The Art of the Pivot

• A Short Note from Shelley

• April Art

• Interview with Kay Brote of Jealous Bestie

• Your Beautiful Life Journal Prompt

• April Fiction: Deadline Migraine (The Peony Hotel)

Hello Dear Reader!

Welcome to the April edition of Pink Dandelions. As I write this letter, spring is bursting out in little pockets in Maine where I’ve flown to escape Super Typhoon Sinlaku. Though I’d prepared myself in spirit to weather the storm with Hubby, he suprised me a couple of days before the typhoon hit. “I’m flying you out of here,” he said. He knew I was already feeling pretty homesick. The idea of being stuck in a humid, torrential-downpouring, screaming-windstorming, air-conditionerless, power-outed, no internet, no phones situation with a totally miserable Shelley probably scared him more than Sinlaku itself.

(Note: Be careful about your manifestation meditations. You don’t know how the universe will respond. Let’s just say, I didn’t expect a typhoon to get me home.)

Anyway, onto a plane I hopped. Then onto another. Then another. Then a bus. Then a car. Finally arriving in Maine, I fell gratefully to the soggy spring ground and lifted my face to the heavens. . . well, not quite. I DID walk around the yard and raked out the garden beds so the daffodils could glow a little brighter.

Found a tick in my bed the next day. The universe laughs.

The sun came out. Temps hit the 70s for a day or two before dropping back into the 40s and 30s. We had a thunder and hail storm one evening. I went to Marden’s with my friend, Wendy. I had lunch on my friend Donna’s porch. Another friend, Debbie, came over for a glass of wine and a chat.

I went to the town swap shop and found some books. I visited my parents for a week and poked around The Briar Patch, an indie bookstore in downtown Bangor, and bought my first Wizard of Oz edition (more on that in upcoming letters). We drove to Ellsworth for a black raspberry soft-serve at the Blueberry Hill Dairy Bar and talked to the nicest lady. She wore soft, loose, embroidered patchwork pants so cute I’m now thinking I might want to sew some for myself. Anyway, we had fun chatting while enjoying the sunshine, relatively warm weather, and the ice cream.

Nothing beats talking to people in real life these days, I swear. Try it if you haven’t in awhile, even if it feels awkward. We need to remember what it means to be HUMAN.

Speaking of which, I left my laptop closed for the week, determined to have as close to a digital detox as possible. I’m not missing social media at all. My accounts are still there, just sitting, but I feel very little urge to open them. As I said previously, socials were an outlet and a marketing tool, a place I created content but really didn’t ingest content. A few people have reached out to say they “miss me” on Facebook, but just a few. I realize just how much of an illusion “relevancy” is on the socials, how out of “site” out of mind a space it really is.

Guam survived the typhoon with some damage, but power is back on, everyone I know is okay, and we didn’t lose anything in the ‘fridge. It could have been worse.

In this issue, I’m really psyched to share with you an interview with my friend Kay Brote—artist and writer and personal trainer and now vintage (and handmade bead & vintage) jewelry shop proprietor on Etsy. She is the mistress of the pivot, and I think we can all learn a lot from her. (We can also get some extremely cool pieces of jewelry. I’ll share my new bracelet along with a few thoughts on the art of the “creative pivot.”

I’ll also share another segment of The Peony Hotel. Did you notice the drawing at the beginning of the letter? This is how I see my protagonist, Stephanie Hardy-Swett. She’s in her fifties, recently divorced, a literary novelist whose career has dwindled, a new resident of Guam, and an embarker onto a new career as a ghostwriter for a famous personality. (Did you catch the “pivot” theme running through this story?)

If you’ve ever had a dream go bust or fade, if you’ve ever had to start over in a new career, new creative medium, new relationship, or if you’ve ever wondered if you’re brave enough to get out of a rut and try something new, this April Pink Dandy is for you. I hope you love it.

Cheers!

Shelley

This month’s featured art (at the top of the letter) is a quick drawing I did to represent my main character in The Peony Hotel. I looked at a magazine photo for the pose but drew the facial characteristics out of my imagination. She’s a fading red-head, as you can see, partial to wearing black clothes and chunky jewelry in the winter and coastal grandma navy and white and beige in the summer.

I did this little piece, too. Pretty happy with how it came out. Do you think it would make a nice note card design?

