip their sweet nectar.

Oh, and the bees.

I’m so proud of myself for creating a sanctuary for them. There are so many different species, from tiny sweat bees to carpenter bees. Some come to work, pollinating everything, including my cucumbers, peppers, and tomato plants. Others come to live out their final days in our garden, burrowing into the wooden posts, laying their eggs before they inevitably die.

And then there are my favorite, the bumblebees. Have you ever seen a fuzzy bumblebee covered in pollen taking a nap on a flower? It’ll melt your heart.

To think about how poorly they’re treated breaks my heart. Remember, we need the bees.

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While the garden is beautiful, it’s also been one of the hottest months of the year, so my garden tasks have been based on priority. Watering had to get done, and so did deadheading. But a lot of the weed pulling slowed down because, let’s be real, no one wants to do manual labor outside in 100+ degree weather.

And if you’re like me, I tend to wear pants and a jacket as armor against the blood-sucking fuckers, mosquitoes. The one time I went out there with shorts on, they all attacked me at once. It was like one got a taste and then sent out a signal: Fresh meat over here! Hurry!

It was horrible. I think I had like ten bites.

So if anyone has any non-toxic remedies for mosquitoes, please let me know. Until then, I’ll keep throwing on my mosquito armor because, as much as I complain, watering is one of the most important garden tasks this time of year.

Unfortunately, not everything was sunshine and rainbows in the garden. Toward the end of the month, my worst nightmare showed up, powdery mildew. It’s a fungal disease that appears as white, powdery spots, and if left unchecked, it can weaken a plant and eventually kill it. And this disease spreads quickly.

I actually wrote a horror short story about it last year called The Quiet Decay if you want to check it out.

This year, it started with the dahlias. I trimmed off as many diseased leaves as I could, but it was already too late, and I’ve since seen powdery mildew appear throughout the garden.

I will admit, I’m a bit bummed that I probably won’t get to see the dahlias in full bloom this season because of this. This is my third year growing dahlias, and I have yet to have a successful season. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, and if I’m being honest, I may not try growing them next year. We’ll see, though.

Another lesson I learned this year is to move any volunteer sunflower plants out of the enclosure. I’ve planted tall varieties in past years and always ran into the same issue, they grow too tall for the enclosure. This year I decided to grow dwarf sunflowers instead, but I couldn’t bring myself to remove the volunteer sunflowers.

Well, not only did they take over our coffin raised bed, stealing nutrients from the pepper plants and stunting their growth (I moved the pepper plants, btw, and they are loving their new spot), but the sunflowers grew so tall they tangled and twisted every which way before eventually pushing some of their buds through the chicken wire and blooming on top of the enclosure. Some of the blooms are squished up against the chicken wire roof as well.

Next year, the plan is to let the volunteer sunflowers grow until early June and then transplant them to the front of our house around our twelve-foot skeleton.

When I say the garden is a wild jungle I literally mean it. Plus it wouldn’t be an Armstina garden without something funky and weird about it.

The tangled mess of sunflowers is a great reminder that sometimes growth and chasing our dreams isn’t straightforward or neat. We’re going to hit roadblocks and detours, but if we keep at it and stay flexible with the work and how we get there, eventually we’ll reach our blooms. The journey rarely looks the way we imagined, but sometimes the most beautiful things grow from the plans we didn’t make.

The volunteer sunflowers may have grown in an environment that wasn’t ideal, but they still found a way to bloom. Maybe there’s a lesson in that too.

Until next month,

Christina

One Last thing….

July was full of little moments of magic, and I wanted to share a few of them with you. I hope you enjoy this little garden montage. Next up, August

From the Shadows

As we go through life, we evolve into many versions of ourselves. We learn early on to tuck away the parts of ourselves we don’t like or that society deems wrong. The dreams we once had but were told weren’t realistic. Our childlike wonder and curiosity. You’re an adult now, so you should “act your age,” get a job, and do adult things. Our trauma and fears that are too unbearable to face get locked away deep in the dark corners of our minds, forgotten. We learn to wear masks and repress whatever is unwanted. We live life as half a person, never acknowledging what some people call our shadow selves. All the repressed parts of our identity.

One day, seemingly out of nowhere, we feel something clawing at our hearts. We try to ignore it, and for some of us, we’ve mastered the art of pretending, so we force the unwanted feeling back down. But for others, we can’t bear it anymore, and eventually those dreams resurface. We become brave. We start the business even when everyone around us tells us we’re crazy for leaving a steady, good-paying job. We start the creative project, the one society tells us will never make us any money. We do the things that take us outside our comfort zone.

But the moment we step outside the cozy, comfortable parts of our minds, our shadow self sends out a personification of all the things we’ve repressed and deemed dangerous. Their goal? To protect us. To keep us safe from failure, rejection, and pain.

I refer to mine as my inner gremlin. Her name is Greta.

I wasn’t fully aware of her until I started writing, but I know she’s been with me my whole life. Right there, screaming into the microphone anytime I started creeping outside my comfort zone. Telling me all the reasons why I suck as a writer and will never be successful. Avoid the pain and rejection that comes with being a writer.

Even when I kept going and started gaining visibility, she was right there to remind me, “Uh oh. You don’t belong here. They’re going to figure out you’re a fraud. Just quit while you’re ahead and enjoy the cozy life you’ve already built with your family. Don’t rock the boat.”

And sometimes that voice wins. That’s when we start to self-sabotage. We begin believing we’re imposters who don’t belong. We stop working toward our goals and tuck that version of ourselves back into the dark corners of our minds. We lock it away and hand the key to our inner gremlin to guard. We continue living life as half a person and become really good at distracting ourselves from the things we truly want.

But I think there’s a different approach we should try.

What if we sat down with our inner gremlin and tried to understand where they’re coming from? Maybe they’re not evil or malicious after all. Maybe they’re just trying to protect us from failure, rejection, and pain. They need love and reassurance. They need to know that things are going to be okay.

I haven’t figured out how to completely quiet my inner gremlin, and honestly, I don’t think that’ll ever be possible. But the more I continue building a relationship with Greta, the more she’s willing to let me bring those hidden parts of myself back into the light.

I’m slowly getting to know myself better. And ironically enough, I think Greta and my shadow self are both part of my writing voice.

The next time your inner gremlin starts to whisper, try pausing to ask what it’s so desperately trying to protect you from. You might just find the key to your truest self.

The Monster Grows | Inside Draft Two

The past month was not a great writing month for me. I think I was struggling with imposter syndrome and secretly self-sabotaging. It happens to me all the time, but the difference now is that I’m becoming more self aware and trying to course correct.

I could sit here and tell you all the things I did for my novel this month, but the truth is I didn’t make much progress. June looked like starting a new short story, finishing the first draft, and putting it away. Starting an essay on grief but only getting through about a third of it. Starting reading a book in mid-May and still not finishing it. Looking over my novel’s reverse outline and organizing my notes, but only getting through Act I. I didn’t finish anything.

Finally, after my staycation, I decided enough was enough. I needed to focus and commit to rebuilding my writing routine. That means showing up to write four days a week no matter how I feel or whether I’m inspired. I don’t even have to write well. I just have to use my scheduled writing time. I’ve built new habits before, and it is incredibly hard, but consistency is key. (If you’re curious about the science behind habits, I highly recommend Atomic Habits.)

Anyways, this past week I committed to showing up. I focused on two things, this newsletter and my novel.

There are some pretty big plot holes and character arcs that were underdeveloped, and I haven’t been able to figure them out. Finally, I decided to journal about them, and the answers started becoming clearer. It also helped that I reread some of my brainstorming notes from April 2025 and realized I had already figured out some of the answers.

Rereading those early notes from when this idea was just a short story reminded me how excited I was about this project. I think that excitement was the gasoline I needed to reignite my spark.

I’ll admit I’m incredibly scared of the revision stage of this novel. Scared that I’m not good enough or that it will be too much for me to tackle. After journaling, I made a priority list of the biggest things I want to focus on in draft two. The only way I’m going to get through this is by breaking the process down into bite-sized pieces. I can’t fix everything all at once.

I also realized I’ll probably have two, three, or even more developmental drafts. And that’s okay. I have to do what works best for me.

I’ve decided I don’t need to do any more research, organizing, analyzing, or journaling. I just need to stay focused and actually start writing draft two this week.

If you’re writing a novel, a short story, or working toward any big goal, know that you’ll have ups and downs throughout the entire process. Once you get past the hurdle of simply starting, the excitement of new beginnings eventually wears off, and you’re greeted by the messy middle.

It’s ugly down here. But I’m convinced this is where the magic happens. You just have to be willing to face the biggest hurdle of all.

Yourself.

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A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times personal essays.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

📚 The Book

Bunny by Mona Awad was on my TBR list for a while, and I’m so glad I finally picked it up. By the end of part one I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. It’s incredibly surreal and does a fantastic job of blurring the lines between reality and imagination. I was constantly questioning what was real and what wasn’t. Writing an unreliable narrator is something I struggle with, so this was a great book for me to study. It was weird, unsettling, and unlike anything I’ve ever read.

The story is told from Samantha’s perspective, a scholarship student in a prestigious MFA program who struggles with loneliness, self-doubt, and feeling like an outsider. She’s creatively blocked and has a huge imagination. The story picks up when she’s invited into an elite clique who call themselves the Bunnies. Turns out, they’re a cult that performs bizarre rituals with rabbits. As Samantha gets pulled deeper into their world, she slowly begins to lose herself trying to fit in. Beneath all the weirdness is a story about belonging, identity, and how easy it can be to lose yourself when you’re desperate to be accepted.

🎬 The Movie

Black Swan – An oldie but one of my favorites. It’s a psychological horror film about a dedicated ballerina, Nina, played by none other than the queen Natalie Portman, who lands the lead role in Swan Lake. It’s a challenge for her because she has to embody both the innocent White Swan and the seductive Black Swan. She obsesses over the role and strives for perfection. The pressure eventually leads to a mental collapse where she begins experiencing hallucinations and losing touch with reality.

To me, the movie is a powerful metaphor for imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and feeling like a fraud despite your accomplishments. It shows how the relentless pursuit of perfection can slowly consume you and how the biggest obstacle standing in your way is often your own mind.

🎬 The Movie

Us by Jordan Peele is a movie that has been stuck in my head ever since I watched it. Granted, I only saw it for the first time a few days ago. Regardless, I love horror movies that are about more than the monsters. I especially love them when the monster is you.

Us is about a family vacationing in Santa Cruz, California, whose doppelgängers crash the party with the intention of untethering themselves. The film explores many themes, including classism, privilege, and identity, all wrapped up in one great twist.

But what really stuck with me was the idea of your shadow self. The version of yourself you tuck away deep in your subconscious. Just because you bury those parts of yourself doesn’t mean they disappear. Sometimes they fight their way back to the surface, desperate for the life you’ve deprived them of. And if you’re not careful, they can take over. They can sabotage everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

To me, that’s what makes this movie so terrifying. Sometimes the scariest monster isn’t the one chasing you. It’s the one you’ve been carrying around all along.

From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

As you already know, this past month was a rough writing month for me. It was important to keep reminding myself why I fell in love with this story in the first place. So I thought it would be fun to share a small snippet from one of my favorite scenes. Without giving too much away, here’s a little peek into the world of my novel. Just keep in mind this is from Draft One, so there’s a good chance it’ll change as I continue revising.

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

When you’re ready to step outside your comfort zone and your inner gremlin is there to greet you, try these few things.

First, visualize them and give them a name. Paint them as a silly cartoon character. Mine is named after Greta the Gremlin from Gremlins 2. Doing this can take away some of their authority. It helps separate your inner gremlin’s voice from the truth.

Acknowledge their fears. Take a moment to dig deep and understand where they’re coming from. Is it repressed trauma you haven’t faced? Is it fear of failure because of the pain failure caused in the past? I believe that when we understand our triggers, we can come up with a game plan for working through them.

Lower the stakes. Take tiny actions. Instead of trying to do something huge, break it into smaller steps. It helps prove to both you and your inner gremlin that you’re okay. That you can do hard things.

Remember, your inner gremlin is part of you. You don’t have to silence them forever. You just can’t let them hold the pen.

The stalks had gone from flowers to Halloween decorations, or in her house just decorations. The little finch pecked at the dried sunflower head, searching for seeds that were no longer there. Ironically enough, it was probably the same little finch that ate all the seeds last year.

It’s okay, little one. I forget all I’ve done from time to time too.

She wanted to tell it to fly into the garden instead.

There are zinnias blooming back there. One of your favorites last year.

But instead, she stood there in silence, scrubbing the same spot on the spoon long after it was clean, watching the little bird. A squirrel wandered a little too close, and within seconds the finch disappeared into the perfectly blue sky.

Envy quietly settled in her chest.

She wondered what it would be like to be that free. Free to roam other people’s gardens. To travel wherever the wind carried you. To soar beneath a perfectly blue sky where even the clouds looked hand-painted.

Maybe freedom wasn’t about where she could go.

Maybe it was about finally quieting the thoughts that convinced her she couldn’t.

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June is by far my favorite month in the garden. Every day after work, I walk through it excited to see all the new growth. The garden is lush, buds are starting to swell, and some plants are already in full bloom.

My daily garden walks are one of the ways I ground myself. I will admit, I’ve felt far away from myself lately. Stuck in thought loops that drain my energy and slowly tuck away parts of myself I’ve worked so hard to uncover over the past couple years. Every time I sat down to write, nothing came out. Or worse, I forced something onto the page that didn’t feel like me.

But every time I stepped into the garden, I heard her say, Breathe. I’m still here. Put the phone away and just be with the plants. Focus on their beauty. Keep looking for the beauty in life. It will bring you back to me.

