Whimsical Wednesday Prompts

…and vibrant with the excitement of ideas

I’m buzzing with this energy that is so very exciting. I know I’m supposed to write prompts today. I know it. But also, I just want to spill all my ideas on this page where I feel safe.

I’ll put the prompts at the top. Under the 📝📝📝 No need to read the sparkling excitement underneath the 💖💖💖 (it’s more so I can sort the things I want to do out loud)

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Whimsical Wednesday Prompts

1. Write the prompts (done)

2. If you had a bookstore what kind would it be, what would it look like, how would it feel inside.

3. What is one of the books that lives in your heart.

4. Which book do you look for when you pop into a used bookstore

5. Tell me about a character from fiction that you adore

6. Is there an author that speaks right to the middle of you, and that you find yourself nodding at sentences? Will you me who they are, and what about them makes it feel just right

7. Is their a non-fiction book that kept you up at night, fascinating you with facts, or a biography that stunned you?

💖💖💖

I got the doodle edit of my book back today. It was waiting in the mail and I’m so on fire with what’s inside it. I’m so happy it arrived in my life on a Wednesday. I started this whole journey on a Wednesday.

Writing All The Happy Endings began with an idea that built over a course of weeks as I walked past the funeral home at the end of my street in my heart-home. In the beginning it was called, Just Around the Corner from Death: A Love Story.

It’s evolved a lot since then. I started writing it for real in 2023. It is a love letter of a sort to my life, the people I’ve loved, and the wondrous town that made me feel HOME. It is a combination of my own ideas, and the donation of ideas for townfolk who would populate the magical community of Milltown. It is, a community effort. A book written with a skeleton of donated prompts. I didn’t use every idea I got, but I did write all the obituaries, and about 20 or so made it into the novelette. The ones that propelled my character forward, sideways and back.

I finished writing it in August of this year. The new title was inspired by

Audra Williams

and an essay she wrote about how it’s possible that whatever choice you make could lead to a happy ending. Half of it was also written on Mondays in the winter at her and Haritha’s shop in Port Medway called

Rosefinch Mercantile

where I worked Mondays so that they might get a bit of respite, and our friendship built out of a shared love of community…and they let me be *me* there. I don’t have to mask, and in the occasional moments where I have been unable to prevent a meltdown that have been nothing but kind, understanding and given me comfort. Those feelings are infused into the book.

I was also inspired by the people who used to visit Curious & Kind, in Almonte, and the community we built there.

…and working in a bookstore owned and staffed by writers, illustrators and publishers propelled me forward. It made it seem like writing a book was legitimately possible.

And it was. Because I did it. It’s a small snack of a book full of big feelings. The characters and community of Milltown and the other environs still live in my heart.

…and this doodle edit (that I requested) from

Amanda Earl

is BRILLIANT.

It allowed me to read along with her.

Now I want to print a version that has space for doodles and I want to create something called The Quiet Sparkly Book Club for people who want to share their doodles and their thoughts about the book, because I’m so fascinated by the way other people think.

If you want to be a part of it let me know. This week my best friend and I are putting together a Kickstarter so that people can help get this little novelette into the world, and/or become patrons of Curious & Kind Books a small press for neurodivergent writers, for disabled/chronically ill creatives, for queer creators…and all sorts of whimsical wunderkin, self proclaimed weirdos, or gentle co-owners of the book-shop community space I’m hoping to start really really soon. And I know I can’t do this alone. I know that this is something I’m meant to do with community.

Yesterday a group of teens came in with their friends who are interning at the shop…because they feel welcome and comfortable here. Because they love books and want to write them.

I told them about the possible future bookstore and their immediate reaction was…can we work there and will you publish our books.

YES.

Absolutely yes.

Because a love of books connects us across generations. It’s how we learn about each other. They are connecting points. One of the teens is a big Neil Gaiman fan, and we have the shared language of his writing. And they said, I’m going to be the Neil Gaiman of my generation. And I want to be a part of encouraging that big dream. Because yes.

Because books made feel feel like I belonged, even when the outside world didn’t always make me feel that way.

I want a little part of the world to help people feel like they belong. In concert with all the other wondrous places that do that for people. The more spaces the more we can feel a part of something bigger than ourselves.

I appreciate you. Yep you. You didn’t have to read this part, or any part, and your time and energy are precious, and the fact that you have spent your time here with me…I’m so…there isn’t a word that adequately expresses how I feel, because…it’s a big feeling.

Heart,

Wake

The pictures:

1. A cup with my name because my best friend went to get me my hot drink from barristas who know me and my order

2-5. Pictures of the whimsical and brilliant doodle edits that my friend, first reader, mentor and colleague did for All The Happy Endings

6. Me n my doodled on novelette in the bookstore I work in

7. Me wearing a mask with art on it by

   Audhd Painter
   a wondrous writer, and friend here on Substack. Go check out the writings that inspired me to buy the art!

8. The cover of the doodle edit that makes my heart so happy!

9. The card that leapt from the oracle deck today. I love this deck. It’s one of my absolute favourites. It’s called The Oracle of Mystical Moments, and it always gets it right for me and what I’m thinking about. Spooky but oddly comforting. (And the art is stunning and the writing magic.) by Catrin Welz-Stein