Kay Brote is a multi-dimensional creative, as you’ll read in this interview, and she’s recently found a passion for selling vintage jewelry via her fabulous new online Etsy shop called JEALOUS BESTIE JEWELRY. Kay and I met a long time ago in Maine, before she moved and I moved and she moved again and so did I. We both ended up out west for several years, me in California, she in Nevada. Along the way we’ve maintained an online texting pen-palship plus IRL visits to her home near Las Vegas.

We published our first books around the same time, and it was fun to share the ups and downs of that adventure. I’ve rarely met someone so multi-talented. She’s a fitness trainer, a gifted artist, a jewelry designer, a writer, and an online retailer where an eye for design, both in the jewelry pieces she finds and resells and the best ways to display them. And then there’s the marketing, specifically Instagram reels, one of which just went viral with nearly 300,000 views. Hint: It was about an 1980s Avon bracelet.

Though we did not meet in person for this interview, picture us sitting in her studio surrounded by glittery and glamorous vintage necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Her paintings hang on the walls. A serene Buddha draped in necklaces meditates on the bookshelves where you can catch a glimpse of her domestic thriller novel, Love Lost on Cloud 9. Kay’s probably wearing her red glasses with the flower and gold-leaf appliques and a pink Mork & Mindy tee. (I “borrowed” that image from one of her Instagram posts. You can find her there under the handle jealousbestie).

Did I mention she’s wicked stylish, too? I’d be jealous, but with her in my friendship corner, there’s no need for that. Plus, I just snagged the most gorgeous bracelet from the shop, a one-of-a-kind piece that Kay designed from an old Chanel button and some pink baubles.

Shelley: What is Jealous Bestie and how did you come up with that name?

Kay: Jealous Bestie is all about the drama. I wanted a name that captured the moment someone stops you in the ladies’ room of a trendy Vegas restaurant just to demand where you got your necklace (yes, that has happened!). It’s a playful, ‘I love you, but I also kind of want to steal your jewelry’ vibe. It’s for the person who doesn’t want to blend in, they want to be the reason someone else is lovingly jealous.

Shelley: Why vintage jewelry?

Kay: Because modern, fast-fashion jewelry often feels like it’s missing a soul. I’ve been collecting since the 80s, after falling in love with Andie in Pretty in Pink and her vintage, thrift-store style. But even before that, I could regularly be found going through my mother’s costume jewelry to play dress up (and I still have her Kramer of NY rhinestone necklace that I will never, ever sell!). There’s a craftsmanship and a ‘presence’ to pieces from the 1950s through the 1980s that you just can’t replicate. That said, Jealous Bestie is more about the ‘Statement’ than a strict timeline. Whether it’s a mid-century rhinestone set or a bold Coach or Geiger piece from the 2010s, if it has a point of view, it’s in the shop. In a world currently obsessed with being ‘minimalist’ and beige, these pieces are how you reclaim your personality.

Shelley: How does starting and running Jealous Bestie feed your creativity?

Kay: Oh gosh, it feeds my creativity in a few different ways. First, the thrill of the hunt. There’s nothing like slinging my purse over my shoulder and heading into a thrift store or an estate sale. You just don’t know what you might find. Sometimes it’s a total bust, and I leave empty handed. Sometimes I find a designer signed piece in a pile of Claire’s and Target jewelry cast-offs and I nearly jump out of my skin. The visual storytelling is also fun for me. Finding a piece that’s been tucked away for decades and figuring out how to style and photograph it for a modern eye is like solving a puzzle. From the curation to the photography, it keeps my eyes sharp and ensures my world stays maximalist and colorful. What girl wouldn’t want to play with sparkly things all day?

Shelley: What are some other creative interests in your life, currently and in the past?

Kay: My creativity is a bit of a moving target. I used to think this was a lack of direction, or laziness, but surprise! It turned out to be ADHD. So now, I treat it like a superpower, and try to give my brain a few different release valves so I don’t burn out on any one thing. Currently, in addition to launching Jealous Bestie, I’ve been leaning heavily into digital design, creating fitness and wellness journals and products (Trainer Kay Studio) that help people navigate the noise of modern life, since I have been a personal trainer for about 15 years. I’m a big believer in finding balance in creative, intellectual, and physical pursuits, and lately, they’ve all been merging for me into one big creative playground.

Shelley: How has your creativity evolved over the years and where do you see your interests leading you in the future?

