It was nearly midnight when I desperately tweeted to my 300 precious followers, “Does anyone have any sort of literary agent connection they could hook me up with?”

I had little to no idea how to go about getting the book burning inside me published. It felt impossible to get a publisher to bat an eye at little ol’ me. Because really, I had little to no platform and in order to win the lottery of a traditional publisher, I needed a platform.

None of my blog posts had gone viral.

Part of the great gift of my grief is unpacking what it means to love others better than I did yesterday.

Grief itself is sprung out of deep, tender love wishing to be found and fostered, and kept safe.

Wading through grief has taught me both how to love well and what isn’t an experience of love: how to perpetuate pain.

Grief taught me both how to respond and how not to respond to other people’s hurt. It has led me to loosen expectations of myself, as well as others, regarding where we need to be emotionally, or how we ought to act.

This situation felt unfair and I was furious. “I will never be the same again,” I thought as a burning fury formed into a profound amount of pain. I felt it searing, piercing my heart in a way that would change me forever.

"Natalie's heart for healing is revealed in this workbook's gentle, thought-provoking questions. This book provides a launching pad for those who are hurting and don't know where to begin working through their loss. Natalie uses her own experience to provide a framework for others to process their trials in a faith-filled way."
~Kayla Craig, Just Really Joseph author, Upside Down Podcast co-creator and host

BOOK UPDATE. I am a writer. I will write, even if people don't read. It is who I am and how I was made. I am committed to writing and sharing and crafting and hopefully adding value to people's lives through it all. 

So guess what? She offered to give away TWO COPIES. Two of my subscribers gets a copy of this book! I CANNOT EVEN HANDLE IT. Even if you win and already have a copy, you can gift it to someone. Enter for yourself or enter to gift it to someone else. I cannot wait to see this book in two more homes.

My earliest conceived dream that I can recall kneading itself into me was to be a writer.

When I was little and a part of a co-op school (we called it home schooling, but it was in someone else's garage with some other people so..) I would write pages and pages and pages of imagined stories. Books. I would write books, staple them together, sure someone would stumble upon it to publish it for the world to devour with their souls.

But of course, those sweet little books always ended up somewhere sad like the trash or burn pile.