So by mid-June, I finally listened. I put my phone down and took a break from it all. The writing. The posting. Social media. I let myself be bored for once.

I spent time in the garden, and yes, I will admit I still took a gazillion pictures with my phone. But I stopped thinking that everything had to be turned into content and let myself simply experience the magic of the garden.

Once I slowed down and was truly present, my head was on a constant swivel as the entire garden seemed to sparkle, calling for my attention. The zinnias are starting to bloom, each new layer of petals unfurling day after day. The volunteer sunflowers somehow grew so quickly they are already taller than me.

As the dahlia buds continue to swell, I find myself guessing what their blooms will look like and welcoming the surprise of them. Always gorgeous, of course.

Then there is the volunteer black-eyed susan that is very clearly the baby of a Prairie Sun and Cherry Brandy variety from last year’s garden. Its petals are a deep burgundy red near the center, fading into fiery orange gold tips. I’m so glad I didn’t pull them out in April.

The snapdragons have been blooming nonstop all month. They were the stars of the garden in June. I’ve been able to cut enough flowers to fill four or five vases and enjoy their beauty indoors.

I even saw a bee napping in a flower. A tiny reminder that my garden is providing a safe and welcoming place for pollinators.

It’s funny. We spend so much time looking for the next thing, focusing on the past, or worrying about things we cannot change that we miss what is right in front of us. The garden doesn’t ask me to be productive. It doesn’t care about algorithms, subscriber counts, or engagement. It just asks me to show up.

And while a lot of the meticulous work was wrapped up in May, I still had plenty to do in June. Watering is a must and can take me a good forty five minutes to get through the garden, the plants around the yard, and the front yard garden. We had a pretty wet June, though, so Mother Nature handled about 80% of the watering for me, which is actually better for the garden. My babies got the good stuff.

But a lot of rain and heat can also mean two things: weeds and the bugs from hell rise.

Bugs are part of gardening. There is no way around it. It’s a package deal. My tolerance for them has improved drastically over the years, but there are still some that make my skin crawl.

I’ve gone to war with them in the past, and they still haunt my nightmares. They take up so much space in my head that they even made it into my novel.

And those bugs are earwigs. 🤢

Let’s go back about two years to when I was a gardening noob and had no idea what I was doing. Armando, my husband, spent the spring building the garden enclosure. I was ecstatic about my first big gardening season. Everything was grown from seed, the plants were thriving, and I faithfully sprayed pesticides so the bad bugs wouldn’t destroy them.

Things were peachy until about mid-June.

One morning, I walked into the garden and found several of my zinnias completely decimated. Their leaves were gone, leaving behind nothing but skeletonized stems. I was devastated but had no idea what had done it because there wasn’t a bug in sight.

A quick Google search pointed to earwigs, but in order to know for sure, I’d have to come out at night because those fuckers are nocturnal.

That night, Armando and I ventured into the garden armed with nothing but our phone flashlights. I swear to you, the raised beds full of zinnias and dahlias were covered in earwigs. Not just a few here and there. Thousands. It looked like someone had smeared a thick layer of dark reddish-brown moving goo over the plants. Their long, segmented bodies squeezed into every crevice, and they scattered in every direction the second the light hit them.

We started spraying them with soapy water and dumping diatomaceous earth everywhere. It looked like a bag of powdered sugar had exploded over the garden. We even setup soy sauce and oil traps. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t completely get rid of them.

But they didn’t stay in the garden. They tucked themselves deep inside the petals, waiting for me. Every time I cut flowers to bring into the house, one would eventually tumble onto the counter... or worse, onto me. Eventually, I started putting organza bags over every flower bud because otherwise I wasn’t sure I’d ever see a bloom.

After extensive research, I realized what I had done wrong. I disrupted the balance of my garden’s ecosystem. When I sprayed harmful pesticides, I didn’t just kill the pests. I killed the beneficial insects too. And without their natural predators to keep them in check, insects like earwigs came back with a vengeance.

Last gardening season was the first year I completely stopped using harmful pesticides.

And guess what? Everything balanced itself out.

Are there still earwigs? Unfortunately.

Do some leaves get chewed up? Yep.

But it’s not nearly as bad as the years before. In fact, I started noticing more ladybugs, praying mantises, and other beneficial insects doing exactly what they were supposed to do. Even earwigs have their place. While they nibble on flowers from time to time, they also feed on aphids and other pests. They’re all part of the same ecosystem.

Sometimes the best thing I can do for my garden is step back, interfere a little less, and trust that balance will find its way.

Now, weeds are a different story. Since I don’t spray herbicides in my garden or around my house, I spent a good portion of the month pulling them by hand.

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I will say, we do let the weeds in our front lawn grow and flower. Pollinators need them, especially in the spring when most gardens aren’t blooming yet. One of my favorite sights is seeing bees and birds enjoying the dandelions. I’m learning that not every weed is an enemy.

The weeds we should actually fear don’t grow in the grass. They are the ones that take root in our minds, quietly draining our peace. The looping negative thoughts and doubts. Toxic people who latch onto you and steal your energy. Anxieties that spread through your mind like invasive vines, filling your head with worst-case scenarios until they crowd out joy and everything feels muted instead of vibrant and full of color.

I’m learning that pulling weeds from my mind is hard and takes time. I’m still working through it, and just like gardening, it will probably always be something I have to do. Sometimes that means setting boundaries with people who drain me, even if that means removing them from my life completely. Sometimes it means putting my phone down. Sometimes it means asking myself hard questions and being honest about the answers.

Like, do I really need a break or is this self-sabotage?

But I’ve also learned that the best way to keep the weeds from taking over isn’t to focus on them all the time. It’s to plant more of what I want to grow.

More creativity. More writing. More time in nature. More laughter. More joy. More things that make me feel like myself. More actually living life.

Until next month,

Christina

One Last thing….

Here’s a little garden tour from June. I hope you enjoy walking through the garden with me. Next up, July.

From the Shadows

Tiffany Valentine is many things. A murderer, a doll, a fashion icon, and arguably one of the most authentic characters in horror. She is without a doubt my favorite character in the entire Chucky franchise and one of my favorites in horror in general.

If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I love a villain with a personality, especially a strong woman who is unapologetically herself. So yes, this month’s newsletter revolves around Tiffany Valentine. Sorry not sorry.

Do you ever catch yourself admiring someone and thinking, “Man, I wish I was more like them?” I have that thought every time I watch a Chucky movie or TV episode with Tiffany Valentine in it. And not in the whole psychopath murderous way. Obviously.

There’s something about her aura, as the kids say, that I’m drawn to. She is chaotic, dresses loudly, loves hard, and refuses to be anything other than herself. She is no one’s sidekick. She is the main character of her own life. She owns every part of herself, even the messy parts. She’s also a great mother in the ways that count. She loves her nonbinary child GG exactly as they are and never tries to change them. I’m not saying we should all turn to Tiffany Valentine for parenting advice, but I’m not not saying that either.

To me, she is a great example of being fearlessly authentic.

But what does that even mean?

It means being your wholehearted self without constantly worrying about other people’s judgment and opinions. It means accepting all parts of yourself, even the ones that seem to clash. It means having the courage to walk away from relationships that force you to play small. It means radical self-acceptance.

For me, that looks like finally allowing myself to write about all the things I enjoy, even if they don’t technically fit into a niche. That’s gardening, horror, identity, personal development, and even a short story told from the perspective of a poodle.

I love exploring both the light and dark parts of my mind because, guess what, they all make me who I am. That includes accepting that I struggle with anxiety from time to time but still wanting to go out into the world and have experiences. Until I get sick of people and need to leave immediately. Haha.

I love horror books, but I also love a good romantasy. I’m a recovering people pleaser who loves playing dress-up, doing photoshoots, and taking pictures of flowers.

All that to say, I’m not just one thing. My identity is a kaleidoscope of interests, contradictions, experiences, and passions that I’ve only recently started giving myself permission to explore freely.

So why is it so hard for us to be fearlessly authentic?

We are so programmed to act, dress, and behave a certain way because it’s the acceptable way to be. We conform so we don’t ruffle any feathers. No one will be offended, and everyone will be happy. People pleasing at its finest. Am I right?

At the end of the day, when you’re left alone with yourself, it just leaves you feeling blah. Sometimes you don’t even realize why. You can only lie to yourself for so long before you start to feel empty inside.

It’s like spending all your time maintaining the curb appeal of a beautiful house. The paint is perfect. The lawn is neatly manicured. Not a weed in sight for the neighbors to judge. Meanwhile, the inside sits abandoned. You lock the doors, turn off the heat, and let it rot. Eventually, the rooms go cold, dust settles over everything, and you’re left living like a ghost in your own home. Haunted by the person you actually are but too terrified to let them out.

They say the longest and most important relationship you’ll ever have is the one with yourself. So why not be exactly who you are? Not who they want you to be.

Own all parts of yourself, even the parts that clash.

We are allowed to be a little chaotic, a little contradictory, and completely ourselves, even if it doesn’t make sense to other people.

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The Monster Grows | Inside Draft Two

I’ve officially read my book through twice, only now I have a reverse outline to show for it. Reading each chapter and then stopping to outline the key things that happened gave me a better understanding of what I actually have on the pages, not what I think I have.

At first, I pushed back on this process. I thought it was going to take forever and all I wanted to do was dive into the rewrites because, as usual, I feel “behind.” Like I’m moving way too slow with my novel. Seeing authors on social media write and publish books so quickly can sometimes trap me in the comparison game. Granted, this is my very first novel and I work full time, two things I forget to remind myself of all the time.

Any who, I’m happy I stuck to the plan because now I have a much better understanding of my story, its strengths and where it falls short. The biggest thing I took away from completing the reverse outline is that my book has plenty of plot, but the psychology and emotional layers lack depth.

So what now?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself because the idea of a rewrite is overwhelming. When I think about it as a whole, part of me goes into analysis paralysis. I’m not sure where to focus or how I’m going to turn this into a publishable book. It doesn’t help that Greta (my inner gremlin) is loud, telling me all the reasons I suck as a writer.

I’ve decided not to jump straight into the rewrite. Instead, I’m going to spend a couple of weeks coming up with a plan. First, I need to organize all the notes I gathered from the reverse outline. Then I need to spend some time with my characters and really live in their heads more. After that, I’ll create a plan for the rewrite.

For draft two, my focus will be on adding emotional depth, strengthening character relationships, and making the psychological aspects of the story feel richer, not on making every sentence perfect.

The reverse outline showed me where the book falls short, but it also reminded me why I fell in love with this story in the first place. I’m very excited to dive back into my book and spend more time in that world.

A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times personal essays.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

📚 The Book

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is another Shirley Jackson classic that I loved. It’s an unsettling gothic psychological horror story about two sisters and their sick uncle who live in isolation after their parents and aunt die from poisoning. When their cousin arrives, they’re forced to confront their past.

The story is narrated by one of the sisters, Merricat. She clearly states her age in the first paragraph, but I completely forgot and spent most of the book picturing her as a young child. I think that just speaks to how unique her psyche and worldview are.

As strange as Merricat’s view of the world is, she refuses to conform to society’s expectations and fully embraces both her own weirdness and her sister’s. They choose to live life on their own terms, even when the world tries to convince them they need help or should be different. There’s something powerful about refusing to shrink yourself just because other people don’t understand you.

P.S. I watched the movie and thought it was horrible. Sometimes it’s better to leave a story as words on a page and let the interpretation live in the reader’s mind. Not every book needs to become a movie.

🎬 The Movie

Bride of Chucky is my favorite movie in the franchise, with Seed of Chucky coming in as a close second or at least in my top three. It introduces Tiffany Valentine, Chucky’s former lover, who finds him, literally stitches him back together, and brings him back to life. What can’t women do, am I right?

This is the point in the franchise where things start to get a little campy. Chucky ends up putting Tiffany’s soul into a doll just like him, and the two hitch a ride with a young couple so they can transfer their souls into human bodies.

What I love about Tiffany is that she is unapologetically herself, even in doll form. She’s beautiful, chaotic, ambitious, and has standards. She’ll kill just about anyone, but she’ll only sleep with people she loves. She isn’t Chucky’s sidekick. She’s a main character in her own right.

📺 The Show

This series picks up after Cult of Chucky and follows a group of teenagers whose lives are thrown into chaos thanks to Chucky. Things get pretty wild throughout the series.

My husband and I recently rewatched it with my son, and my opinion didn’t change. Tiffany is still my favorite part of the entire show. We also get to see Glen and Glenda in season two, which was another highlight for me.

Tiffany may not be the best mother in the conventional sense, but she gets the important things right. She loves her children exactly as they are and never asks them to be someone else. For all her flaws, and there are many, she loves with her whole heart.

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From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

This month’s fun extra is a little behind-the-scenes look at my Tiffany Valentine-inspired photoshoot. Here are some of my favorite photos along with a peek at how it all came together.

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

Life is too short to spend it pretending to be someone else.

Say what you mean.

Love what you love.

Love WHO you love.

Explore the weird interests.

Take the photos.

Write the stories.

Stop apologizing for the things that make you, you.

And if all else fails, channel a little Tiffany Valentine energy. After all, she’s Tiffany Valentine and your goddamn mother.

Until next time,

Christina

The truth is that I don’t think I’ve felt ready for most of the things that have changed my life. It’s been a little over a year since I got my last big tattoo (my witch tattoo). I had plenty of opportunities to get another one, but nothing felt right. I told myself I would get a tattoo after finishing the first draft of my novel, yet even after typing those final words, I couldn’t bring myself to get one.

Then I read my draft for the first time. It wasn’t perfect. Far from it. But somewhere between the pages, I was reminded of something I had forgotten, how much magic was still inside of me, waiting patiently to be uncovered.

