Substack re-introduction

Hi gang!

Those of you who have followed “Alaina Rose” for a while know this little blog has had a couple names: Alaina’s Noshes & Nibbles and Alaina’s Rose Garden. But now there’s a third and, hopefully final, iteration: Garden-Variety Diary.

As my friend Ash so succinctly clocked it, the new name is “kind of cheeky given conversations about social media…it’s all kind of the same. And still incorporates rose a little, in a way.” Thanks Ash for always being on my wavelength!

I’m no one special or even very witty or smart but I’m here to harness my writing joy and share it with anyone who cares to listen!

Read on for more…

Welcome to Garden-Variety Diary with Alaina Rose, my online composition notebook. Daydreams & nonsense of a childless thirty-something writing romance & fantasy.

Do you miss the golden days of scribbling big feelings in a worn-out journal?

Remember Xanga, MySpace, and LiveJournal when the internet wasn’t so curated and we just word vomited our thoughts?

That’s about what you can expect here. Me, a childless thirty-something writer, sharing my nonsense & daydreams. Think clicky pens, stickers, friendship bracelets, and Funkos from my burnt-out millennial heart to yours.

I’m a girl who self-published a handful of romance novels, did very badly, got very sad, and forgot about my love of writing.

I don’t want to lose that spark. I want to live in the joy. I want to talk about what I’m up to, the things I love, why I love them, and work on my own little worlds. I want to write fantasy again. Explore messy romance pairings. I want to daydream at my desk for hours.

My Substack doesn’t have an angle or a thesis statement or a brand. Just vibes, whimsy, a deep desire for good art and pop culture, and one day (hopefully) sharing serialized romance & fantasy stories.

Fantasy was my first love and I’m still deeply connected to the book I wrote back in 2020, Single Thread of Silver. I have some lofty goals of re-writing it as an adult multi-POV fantasy.

I don’t know if I’ll ever publish officially again, but I want a space to be excited about writing and have a little corner of the world to share it. It won’t be perfect or polished, but it’ll be mine.

I’ll have some new sections of my newsletter that’ll go out to every follower, unless you opt out. The starting two are “Afterthoughts” (where I compost my feelings about stuff I read, watched, played, or listened to) and “Writer’s Rest Point” (where I share my musings and insecurities on ~the craft~). Keep an eye on the “sections” space, because it’ll be evolving.

I hope this sounds fun and that you’ll stay tuned. Thank you, as always, for being here.

Cheers,

Alaina Rose xx

ps, yes, I know that’s two posts from me in one week. I can’t promise the consistency (or inconsistency) of updates from me. Whenever the fancy strikes!