Reviewed proofs for some pieces from There Is News Along the Ohio River coming out in a few days & got invited to apply to a book festival. It’s nice to feel like a writer. It’s strange…I’ve written more this year than in ages but bc it’s copywriting & a novel no one’s seen, it doesn’t feel real.

Takes off writer hat, puts on baker hat. Takes off baker hat, puts on writer hat. Wears both simultaneously. I’m tired, my brain’s fried, and I’m either ink or butter-stained or both most of the time now.

PSA to anyone baking for the holidays who isn’t a big baker the rest of the year: yes, if your recipe calls for room temp eggs & butter, it makes a difference. And if it calls for cold butter, water, cream, etc., for the love of the gods of flaky pastry, please listen

I should be getting a first look at potential covers for There Is News Along the Ohio River soon. In the meantime, here’s my favorite selfie from January, 2021, taken on the Jeffersonville, Indiana side of The Big Four Bridge.

One of my favorite things to do when revising & editing my work is to reduce the wordiness in & tighten up dialogue. I think I’ve gotten pretty dang good at writing dialogue that actually sounds like how people talk.

Dear Universe, I’ve been writing a lot about travel & road trips out west for work and welp, I’d really like to go on one of these itineraries I’ve made in 2026.

The novel I’m revising is a long, slow burn but I’m pretty proud of the fact that each chapter has its own kind of heat and to me at least, it never drags. Just the kind of novel I love to read tbh.

Tonight might be the first time I watch Muppet Christmas Carol this holiday season.

That’s a wrap on my second quarter of pastry school. I laughed a lot. I cried some. I felt foolish. I felt like an imposter. I burned myself a lot. I worked through a lot of pain, physical and emotional. I wondered why I was putting myself through this.

In addition to revising my novel over break, I’m going to try to write an essay on being a failed academic/going to culinary school in my 40s. As usual, I’m probably overestimating my energy and underestimating my depression. That’s definitely part of the fucking essay.

The face of NO REGRETS. My son housed an entire blueberry cream cheese turnover in .5 seconds. Jerk.

Y’all the youths have informed me that they all truly care about people having a low “body count” if they’re dating. Like it’s a big deal. I. Just.

I reached for the thermometer in my chef’s jacket (which of course I’m not wearing) at home for the first time.

I received a voicemail that translated my last name to Ghostrap, so I’ll be going by that now from here on out, please and thank you.

Seeing that The Last Crusade has been on TV a lot the past few days, I’d really like to see DJT & the whole regime choose the wrong cup.

The novel I’m about to start revising once break starts is about a cult, yes, but the cult is about the overlap of the wellness community with *gestures at the U.S. rn.

Me trying to access math skills I never really had while costing out key lime pie.

Charlotte is my hometown. From what I’m hearing from all my friends & family still there is that ICE is set up big time on South Blvd., beating on ppl and taking them regardless of citizenship. If you’re there and can, film everything you can.

I enjoy spending my days w other food nerds. The way most of us are constantly helping each other is heartening. It’s strange switching b/t writer me & culinary me. I look forward to merging the two soon. Not that they weren’t always interconnected. Anyhow, I learned a 9-plait challah today.

Y’all here’s what I made in two days in pastry class. Not pictured: 20 ponds of pie dough & 4 lbs of glaze.

There’s a freeze warning tonight. Here’s the last of my garden. Yes, I cried.

Introducing, my child

And now’s about the time every evening when I start noticing how many times I’ve burned myself today.

The other day in baking class an Eagles song came on and I stupidly blurted out, “I wrote an essay about that song once.” Lady I was halfway speaking to responds, “why?” And if that isn’t the way most of the non-writer world views writers idk what is. bendinggenres.com/dont-let-the...

There is someone with my same name in the Pacific Northwest who has made a significant and expensive order at a fancy pie shop. Am I also living there? Are the timelines crossed? Is it the name that makes us this way?