Hiding things, even from myself, is something I became very good at over the years. I’d wake up, pack all my different masks into my purse, and depending on who I was around, put on the version of myself I thought they wanted to see. Little by little, I tucked away parts of myself until I almost forgot they were there. My wants. My needs. My silliness. My dreams. My magic.

And then something happened a year and a half ago. A shoot of an “in another life” dream poked its way through the soil. Instead of deeming it a weed, I watered it. I started writing.

My dream of being a writer grew leaves as I explored essays and reflective writing. Then branches formed as I experimented with fiction, eventually growing into the tiny tight bud that became the first draft of my novel. At first, I thought I was learning storytelling. I was actually learning about myself.

As I stepped into a new version of myself, my inner gremlin, Greta, was right there to try and stop me. She wanted to protect me from disappointment, rejection, and getting my hopes too high. Life is fine as it is, she’d whisper. Why risk getting hurt?

But writing kept asking me to look deeper.

It helped me face parts of my life I had spent years avoiding. Things I thought I had buried. Things that still hurt. Like the fact that my mother has schizophrenia. Even writing that sentence makes me uncomfortable. For years, I avoided talking about it. I avoided thinking about it. I convinced myself that if I ignored it long enough, it wouldn’t affect me. But pretending something doesn’t exist doesn’t make it disappear. Writing forced me to sit with that reality and, for the first time, grieve the mother-daughter relationship I always wished I had.

The more I wrote, the more layers I uncovered. Not just the painful ones, but the joyful ones too. The strong and resilient parts of me. The curious parts. The creative parts. The parts that love horror novels, movies, gardening, dancing, wrestling, and being silly. The one who craves adventure. The one who is sometimes scared to show all parts of herself but knows that once she does, it will be freeing. The one who is committed to opening, layer by layer, even when it’s uncomfortable.

I’m still just a tight bud. But for the first time in my life, I’m not afraid of what’s waiting underneath the petals. And I know that with time, patience, and a little grit, I will continue to unfold into all the layers of myself.

Maybe that’s the magic. Not becoming someone new, but uncovering who was there all along.

I wanted a reminder of that.

A peony tattoo.

She continued her morning with her usual routine. Morning pages, workout, shower, breakfast. With her protein coffee in hand, she forced herself outside, as checking on the front yard garden had become a daily ritual she was not willing to sacrifice. Her shoulders fell and a smile crawled onto her face when she saw them. The marshmallow-like peony buds.

Without hesitation, she put her drink down, ran inside, and grabbed her camera and pruners. She took hundreds of pictures from every angle, not caring who walked by. Once she was satisfied, she stood there listening to the birds chirping and the bees buzzing around the salvia, watching her chest rise and fall.

She observed how the ants climbed across the buds and between the loose petals, how the sunlight cascaded over them, how the peonies swayed softly as a gentle breeze passed through them. Maybe she wasn’t as behind as she thought.

She had to bring some of this beauty indoors, so she cut a handful of blooms and held them close to her face before heading back inside. She inhaled their sweet perfume and let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Her cup was filled, and she was finally ready to take on the rest of the day.

Wow! I can’t believe it’s already the end of May. So much has happened. My son just wrapped up fifth grade and is on his way to junior high. I got a new tattoo, we went to ACEN (Anime Central Convention), and the garden is in full swing with a handful of plants already showing off their beautiful blooms.

What is time?! Seriously, if we aren’t careful and don’t be where our feet are, we will let our lives pass by without actually living them, without noticing the beauty all around us. Because just like the seasons of the earth, our lives will continue to move forward whether we decide to participate or not. Flowers don’t wait for anyone to notice them before they bloom. They just bloom, and the cycle continues.

A lot happened in the garden in May. I will admit, a lot of this month I felt scattered while trying to juggle writing, reading, family, work, the garden, and rest. Who am I kidding? I didn’t get much rest this month.

Since I work full time, weekends are usually gardening days. After Mother’s Day, the final frost had passed and all the heat-loving plants were finally planted. I’m happy to say that the rest of my seedlings, such as my zinnias and celosias, have officially moved out of the house and are starting their new lives in the garden. They grow up so fast, don’t they? Haha.

All the seeds I planned to direct sow, like sunflowers, marigolds, and dwarf zinnias, have been planted as well. Every bed, container, and raised bed has been filled except one. (Saving it for new bee balm. The plant decided not to come back this year. I think the pot it was in was too small.)

At the beginning of the year, during the planning stage, I told myself I wasn’t going to plant any tomatoes or cucumbers. Turns out that was a lie.

I devoted the bed near our garage to one Roma tomato plant, one cherry tomato plant, and a few direct-sown cucumber seeds. (Literally the easiest seeds to start. No need for an overpriced seedling. Just get a pack of seeds and throw them in the ground. They will sprout in a few days.) I also planted a handful of sunflower seeds on both ends of the bed.

Since both cherry tomatoes and cucumbers are vine plants, I made sure to have a trellis for them to climb and gave them ample room between plants. I have not mastered training vining plants yet, so this area may still end up a tangled mess.

A couple dahlias I planted in a barrel planter exploded towards the end of the month, and that’s when I noticed they were too close to each other. When planting seedlings out, it may look like they have enough room, but I have to keep reminding myself how big the plant will get at maturity. I ended up transplanting one into its own container.

I really think dahlias’ purpose this gardening season is to teach me all the lessons and give me a slight heart attack. Earlier this month, we had an unexpected frost, and I did not have any frost covers (buying some for next year). About 75% of my dahlias’ leaves turned black, and I wasn’t sure if they would survive.

It’s just another way of the garden slapping me on the wrist and reminding me to be patient. I’m learning that every gardening season is different, and with the weather becoming more unpredictable, I can’t expect to plant things out around the same time each year.

So next year, I will wait to plant my dahlias until I’m able to plant my zinnias. I ended up cutting off all the dead leaves and leaving the plants in the raised beds. It took a few weeks, lots of rain, and heat, but my dahlia babies are doing well and have had so much new growth.

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Removing faded blooms and dead leaves is a great reminder that sometimes we have to let go of things that no longer serve us in life. Past mistakes, bad relationships, limiting beliefs, and any negative energy weighing us down. This is your reminder to get your pruners out and cut what you need out of your life. With time, you’ll start to feel revitalized.

I didn’t just remove the dead leaves from my dahlias. I also did something that hurts my soul every time I do it. But it’s a necessary evil if you want more blooms. I pinched them. I also did this to all the other cut-and-come-again flowers like zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, and celosia.

Pinching is when you snip off the main growing tip of a young plant right above a set of leaves. I tend to do this for about half of the plants because yes, it does delay blooms by a few weeks. That way I still get some early blooms while the others catch up.

While deadheading is removing spent parts of the plant, pinching hurts because it’s intentionally removing perfectly healthy active growth. Pinching is hard for me because it’s uncomfortable. But something I’ve learned over the past decade is that growth in life often happens in the uncomfortable. To become a new version of yourself, you have to let go of parts of the old one. It’s understanding that certain comfortable habits need to be pinched away in order to build stronger ones.

Now for some fun stuff. What is blooming in my garden in May? Snapdragons, chamomile, violas, roses, salvia, and peonies. We also had a handful of volunteer sunflowers in our coffin raised bed, and I couldn’t bring myself to pull them out. I ended up planting a few pepper plants (jalapeño, habanero, and serrano) in there and will just monitor and remove any sunflower leaves if they start blocking sun from the peppers.

I love taking part of my day to spend time with the flowers. To be present and appreciate their beauty. I’ve cut snapdragons and peonies to bring into the house, and I usually spend time with the camera taking a gazillion pictures of them. It’s another creative outlet for me. The camera helps me freeze a moment in time with them. I share some of the pictures on my gardening Instagram page from time to time. I’m trying to get better at sharing more, but sometimes I just want to be in the moment and would rather spend my free time writing.

All that to say, peonies are one of my favorite flowers. I literally got a tattoo of one a couple weeks ago. They only bloom once a year, but watching them grow from tiny shoots poking out of the ground, to growing leaves, branching out, and forming buds, then finally transforming into lush, gigantic layered blooms, feels magical every single time. It’s a reminder that good things can take a long time. Sometimes growth is invisible, but the journey is just as beautiful as the result.

Until next month,
Christina

One Last thing….

Here’s a short video from May in my garden. This month felt messy, beautiful, overwhelming, and full all at once. Next up, June.

From the Shadows

May is usually a time for growth, renewal, and the transition into summer. It’s a month full of excitement and possibilities. This year, I’m declaring it the month I find my way back to creativity.

As children, imagination and creativity ooze out of us. We don’t question it, we lean into it. We use imagination and belief to fight against fear. But something happens as we become adults. It’s like that part of the brain gets tucked away and replaced with rigid routines and achievements we endlessly chase because we were taught that’s the road to happiness. Only to either get there and realize we still aren’t happy, or keep chasing a finish line that keeps moving further away.

We cling to distractions and fake dopamine. The news cycle is constantly shoved into our algorithms, keeping us anxious and eventually numb to it all. Our familiar hell becomes our safe space, so instead of reaching outside of it, we snuggle up with it. Or run back to it the moment trying something different becomes too uncomfortable.

But what if we flipped the script? What if we tapped back into childlike imagination and let ourselves play again? We always say things like, “When I was a kid I loved making music, writing stories, drawing, painting, dancing…” but then follow it with, “I don’t have time for that now. Gotta pay the bills.”

And yes, we all have to pay the bills. But we also waste so much of our free time numbing out because, let’s be honest, the state of the world can feel pretty depressing. What if we let our inner child lead sometimes? I truly believe creativity and play are the antidote to adulting.

Now, I’m not saying quit your job and start a business selling your art. I mean… I’m not not saying that either. But I’ve done that before. While I don’t regret it at all, turning my love for cookie decorating into a full-time business eventually made it feel like work I despised. So there’s a fine line there I’m still learning how to walk.

What I do know is that when I was writing my first draft and my short stories, I felt full of hope and positive energy. The same thing happens when I’m gardening, when I pick up my camera to photograph flowers, when I plan a photoshoot for a short story, or when I get completely immersed in a book. I felt accomplished. I was filling my own cup every day with real dopamine.

And then life happened, as it always does, and all those good habits slowly fell to the wayside and were replaced with worse ones. I started writing when I had time instead of making time to write. Big difference. Doomscrolling became a daily habit. I listened to tons of podcasts, which can feel productive, but without action it’s really just another distraction. Reading before bed got replaced with TV, which meant my sleep wasn’t great either.

By not feeding my creativity, I started to feel blah. Like my mind was trapped in the town of Derry and filled with negativity. I fell into the cycle I call “Greta taking the wheel.” My inner gremlin was having the time of her life, screaming in my ear all the reasons why I should quit while I’m ahead and how it’s easier to just ride the wave of life. Honestly, I bet she takes notes from Pennywise.

I’ll admit, I let myself sit in that misery for a bit. Sometimes I think we need to let those feelings run through us. But we also have to know when it’s time to get up and climb out of it.

After reading through my first draft, I felt my inner child trying to find her way back out of the dark tunnels of my mind. Revisiting my own story became the flicker of sunlight my creativity needed to finally claw its way back out.

The Monster Grows | Inside Draft Two

This past month I slowly, and I mean slowly, read through my first draft. While I’m still in love with my story, it pains me to say it needs a lot of work. My first draft has the bones. While some may not be in the right place and some don’t belong, it’s still a wobbly skeleton. So wobbly I’m scared that one wrong move and it’ll come tumbling down like Jenga pieces.

To be honest, rereading my draft was an emotional roller coaster. There were several moments where I felt incredibly proud of myself, so caught up in the emotional moments of the book I literally cried and felt excited to dive back in. And then there were the darker, not so nice moments. The ones where Greta was whispering in my ear, “You should just quit. It’s horrible. The writing is awful.”

I started to panic, unsure how the hell I was going to turn this into a publishable book. My taste in writing has outgrown my skill, and that can be discouraging. Then the realization hit after reading the last word. It’s going to take time to get this book where it needs to be before publishing. If I really want to give this book my all, I have to put my head down and focus, do the work, and be patient. And for crying out loud, I cannot play the comparison game because I will drown in it along with my book.

While rereading, I started keeping a list of notes to myself for draft two. Things like:

• My protagonist Camila is too self-aware.

• Most of Act I needs to be cut and completely rewritten.

• I over explain everything instead of trusting the reader.

• I rush through big moments and need to slow them way down.

• I need to decide whether I’m going to have the book in first person, third person limited, or a mix of both. I honestly don’t know where I want to go here, but I do know I need to read more books written in first person.

• The structure of Act II needs to be completely reworked, and a few scenes need to be added and cut.

• Izzy, my second protagonist, needs a clear misbelief, and I need to define her relationship with Camila better.

• I don’t love the lore. I like it, but it feels too one-dimensional.

As you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me. My next steps will be to reread my first draft again, but this time I’ll be doing a detailed reverse outline. That way I can see the story from a bird’s eye view and then go from there.

That being said, there were several moments and passages in the book that I loved. I’m going to share a few of my favorite passages from the first draft below exactly how I wrote them.

“Like loving him out loud was a flaw. Like all the effort I poured into being worthy of love was proof I didn’t deserve it.”

“It was like walking into a Mad Hatter’s tea party. Where the rules I learned about being a human didn’t apply. Where all the broken parts of the human mind were on display.”

“Even a snake bleeds when it sheds.”

“I don’t wan to keep piling on makeup. I don’t even recognize myself anymore.”

“Well duh. We are trying to hide the ugly parts remember? So they’ll love us.”

As messy and wobbly as my first draft is, I’m still proud of myself for the simple fact it exists. It’s time to put on a new hat, the editor one, and start bringing my story to life. Draft two will be all about building a stronger skeleton while protecting its heart. And maybe I’ll add some other organs along the way.

