Junk Drawer: March

Breakthroughs, reflections and favorite things!

Mar 07, 2025

Happy March! After feeling creatively stuck and a little burnt out for months, I finally had an idea breakthrough for a new picture book project and starting putting it to paper last week. It’s felt flow-y and fun to work on which is a relief and a great distraction. A year ago I was in the middle of a mentorship program with SCBWI, where I was able to work with a seasoned editor-agent in completing my first dummy book (editing my first manuscript, creating and re-working 3 full illustrations from the story, mapping out the book and rough-sketching out the rest of the illustrations). That was capped off with the SCBWI Letters & Lines conference at the end of summer, which was like a masterclass from authors, illustrators, agents, editors and peers in the picture book world. I joined a critique group with new friends from the mentorship and conference and submitted my dummy book to a handful of agents, knowing it wasn’t my best work story-wise but I wanted to go through the motions to get the experience. Starting this process again feels much more organized and manageable this time around, having learned so much over the last year. Excited to see where it goes, but mostly just to have a specific outline of action steps over the next few months, something I really struggle with implementing in less structured, more abstract projects.

On the work front, I’ve been designing a fun branding project for a Columbus, OH based realtor, a custom illustration for a nursery featuring sentimental family heirlooms and symbols, a mountain wedding suite and a fun custom map for a bachelorette party I forgot to share from awhile ago.

Housekeeping thing:

Later this month marks one year of joining Substack and moving the monthly newsletter over here. I’ve since spent a lot less time posting on instagram and a lot of time posting on substack and I love it infinitely more. Most of you are here from my original newsletter list where I promised to only send out my monthly recap, but on substack I’ve been posting more frequently (2-3x/month), so I just wanted to remind those of you that don’t want that many emails in your inbox that you don’t have to unsubscribe altogether (please don’t!). You can choose which posts you get via email if you go to your account settings on substack, navigate to the "Subscriptions" section, select the publication you want to adjust, and then toggle the "Sections" you want to receive emails from on or off.

I’ve been keeping all of the posts free this past year but I do have a paid subscriber option I’m going to be promoting a bit more, where I’m planning on writing some picture book progress updates and other more personal life/motherhood/career stuff for paid subscribers only, so if you’re interested in that you can upgrade below. This monthly newsletter and the Clementine Book Club series will always be free though!

Favorite Things

This is How We Fall Out of Love with the World

As the title hints, this is a bit depressing but it is an incredibly important must-read about the fragile state of the human condition as a result of this administration, and there are some actionable tips at the end. As with all of Anne Helen Petersen’s work on her substack Culture Study, this is incredibly well researched, sourced and thoughtfully written.

Ballerinas

This post came up in my substack feed. The photographer “S.” wrote “This is the best photo I’ve ever taken and the client didn’t wanna use it. Pls enjoy bc otherwise it will never see the light of day”. It went viral because, wow, and since there’s very little information about the photographer on her page I had to do a deep dive in the comments to find out more. It’s not AI or even heavily edited at all, just a talented capture of a candid scene in great lighting. Responding to someone’s comment on the photo asking for the details, she wrote “Winding road led me from making movies in high school and college to social media content creation, which landed me at the plaza hotel to shoot a promo for the Guinness book of world records ‘most ballerinas on pointe at one time for a consecutive minute’”, and this was the ballerinas gathering and chatting before it started. It really does look like a Degas. In the comments of that post she also linked to a video she took of this scene which is equally beautiful.

Slow Bloomer

I saved this post by words_of_women with a quote from American sculpture artist Helen Pashigan, to refer back to when I’m feeling stuck. I’m constantly reminding myself that how I envision my career trajectory is a long game, which is hard to remember in a world of viral moments and overnight successes. I’d rather be a slow bloomer with a storied and evolving career, than peak early with less experience.