I wrote over 10,000 words for work this month and baked my arse off at school. Going to rest and try to get caught up on zine orders this weekend.

I haven’t shared a ton about pastry school here. It feels a little like speaking into the void tbh but I learned how to make bagels today. It was the best bagel I’ve ever had tbh.

I just saw Batman and The Lorax drive by in a Chrysler convertible. I hope they’re bout to get in some good trouble together.

Sometimes I get to write about fine art for my day job. It’s my fave.

I wish I knew the combined total # of cookies we’ve baked in my pastry class the past two weeks. Holy shirtballs!

Going to school FT (2 classes = 20 hours/week) & copywriting my ass off might burn me out completely but I got enough fuel from the shock on my mostly Gen Z classmates’ faces after I told them I’m 48 will keep me going for at least a little while.

Road buddies waiting on a piece of my 🥐

In better news, the blurbs coming in for There Is News Along the Ohio River, (forthcoming from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social February ‘26) are making me cry in a good way. Unlike sobbing in my car after pastry school yesterday when a teenager corrected how I was holding my knife to cut brownies FFS.

Stone Circle Replay Wednesday poem: "That Christmas I Ate Moonshine Cherries and Became a Fortune Teller" by Beth Gilstrap (@bettysueblue.bsky.social) stonecirclereview.com/that-christm...

I’m having a hard time dealing with the grief over never being good enough for academia & letting go of that dream. I’ve worked so hard for so long and it’s just…hard not to see all of it as pointless.

Want more poetry? Contributor @bettysueblue.bsky.social published a prose poem from her new book THERE IS NEWS ALONG THE OHIO RIVER (launching Feb 2026 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social) in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social: buff.ly/DbCZShE

I’m looking to collaborate on some in-person and virtual events to promote my new book, a hybrid flash CNF coll. about my time in Louisville 2020-2022, “There Is News Along the Ohio River” coming Feb ‘26 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social. If you or your bookshop are near the river, let’s talk.

Check it out…we should be ready to print starting this weekend.

Quarter 2, Week 1, Baking 101. Pastry class starts Monday. Always silly. Love baking w my friend from culinary 105, Mailani. Exhausted & overwhelmed but still having fun. We made: blueberry muffins, sweet corn muffins, & zucchini nut bread. Next week it’s biscuits & scones.

Check it out…we should be ready to print starting this weekend.

I’m looking to collaborate on some in-person and virtual events to promote my new book, a hybrid flash CNF coll. about my time in Louisville 2020-2022, “There Is News Along the Ohio River” coming Feb ‘26 from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social. If you or your bookshop are near the river, let’s talk.

Y'all I'm in this and so excited to read it! Find info here for ordering. There's a feminist ekphrastic poem from me ✨ can you guess about which artist???

If you can support and buy a copy of this zine, please do. Thankful to have a photo appearing in this issue. (And what a stunning cover image!)

Me & most women I know around my age (in the U.S.) are wondering right now: is it perimenopause/is it an autoimmune disease/have I finally lost the last of my marbles/is it late stage capitalism under a fascist regime/does it matter bc doctors will tell me bloodwork is normal/or all of the above?!

Y’all, I think the frog is now the symbol of the resistance and I know folx who grew up (*coughs genxers & millennials) w Jim Henson’s work are fucking ready. My 1st tattoo quotes The Rainbow Connection ffs.

Prepping cherry tomatoes for slow roasting & a very important novel epiphany & a few lines of dialogue arrived. Love it when that happens. Can’t wait til I have time to work on it again.

John Waters is going to be the keynote speaker at AWP?! Yasss! Might actually go to that if I’m not reading at an offsite.

It’s been a minute since I’ve published anything so I’m super honored & grateful to have one piece from my forthcoming hybrid/flash CNF collection, There Is News Along the Ohio River (@riverriverbooks Feb’26) out today @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/volume-14-is...

And check out this beautiful & beautifully disturbing prose poem by @bettysueblue.bsky.social in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social : pitheadchapel.com/xi/