A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times personal essays.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

This month’s pick is all things IT. The book, the movies and the tv show.

📚 The Book

IT by Stephen King is a masterpiece. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Steven Weber, so I know that’s a different experience than physically reading it. Besides one particular scene (iykyk), I loved how imaginative and creative this book was. Pennywise the clown, an interdimensional shapeshifting being who lives in the sewers of Derry, feeds particularly on the fear of children. The story follows a group of kids known as the Losers Club, who defeat IT as children and return as adults to try to kill IT for good.

The book jumps between two main timelines and several characters, so it can be a little hard to follow at times. My favorite message from the story, or at least the one I took away from it, is that imagination can overpower fear. As children, we tend to believe in things, and in ourselves, more freely. But as adults, it’s like we forget how to do that. Through imagination and belief, the Losers Club is able to face what terrifies them most.

One thing I really appreciate about Stephen King’s writing is how descriptive and immersive it is. Reading his books has also shown me that it’s okay to break the rules. Stephen King, along with Shirley Jackson, has definitely become one of my favorite horror authors and someone I want to continue reading and studying closely.

🎬 The Movies

IT Chapters 1 and 2, released in 2017 and 2019, were fantastic movies. The films split the two timelines into separate stories. While very different from the book, Chapter 1 follows the characters as children, while Chapter 2 focuses on the adults returning to Derry to face Pennywise again.

I actually watched the movies with my son and husband before listening to the audiobook, and my mind was blown after Chapter 1. I fell in love with the creativity of it all. At the time, I was working on the first draft of my book and struggling with some of the supernatural elements. After watching these movies, it was like something clicked. The part of my brain that was too afraid to tap into childlike imagination finally opened up again. But of course, life happens, and adulting has a way of sealing that part of the brain back up. It’s a work in progress.

Needless to say, I loved both movies and thought Bill Skarsgård did a fantastic job playing Pennywise. I never in a million years would’ve thought that one of my favorite horror characters of all time, which is a frequent topic of conversation at the dinner table in my family, would be Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

📺 The Show

Welcome to Derry brings you back in time to the 1950s during a previous feeding cycle, with completely different characters and all. In the book, there are interludes that dive into Derry’s violent history. The show expands on them, creating an entirely new story and experience while still keeping it connected to the two movies. The show definitely amped up the gore and creativity while also delivering very lovable characters, especially the children. It was also fun seeing a character from another Stephen King book, The Shining, appear in the show. Overall, the series was fun, imaginative, full of easter eggs and one I highly recommend.

From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

This month I thought it’d be fun to share a little behind-the-scenes look at the photoshoot we did for my latest horror short story, A Little Slip.

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

Creativity is a form of self-care, individual expression, and honestly, I think it has the power to heal our humanity. But in order to tap into it, first we have to quiet the noise. We are constantly consuming so much information that we can’t even hear our own thoughts anymore. We’re letting the Pennywises behind the algorithms tell us how to think. How can we truly know what lights us up if we never allow ourselves to be bored?

I highly recommend doing media detoxes often. For me, that looks like no social media, no podcasts, no nonfiction audiobooks, and no TV. You’d be amazed at how much free time you actually have.

Use that time to grab your inner child’s hand, follow their lead, and go explore and play. Return to your version of creativity.

Until next time,

Christina

The mind is a fickle thing. Many of us are already on fire, quietly at war with ourselves. When the outside world demands more, we throw fuel on those flames until smoke fills our heads. Our sanity is the first to choke. And without it, dangerous things can happen.

Alexis’s head dropped, coming within an inch of the freshly decorated cookie before she jerked it back up. As she set the icing bag down, her other hand flew up, swatting her own cheek. Her skin stung, leaving a bright red handprint slashed across it. She wasn’t sure if it was punishment for almost ruining the cookies or a desperate attempt to force her brain to function.

“Wake up Alexis,” she muttered to herself. “I think it’s time for more coffee. Hmmm.. should I make more coffee Lucy?” She looked down to ask her dog Lucy.

The apricot standard poodle was in a deep sleep, twitching as if it were chasing a squirrel. Alexis stood and while stepping over her dog, a single corner of her mouth pulled upward into a soft sneer. She hovered there, balancing on one foot, forcing the sneer into a smile before extending her leg past Lucy so she wouldn’t disturb her.

“Glad one of us is getting sleep,” she said as she walked into the kitchen.

Alexis stood in front of the red Nespresso machine as she waited for the espresso to pour into the dirty coffee mug she’d been using for two days. Her eyes drifted across her house. The open concept floor plan and the mess of running a home baking business blurred all the rooms into one, the view mirroring the inside of her mind. Piles of dirty baking sheets were stacked on top of the stove, packaging boxes scattered across the dining room table, and a layer of flour sat on the peninsula.

Her eyes met her pillow and neatly folded blanket on the couch, and she was reminded of the last day she slept. “Has it really been three days? Fuck.” she whispered as she pulled her phone out of her pocket to confirm the date of the texts that came in. The ones from the loyal pain-in-the-ass customers and their last-minute huge orders. She stupidly agreed to them, knowing it would cost her sleep. But they needed the money. Her husband had been pulling doubles constantly to help make ends meet.

Alexis dropped an ice cube into the espresso, swirled the mug, and slammed it back. “I guess I’ll sleep when they’re— when I’m dead,” she shouted as she put another espresso pod into the machine.

She jolted as her phone vibrated in her hand. “Of course Carl is texting me at the crack of dawn.” She looked at the time and realized it was already noon. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Please don’t be on your way to pick up the order.”

She opened her phone to read the text. Her shoulders dropped as she realized she had over eight hours to finish and package the order. As she reached for her second cup of espresso, her phone vibrated again.
“What now? I gave you a thumbs up. Is that not sufficient enough for you Carl?”

Without thinking, she slammed the hot espresso back. “Goddammit, cunt fucker!” She threw the mug against the wall as the espresso burned her tongue and throat.

Lucy jolted awake, running out of the cookie room and straight to the front door, a vicious bark following her.

Alexis angrily opened the new message on her phone. This time it was from Dave, the other last minute order. She had seven and a half hours to finish that one. She gave the message a thumbs up and hurried back to her decorating station, leaving the shattered mug on the floor.

Alexis finished both cookie orders with an hour to spare. She scarfed down a couple of protein bars, fixed her messy bun, ensuring no hair was loose, and began working on the next orders. The ones she booked over two months ago and should have been almost done by now.

There were three stations going, one mixer running to make dough, the rolling and cutting station on the peninsula, and the oven. She alternated between each station, working as quickly as possible.

She was in the middle of putting a batch of cookies back into the oven for a few more minutes to get that nice golden brown when her phone vibrated. A text from Carl.

One minute away. I don’t have much time so please make sure everything is ready to go when I get there.

Her hand shook as Alexis gripped her phone, staring at the text.

“One fucking minute. What kind of heads up is that? Fucking asshole. Remember, Alexis, be nice. You need his money. Although you technically already have it. But still…”

“Beep. Beep. Beep.”
“Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.”
“Woof. Woof. Woof.”

The cookie timer and doorbell went off simultaneously, sending her dog into a barking fit. Alexis froze as the noises blended together, pounding through her body, starting in her eardrums and growing louder until they reached her racing heart.

The heavy knocking on the door snapped her out of the daze. She stopped the timer, threw her dog in the backyard and raced to the front door.

“Hi Carl. Sorry. I’m in the middle of a bunch of things right now. Come in,” she said, stepping aside.

“I’m already behind schedule, so can we hurry this up?” Carl said as he walked in, staring at his phone.

“Yep. I’ll go grab the cookies now.” Alexis pressed her lips together as she walked toward the back room.

“Here you go.” She stacked the three boxes of cookies, each holding three dozen, on the round dining table near the front door. “Thanks again.”

“I hope you figured out the flavor issue this time. Last batch was not up to par like your usual cookies,” Carl said as he struggled to balance the boxes in his arms.

Alexis didn’t reply. She stood there silently, biting down on her lips to cage the words you aren’t supposed to say to your loyal customers. Remember, Alexis, the customer is always right. Just nod and try to smile. Her breath began to pick up as heat rushed to her face. She gripped the wooden rolling pin tightly, willing herself to remain calm.

“Come make yourself useful and open this door for me,” Carl said with his back toward Alexis.

Her forced smile contorted into a vicious sneer as she walked toward him, her arm slowly rising over her head with every step. As Carl began to turn, Alexis swung the rolling pin against his temple. Her sneer slipped back into a smile as he fell, his head hitting the corner of the doorframe on the way down. A metallic tang hit the air as a slow crimson tide pooled around his head.

Alexis stood there for a few seconds, admiring the view, before she began choking as smoke filled the house.

“Fuck! I forgot all about the cookies. Fucking Carl!”

She ran to the oven and pulled the tray out. Instead of setting it down, she skipped back to Carl. She used her foot to roll him onto his back.

“Look what you made me do, Carl!” she said, holding the tray of cookies over his head.

Alexis threw the hot cookies onto his unresponsive face, brought the steaming baking sheet above her head, and slammed it down again and again. She then set the tray onto his face, braced one hand against the door for balance, and like a little girl, hopped onto it, jumping up and down as if it were a trampoline.

“Look at me, I’m jumping! I’m jumping! Daddy look at me I’m jumping!” she shouted. “How do the cookies taste now Carl?”

Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she jumped off Carl, quickly reaching for it. A text from Dave.

Sorry I’m late but I’m ten minutes away.

“FUCK!” She kicked Carl’s body in frustration.

She reached down, grabbed his legs, and dragged him across the living room into the bathroom, leaving a streak of blood on the floor. Knowing she didn’t have time to properly clean it, she grabbed a bag of flour and poured it over the blood. As it absorbed, it turned into a pale red, clay-like substance. She threw more flour on top.

Alexis picked up the cookies and threw them into the cookie room. She cleaned up just enough of the mess and went back to the work stations, putting another batch of cookies in the oven. Every minute counts, she thought to herself.

A few minutes later, Dave arrived and she let him in.

“Woah, what happened here?” Dave stepped over the flour mess on the floor.

“Oh nothing, just a baking accident. Clumsy me. A whole bowl of red icing slipped out of my hands. I didn’t have a chance to clean it up. It literally just happened.” She handed him the first couple of boxes of his order.

“This is not what I ordered. These look like absolute garbage,” Dave said, setting the boxes on the table as he took a seat.

“Excuse me?” Alexis’s heart began to pick up its pace again, her wrist throbbing. She leaned against the counter, her eyes fixated on the kitchen knives.

“I can’t take these. They are all wrong. I said I wanted the numbers navy blue. These are royal blue. I want my money back.” He held out his hand, waiting for cash even though he paid on her website.

“Umm..Ok..I’ll have to process the refund on the website. I don’t have cash on me,” she said as she dug her nail into her leg until the skin tore and began to bleed.

“Well this is a shame. Alexis, you need to get your act together. If you keep this up you’ll probably go out of business.” Dave stood up and headed for the front door.
“I know I won’t be retur—”

“AHHHHH!” Alexis ran and drove a kitchen knife into his back seconds before he reached the door. Dave fell forward, his head slamming against the doorknob.

Alexis rushed forward and yanked the knife out. She brought it up to see her reflection. A grimace smile looked back at her, flecked with blood. Then she brought it down into Dave’s back.

“They…”
She raised the knife and drove it down again.

“Were navy blue…”
Down again.

“Fuckin asshole!”
Down again. And again. And again.

After a minute, she left the knife lodged in his back and knelt over him, her breath ragged.

Alexis jumped up as she had a light bulb moment. She skipped to the peninsula and grabbed the stainless steel cookie cutters.

She pulled the knife out of him and dragged it through his shirt, splitting it open. She laid the assorted star-shaped cookie cutters along his back as if she were about to cut dough. She lifted her foot and drove it down onto the cutters again and again until they were pressed deep into his skin. Blood pooled around each shape like icing bleeding past the edges.

“Look, Daddy. I turned my passion into art just like you showed me. Are you proud of me now?” she called out.

Alexis plopped down onto the floor and leaned against Dave’s body. Her blood-slick hands propped up her elbows as she rested her chin in them, smearing it across her cheek as she drifted off into a micro nap.

She spent the next couple hours thoroughly cleaning herself, the house, then got right back to baking.

The back door opened around midnight, and her dog went running toward it, tail wagging. Her husband walked in and looked just as tired, if not more than Alexis. She walked toward him with a smile.

“Hi honey,” he said as he put his bag down and pet Lucy.

“Yay. You’re home.” Alexis went onto her tiptoes to kiss him. “Today was insane.”

“Sorry. If it makes you feel better, I had a crazy day too.” He kissed her forehead.

“I’ll help you with whatever you need after I go pee. You need to get some sleep tonight,” he said as he walked past her in a hurry.

“Umm… honey?” he called from the bathroom.

“Right… About that… I had a little slip today.” She hesitated. “But it’s their fault! They were both entitled dicks!”

“I’ll go get the shovel. But honey… we’re running out of room in the garden.”

It has been a very wet and stormy April, both literally and in life. I have struggled to get to the computer to write or even grab a book to read. I’m finding it hard to maintain my healthy routines, and old habits are creeping back in. But one thing that can always ground me and bring me back to the present is my garden. There is something so beautiful about being outside and working with your hands. It’s like the soil drains my anxiety and I’m able to breathe again. Not a shallow breath, but a deep belly one. Let’s not forget about the bees. Seeing them buzz around is one of my favorite things about the gardening season. To put it simply, they fill me with pure joy.

April tends to be the most overwhelming month of the gardening season for me. It’s when tasks start to pile on top of each other and everything feels like a priority. It’s also the time the last frost happens here in the Midwest and all the heat-loving plants can finally go outside. But it’s not that simple. The weather is very unpredictable in the spring, where temperatures can swing from very hot to a frost all in one day. I probably check the forecast several times a day. It’s like a new hobby of mine.

