Hello, Protagonists!
Welcome to this month’s edition of Happiness Sprinkles—a soft, joyful roundup of small things worth smiling about and a few wonderful things you in this community have been reading and writing.
In this post, you’ll find:
🌸 Happiness Sprinkles
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight - You’re the Hero of the Story
📖 Book Club Details + Zoom Link
Reminder! Our “Read Like a Writer” Book Club meeting is this Sunday, September 21st at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Zoom Link at the bottom of this post
xo,
Joanna & Evelyn
Who is Joanna? - In case you missed it:
🌸 Happiness Sprinkles
A few quiet delights we’ve loved this month—and hope you will, too.
Origami Workshop Recording - The party’s over but you’re still invited! The recording of Evelyn’s paper rose origami workshop and book club-style talk about The Incredible Kindness of Paper is available now. It’s free to watch here.
Origami Might Help Future Spaceship Design - Speaking of origami, a student at Brigham Young University discovered new “bloom” patterns of origami that may help engineers with future space exploration!
Frosting bouquets - Professional baker Macey Nemer takes frosting flowers to a whole other level — look at these massive, stunning cupcake bouquets she makes for parties and weddings!
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight
Every month, we love highlighting what you are creating. Here are a few wonderful projects from our community:
Marisa Victus says: “I just started a Chat Thread for Creatives who want to come together to practice The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, as a fun way to help each other stay motivated to journal our Morning Pages and go on Artist’s Dates. As someone who doesn’t know any creatives in real life, I’m thrilled to meet more Creatives who are open to sharing their journey and want to make this practice stick! If anyone else is interested, please join us!”
Shivani Jai published her debut indie novel, What’s Coming to You. Shivani says it’s “a twisty psych-thriller with an emotional core and spooky edge, perfect for Halloween timing.” You can check it out here.
Mira Dessy reports: “I’m working on a series of food essays... letting folks know more about what’s in what we eat and why ingredients matter when it comes to health and wellbeing. I’m adding the joy of celebrating food, moments, and memories with writing essays.”
Ornella Antar launched her Substack, and you can read her essays here.
👏🏼 Congratulations to Marisa, Shivani, Mira and Ornella for taking the leap of putting more of their words out into the world!
Want to be featured in a future post?
Just reply to this email or leave a comment with a 1–2 sentence description of what you’ve been working on. Or, hang out in our community chat, where we share our recent smiles and successes every Monday.
📖 “Read Like a Writer” Book Club — This Sunday!
You’re invited (even if you haven’t read the book):
🗓️ Sunday, September 21st at 8pm ET / 5pm PT - ZOOM link below
📚 Book: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
“Read Like a Writer” Book Club is for our community members who want to dive even deeper into how great books work. Come nerd out with us! 🤓
💬 During the book discussion, we’ll chat about:
The novel takes place over a single day—why do you think the author chose such a compressed time frame? How does that shape the reading experience?
How does the rotation between astronauts’ POVs affect pacing and tension? Did you feel pulled closer to some characters than others?
The book is slim in page count but wide in scope. What techniques does the author use to make a short novel feel “epic”?
How does the lack of a traditional plot arc (conflict → climax → resolution) influence your reading experience? Would you still call it a story?
Did you feel the characters were individuals or more like archetypes representing humanity? Does that choice matter for the book’s goals?
💬 During the “behind the scenes of writing” portion, we will talk about:
Editor-author relationships
Evelyn recently interviewed her editor, and we know you had some follow-up questions.
Come to our meeting with anything you want to ask about editors:
Evelyn will answer questions about working with editors in traditional publishing houses
Joanna will answer questions about working with a freelance editor
We think this is going to be a wonderful conversation!
Zoom link is posted below the paywall to keep our gathering cozy and private.
(This also prevents any non-book-loving Zoom crashers!)
If you’d like to join us in the Book Club, you can upgrade to a paid membership here:
or:
Refer friends to receive complimentary months:
1 referral = 1 month free
2 referrals = 3 months free
3 referrals = 1 year free
✨ Note for fellow introverts:
You are welcome to come as you are—cameras on or off, display names changed or unchanged. No pressure, just presence.
📹 This session will be recorded for those who can’t attend live.