Kay: My creativity isn’t tied to one medium, it’s about curation and storytelling. During the pandemic, I retreated into myself and wrote and published a historical thriller novel, Love Lost on Cloud 9. It was an incredible lesson in ‘stick-to-itiveness’, proving I could finish a massive project even when it got hard. But once the world opened back up, I realized sitting at a desk all day no longer filled my creative well. I’ve learned that my brain is happiest when I have several ‘little’ projects moving at once. Now, I take that same discipline I used to write a book and apply it to the task of running a jewelry shop or the precision of digital design. The future for me isn’t about picking one lane. It’s about embracing a maximalist life where I can pivot from vintage rhinestones to wellness journals without losing my mojo.

Shelley: What is the question you wish I’d asked and what would your answer have been?

Kay: The Question. If you could take a time machine back to any decade for a one-hour shopping spree, where would we find you? I’d be at the high-end jewelry counter of a 1950s department store, but I wouldn't be looking for the big-name French designers. I’d be buying up every single Kramer of New York piece in the case. I’d be laughing to myself because I’d know that Christian Dior had Kramer making his jewelry at the time, and I was getting that same incredible quality and high-fashion look for a fraction of the price. Then in the last 10 minutes of that hour, I’d get a safety deposit box at a nearby bank and let the pieces age untouched. LOL. That’s the heart of what I do—finding the absolute best 'statement' without needing the permission of a massive price tag.

I hope you’ve felt inspired by Kay’s creative journey and her openess to trying new ways of expressing her ideas, her point of view, her Maximalist style, and her entrepreneurial spirit. Perhaps, like me, you’ve always focused on one kind of art, and the thought of embarking on something new from a beginner place scares or intimidates you. Or maybe you think it’s too late to start over.

I get it. We’ve heard from writers like Malcolm Gladwell that it takes something like 10,000 hours to master a craft, a subject, an art, a skill. How, you wonder, could I possibly master something new in time to make something meaningful? To even begin to succeed?

Let me just point out one salient, but rarely mentioned point here. Who says you have to be a master at something in order to succeed? To be the BEST at something or working at the highest level in your field, yes. But success? That’s for each individual to decide. Success can be attained in stages, right? When you are starting out as a writer, finishing a short story, play, poem, or novel is one kind of success. Your next marker of success might be publishing in a small literary magazine, online publication, or your local newspaper. Next you might strive to gain an agent, get a contract offer from a publisher, or indie-pub and market your book or collection. You might be happy with a few hundred sales. Is this success? That’s for you to decide.

If your only marker of success is a mountain of money and/or winning top literary prizes, you might be out of luck. Even out of the tens of thousands of people who, in fact, complete those 10,000 hours, only a few of them will reach the pinnacle of their chosen field. I’m not saying you should give up. On the contrary, I encourage you to keep going if you still love the process and feel it’s the very best way for you to share your ideas and creativity with others. However, let’s say you get an inkling to try something else, say, pottery. Should you deny yourself the chance to experiment, to grow just because you don’t think you can become good enough to show your work in galleries and museums? Maybe you could be good enough to make some pieces for your friends and family. Maybe you could be good enough to open an online retail shop. Maybe practicing a different art opens you up to more possibilities in your writing or painting or dance or cooking.

My point is, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t deny yourself new pleasures just because you might not make money or otherwise “succeed” at it. Also, you might decide that your original medium might not fulfill you, no matter how much time you invest, and pivoting to something new might give your the jolt your need to become your most abundant, healthy, happy self.

Journal Prompt: Write down three creative skills you might be interested in pursuing. What draws you to each idea? How could you explore each skill further before making a committment to learning it? How do you feel when you imagine yourself growing in that direction? What emotions come up for you? What would happen if you picked one and took an introductory class or went to a performance or started an idea journal on the topic? Bonus: What does “success” mean to you? Do you have gradations of success in your mind or is it the whole enchilada or nada?

Here is a snippet from my slow work in progress, The Peony Hotel, set in Guam. Stephanie has left Maine to live in a residential resort hotel on the island. As a literary author, recently divorced, whose career has slipped, she’s agreed to work as a ghostwriter for an Evangelical vocal artist who wants to “write” a series of young adult historical mysteries. This job will give Stephanie a way to make a living, continue to write, but in a new direction and out of the public eye. She decided to move to Guam on a whim. Now she’s beginning to settle in . . .