When trying to figure out when to start hardening off plants and moving them into the garden, I have to take into consideration a full week of the forecast. Sometimes I get stuck in analysis paralysis, so I just have to force myself to make a decision. I can either keep them inside and risk them getting root-bound and weak, or I can plant them outside and hope a fluke frost doesn’t happen. It is a risk either way. But in gardening, it is all a risk, as we can’t control nature. There is beauty in that. Learning to let go of control and still try something new, especially when you don’t know the outcome.

I have killed many plants as a gardener, but that has not stopped me from being excited to do it all again the next year. Because I know that some plants will survive and produce the most beautiful blooms. That, my friend, is hope in a nutshell. Knowing things may not work out as you plan, but trying anyway because the possibility of beauty is worth the risk.

What happened in my garden this past month? A LOT.

First, we cleaned up all the garden beds and amended the soil. I usually mix in some compost with cow manure and worm castings. I did this last year, and I noticed a huge difference in the plants and their blooms. One lesson I’ve learned over the years is that the health of the soil is one of the most important things for a garden. There is so much growth that happens underneath the ground before it becomes visible, which is just a great reminder for anything you pursue in life. When you start something new and consistently show up, a lot of your growth will not be visible. And I think that sometimes we can get very impatient or discouraged when there aren’t tangible or visible results. I’m guilty of this all the time. But if we just keep at it, we will eventually see those results.

Once the raised beds and containers were cleaned up and amended, it was time to slowly evict my seedlings from the house. At the beginning of the month, I planted all my cold-hardy plants into the garden. That included all of my snapdragons, foxgloves, violas, and chamomile seedlings. Towards the end of the month, I planted my black-eyed Susans, marigolds, and dahlias outside. This year, I planted the dahlias in a different area of the garden, as I have not had a fully successful year with them yet. Fingers crossed this is their year. We also put up netting support for some of the taller plants like the snapdragons and dahlias. I finally learned my lesson from the past couple of years and put a cage support on my peonies as well.

I almost forgot, I sowed all of my zinnia seeds at the beginning of the month as well. All 100+ of them. I usually overplant because not all the seeds will sprout. This year, it seems like all the babies wanted to be part of the garden, as about 95% sprouted, so I have way more than I need. But I will find a spot for most of them and share some with my mother-in-law. Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers, and I can’t wait to share more about them in the coming months. These, along with the celosia plants, won’t go into the garden until early to mid-May, as they cannot survive cold temperatures at all.

My garden is not just within the enclosure; it extends to several areas around our house. We have several perennial plants lining our backyard like roses, lilies, hostas, hydrangeas, etc. In front of the house, we have peonies, roses, daisies, coneflowers, asters, salvia, etc. Since it’s been so warm and wet this spring, these plants have started growing insanely quick and earlier than usual. An important April task was to prune the rose bushes. I took a couple of hours one Sunday to go through them and prune off all the dead branches. I remember feeling so grounded and relaxed that day. I was out there without any music, no podcast, nothing. It was just me, the plants, and the birds.

I think we need that often, a slow quiet moment in nature. We tend to fill our minds with something every second of the day, to the point that we can’t even hear our own thoughts. As someone who can live inside their head a lot, I need those moments of peace and quiet. This has proven to help with my creativity as well, cutting out the noise of the fast-paced world we live in now.

The past few years of gardening and continuous learning have resulted in our front and back lawn being filled with dandelions and other plants most would consider to be “weeds.” A weed is just a plant in the wrong place, and that is subjective. I will admit, when we first bought the house, we used to spray horrible weed killer and dig out each plant. But not anymore. When I stopped spraying harsh chemicals like weed killer and insecticide, our garden flourished. Weed killer is horrible for the environment and can harm beneficial plants and pollinators. (More on pest control in the coming months.)

Plus, weeds are usually the first source of food for bees and birds in the spring here in the Midwest. Just the other day, we saw a ton of birds on our lawn snacking on dandelions. We are one of a few houses on our block without a perfectly clean and manicured lawn, and I’m okay with that. There’s something about letting things grow where they want that feels a little more like us. And who knows, maybe after a few years we’ll go crazy and plant wildflowers in our entire front lawn.

As April came to an end, I’m happy to report that the snapdragons and violas have already started blooming, which is exciting. I’ve cut a couple handfuls of snapdragons already and brought them into the house, which is also one of my favorite things to do. I get to watch them go through the end of their life cycle. When I bring them into the house, I know they aren’t going to stay alive for long. Some flowers last longer than others, but what I’ve come to realize is that they have the power to keep me in the present. Every time I see their beautiful blooms, even as they start to fade, it brings me back to the moment. It’s like a soft reminder to stop, breathe, and just appreciate the beauty in the now. And as a person who is always thinking about what’s next, I feel incredibly grateful that gardening and flowers have become such a big part of my life, especially in tough seasons. It’s a daily reminder that there is beauty all around us, we just have to slow down to see it.

One Last thing….

Here’s a short video from April in my garden. I’m so excited to see how the garden continues to grow this year. Next up, May.

From the Shadows

April showers bring May flowers. We can read that phrase and think about gardening, or brush it off as a cliché. On one hand, yes, it makes me think about my garden and how all the rain we’ve gotten has helped wake up my plant babies. But it also makes me think about life and how sometimes we have to go through the storms in order to grow.

At some point, we have to stop and ask ourselves, do we keep going through the motions, doing everything to please everyone else and keep the peace, betraying ourselves day after day? Or do we take our power back, instead of waiting until we snap like Carrie?

Because where your energy goes, your power follows.

I can be a very pessimistic person. I went years of my life focusing on all the negative things that have happened to me and what I thought would happen. I lived with a limited mindset, stuck in a bit of a victim mentality, seeing everything through a tinted lens. Everything felt muted, like I was only seeing life in shades of grey instead of color.

It wasn’t until I had a complete breakdown, aka a panic attack aka my carrie moment except without telekinetic powers, that I realized I needed a change. I needed to reclaim my power and take control of my life. I needed to become an active participant in my own life.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve done a lot of work to rewire my brain and finally start seeing the color again. But I’m not perfect, and recently I’ve found myself slipping back into old patterns. I realized it’s because I’ve been giving away my power. Letting others, and the internet, get me riled up and angry. Following negative energy instead of protecting my own.

And when that happens, everything else follows. I don’t sleep well, my anxiety lingers, and I’m just miserable.

So I’m here to remind you, and myself, that your energy goes where your focus is. Stop letting others pull you down with them. It’s time to take control of our lives, choose carefully who we allow into our circle, set boundaries, living authentically and not feel ashamed for being ambitious and wanting more for ourselves.

And for me, that means taking my power back and focusing it on what actually fills me up, like my family, my garden, and of course my writing.

The Monster Grows (Book Progress Update)

🩸 Progress so far: First draft complete (70,927 words)
🎃 Recent win: Seeing my book printed and bound for the first time
🕯️ Biggest challenge: Preparing mentally to dive back in for draft two

I don’t have any big updates to give this month. As you may or may not know, I decided to give myself another month away before diving into draft two. March was a rough month and I needed more time to wrap up some other things.

That said, not a day goes by that my book isn’t calling to me. I hear her in the middle of a workout, while I’m at my 9–5, gardening, reading, she’s always there. I realize a part of me is dying to live inside that world again, to let myself get fully immersed. But I’m also terrified of the revisions. I’m well aware that my first draft is a bit of a mess.

My plan of attack is to read through the entire book without editing anything. Then I’ll read it a second time and do a reverse outline. From there, I’ll figure out what big picture things need to be revised and/or rewritten. I will definitely take you along my revision process over the next few months.

One exciting thing about all this is that the first time I reread my book, it’ll be in an actual printed copy. I thought it’d be fun to get some of my drafts printed, like a visual tracker to show how far I’ve come. What’s funny is that I had no idea how to design a book cover, so I made a very basic one in Canva and it ended up off-centered. But hey, it’s all a part of the learning journey.

Oh yeah… one more thing. I decided on a title for the book. Well, a working title. The Blood We Swallowed. Ahh!! I can’t wait to dive back in.

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A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times a personal essays.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

This month’s pick is all things Carrie. The book, the movie and the remake.

📚 The Book

Carrie was Stephen King’s debut novel and the first Stephen King book I’ve read. This book was a masterpiece. It reveals the story slowly, and then boom, everything explodes toward the end, figuratively and literally. I could not put this book down. It’s definitely up there with some of my favorite horror books (The Haunting of Hill House being my all time favorite).

For those who don’t know the story, it’s about a teenage girl, Carrie, who discovers she has telekinetic powers after her first period. She’s been bullied by her peers and repressed by her super religious mother. The story builds up to a prank at prom, and she snaps or should I say, takes her power back and gives everyone in her path hell.

I think the reason I resonated with this book so much is because it explores identity, trauma and personal transformation. We all want to be seen and belong, but at what cost? It also dives into power and what it looks like to reclaim it. If you haven’t read this book, run and add it to your TBR list. You won’t regret it.

🎬 The Movie

The 1976 film is a horror classic in my eyes. While the movie is very different from the book, it does a fantastic job of capturing the heart of the story. Sissy Spacek, who played Carrie, was phenomenal. She really brought the character to life. Piper Laurie, who played Carrie’s mother, was also great. Since this was made in the 70s, a lot of the supernatural elements from the book weren’t shown in the movie. Either way, this has moved up on my list of favorite horror films, and I highly recommend it.

🎬 The Remake

The 2013 Carrie remake was just okay. I watched it shortly after the original, and I’m sorry, but Sissy Spacek embodies the role of Carrie so well that it was hard for me to accept anyone else in that role. Don’t get me wrong, Chloë Grace Moretz is a great actress, she just didn’t do it for me in this movie. That being said, since it was made in the 2010s with more advanced technology, the film was able to show more of the supernatural elements that we didn’t get in the original. Overall, it was a good movie, and I enjoyed watching it.

📺 The Show-Coming Soon

Is anyone else excited for the Carrie mini series produced by none other than Mike Flanagan coming out in October?! I love his work and I’m really excited to see his adaptation of this story.

From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

This month I’m sharing a short horror film my husband Armando and son made a couple of years ago. The goal is to make another one this year with all three of us. My son wants to be a movie producer when he’s older, so who knows, maybe it’ll turn into a family affair. A girl can dream, right? 😜

Anyways, here’s a little peek into the creative minds of my family.

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

Let’s take some time to reflect on our lives and become aware of where we may be giving our power away. What situations or relationships are we overextending ourselves in? It might be time to set boundaries and limit those interactions.

This can also apply to social media. I know I have a toxic relationship with it at times and need to set strict boundaries around how much I consume. We have to stop letting the internet tell us how to think or make us feel bad about ourselves. The goal should always be to create more than we consume.

There may also be people in your life who aren’t rooting for you. People who try to control the narrative or influence how others perceive you. Be mindful of those relationships. Don’t engage and distance yourself if you can.

At the end of the day, we have to remind ourselves that other people’s opinions of us are none of our business. Because if we spend our days worrying about what others think, we’re giving them our energy, and our power.

That can also show up as constantly seeking external validation to determine our worth. But that power should come from within.

You are the main character of your life. You get to decide how you live it, how you express yourself, what brings you joy, and what you choose to pursue.

When you start putting yourself first, some people will see it as selfish, and that’s okay. Because honestly, I’d rather be the villain in someone else’s story than in my own.

Until next time,

Christina

Writing the first draft of my novel felt like a constant knife fight with myself. I made it out alive but I have an excessive amount of oozing stab wounds.

It was ten long months of starting and stopping. Thinking I was a plotter only to learn I was more of a pantser. Trying to write pretty, then deciding to write bad on purpose. Chasing word count goals. Discovering I don’t know how to write a fight scene. Stopping. Starting. Stopping again. Until I finally typed the last word.

The idea came to me from a simple dream. I was locked in a dressing room of sorts when the power shut off and one bright red light appeared. The light blinked like a phone suddenly ringing when you’re home alone. Loud and jarring. A giant rock settling into my gut the second I saw it. So naturally I pressed the button.

A screen lit up telling me the rules of the game. Or if I were in a Scream movie, I answered the phone only to be asked “What’s your favorite scary movie?”

I didn’t have a choice about whether I wanted to play. Just by pressing the button, I was already part of it. Only in my dream, I never got to the point where Ghostface showed up to gut me. I was just shown the game.

Perform or die.

The dream was short. Ambiguous. But it did its job as the opening act. It got my attention. I needed to keep watching to see what happens next. I needed to find out who the new Ghostface of this story was.

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Act I was exciting. The news media is talking about a murder in town, and everyone begins speculating who did it. Who were the suspects? What was their motive?

For me, that looked like my brain only being able to think about this dream. It was an intriguing plot. But I needed to know why. I started brainstorming. I brain dumped everything. I even outlined an entire short story around the idea.

And just when I decided to start writing it, Ghostface showed up and dragged his knife across my idea’s throat until it bled out. I took that as a sign. I needed to dig deeper. There was something more here. I could feel it in my bones. Something that spoke to my very real life experiences around the concept of performance. So I decided to make it into a whole ass book.

I started listening to all the novel-writing podcasts, reading all the books about writing a book, and convinced myself I needed to learn everything there was to know before I was even allowed to begin.

That’s when analysis paralysis set in.

You know that part in a Scream movie where you have no idea who the killer is? Everyone becomes a suspect.

I didn’t know which advice to follow. Was it Save the Cat? The three-act structure? First person? Third?

