It’s spring. I don’t know about you, but I want to shout that from the rooftops. It’s spring! I have tulips poking up in my garden, and daffodils that are blooming. I feel like Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove. “I’m so happy!” as I hug the tiny little plants that I love so much. However, it’s spring in Utah, and this year we had an astronomical amount of snow. We broke the all-time record, getting more than 800 inches of snowfall. Flooding is inevitable this year. I invite you to get on TikTok or Instagram and do some searches for Utah flooding. It’s barely started, and it’s already washing out paved roads. I think the next couple of months are going to be interesting. Isn’t that the way of life, though? So often the bitter and the sweet are bedfellows.

I invite you today to find something you can celebrate, even if it’s as simple as ‘I am still breathing’, or ‘I got out of bed.’ Maybe you have an animal you just adore that has made you giggle, or a child/grandchild that lights up your life? Celebrate them. Celebrate you. And feel free to share your stories with me! I’d love to hear what you’re celebrating. Last week I was in Vegas, and I found a small group of ladies to dance up the escalator with me in celebration of the fact that we’re all alive (one gentleman joined us halfway through)! It was a surprising twist to my day, but we had fun. Yes, there is video evidence. Watch at your leisure.

Over the past few years, I have had this burning desire to make a difference in the world, particularly for women, but I’ve really struggled to nail it down. Do I want to support mothers going through postpartum depression? Maybe I want to be there for women drowning in grief? Maybe it’s not just women, maybe it’s men, too. We need both parties for this world to work, and I love men. I’ve gone back and forth, back and forth, never able to really nail down what it is I’m trying to do here, but I finally figured it out. My vision is a world where women live fully empowered, where they are joyful, where they are celebrated for all the unique beauty that they bring. There is so much that is wonderful about the feminine, and in the same breath, there is so much that has been used against the feminine, including femininity itself.

But I’m an author. How do I do this?

I started to look at the themes of my novels. In Where Shadows Dwell, my romantic thriller, Lily is in an abusive relationship; she leaves throughout the novel, but he’s not willing to let her go. The novel deals quite heavily with the occurrence of domestic violence, but thematically, it’s actually about a woman learning to love herself, learning to recognize her worth and value, and ultimately stepping past her fears to save her own life; the theme is a woman stepping into her power. 

Then we have The Countess of Lumen Trilogy. This one was intentionally written for women who’ve struggled through or are struggling with depression. The trilogy is dark fantasy because thematically, it’s dark. To me, depression felt like a very dark place in my mind. In The Dark of Letum, Kyra is taken captive by the Malic’Uiel, who are villains I created in response to my own postpartum depression; they helped me understand my experience, and even find my way through that hell. The novels themselves are all about finding your way through the darkness, about reconnecting with your light and learning how to embrace everything about yourself, even those things that might scare you. We follow Kyra’s journey throughout the trilogy as she finds her way through Letum (death), stands for herself and humanity in Spero (hope), and embraces her light and power even in the midst of hell in Lumen (light). She is a woman that steps fully into her power, and embraces every piece of who she is by the end of the trilogy.

These themes mean a lot to me. They’re powerful for not just myself but potentially others who may find themselves struggling down a path similar to mine.

So that is my vision, my hope, my dream. I’d love to see the world heal (isn’t that what everybody wants?), and to help it heal in my own way. What would you consider your vision for your life or the world? I’d love to hear it. I’d love to discover what you dream about.

If you’d like to read my work, my books are available on Amazon, with the exception of The Power of Lumen, which will be released this Summer (June is my goal). Side note: The Dark of Letum is 75% off right now. You can get the paperback for $4.30! 

I’m also always on the lookout for readers who are interested in dark fantasy novels, and are willing to review The Dark of Letum and The Rise of Spero in exchange for digital copies of the novels. Be part of my review team! For those who want to review, if we’re a good fit, I have the third being released soon as well. I’ll need reviewers for that one, too. If you’re interested in joining my dream team, fill out this form here!

And with that, go forth and shine! Be bold, be bright, be outrageous.

Much love to you,

Julie

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