**Heated Rivalry spoiler warning!! Skip to 5:46 to avoid episode 5 spoilers**

Join ashley for a catch-up-with-an-old-friend-style podcast ep where we discuss:

• the joy of Heated Rivalry & the power of seeing ourselves in others (a la Heated Rivalry)
• jealousy as creatively instructive
• the creative process of writing my first full-length, non-fiction book!
• the difference in creating from a sense of creative self-love (rather than creative self-loathing!)
• and some journal prompts for sussing out where your priorities lie in the new year!

4:53 — I wrote about a few of the artists that inspire instructive jealousy in me in this Substack post (a place where I rarely post anymore!)

5:46 —last mention of HR spoiler content

5:55 —The Jealous Curator, aka Danielle Krysa, on Instagram

6:41 — I announce my newest project - -my hardest one yet!

8:33 —what my book is about

11:14 — a specific example of creative self-loathing vs creative self-love in action

16:33 —journal prompts for you and the new year

Join us for a Fiction Book Club episode because books are more fun with friends!

In part one of this experimental-to-us episode format, I chat with my spouse, writer Trey Adams, as we chat through the first half of the book North Woods by Daniel Mason.

This episode covers everything up to "Case Notes of Robert S.," and thus does contain spoilers through that point!!

If you've already read the book, go ahead and tune in, and if not, lucky you!! Run to your local library or favorite book store, and check it out before giving this ep a listen.

North Woods wrecked me in the best of ways, and gave me lots and lots to think and feel about. Listening back to this episode, I thought of a dozen different things that I wish we had brought up or spent more time talking through.

As you listen, you'll have to comment and let us know what we left out that you loved, hated, or wondered about, and more generally I'm curious to know if you'd be interested in more episodes like this in the future.

Enjoy!

Like many folks, I learned early on in life that feeling my feelings was inconvenient for those around me, and built up a practice of denying, ignoring and actively resisting my honest emotions and experience.

In today’s first episode back after a long break, we chat about why radical self-acceptance is not only important for our mental health but also for growing in self-intimacy, love and creativity.