Finally, I decided to channel that Gale Weathers energy and push forward. I just started writing. I gave myself permission to begin even though I didn’t have all the answers. It took me six long months to write Act I. Six months to painfully learn the purpose of a first draft. To watch things pan out in ways I didn’t expect. To get stabbed repeatedly by Ghostface but survive by learning something new each time.

The first lesson nearly killed me.

Don’t try to make the first chapter perfect.

I rewrote my opening three times. Three. And guess what? When I finally reached the end of the novel and reread it, I realized it was all wrong anyway. It took me writing the end to learn how it should begin. That doesn’t mean I’m a horrible writer. It simply means I didn’t understand the full story yet.

As I kept going, I hit another wall. When I started writing the book I had an overall idea of certain events that took place, but I didn’t know how I would get to them. After the first few chapters without a roadmap, I got stuck. That is when I realized I needed a real plan. I was faced with the ultimate question authors are asked all the time:

Am I a pantser or a plotter?

I saw myself as a plotter. As someone who struggles with anxiety, not knowing what comes next literally terrifies me. I’m someone who needs to know the plan to function. I don’t like the chaos of not knowing.

Or so I thought.

I ended up turning to more craft books. I read Story Genius, and it helped me understand my main protagonist on a deeper level. I developed her backstory, her misbelief, and all the reasons why she makes the choices she does. It also showed me how to use scene cards to map out each scene.

But when I tried to plan every scene, something unexpected happened. The characters decided to surprise me and take a different course of action. I would spend so much time planning each scene and trying to stay within those parameters, but it was a waste of time for me. I felt lost, creatively boxed in, frustrated even. I started to wonder if I was even capable of moving forward. Just when I thought I knew who Ghostface was, they showed up and killed that suspect, aka the plotter persona I tried to play.

It was ironic. The woman who needs to always be one step ahead in everyday life to function needed to release control to write her book. Now I wouldn’t classify myself as a full-on pantser. I still need some type of outline. I decided to use loose outlines, with just a couple sentences for each scene. This allowed me to move forward and, quite frankly, was fun. I flew through most of Act II once I stopped trying to control everything. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure how Act III would go and discovered it while writing Act II.

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I did come to another halt when it was time to write the chapters for the second POV. She is technically a second protagonist. Her role isn’t as forward facing as my main girl but still her story is just as important. When I did my character work in early Act I, I did not focus on my second protagonist, and that came around to bite me in the ass when it was time to write her chapters. That brought me to another lesson..

Know your characters deeply. Know your main characters backstory, including the antagonist.

It’s so important to spend time with them and figure out who they were before they stepped into your story. And yes, that means writing backstories, origin stories, core turning points to discover what led them to their misbelief. Most of that will not be in the book, but it will help you understand the character and write from their view of the world and in their unique voice. (Side note, for Act I and II I wrote and focused on one POV at a time. That allowed me to truly live in their voice and story without having to bounce back and forth. By the third act, I knew them well enough to be able to alternate.)

I was finally moving forward with the story, but my attention was being pulled in too many different directions. I wasn’t able to give 100% to anything. I couldn’t keep going like that.

I had to focus on one thing at a time and minimize the distractions.

I was doing way too much. Trying to build my social media presence, writing short stories, posting weekly on Substack, maintaining a huge garden I started from seed. On top of that, I have a full-time job. I’m a mom and a wife. The list goes on.

I had to get serious with myself. Was I going to let Ghostface kill this book, or was I going to fight back?

If you know me, I’m a fighter. The first thing to go was social media. The posting and the consuming. It took up too much space in my head, and I hated the way it made me feel anyway. That alone made my mental health better.

Then I cut the rest of the noise. No more short stories. Less TV. Less podcasts. I didn’t need something filling every moment. I needed quiet. Because all that noise was fogging up my brain and making it harder to think clearly.

Now, I still had to keep my full-time job, so I needed a realistic writing schedule.

One that actually fit my life. I couldn’t write every day. On days I went into the office, my brain was fried by the time I got home. So I committed to four days a week. Whether I felt like it or not, I showed up. I set word count goals. I didn’t always hit them, but they kept me going.

Finally, I was building momentum. Every writing day I was moving the needle. I was dodging all the Ghostface attacks but still didn’t know who it was.

Then I got to Act III, where a lot of action was taking place, and I quickly realized I don’t know anything about writing a fight scene. I didn’t want to lose momentum trying to learn a new skill, so I left a placeholder. I wrote the bones and kept going.

Why spend so much time perfecting something that might not even survive revisions?

That’s when I learned momentum matters more than perfection in a first draft.

After all the lessons and stab wounds, I finally reached my final girl moment. I typed the last words of the draft.

Still standing. Still breathing. Bleeding.

And that’s when I finally understood the purpose of the first draft.

THE FIRST DRAFT IS YOU TELLING YOURSELF THE STORY

I did not fully understand my story until I finished writing it. Hell, I don’t think I even knew half the things were going to happen until I wrote them. Once I embraced the concept of the shitty first draft, I gave myself permission to write badly so I could actually get to know my story. And it’s one that I truly love. So much of my heart is in it. And now that it’s done, I realize it’s perfect for one simple reason.

IT EXISTS.

But even after finishing the draft, there was something else I couldn’t shake. A feeling I carried throughout the entire process. Something I had to face time after time.

Self doubt.

It’s the voice that questions everything. The voice that keeps whispering, not good enough. The voice that makes you want to start over or quit.

Mine would tell me all the reasons I’m not a real writer. My writing is too simple. It doesn’t sound intelligent enough. Who do you think you are to write a book? No one cares. It will go nowhere.

I kept waiting for the reveal. Waiting to unmask Ghostface. And when I finally did, it wasn’t a psycho boyfriend, or a jealous, fame-seeking cousin, or a crazy super fan.

It was JUST ME.

I’m proud of myself for pushing through and winning the battle that was draft one. But the truth is, she will never disappear. She’ll be waiting for me in draft two.

Only this time, I’ll be two steps ahead of her. Knife in hand.

And I’ll know how to keep writing.

Francisca lay in bed, staring at the thin lines of sunlight illuminating through the blinds. A tiny smile crawled onto her face when she realized what day it was. It was the first day of gardening season. Her secret weapon against Greta. Finally, she thought as she rose out of bed.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that version of me. The one who believes the garden can fix everything. But it’s not that simple. Yes, it’s great for my mental health and has the power to keep Greta (my inner gremlin) away, but what it truly gives me is hope. It softens my pessimistic side and brings out my optimistic one. It helps me have hope for tomorrow, hope that there is still beauty in the world, and hope for my own life. And oh boy, does it teach me patience and the fact that I cannot control everything.

But let’s be honest, real life is not like our dreams. Nothing is free. If we want all those things from the garden, we have to work for it. And gardening is a lot of work.

My garden has grown exponentially over the past few years. It started with a few veggies in pots and has grown into a 16’ by 24’ enclosure with multiple raised beds and too many to count pots. My favorite thing to grow is cut flowers. I do grow peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a handful of herbs, but the majority of the garden is flowers.

As I step into my fourth year of gardening, I wanted to share its beauty with you and document my journey. So that is what this will be. I will recap each month, share gardening updates, maybe a few tips, lessons I learned (in life and gardening), and of course share its beauty through pictures and videos. I don’t know if this will have a specific format or what this will evolve into but for now it is my version of a garden diary.

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I live in the Chicagoland area, so my gardening season is limited. Even though spring is here, our last frost isn’t until about mid to end of April. That means all the heat-loving plants cannot be planted outside until then. However, my gardening season technically starts in late February as I start seeds indoors. There is something so magical about taking a speck of a seed, putting it in soil, and watching it grow into a big, beautiful plant. Between February and March, I have sown snapdragon seeds, black-eyed Susans, dahlias, foxglove, chamomile, marigolds, celosia, and viola jump-up seeds.

One thing about gardening is that you will fail and kill plants. I already had my first failure of the season. The first batch of foxglove seeds I planted all died except two plants. This is my first year growing them and, well, I was impatient. I took the dome lid off the tray too soon. The few sprouts dried up and died quickly, and the rest of the seeds never sprouted. It was like a slap on the wrist. Nature’s way of reminding me to be patient. I started a second batch and am happy to report all 12 seedlings are doing great.

This is also the time I map out the garden and think about issues from last year. A big problem we encountered was rats burrowing into our snapdragon and dahlia raised beds. Ugh, those critters make me sick. The year before last, we dealt with earwigs. I’m curious to see what kind of pest we will have to fight this year, because if there is one thing gardening has taught me, it is that there will be problems and I will not be able to control all of it. Anywho, we need to figure out a solution for the rats this season.

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While March is filled with a lot of tasks to do indoors, it’s also the time to clean up the raised beds and pots from last year. I will admit the garden was a hot mess. I was so burnt out last fall and neglected it the last couple months of the season. We did not do any cleaning up or anything. Earlier this month, Armando and I tag-teamed clearing out all the dead plants. The next step is to amend the soil, but it’s looking like that may be an April task for most of the raised beds.

One other exciting thing I’ve started doing is hardening off my snapdragons, chamomile, and viola jump-up babies. I’m pretty sure I potted up the snapdragon seeds too soon because they are so tall and are starting to flower already. They desperately need to go into the raised beds before they get root-bound and their growth is stunted. This is also a great reminder that the environment we’re in plays a huge factor in our growth. Sometimes we need to pull our roots up and plant them somewhere else in order to thrive.

While this past month has been tough for me personally, getting my garden going has helped. I usually have a handful of days throughout the month where I spend a few hours in our gardening nook. I will pop in an audiobook (currently listening to It by Stephen King) and just work in my own peaceful bubble. Sometimes it’s sowing seeds or potting up the babies to give them more room to grow.

One thing I have come to accept is that from the months of March through May, the nook will be a huge mess. But I have come to enjoy the mess because it means life is being born and I’m cultivating beauty. It also means I’m outrunning Greta and the screws of my anxiety goggles are starting to come loose.

As I come to the end of the month, I need to remind myself to take it one day at a time. I can sometimes try to do too many things at once and end up neglecting self-care. But what I’m learning is that sometimes all I need is to take things slow. To focus on one thing. I originally planned to start draft two of my novel in April, but I’ve decided to push it out one more month. The garden needs most of my attention this next month. The seedlings need to be nurtured and taken care of. And I know that if I take care of them, they will take care of me.

One Last thing….

My original plan was to share a video montage of the past month, but life happened and we just didn’t get to it. So instead, I’m sharing a couple of videos from previous years. Thanks again for reading. I’m so excited to share more throughout the season.

A quick note…. This issue is going out a few days late and was written before the 13th. Thank you for your patience.

From the Shadows

Happy Friday the 13th again! How lucky are we to get two of them back to back. I still can’t believe we’re already in March.

It’s the time of year when dormant plants like tulips and daffodils start poking out of the ground. They rested most of the year, and now they show up and take up space without apology for the next couple of months. There’s something powerful about that kind of quiet confidence. They play an important role as the first signs of spring. After five or six months of cold and snow in Chicago, even the smallest hint of life brings me joy.

March is also a time to celebrate women, although let’s be real, we deserve to be celebrated every day. We literally birthed every single person on this planet. How we were ever convinced that women are the weaker gender still baffles me. I mean, have we looked at the state of the world run by men? Okay, I’m not going to get all “angry feminist Stina” here… or am I? Either way, this month’s newsletter is a little love letter to women.

I grew up around women who held men on a pedestal and treated them like kings. Some grown men I know still can’t even get up and serve themselves dinner. I witnessed men behave horribly and treat women terribly, yet no matter what they did, they were forgiven and almost worshipped. Thinking about it still makes my blood boil.

Now, as an almost forty-year-old woman, I understand why this happened. It’s a cycle, one we continue to teach little girls every day. Women were taught to stay quiet, not take up space, and to serve. To take care of everyone else except themselves. We were literally bred to be people pleasers.

As we get older we’re faced with two paths. We either continue the cycle, or we say fuck that and reclaim our power. We take up space unapologetically. But here’s the kicker, even when we want a bigger life, or just one where we make the rules and live on our terms, the systems around us are designed to keep us small.

Most women are just trying to survive. The thought of pursuing something purely for ourselves doesn’t always feel like an option. To those women, I see you. And I plead: please start to prioritize self-care, even if it’s just twenty minutes a day. Do something just for you and no one else. I truly believe that if more women saw their own beauty and power, we would be unstoppable.

I’ve been lucky to find a partner who not only views me as an equal but supports me and cheers me on in all my dreams and endeavors. But the people pleaser still runs deep in me.

That is why I continue to write. I’m on a mission to show up as my authentic self.

A lot of my writing, including my book, circles a few recurring themes: gardening, identity, and women reclaiming their power. At the end of last year I kept telling myself I needed to keep writing to find my voice. But the truth is, I already have one. I just need to lean into it more.

To all the women reading this, let’s prioritize self-care (it’s not selfish) and take up space unapologetically and authentically.

The Monster Grows (Book Progress Update)

🩸 Progress so far: 70,927 words
🎃 Milestone: Finishing the first draft
🕯️ Biggest challenge: Accepting the final word count for draft one

I finished the first draft of my novel about a month ago. It still doesn’t feel real whenever I say or type those words. I’m incredibly proud of myself for showing up day after day, even when I didn’t want to. Writing a book takes time, and while my timeline was a bit lopsided, I enjoyed the process.

It took a total of ten months to finish the first draft. Six months to finish Act I and four months to finish the rest. In other words, it took me six months to fully believe in myself and take myself seriously as a writer. Once I embraced the concept of a shitty first draft and committed to focusing only on the book while sticking to a realistic writing schedule, I started to see small consistent results.

The biggest challenge toward the end was accepting the final word count. My goal was 80,000 words, and I realized I wasn’t going to hit that when I was almost at the last chapter and still about 10k short. I can sometimes get fixated on metrics as proof of achievement and worth, so I was beating myself up for not hitting that target. Writing my first book taught me some hard lessons and even revealed new things about myself. For example, I learned that I’m more of a pantser than a plotter. As someone who struggles with anxiety and usually likes to know the plan, this one shocked me.

