January 16, 2022

I’m a hiker (casual) and while sometimes it’s challenging to muster motivation for hiking during the (long) cold Minnesota winters, I enjoy it as much as (maybe even more?) than summer hiking. In either case, I love seeing the trail before me and following it to find out where it will lead me.

Last week, I hiked a path that I hadn’t been on since earlier in the fall. At one point, I captured a photo of what looked like two identical paths and put on Instagram, “When two roads diverge and look exactly the same, which one do you take?”

But when I came upon this same location last week, the difference intrigued me because suddenly, the two different paths didn’t look the same. And obviously, my writer side grabbed onto the metaphor. A different season, and the choices change. A different perspective, and the journey shifts.

January is one of those months that can really shift perspectives. We feel a freshness to a new calendar year, a hope for a new start. What I like about this visual from my hike is the reminder of perspective because in a couple of weeks, we’ll be into February, a month common for feeling the absence of the New Year. It will be easy to forget the fresh hope and optimism under the weight of a month that may or may not have met up to our expectations. I’m going to remind myself to look at this photo and choose a new perspective.

Y’all, we are two months from launch day for All I’m Asking! Books have been going out Bookstagrammers and reviews are starting to come in from others who have early copies, and I’m getting both excited and nervous for this book to be fully out in the world. Excited, because obviously, I hope people will love it. And nervous because it will no longer just be my story, but everyone else’s, too.

I don’t know where this little meme came from, but I have it posted on my door at work because it sure feels true:

I’m going to tell you a secret: pre-order links are LIVE right now! I’m not doing a big push for pre-orders quite yet, but for those of you who ask, or if anyone else happens to ask you, feel free to visit my website for links, or simply go to wherever you like to order books and order it that way. :)

May the coming weeks be full of hope and shifting perspectives to grow from.