The Journal
Dispatches from the worlds in progress, cover reveals, release news, and the thoughts between the pages.
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Before You Read This
Before you read this, understand something. You are free to interpret these pages however you want. Maybe you will think I am looking for pity. Maybe you will think I opened old wounds for attention. Maybe you will think vulnerability sells books. Maybe you will wonder if there is something I expect in return for…
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You Paraded Yourself
You paraded yourself like a woman incapable of wrongdoing. A jewel beneath everybody else’s light. The good mother. The sacrificing mother. The mother who fed her child. Clothed her child. Put a roof over her child’s head. And whenever anyone questioned what happened behind closed doors, you pulled out that list like scripture. Food. Shelter.…
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When I finally left the house
When I finally left the house, I thought the demons would stay behind. I thought evil belonged to hallways I already knew. To footsteps. To doors. To familiar shadows stretching themselves against walls. I thought once I stepped outside, I would be free. But the demons followed me. Only this time, they wore backpacks. Uniforms.…
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I thought I was followed by the Devil.
I thought I was followed by the Devil. Not because I had seen horns. Not because anyone taught me what Hell looked like. I knew nothing about theology. I was a child. Children do not need scripture to understand fear. They just need a shadow large enough to swallow the room. And I had three.…
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Bottom of the Barrel
It started in elementary school. Before I understood standards. Before I understood desirability. Before boys were supposed to matter. Before I knew there was apparently a ranking system and somebody had already decided where I belonged. I learned quickly. Not the standard. Not the pretty one. Not the girl somebody would whisper about lovingly. Not…
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There is a dent in the wall
There is a dent in the wall where part of my childhood still lives. Small. Ordinary. The sort of damage someone might cover with plaster without ever wondering what made it. But I know. My head made it. A child’s head struck hard enough against a wall for the house itself to keep evidence. I…
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There was a Monster
There was a monster in my childhood home. For years I thought it was me. That’s the funny thing about frightened children— hurt them long enough and they stop asking why you’re hurting them. They start asking what is wrong with me? So I searched myself for the monster. Maybe it lived in my mouth…
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The Fictional Worlds That Made Me
If you’ve read my first blog, then you already know a little about where my imagination began. But I don’t think I’ve told you about the fictional worlds that raised it. Long before I was creating kingdoms, dangerous men, complicated women, wars, romances, and entire universes of my own, I was the girl sitting in…
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Before I Became an Author, I Was a Girl With an Imagination
Hi, I’m GiGi. And before I tell you about my books, my characters, the worlds living inside my head, or everything I’m building with The Universe of GiGi, I think I should tell you about the girl who existed before all of it. Because she is the reason any of this exists. I’m an American…