As I came to the end of the story, I finally understood what so many authors say about draft one. This is the draft where you’re telling yourself the story. I didn’t fully see the big picture until I reached the end. I don’t know what the final story will look like after all the revisions, but I’m beyond excited to dive back in. I love the heart of this story, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

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A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times a personal essays.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

This month’s recommendations all center around women and the different battles we face every day. Each story explores power, control, and what happens when a woman starts to question the role the world expects her to play.

📚 The Book – Credenza

A pink horror book by Wendy Dalrymple. It was my first time reading this genre and I loved it. On the surface, it’s about a haunted heirloom and family secrets. But I really connected with the deeper themes of generational trauma and the fear of inheriting mental health struggles from your parents. Wanting to protect your child from it at all costs, but realizing you have to stop avoiding it and face it head on, because only then can you begin to heal. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

🎬 The Movie – Rosemary’s Baby

Rosemary’s Baby is a masterpiece. It’s the type of movie that will live rent free in your head for a while, at least it has for me. It’s a psychological horror movie with occult and folk horror elements. The film was released in 1968, but it still holds up today. The acting and visuals are great. It’s also a great example of how women, still to this day I might add, do not have full autonomy over their own bodies and how we are often gaslit and not taken seriously. I can’t speak highly enough about this movie. If you haven’t seen it and like occult psychological horror, run and watch it.

📺 The Show – Agatha All Along

This show leans more into fantasy horror, which is a sweet spot for me. It explores themes like generational trauma, motherhood, grief, identity, queerness, chosen family, and it has one hell of an anti-hero. And if there’s one thing I love, it’s a good anti-hero. (Another MCU favorite of mine is Loki.) There are supernatural and witchcraft elements, which again I LOVE. It’s safe to say this is one of my favorite MCU shows, and the vibe of it definitely sparked some inspiration while I was writing my book. The cast is mostly women and they are all fucking fantastic. The visuals were perfection. If I could go sit and write on the Witch’s Road, I absolutely would.

From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

This month I thought it would be fun to bring you into the world of my book… visually. While some aspects of the story may change and not survive revisions, the overall vibes will stay the same. When writing the first draft, there were times I struggled because I needed to see things visually. Here’s a small peek into the world I’ve been living in while writing this book.

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

Take up more space. Show up as your authentic self. Because when you suppress her, it hurts and cuts deep. You won’t ever be truly happy if you’re being a chameleon to appease the masses.

Cut the people pleaser in you loose. And yes, when you stop people pleasing, people will stop being pleased, and that’s okay.

Start prioritizing self-care every day. Take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. Do something that brings you joy. Whether that’s reading, dancing, gardening, photography, whatever it is, prioritize it.

Wear whatever makes you feel good. No need to wait for a special occasion. The occasion is you.

When we know our worth, we become unstoppable. And quite frankly, the world will be a better place.

Shine bright. The world needs your sparkle.

Until next time,

Christina

Goodbye 38, Hello 39

Happy 39th Birthday, Christina! Another year alive is a privilege. Remember that. Yes, you are getting older, but I would argue that you are the best version of yourself. So let’s keep the annual tradition alive of writing a letter to yourself to reflect on the past year.

First off, I can’t believe it’s already been a year. Nicholas is basically your height now and will definitely be taller than you by the end of this year. He loves hot cheetos just as much as you did as a kid, maybe even more. He started band this year and got you hooked on watching Beast Games with him. We love that kid. You and Armando have officially been together for half your life, and your love for him grows deeper each day. I would argue you are one lucky lady and have a great life.

But let’s be real. You are still the ambitious woman you’ve always been and are always reaching for more. So naturally, you tried all the things and entered into a new kind of fight this past year. A fight with Greta. That is what you decided to call your inner gremlin. And boy, that bitch is stubborn, brutal, full of anxiety, and just will not quit. Sound familiar? It should, because she is YOU.

When you entered year 38, you had this goal of becoming a new version of yourself. Or at least an evolved one. A writer. But in order to let the writer live, you had to kill the old version of you and step into the thorny unknown territory. Something happens when you try to shed old habits. Your old self tends to come and dig their claws deeper into you, desperate to stay alive. Everything they know feels safe to them, so any change is the enemy. And a big part of your old self and your inner gremlin is your battle with anxiety.

But Christina, you should be so proud of how far you’ve come. Sure, you still have bad days and had a few anxiety attacks, but you no longer live with the anxiety goggles strapped on. That in itself is a huge win. And while there were days your old self resurfaced, you still continued to fight back and slowly began the shed.

One of the most valuable lessons you learned this year is that you cannot keep your thoughts and emotions—good or bad—bottled up inside. You have to let them out, whether that be talking about it or even just writing about it.

This past year you learned about a new powerful tool. It’s one you heard about for years but never actually gave a chance. You started doing daily morning pages where you journal for 2–3 pages first thing in the morning. You literally just handwrite whatever is on your mind. It is just your stream of consciousness from your brain to the paper.

It has done wonders for your mental health and your writing. It almost acts like a daily cleanse. Please keep journaling. I would even recommend consistently doing it before bed as well. You live in your head too much at times, and you need to release those thoughts. Trust me. It’s like lifting the bricks off your chest so you can catch your breath again.

The other part of this is talking about your feelings. You haven’t quite figured this out yet, but you are starting to do it more often. Speaking your truth is important. Otherwise, you may seem okay on the outside while stepping back into people-pleasing territory, but inside you are miserable. Please, Christina. One thing I want you to do more of in year 39 is speak your truth even when your voice shakes.

Speaking your truth in life naturally spilled over into your writing. This past year you worked on becoming more comfortable on the page. Letting yourself sound like yourself instead of who you thought you should be. Or who other people would want to read. This one is still rocky, but you’ve made progress.

Let’s be honest. You’ve been searching for an author box to put yourself into. You watched all the videos on the importance of building an author brand, so naturally you began this process. First you thought it was going to be about positivity and personal development. Then you started writing a horror book (we will get into this in a bit) and decided to put yourself in that lane.

But recently, when thinking about how you want to show up with your writing outside your novel, you aren’t sure what you want to do. You don’t feel like one thing. And that is because you aren’t supposed to try to be like anyone else. Yes, you wrote a horror novel and horror short stories, but that doesn’t mean that is all you can write.

I want you to take the next six weeks that you have away from your book and write whatever the hell you want. If you want to write about your journey with personal development, do it. Write about gardening. Do it. Short stories, both horror and non-horror. Poetry. Do that. Take these next six weeks to experiment and, for fucks sake, do not pay attention to the numbers! Remember, we don’t compare ourselves to anyone. It’s you vs. you.

This past year you also went down a new path with movement. One you never thought you’d take. Bodybuilding. There are three phases to this: bulking, maintenance, and cutting. You haven’t done a full on cut yet, so you can’t speak to that.

During the bulking phase, you needed to eat a lot and lift progressively heavier for 8–12 weeks. This is a period where you are growing muscle but also gaining some fat. Here is the kicker that fucked with your head because of how women were taught to think about their weight because of society… blah blah blah. You know the deal.

Every time you stepped on the scale and saw your weight go up (which is exactly what you were trying to do), Greta was right there to say one word to you: “FAT.” And there were days where you shut her down, but I know it messed with your head a bit.

But I want to remind you that those are just numbers and do not dictate your self-worth. You are actually strong as hell. And congratulations… you did what the bulk was intended to do. You put on weight and your muscles are growing. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat. I mean, come on. Even some of your T-shirts are a bit tight around the arms because of those guns. And yes, some of your jeans are tighter now too (those legs and that ass though), but again, they are just clothes. You can just get a bigger size. Please continue to do the work to unlearn those idiotic, unrealistic standards.

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Now let’s talk about the biggest lesson of year 38. You can do hard things. Christina!!! You wrote a fucking book. Holy shit! Take that in for a sec.

Writing a book has always just been an idea in the back of your heart, a far-off dream that you never thought was possible. You didn’t think you were smart enough, but this past year you went for it. It was kind of a snowball effect. First you just decided to start writing. Then you had a dream that you wanted to turn into a short story, but the idea grew and you knew it was much bigger than that. And just like that, boom, April came along and you decided to just go for it.

While it was a long ten months of fights with Greta and starting and stopping, you persevered and you should be so fucking proud of yourself. Once you locked into a real writing routine and focused only on the book, your momentum grew and you finished it. Now I know you know this is just the beginning and there is so much more work to be done before the book is publishable. But your first draft is doing what it needs to do. It exists! You are now in the top 3% of people who start writing a book and actually finish their first draft.

If there is one thing about you, it’s that you don’t just talk about doing things. You take action. So take the next six weeks and step away from the book. Let it rest so you can come back ready for draft two with fresh eyes. I know you want to jump back in and start editing, but you need the distance. In the meantime, go have fun and experiment with other stories, essays, garden diary post, etc. And read a lot. Read all different types of books and genres.

As you step into the last year of your thirties, I want you to do a few things. Love yourself every day. Tell yourself: I got this. Yes I can. I am enough as I am. My voice matters. Damn girl you fine. I am proud of you. Even on the days where you feel blah.

You have done a lot of work to reprogram your mind, but this is a lifelong journey, so you must continue to show up. Remember, the most important relationship you’ll ever have is with yourself.

I also want you to choose joy more. Do things that light your heart on fire. Dance every day. Lean into gardening again. It really does bring you peace and happiness. Play more. Embrace the little girl in you waiting with open arms. She needs to know that everything will be okay. Tap into her imagination and wonder. And truly let yourself play, in life and with your writing.

Christina, I am going to need you to get out of the house more too. I know you love your bubble. It’s peaceful. It’s safe. But deep down you want more adventure. Do not let your anxiety stop you from living.

And finally, I want you to be audacious. Be bold and brave. Take risks and own your story and vision. Especially with your writing goals and creativity. Create from a place of joy and play and share it audaciously.

But please do not focus on growing social media or trying to spit out weekly posts for Substack. This year is all about shaping your voice, owning your story, and just having fun with your writing.

I know you have pretty ambitious goals for your future as a writer, and you know it’s going to take some time to get there. But one thing I know is that you will not get there if you play it safe. Audacity will be your secret weapon.

You are a brave, intelligent, and strong woman, and I cannot wait to see where life takes us in five to ten years. Cheers to the last year of this decade. May it be filled with love, joy, laughter, play, and a lot of writing.

I love you Christina and I am so proud of you!

Update:

I’ve been craving a realistic rhythm that supports my writing instead of pressuring it. So early each month, I’ll share a feature piece, either a short story or a personal essay. The newsletter will come on the 13th, and during gardening season, I’ll share Notes from the Garden later in the month.

Bite Me

I didn’t know love could be so free.
I thought it was meant to be earned.
Nothing in life is free,
so you must give it perfectly
if you want to receive.
But not with you.
You give it freely,
never holding my imperfections against me.

You see me as I am
and who I want to be.
You are the mirror
that reflects belief back to me.

When darkness tries to wrap my heart,
you steal color from your own
and rip it apart.

You held the prism that is me
up to the sun,
and my quiet white light
broke into color
and burned bright.

You are one of a kind.
I’m lucky
our threads aligned.

You are my best friend,
like cheese and crackers,
better together
every time.

You stand six feet tall.
I barely reach five (ish).
When you fold me into you,
your heartbeat
steadies mine.

I didn’t know a person
could feel like a place.

Every night I dream.
If you are not there,
I run back
at full speed,
prying my eyelids open
because ordinary with you
is more than enough.

And if it turns out
you are Dracula,
fine.
Bite me.
As long as I get forever with you.

Happy Birthday Armando!

I did something huge over the past weekend, and I don’t think I’ve really taken the time to let it sink in. So after getting ready while listening to a new artist I discovered today, Queen Herby, I got the urge to do something I haven’t done in a hot minute. Record a video.

I did this for myself so I could remember this day. So I can come back to it when I’m doubting myself or feeling small. I didn’t overthink it. I just set up the camera and hit record.

This is the most natural I’ve felt on camera. It was just me. No mask. No pre-rehearsed speech. Just me… and a little bit of poodle butt. 🤪

Happy Friday the 13th! If you know me, you know my lucky number is 13 for many reasons. February is also one of my favorite months because it’s both mine and Armando’s bday month. Okay enough about us…time for the newsletter.

From the Shadows

When most people think about February, they think about love. Romantic love and friendship kind of love. The stores are filled with red and pink heart-shaped products to buy, because that’s how you show someone you love them, right? You buy something, give it to them, and say, “Hey, I love you this many dollars-worth.” I kid, I kid.

But in all seriousness, February can sometimes feel lonely for those who don’t have a partner or someone to celebrate it with. I think we’re focusing on the wrong kind of love sometimes or at least forgetting about one. We tend to be so generous with the love we pour into others but forget about the most important kind of love. Self-love.

Self-love is a lifelong journey because we’re always evolving into different versions of ourselves. To me, it looks like building a relationship with all parts of yourself, practicing radical acceptance, and prioritizing self-care. It means believing in yourself and stepping into the role of the main character in your own life. It means being the final girl in your movie and finally turning to face the monster chasing you.

Plot twist. The monster is yourself. Or what I like to call your inner gremlin. And unfortunately, they’re like Jason Voorhees. No matter how many times you kill them, they always come back to life.

A huge part of self-love for me is giving myself grace. Not being so damn hard on myself all the time and accepting the rougher, darker sides of me too. I still have flaws, and I still feel guilty when I rest instead of being productive. I still compare myself to others at times. There are days when my inner gremlin wins, grabs the mic, and she is brutal. But the next day, I take the mic back. I hype myself up, remind myself of who the hell I am and that I’m enough, and I try again.

