Big day today: my new poetry book Salit is being printed as I type this. It’ll be out in a month or so, and I’m so pleased to enter a new creative phase where I get to form a different type of relationship with the poems I’ve worked on for the past two and a half years. I’m no longer the writer in the sense I was before, now I’m the performer, the person who goes with those poems (or doesn’t - the book also gets to be its very own entity). The words are finally set, it’s now me who molds around them. It’s my time to find the right voice and tone with which to speak those words I once manipulated but no longer can (except with my voice, which is why this stuff is so important!). And it’s also my time to let go of my poems and let other people read and understand them as they like. I can’t wait to share more news about Salit and its publication (even though there’s only a handful of readers who know Finnish).
What I can share today is a lot of freshly bound large journals. Some are blank, a few have dotted grid pages perfect for bullet journaling or for whoever needing a little extra guidance for their lines. The books are now available in the Paperiaarre shop. Some smaller ones are in the works, but everything seems to be happening very slowly. I’m trying to be extra gentle with myself, stress less about everything, and bind books purely out of love for the job. So, I guess that means I can guarantee you only get happy books, and zero grumpy books, when you shop at Paperiaarre. We’re all trying to be more ethical consumers, so maybe this counts as a noteworthy factor, too? But most importantly, all these books are amazing. Trust me. I know good books, these are those. (And they’re really pretty, too!)
I want to thank again everyone who has ordered books from me this winter - it’s been so important after the huge slump in sales last year. The delivery times are still unpredictable (and out of my hands) and I’m still unable to ship everywhere in the world (Australia & New Zealand, I miss you especially!), but sales and shipping seem to be on their way towards a new normal that’s not as terrible as it first appeared. I’m extremely grateful for your support - be it in the form of sales or kind words or likes or shares or nice thoughts. I’m glad you’re here. It means a lot.