Stephanie’s agent called her at 5:15 PM Guam/Chamorro Time. This meant that Dana, in her tiny 450 square foot Brooklyn apartment was awake and working at the ungodly hour of 3:13 AM. Dread settled into Stephanie’s solar plexus. Her head started to ache. “You’re up early,” she said. “How’s the weather in New York today?”

“Snowing. Frigid. The usual January horror show.” Dana slurped something, probably her favorite, English Breakfast tea, plenty of milk and sugar, tag dangling by its thready string over the rim of the Hello Kitty mug her agent preferred. Dana asked, “So, have you started the O’Halloran book yet?”

Stephanie winced. A yellow aura swirled in the far right corner of her vision that had nothing to do with the strong afternoon sunlight coming in through the patio doors. She’d forgotten to pull the slatted shades.

She’d been sitting at the dining room table and scrolling posts on the Guam Boonie Foodies group she’d joined last week, “boonie” being the local word for wild, as in “boonie dog” or “boonie chickens.” Dogs and cats and chickens lived wild on the island, the roosters crowing every morning from the overgrown lots and neighborhood lawns, dogs trotting together or separately down the rutted paved streets, the females’ teats swollen from their latest litters of pups. She rather liked the idea of a wild food gang, the delicious biker-vibe of it all.

The seventy or so members shared photos of their home-cooked meals, restaurant dishes they’d enjoyed or critiqued, fast-food purchases, and their opinions on local delicacies like empanadas, chicken kelaguen, lumpia, and pickled mangos sold at convenience stores with names like Dove’s Market, Mim’s Place, and Z Mart. The other day, inspired by these photos, Stephanie’d driven down to Don Don Donki Village, a Japanese-style supermarket so vast it had its own food court, and bought sushi grade tuna with the idea of making her own rolls for dinner. She’s spent a few hours perusing the aisles of Japanese, Vietnamese, and Filipino goods. Crunchy chili oil. Curry ramen noodles. Hojicha tea. Doenjang. Kimchi. Pickled tamarind. Crackers dusted with fish powder.

She’d come home without nori, so she’d eaten the tuna in a bowl with some leftover rice and a glug of soy sauce and some spicy kimchi on the side. Enough sake to make it seem fancy.

“Stephanie? You still there?”

“Yeah, sorry.” She had to focus on this call and get Dana off her back. “Yes, I’ve played around with the outline. It’s almost done,” she lied.

“Give me some details.”

“Okay. Well, as you know it’s a mystery series. Young adult. Historical.” She began to babble about whatever popped into her mind. “So, I thought in this story, Kate and her sister investigate a devastating barn fire. The local constable declares the fire an accident. Probably caused by a lantern left burning overnight. Anyway, Kate saw, or thinks she saw, someone sneaking around the barn that night and believes the fire was deliberately set.”

“Her family’s barn?”

“Um, no. A neighbor’s. He’s not the most reliable character in town, so people believe the worst. I’m working on several possible motives and red herrings and the key to solving the crime. Maybe the neighbor has a secret, something to hide from the close-knit community. Maybe he set the fire himself. Or maybe someone he’s wronged has taken revenge. I’m still figuring out the exact details.”

Most of the details. Pretty much all of them, in fact.

Dana didn’t need to know Stephanie’d just made all that up on the fly, though she had to admit, some of the ideas that had flown out her mouth weren’t half bad. She might actually use them now. She picked up a pen and looked around for paper to jot some notes. Maybe it was a good thing Dana’d called after all, because so far she’d made next to zero progress on the project, and since she’d already cashed the first advance check and it was paying for this overseas adventure, she really did need to produce something. Soon.

It wasn’t her fault, really, she comforted herself. She’d been through a lot the last couple of years between the scandal and her divorce, her empty nest, and the implosion of her writing career. She’d been in Guam for three weeks and had never felt less inspired to write in her entire life. She’d only wanted to breakfast on crispy chicken kelaguen empanadas washed down with ice-cold Mr. Brown’s canned coffee bought at Mim’s, lounge by the pool every afternoon while listening to soothing podcasts about impending global collapse, and scroll the Guam Boonie Foodies group photos for dinner inspiration.

She wound a strand of her greying auburn hair around an index finger and waited for Dana’s response.

That’s it for this month. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, send me a note and let me know.

And don’t forget to order your copy of Strawberry Moon Mystery: An Olivia Lively Novella if you haven’t already. If you have read it, please leave a few words about it in a review. And tell your friends. You can find it on Amazon, and there’s a direct link on ShelleyBurbank.com.