There is no destination where we finally conquer self-love. It’s a lifelong journey, and we’re all figuring it out as we go.

The Monster Grows (Book Progress Update)

🩸 Progress so far: 68,647 words
🎃 Recent win: Finally learning that the job of a first draft is simply to exist.
🕯️ Biggest challenge: Writing action and fight scenes.

This past month was a huge win for me. I’m almost done with the first draft of my book, and I truly can’t believe I only have a couple more chapters left to write. 🤯 Don’t get me wrong, this draft is messy AF. But I’m incredibly proud of myself for sticking to my writing schedule and showing up on every planned day, even when I really didn’t want to.

I stayed off social media for the most part, and honestly… it’s been great. For my writing and mental health. A part of me doesn’t want to go back at all. Haha. I might start spending more time here on Substack instead. We shall see. More on that another time.

All that to say, I protected my creativity and my commitment to this book. Yes, I got a ton of writing done, but the biggest win is that I proved to myself that I can do this. That I can do hard things. I pushed through scenes I felt unsure about or didn’t know how to write, aka anything involving action or fighting. My google search history is questionable, so I started adding “for a horror fiction book” to the end of every search. Then I’d look at the image results, immediately gross myself out, and continue writing the gross scene anyway.

Writing Act III has been a journey. A hard one, but a fun one. I even started thinking about my protagonist’s future in a possible sequel (if I ever went that route) and made myself cry. These characters are fictional, but they already hold a special place in my heart.

I’m in love with this story, which is probably a good thing since I’ll have to read it a gazillion times. I know this book still needs a lot of work, but at least I got the bones down. It’s not quite a full skeleton yet and may be missing a bone or two, but it’s doing its job. It exists.

A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times a personal essay from my haunted garden.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

This month I’m doing things a bit differently. I’m recommending one nonfiction book and two movies. All of them explore self-love and the inner battles we go through, and each one carries a powerful message.

📚 The Book – Finding Me: A Memoir

In this memoir, Viola Davis talks about her life and the trauma she endured. She takes ownership of her story instead of letting pain and other people define her. It’s an inspiring story about healing and radical self-acceptance, something I’m trying to reach for myself.

🎬 The Movie – The Ugly Stepsister

This is a body horror movie and another take on the classic Cinderella story. It centers around the stepsister, who is not ugly but believes she is. She literally contorts herself to fit into extreme beauty standards. Although this movie takes place in the 19th century, it still feels very relevant today, as women are still held to impossible standards and pitted against each other. The film is beautiful, but parts of it are a bit disturbing and gross. I almost vomited during one scene…haha..Overall, it’s about self-betrayal and the extreme things we do just to be seen and accepted.

🎬 The Movie – The Substance

This is a psychological body horror movie about society’s obsession with youth and the unrealistic beauty standards placed on women. First, I want to give my flowers to Demi Moore because her performance in this movie was incredible. As women, we tend to look back and wish we were younger, so what would you do if you were given a drug that promised exactly that? The opportunity to be young again. Demi Moore’s character becomes addicted to it, and her sense of self slowly starts to deteriorate. I’ll admit this movie was pretty gross and I’m not sure I’ll ever watch it again, but it was a great film with a powerful message.

From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

One of my favorite ways to get out of my head and back into my body, or just boost my mood, is movement and music. It’s become one of my most powerful weapons against Greta, my inner gremlin. She hates it.

I usually have a handful of go-to songs that pump me up, and I’ve started calling it my self-love playlist. I’m sharing it with you this month. Take a listen, just know my taste in music is pretty eclectic. But this is what works for me.

I encourage you to create your own playlist and use it as a form of self-love when you need a mood boost, when you’re getting ready for the day, working out, about to do something hard, or just for the pure joy of it. Whatever you need it for, make it yours.

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

The most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. Treat yourself with the same love and kindness you pour into others. You are worth it. Do the things that bring you joy. Prioritize your mental, emotional, and physical health. Believe in yourself wholeheartedly and go after your dreams. You know, the ones in your heart that you keep telling yourself maybe one day, or when things slow down, or after this. You get the point. There will never be a perfect time, so why not start now? Why not choose yourself? Accept all the parts of who you are. Because you, my friend, are beautiful. So the next time you walk past a mirror, instead of thinking about everything that’s wrong, extend your hand, smile, and tell yourself, “damn girl, you fine.”

Until next time,

Christina

This story is about what might happen if our pent-up emotions, like rage, took on a life of their own.

Black Tears

It was a hell of a day, and all I wanted to do was shower and sleep. I walked into my apartment to find my boyfriend sitting on the couch smoking—after I’d asked him several times not to smoke inside my apartment—and laughing as he scrolled TikTok.

“Hey, Jacob,” I said, hanging up my jacket. “I tried calling you on the drive home. I’ve had a shitty day.”

No response. He didn’t even look my way.

“HELLO?” I yelled.

“Why are you screaming? I’m right here,” he said, still looking down at his phone.

“What’s up?” He took another drag.

“Nothing. Never mind. I’m going to shower.”

As I let the water heat up, I undressed and noticed the bruises on my leg from my fall this morning. After a few minutes, the steam began to curl and thicken, swirling around me like something alive.

I stepped into the shower and immediately jolted as the scalding water pounded against my arms. I quickly adjusted the temperature and sat on the built-in bench. In the cocoon of heat and steam, I finally allowed myself to cry.

My day had started with a creep coming up behind me and grabbing me, making me fall as I tried to run to my car. I called Jacob, but he didn’t care at all. Told me I was overreacting. Said I shouldn’t report it because the chances of the police caring were next to none. Then he cut the conversation short because he was tired and wanted to go back to bed.

At work it was more of the same. Every time I tried to talk about my ideas, I was cut off or dismissed by my asshole boss. My coworkers tried to mansplain why my idea wouldn’t work.

The more I thought about my day, the harder I bawled. My whole body trembled as my shoulders and chest heaved with each sob. The hiss of the water drowned out the echoes of every gasp for air. My legs went weak as my heartbeat pounded through my chest and my vision started to blur. I wiped my eyes, blinking hard to clear them. As I tried to calm down, things came into focus, and that’s when I saw it.

Black goo clung to my hands and streaked the shower walls. It slid down the tiles, pulling toward the drain, then stopped. It quivered, pulsing like it had a heartbeat. Suddenly, the sludge bubbled, hissing where it touched the floor. It surged upward in a violent motion, slapping against the wall before pulling itself together. At first it was shapeless, then limbs started to push through, and the outline of a woman appeared through the steam.

The figure kept growing until it nearly touched the ceiling. It hunched forward, its wet hair hanging like seaweed as it loomed over me. We stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, and for a moment the world simply ceased. Then a deafening, soul-shattering shriek filled the bathroom, shattering the shower glass.

She ran out of the bathroom, and without thinking, I followed her. She began hurling my ceramic dishes, one after another. Some hit the walls and shattered, shards flying across the floor. Jacob jumped up, trying to run for the door. She launched a plate at his head, and he fell to the ground.

She was on top of him in seconds, pinning him down. She grabbed the lit joint from his hand and pressed it into his cheek, then dragged it across his lips, his nose, his forehead, his eyebrows. I saw his mouth move as if to scream, but I couldn’t hear him. All I heard was a steady, high-pitched buzzing. She opened the front door and tossed him out like a rag doll.

She slammed the door shut and smiled at me as she began to fade, her edges blurring as she slowly dissolved into a black cloud.

I looked down, my hands trembling. The tips of my fingers were red and blistered.

From the Shadows

January is a month that’s usually filled with motivation. It lurks and follows us like Michael Myers hiding in the bushes. It’s everywhere. On social media, in stores, in the air we breathe. All of it packaged and marketed as something you can buy. A product designed to profit off your eagerness to become a new version of yourself.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the new year. It feels like a fresh start. A time for dreaming and planning, which is something I absolutely love. It reminds me of the beginning of a new school year. You go out and buy all the new supplies. The new water tumbler. The gym membership. The pretty planner. You write down all your New Year’s resolutions, and suddenly everyone is filled with hope.

This is the year, you tell yourself. The year you do all the things. The year you finally become a new version of you.

I hate to burst your bubble, but that motivation we’re all riding high on tends to fade, and it fades fast. A few weeks in, when the motivation is gone, we backslide right into the arms of our inner gremlin and those familiar bad habits. What I’ve learned over the years is that motivation isn’t the key to success. Focus and discipline are.

I tend to have shiny toy syndrome. I’ll work on something for a month or two, then get distracted by a new idea, leaving the last one half finished. Last year I did this a lot. Honestly, too much. While I don’t regret trying all the things, I learned that what I really lack is focus.

So I took some time to reflect on what I wanted 2026 to be about. For the first time, I stepped into the new year not wanting to be a different version of myself, but a more focused one. For me, that meant doing less and removing anything that distracted me from my main goals. I broke my year into quarters, and Q1 is all about finishing the first draft of my novel.

The Monster Grows (Book Progress Update)

🩸 Progress so far: 54,190 words
🎃 Recent win: Finally giving myself permission to write the weird stuff
🕯️ Biggest challenge: Writing a new POV

Over the past month, I didn’t do much writing. I allowed myself to take time off to enjoy baking and the holidays.

It’s only been one full week back to writing, and honestly, it was really tough to get back into it. Not only had I been away from the story for a while, but I also jumped back in having to focus on the second POV of the book. I haven’t spent a lot of time with that character, so getting into her head was difficult. She’s also a character who is the complete opposite of my own personality, so I struggled overall. But once I pushed through the first couple of days, I started to feel better. To be honest, she still feels a bit flat, but for now my job is to keep getting the story out. I can worry about that in the second draft.

A major milestone for me has been letting my freak flag fly. Aka, writing the weird shit that lives in my head. I’ll admit that when it came to writing supernatural horror, I was doing a lot of research to make sure everything followed the “rules,” but it just wasn’t working for my story. It was restricting me. After watching IT Chapter 1 and 2 for the first time over winter break, something clicked. This is FICTION. This is my story. It’s meant to break the rules. Only I can tell this story, and I get to make my own rules.

(Side note: I am completely obsessed with IT right now. I’m currently watching Welcome to Derry and listening to the audiobook, but more on that next month.😜)

A Bloom of Terror

Every month, I’ll plant a little horror here. Sometimes it will be a short fiction story, other times a personal essay from my haunted garden.

The Haunted Shelf 📚🎬📺

This is where I’ll share book, movie, and show recommendations. I’d love to know what you’re reading and watching, so feel free to reply with your own favorites.

No theme this month. Just a few things I unexpectedly fell in love with.

📚 The Book – The Belladonna Series

There are three books and one novella (Holly) in this YA series. Belladonna and Foxglove are my favorites, but honestly the entire series is great. It’s not full-on horror, more gothic fantasy. The story is very atmospheric and set in the 19th century among Victorian estates. There’s murder, mystery, ghosts, and a romantic relationship with death. If you’re into any of those things like I am, I definitely recommend checking this series out.

🎬 The Movie – Queens of the Dead

This is a horror comedy where drag queens battle brain-hungry zombies during an outbreak, and honestly it was way more fun than I expected. I’m not usually a big zombie movie person, but enjoyed this one. If you like zombie movies and need a good laugh, this one’s for you.

📺 The Show – Chucky

This series picks up after the Child’s Play films and follows a group of teenagers whose lives are thrown into chaos thanks to Chucky. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed all three seasons. The teen storylines were solid, Chucky was great, and even when things got pretty crazy in season three (I mean… Chucky in the White House 😂), I loved it.

But honestly, my favorite part of the entire Chucky franchise isn’t Chucky at all. It’s Tiffany Valentine, played by the incredible Jennifer Tilly, who shows up in the series and steals every scene she’s in. She’s beautiful, unhinged, and an absolute badass. Easily one of my favorite horror characters, period.

If you grew up watching Child’s Play or just want something fun, bloody, and chaotic to binge, this one’s worth it.

From My Creative Crypt

This is my little corner for fun extras.

This month’s extras are a few podcasts I’ve been loving lately. Personal development podcasts are my go to usually. I’ve also been listening to a ton of writing podcasts to learn more about the craft and the industry. Today I’m sharing my favorite personal development and my favorite writing podcasts.

🎧 Personal Development

• The Rachel Hollis Podcast

• The Mel Robbins Podcast

✍️ Writing

• Fiction Writing made east with Savannah Gilbo

• The Whole Writer with Nicole Meier

The Last Whisper

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of my haunted little newsletter. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you replied back, shared it with a friend, or just let me know what you’re reading and watching. Your support means the world to me as I start this author journey.

Before I go, here is your reminder:

As we all step into chapter 2026 of our lives with goals and dreams on our hearts, know that it’s okay to do less and focus on one thing at a time. I know our society glamorizes hustle culture, but trying to do it all at once usually leads to burnout, half-finished projects, and self-sabotage.

That’s why I’ll be much quieter on social media this year and focusing mainly on my writing. If I’m going to put my head down and finish the first draft of my novel, I have to protect my peace and my creativity. For me, that means sticking to a writing schedule, holding boundaries to protect it, consuming less, and minimizing distractions. This is my season to focus, and I’m trusting that doing less will help me create something meaningful.

If you’re in a season of focus too, I hope you give yourself permission to choose one thing, slow down and protect what matters most to you.

One Last Thing:

There is nothing wrong with the version of yourself you are today. Don’t let the masses make you believe you need to change. We are all on our own journeys, and we will evolve over time, and that’s okay. And if you do want to work toward new goals but aren’t in the right season to do so, then rest instead. You don’t need to wait for a new year to start again. Any day can be your day one. Every day is an opportunity to begin again.

Until next time,

Christina