A Ghoulish October Hello

Hey y’all! How’s October treating you?

I hope it’s appropriately spooky and full of candy corn, pumpkin spice, oversized sweatshirts, and a lot of Hocus Pocus! Ya know, just a few of my favorite things.

It’s been good one around our household, full of lots of comfort foods and films, family couch bed snuggle time, Agatha All Along, and bathroom renovations(!?). It sounds relaxing (minus that last one), but there have been a lot of shifts. I’m not completely ready to write about some of the personal changes my partner and I have weathered over these last couple years, and particularly this last month, but one day I will.

Have you ever tried romanticizing your life? I’ve been trying to these last couple of weeks. Taking a moment to breathe. Watching my cat lounge in the sunshine. Spinning the vinyl instead of streaming the album. Savoring friend dates, the sound of the wind, the transition of leaves, crafting for the sake of creating (aka making friendship bracelets for The Eras Tour)...

To me, romanticizing my life is about looking for the beauty in the simple things. Acknowledging the peaceful in between moments. Recognizing the holiness of the mundane. And honoring it. Those blanks spaces are waiting for you to acknowledge them. The moment is waiting for you to appreciate it.

As I write this, I’m reminded of a poem I came across years ago.

Everything is Waiting for You

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

—David Whyte

That feels very appropriate for October, doesn’t it? A portal month of it’s own kind, as we transition in the darker, quieter parts of the year. The best parts of the year, in my opinion.

In summary: let’s just say I’m listening to a lot of Taylor Swift’s evermore lately. And, like, “happiness,” amiright?

I mean, come on. That song is a freaking depressing banger and I will stan it forever.

In book-related news,

Have you downloaded All’s Fair of Love and Coffee: A Relative Fiction Bonus Scene? If not, you can do so here.

Are you in your rockstar romance era? And like, when are we not ya know? Click here for a collection of rockstar, billionaire, bad boy daddies including my very own Brett Blue from Next Chapter of Us.

Yes, it’s spooky October, but what comes next? That’s right, Steamy Christmas. Click here for a collection of seriously hot holiday romances, including Wildest Winter.

I’m furiously typing away on a fun, super spicy, holiday novelette that I’ll be offering for free to all readers! Let’s see… do you like, sapphic, boss’s daughter (lightly forbidden), age gap, Christmas party, pseudo-mistaken/hidden identity, and one night stands??? I’m hoping to get it finished and in your hands by mid-November! More details to come!

Cheers, and stay hydrated out there, bestie!

Alaina

ps, I’ve been on a serious Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream Zero Sugar kick lately. If you can find it, I highly recommend. It’s kinda like cotton candy in a can, if that kind of thing appeals to you :-D